Robert Mshengu Kavanagh

Robert Mshengu Kavanagh is a South African who has lived in Zimbabwe from 1984 to the present and is therefore well-positioned to portray the social life and major issues that characterize reality in modern Harare. After his first wife's death in 2004, Kavanagh married Hazvinei Gambe, a Zimbabwean born and bred. She was able to make a major contribution to ensuring the stories captured the latest happenings, touched on the burning issues and ensured that the language reflected the lingo of the...See more

Robert Mshengu Kavanagh is a South African who has lived in Zimbabwe from 1984 to the present and is therefore well-positioned to portray the social life and major issues that characterize reality in modern Harare. After his first wife's death in 2004, Kavanagh married Hazvinei Gambe, a Zimbabwean born and bred. She was able to make a major contribution to ensuring the stories captured the latest happenings, touched on the burning issues and ensured that the language reflected the lingo of the times. Kavanagh brought to these stories a wealth of past experience, not only in writing for newspapers and posting blogs on a wide range of local and international topics but also the kind of experience you can only get from living with the people and travelling far and wide. As a Rhodes Scholar, Kavanagh is an alumnus of Cape Town, Oxford and Leeds, fourth generation African, conversant in six African languages, a published author, cultural activist and academic in South Africa, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe. He has an M.Phil. from Oxford and a Ph.D. from Leeds and was instrumental in founding Theatre Arts Departments at the Universities of Addis Ababa and Zimbabwe and was Founder and Director (1989-2010) of the children's arts education for development organization, the CHIPAWO Trust and then Director of CHIPAWO World. His published books include: "The Making of a Servant", translations of Xhosa satirical poetry with Z.S.Qangule (Baobab), "Theatre and Cultural Struggle in South Africa" (Zed Books), "Making People's Theatre" (Wits University Press), "South African People's Plays" ed. (Heineman African Writers Series), "Ngoma: Approaches to Arts Education in Southern Africa" ed. (Zimbabwe Academy of Arts Education), "Zimbabwe: Challenging the Stereotypes" (Themba Books), "Mangothobane: a Soweto Nobody" (Themba Books), "A Contended Space: the Theatre of Gibson Mtutuzeli Kente" (Themba Books) and a novel, "Jan's Book", articles in many journals on topics relating to theatre, culture, politics and ideology. See less