Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
an writer, storyteller, and musician, who writes mainly in
Shona
Shona often refers to:
* Shona people, a Southern African people
* Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today
Shona may also refer to:
* ''Shona'' (album), 1994 album by New Zealand singer Shona Laing
* Shona (given name)
* S ...
.
Mabasa was born in Mount Darwin and grew up on his grandfather's farm there. He attended school in
Chitungwiza
Chitungwiza is an urban centre and town of Harare Province in Zimbabwe.
History
As of the 2022 census, Chitungwiza had a population of 371,244.
There are two main highways which connect the city to Harare namely Seke road and Chitungwiza r ...
, where he began to write short stories. He studied Shona and linguistics at the
University of Zimbabwe
The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) is a public university in Harare, Zimbabwe. It opened in 1952 as the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and was initially affiliated with the University of London. It was later renamed the University o ...
. He was awarded a scholarship to attend the
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...
, where he received the M.Phil. in Media, Democracy and Development in 1998. The following year, he received a
Fulbright Scholarship
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
to teach writing and literature in Illinois. Mabasa is the first Zimbabwean to write a PhD thesis in Shona at Rhodes University, South Africa.
Career
Mabasa's debut novel, the satirical ''Mapenzi'' (Fools), won first prize in the Zimbabwe Book Publishers’ Association Awards in 2000. His second novel ''Ndafa Here?'' (Am I Dead?) won the 2009
National Arts Merit Awards
The National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA Awards) is a set of annual awards granted by the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) in recognition of outstanding achievements in the arts and culture.
The categories have differed over the years. In 202 ...
(NAMA) Outstanding Fiction Book as did his novel ''Imbwa yemunhu'' (You Dog) in 2014.
Mabasa has two published collections of poems in Shona: ''Tipeiwo Dariro'' and ''Muchinokoro Kunaka''. His short stories include "Paying to Die" and "Some Kind of Madness".
Frequently performing as a storyteller in schools, Mabasa has written several children's books in English and Shona, including ''The Man, Shaggy Leopard and the Jackal; and other stories'', which won the NAMA in 2010. His book ''Meri Nebhutsu Tsvuku'' was a NAMA nominee for Outstanding Children's Book in 2013.
In 2010, Mabasa was writer/storyteller in residence at the
* Veit-Wild, Flora. 2009. “Zimbolicious” – the creative potential of linguistic innovation: The case of Shona-English in Zimbabwe. ''Journal of South African Studies'' 35.3:683-697.