Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu

Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu (1938–1979) was a Ugandan poet and dramatist. She formed the Ngoma Players, with the policy of writing and producing Ugandan plays, and was actively concerned with the National Theatre.^[1]

Biography

Born Elvania Namukwaya, she attended high school at King's College Budo. At Budo, a coeducational school, Namukwaya distinguished herself as an actor and writer of plays. She repeatedly featured in the school's many theatrical productions. Her early efforts at short story writing appeared in the 1960 edition of the school's magazine, The Bodonian. Proceeding in 1961 to Makerere University,^[1] she obtained her BA degree in 1964. While at Makere, Namukwaya met and fell in love with the Ugandan linguist and scholar Pio Zirimu. They were to marry a few years later. The marriage produced a daughter.

Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu may be regarded as belonging to the early generation of English-language Ugandan writers and playwrights that includes novelist Okello Oculi, playwright John Ruganda and novelist Austin Bukenya. Her best-known work is the one-act play Keeping up with the Mukasas,^[2] included in David Cook's 1965 anthology of East African plays, Origin East Africa.

She died in a car crash in 1979.^[1]

References

Further reading

• Martin Banham, Errol Hill & George Woodyard (eds), The Cambridge Guide to African and Caribbean Theatre, 1994. ISBN 978-0-521-41139-4

External links

• ..When the hunchback made rain; Snoring strangers by Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu, 1975.
• Kamasiira and other stories by Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu, 1980.
• Origin East Africa: A Makerere Anthology 1965.