Steve Chimombo

Steve Bernard Miles Chimombo (4 September 1945 – 11 December 2015) [1] was a Malawian writer, poet, editor and teacher. He was born in Zomba.[2]

Life

He was educated at Zomba Catholic Secondary School, then at the University of Malawi where he earned a B.A.[3][4] At the University of Wales, he took a teaching diploma in English as a Second Language. At Columbia University in the United States, he was awarded his M.A. and Ph.D. in teaching.[5] After studying at Leeds, England, Chimombo returned to Malawi to edit the literary bulletin Outlook-lookout.[6]

He was a professor of English at Chancellor College in Malawi and was considered one of the nation's leading writers.[5][7] In 1988 his Napolo Poems gained him honorable mention for the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.[8] He was married to Moira Chimombo.[7]

The poet Stanley Onjezani Kenani wrote the following appreciation of Chimombo: "Except for J.W. Gwengwe, D.D. Phiri, Jack Mapanje, and Francis Chipasula, I cannot think of any Malawian who has contributed more to Malawian literature than Prof. Chimombo."[9] He died at the age of 70 on 11 December 2015 in Blantyre.[9]

Works

Poetry

• Napolo Poems, Manchichi Publishers, 1987
• Python! Python! An Epic Poem, Wasi Publications, 1992
• Napolo and the Python, Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1994, ISBN 978-0-435-91199-7

Plays

• The Rainmaker (1975)
• Wachiona Ndani? (1983)

Novels

• The Basket Girl, Popular Publications, 1990
• The Wrath of Napolo, Wasi Publications, 2000, ISBN 978-99908-48-06-9

Children's literature

• The Bird Boy's Song, Wasi Publications, 2002, ISBN 978-99908-48-07-6

Short stories

• The Hyena Wears Darkness (2006)

Nonfiction

• Malawian Oral Literature: The Aesthetics of Indigenous Arts (1988)[7]
• The Culture of Democracy: Language, Literature, the Arts and Politics in Malawi, 1992–94 (1996)

Anthologies

• Chinua Achebe; Catherine Lynette Innes, eds. (1992). "The rubbish dump". The Heinemann book of contemporary African short stories. Heinemann. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-435-90566-8. Steve Chimombo.
• Gerald Moore; Ulli Beier, eds. (2007). "Napolo: the message". The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry. Translated by Gerald Moore; Ulli Beier. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-042472-0.

References

1. "Steve Chimombo lives on in Zomba – The Nation Online". The Nation Online. 2016-04-25. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
2. Chalamanda, Fiona Johnson, "Steve Chimombo", The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 8 January 2001.
3. Gikandi, Simon (2003). Encyclopedia of African literature. Taylor & Francis. pp. 145–146. ISBN 0-415-23019-5.
4. De Capua, Sarah (2009). Malawi in Pictures. Visual Geography. Second Series. Twenty-First Century Books. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-8225-8575-6.
5. Killam, G. D. (2004). Literature of Africa. Literature as windows to world cultures. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 182. ISBN 0-313-31901-4.
6. Gérard, Albert S. (1986). European-language Writing in sub-Saharan Africa. Histoire comparée des littératures de langues européennes. Vol. 6. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 970. ISBN 963-05-3834-2.
7. Lee, Christopher J. (Fall 2010). "Malawian Literature after Banda and in the Age of AIDS: A Conversation with Steve Chimombo". Research in African Literatures. 41 (3): 33. doi:10.2979/ral.2010.41.3.33. S2CID 154797929. Retrieved 2011-02-11.
8. "Noma Award for Publishing in Africa". Noma Award. Archived from the original on 2009-02-24. Retrieved 2011-02-11.
9. "Author Steve Chimombo dies aged 70, tributes pour in". Nyasa Times. December 11, 2015. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2015.