Barbara Makhalisa


Barbara Makhalisa, also known by her married name as Barbara Nkala, is a Zimbabwean writer, editor and publisher, one of the earliest female writers published in Zimbabwe. She is the author of several books written in Ndebele, as well as in English, of which some have been used as school textbooks. Barbara is married to Shadreck Nkala. They have three adult children and six grandchildren.

Biography

Barbara Clara Makhalisa was born in Zimbabwe, and studied at Gweru Teachers' College, majoring in English.
Her writing career began when she won a national competition with her first book, Qilindini, a detective thriller written in Ndebele, at which time she was only the second female writer in Ndebele. Her second book, the Ndebele novel Umendo, is considered a classic. She has said: "I feel people should write in their mother tongue.... Our whole culture is stored in language, and literature is the storehouse for culture."
Her writing in English includes The Underdog and Other Stories and Eva's Song: A Collection of Short Stories. Her story "Different Values" appears in Margaret Busby's 1992 anthology Daughters of Africa.
In 1981 she became an editor for the publishers Longman Zimbabwe. She now runs a company called Radiant Publishing House, and primarily produces work in Ndebele in order to make a contribution to the "growth of Ndebele language".
In 2015 she received an honorary degree from the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo.

Selected bibliography

Fiction