Gcina Mhlophe

Mhlophe (born 24 October 1958), known as Gcina Mhlophe, is a South African storyteller, writer, playwright, and actress. In 2016, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women. She tells her stories in four of South Africa's languages: English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Xhosa, and also helps to motivate children to read.

Her childhood
Nokugcina Elsie Mhlophe was born on 24 October 1958 in KwaZulu-Natal, to a Xhosa mother and a Zulu father.

She started her working life as a domestic worker, and did not visit a library until she was 20 years old.

Career
Gcina Mhlophe worked as a newsreader at the Press Trust and BBC Radio, then as a writer and a magazine for newly-literate people.

She began to get a sense of the demand for stories while in Chicago in 1988. She performed at a library in a mostly-Black neighborhood, where an ever-growing audience kept inviting her back. Still, Mhlophe only began to think of storytelling as a career after meeting an Imbongi, one of the legendary poets of African folklore, and after encouragement by Mannie Manim, the then-director of the Market Theatre, Johannesburg. From 1989 to 1990, she was resident director at the Market Theatre.

Mhlophe has appeared in theatres from Soweto to London, and much of her work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Swahili, and Japanese. She has travelled extensively in Africa and other parts of the world giving storytelling workshops.

Mhlophe's stories meld folklore, information, current affairs, song, and idiom. Storytelling is a deeply traditional activity in South Africa, and Mhlophe is one of the few woman storytellers in a country dominated by males. She does her work through charismatic performances, working to preserve storytelling as a means of keeping history alive and encouraging South African children to read. She tells her stories in four of South Africa's languages: English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Xhosa.

Her writing has appeared in collections including A Land Apart: A South African Reader (eds André Brink and J. M. Coetzee, London: Faber and Faber, 1986), Daughters of Africa (ed. Margaret Busby, London: Jonatan Cape, 1992) and Women Writing Africa: The Southern Region (ed. Margaret Daymond, Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 2002).

Other activities
Mhlophe mentors' young people, developing young talent to carry forward the work of storytelling through the Zanendaba ("Bring me a story") Initiative. This initiative, established in 2002, is a collaboration with the Market Theatre and READ, a national literacy organization.

She currently serves as the patron of the ASSITEJ South Africa, the International Association for Theatre for Children and Young People.

She runs a performance space called "The Storytelling Tree" in Durban.

She also works as a motivational speaker.

Recognition and awards
From 2019, Mhlophe's birthday, 24 October, is recognized as National Storytelling Day in South Africa.

she has been awarded honorary doctorates from seven universities across the world. These include:
 * 1999: Open University, UK
 * 1999: University of Natal
 * 2014: Rhodes University
 * 2024: Durban University of Technology

Other recognition of her work includes:
 * 1987: Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress (New York City) for Born in the RSA
 * 1988: Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Actress (Chicago) for Have you seen Zandile?
 * 198?: Sony Award for Radio Drama from BBC Radio Africa for Have you seen Zandile?
 * 1990: Fringe First Award (Edinburgh) for Have you seen Zandile?
 * 1991: Nominee, Noma Award, for Queen of the Tortoises
 * 1991, Ashoka Fellowship (social entrepreneurship innovator)
 * 1994: Book Chat Award for Molo Zoleka
 * 2016: Named as one of BBC's 100 Women
 * 2018: Inaugural USIBA Cultural Legend Award, from the Minister of Arts and Culture
 * SAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award.

Selected performances

 * 1983, lead role in Umongikazi: The Nurse, by Maishe Maponya
 * 1984, in Black Dog: Inj'emnyama
 * 1986, Place of Weeping (film)
 * 1986, Have You Seen Zandile? (autobiographical play, at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, Mhlophe as Zandile)
 * 1987, Born in the RSA (New York)
 * 1989, storytelling festival at the Market Theatre
 * 1989, performed a poem in honor of Albert Luthuli, 1960 Nobel Peace Prize winner
 * 1990, performed Have You Seen Zandile? at the Edinburgh Festival tour through Europe and the USA
 * 1997, Poetry Africa, presenting poet
 * 1999, guest speaker at the Perth Writers Festival
 * 2000, performed in Peter und der Wolf at the Komische Oper (Berlin)
 * 2002, The Bones of Memory (performance, history-telling from the old and new South Africa)
 * 2003, lectured on storytelling at the Eye of the Beholder seminar
 * 2003, Mata Mata (performance, family musical)
 * 2006, FIFA World Cup South African handover ceremony, Germany
 * 2016, Kalushi (film)
 * 2017, Liyana, a multimedia film by Aaron Kopp

Documentary appearances

 * Acted and narrated in Travelling Songs
 * 1990, performed poetry in Songololo: Voices of Change (how aspects of culture in South Africa have become part of the anti-apartheid struggle)
 * 1993, The Travelling Song (the contemporary process of story gathering)
 * Appeared in Literacy Alive
 * Appeared in Art Works

Recordings
Mhlophe wrote music for her SABC TV series Gcina & Friends
 * 1993, Music for Little People (CD)
 * 1993, reader voice Not so fast, Songololo (videorecording), Weston Woods, Weston CT, Scholastic
 * 1994, The Gift of the Tortoise (contributed to the Ladysmith Black Mambazo album)
 * 2002, Fudukazi's Magic screened in Durban at the African Union Film Festival

Collaborations

 * Pops Mohamed, musician and tribal music preservationist
 * Ladysmith Black Mambazo, choir group, The Gift of the Tortoise (CD), 1994 and Music for Little People in America (CD), 1993
 * Anant Singh, video producer, Fudukazi's Magic (CD and video for German audiences)