Farai Sevenzo

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Farai Sevenzo (pronounced /ˈfʌrаɪ/^[1]) is a Zimbabwean writer and director.

Sevenzo was born in Zimbabwe (when the country was known as Rhodesia) and grew up during the country's civil war which eventually saw the overthrow of Ian Smith's white minority government.

As both a writer and director for film, television and radio, Farai Sevenzo has switched between Documentary and fiction in his coverage of major African issues. He studied at the National Film and Television School, Beaconsfield England, as a writer/director, from where he graduated with the award winning short film, RWENDO. The Last Picture was shot in 1998, a short about a passionate affair between a young photographer and a married woman. Farai’s work in African current affairs has seen him report on wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Congo and Northern Uganda.

He has been a regular contributor to the UK’s Channel 4 News and to the same channel’s Unreported World programme. He has also contributed to the BBC’s African coverage with documentaries for BBC Two and BBC Four. As a documentary filmmaker, Farai recorded the ongoing events in Zimbabwe with a series of personal observations that began with the award-winning Zimbabwe 2002. In The Children’s War, he covered the Lords Resistance Army’s hold on northern Uganda.

Formerly a presenter on the BBC World Service's Network Africa, in 2006 Sevenzo set up Al Jazeera's Zimbabwe bureau and became its first correspondent there. He left Al Jazeera in 2007.