Gcina Mhlophe

Nokugcina Elsie Mhlophe was born in 1959 in Hammarsdale, South Africa. She is a woman with a lot of things going on- fighting for freedom, acting, poetry and writing are only some of her interests. In Africa, storytelling is an important traditionnal activity. Mhlophe tells her stories in four of South Africa's languages: English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Xhosa. Through charismatic performances, keeping history alive and encouraging South African children to read she does her most important work.

After meetings with legendary poets of African folklore and encouragement by others, Mhlophe began to think of story-telling as a serious career.

Gcina Mholphe has travelled around in Africa and other parts of the world to give storytelling workshops. A lot of her work has been translated into German, French, Japanese, Italian and Swahili. Currently, Mhlophe is resident in Johannesburg, and she is staying focused on making books available to poor South African rural communities. This she does by buliding libraries and fill them with locally and culturally relevant books.

Teacher Astrid; Instead of writing an interview, i chose to write a short text about her. Simply to get more flow in the laguage.