Nokugcina Elsie Mhlophe (born 1958) is a well-known South African freedom fighter, activist, actor, storyteller, poet, playwright, director and author.
Storytelling is a deeply traditional activity in Africa and Mhlophe is one of the few woman storytellers in a country dominated by males. She does her most important work through charismatic performances, working to preserve storytelling as a means of keeping history alive and encouraging South African children to read, doing so in four of South Africa’s languages: English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Xhosa.
If you’re looking to get hold of her books, here’s a list to help you search.
Publications and Writing:
1979 Poetry in the Staffrider Magazine, Ravan Press
1980 Story and Poetry in Reconstruction, Ravan Press
1981 Story and Poetry in the LIP – Anthology, Ravan Press
1987 Story and Poetry in Sometimes When It Rains, Pandora Press, UK – Translations into German and Japanese
1987 Stories in Somehow Tenderness Survives, Harper and Row, USA
Have You Seen Zandile?
1988 Have You Seen Zandile? Play script, Skotaville Publishers, SA
Prescribed set work at the University Natal, University of Western Cape and UNISA, Republished 1991 for world release by Heinemann publishers, New York.
Have You Seen Zandile? is a tale of eight-year-old Zandile and her Gogo in Durban and of how she is spirited away to the rural area of Transkei by her mother, to be raised in the traditional rubric: she cannot be educated, must marry young, must work her body hard in the field. It’s a tale of deep love stamped on by financial dearth, political complexity and heart break. And it’s about broken dreams and ultimately broken hearts.
Reviews
“This is a small gem of dramatic achievement filled with a lyrical honesty.”
–Baltimore Evening Sun
“It’s great to have an inter-cultural quick-read that shares so much about how humans become who they are.”
–Miss, GoodReads
“Have You Seen Zandile? is a beautiful play that is still as fresh and relevant today as it was when it was first performed.”
–ArtsLink
Read more: Chicago Reader Review
1989 Snake With Seven Heads, children’s book, Skotaville Publishers, SA – Translations into five African languages. Accepted in school libraries.
1990 Queen Of The Tortoises, children’s book, Skotaville Publishers, SA
1991 Molo! Zoleka, children’s book, published and translated into four different South African languages by David Philip, SA
1992 The Singing Dog, children’s book, Skotaville Publishers, SA
1995 Ma Zanendaba – A Mother’s Search For Stories, children’s book, published in English and Afrikaans by Knowledge Unlimited, SA
“Storytelling is not a job, it’s a calling” – Gcina Mhlophe
1995 Story in The River That Went To The Sky, Kingfisher Anthology of African folklore, England
1996 Love Child, Biographical Work, Peter Hammer Verlag, Germany
1997 Kwesukesukela – Stories from Africa in five languages pubished by Bona Magazine
1997 Awarded writers’ fellowship at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbria, Italy – work on the children’s musical Mata Mata
1999 Fudukazi’s Magic, Cambridge Univ. Press, this comes with CD and Video made in 2001 – Karl Becker of GM Storyworks.
Stories Of Africa
1999 Recorded and released Kwesuke-sukela a storytelling audio tape that went with a book containing twelve stories, Stories From Africa or Zimnandi Ngokuphindwa in Zulu and Xhosa, sponsored by Joko Storytelling project.
This folklore story collection offers a feast of enjoyment for young South African readers. Ten enchanting tales, steeped in the imaginative richness of African storytelling: Where did the first stories in the world come from? How did little Tortoise win the respect of all the other animals? Who was Nanana Bo Sele Sele and what happened when she built her house in the middle of the animals’ road? Why was young Crocodile so determined to get hold of Monkey’s heart?
Told with inimitable aplomb by South Africa’s most popular performance storyteller and illustrated by a lively selection of KwaZulu-Natal artistic talent, Stories of Africa is a classic to delight new readers across the multicultural spectrum.
Review
The English versions of these collections of folktales are still available, but the great news is that – thanks to Biblionef – they are now also available in our African languages. Each large-paged, hardcover book (with brightly coloured pictures) contains ten tales retold by our Queen of Storytellers. Read them aloud and they bounce around in mid-air, full of impact, rhythm and enthusiasm.
No girl in this land shall play imbira.
‘No, no, no! I said no girl in this land shall play imbira!’
‘Yes, you heard me right. No girl must play imbira.’
So begins “Khethiwe, Queen of Imbira” and Gcina’s version of the girl who did play that sacred instrument – and it was the best end of harvest celebration in living memory. Full of genuine Africa and essential on every bookshelf of folklore.
– Jay Heale, Bookchat
1999 Published children’s book NALOHIMA – The Deaf Tortoise by Gemsbok publishers NALOHIMA also won the Namibian Children’s Book Forum Award only a month after its release.
2001 Nozincwadi – Mother of Books, Maskew Miller Longman, with CD and Video by Karl Becker as part of the Nozincwadi Road Show to promote reading in S. African schools
2002 English edition of Love Child has come out – Univ. of Natal Press
2002 An African Mother Christmas, Maskew Miller Longman
2003 Stories of Africa, University of KwaZulu Natal Press Nominated for Exclusive Books Publisher’s Choice
2003 Conception and writing of the multi-lingual books for First Words in Print – Centre For The Book, Maskew Miller Longman
2004 Five early learning books in indigenous languages for Siyakhula Series, Oxford University Press (due for release in 2005)
2004 The Story of Mazanendaba published in Italian by Corraini Publishers, Mantova, Italy
2006 Nozincwadi, Mother of Books was published to great acclaim in South America in Portuguese.
Our Story Magic
2008 Our Story Magic published by University of KwaZulu Natal
Stories with magic inspire us to believe in hope and dreams. How will anyone recognize ‘real life’ miracles if they have not learned about magic from stories?
Our Story Magic is a collection of enchanting and compelling African folklore tales written for children, with illustrations by artists from KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa).
Read and share these stories with the love that went into the writing of them. Some of the magical titles in this collection include: Sun and the Moon, Queen of the Tortoises, Moonlight Magic, Dad Is Eating Ashes, The Singing Dog, Jojela’s Wooden Spoon, and Sunset Colors.
African Tales
2009 African Tales published by Barefoot Publishers in England
Written by internationally acclaimed Xhosa storyteller, Gcina Mhlophe, and illustrated with hand-sewn artwork, each of these eight tales comes with an introduction to the country’s customs and culture. The stories are from Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Senegal, Sudan and Swaziland.
Reviews
“Seven folk tales illustrating how different cultures on various parts of the planet’s diverse surface try to live in harmony with the natural world”
– Nick Crane, The Guardian