Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu
| Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu 31 August 1938 Uganda |
| Died | 31 October 1979 |
| Occupation | Poet, dramatist |
| Nationality | Ugandan |
| Alma mater | King's College Budo |
| Notable works | When the Hunchback Made Rain,Snoring Strangers |
Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu (31 August 1938 – 31 October 1979)[1] 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.[2]
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, where her play, "Keepingup with the Mukasas", won the English competition and the original play award in the Ugandan drama festival. She obtained her BA degree in 1964. While at Makerere, 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. In 1963 she went to leads where she took a dregree in 1966. On her return, she became a tutor at the teacher's training college, Kyambogo, and later also at Makerere University. She formed a Ngoma players with a declared policy of writing and producing plays in the Ugandan mode, and was actively concerned with national theatre.[2]
Her first play, Family Spear, was first performed by Ngoma players in Kampala. It is a one-act play that deals with gender and generation tensions in a family where man is expected to be the provider but the woman still has to work extremely hard to provide for her husband. Snoring Strangers, first performed by Ngoma players in 1973, is also a one-act play based on village rituals. Zirimu's best known play, When the Hunchback Made Rain, was first produced in 1970 and dramatises the interaction of human beings and supernatural powers.[3] Her work portrayed social and political crises in the 1960s.[4]
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,[5] included in David Cook's 1965 anthology of East African plays, Origin East Africa.
She had been appointed to the embassy in Ghana when she was killed in a car crash.[2]
Published works
Stories
- Kamasiira and Other Stories. East African Publishing House. 1980.
- "The Hen and Ground Nuts" in David Cook, ed. (1965). Origin East Africa: A Makerere Anthology. London: Heinemann Educational Books. ISBN 9780435900151.
Plays
- When the Hunchback Made Rain: Snoring Strangers. East African Publishing House. 1975.
- "African Spear" in Gwyneth Henderson, ed. (1973). African Theatre. London: Heinemann. ISBN 978-0435901349.
References
- ↑ "Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu", SPLA.
- 1 2 3 Martin Banham, Errol Hill & George Woodyard (eds), The Cambridge Guide to African and Caribbean Theatre, 1994, p. 126.
- ↑ Simon Gikandi, Evan Mwangi (2013). The Columbia Guide to East African Literature in English Since 1945, Oxford University Press, p. 177. ISBN 978-0231125208.
- ↑ Anthony Appiah, Henry Louis Gates (2010). Encyclopedia of Africa, Volume 2, Oxford University Press, p. 470. ISBN 9780195337709.
- ↑ Zirimu, Elvania. "Keeping up with the Mukasas". Alexandria. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
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
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