Gcina Mhlophe's Biography

Doyenne of South Africa’s storytellers to perform at Storyelling Conference and Festival


Gcina Mhlophe has been writing and performing on stage and screen for the past 24 years. She has written many children's books as well as adult audience poetry and short stories and plays. Her writings are published all over the world and translated into German, French, Italian, Swahili and Japanese. Her work is used extensively in many schools and universities. Gcina produced and performed in the collaboration CD for children with Ladysmith Black Mambazo - released by Music for Little People (USA), 1993. She wrote music for the SABCTV series Gcina & Friends where she performed her own stories for television audiences. In 2000 she released an award-winning storytelling CD “Fudukazi's Magic” for German audiences. Gcina wrote both the story and music for Fudukazi's Magic - produced for video in collaboration with Anant Singh of VideoVision. She wrote both story and music in collaboration with guitarist, Bheki Khoza, for the Animated Tales of the World Series, for RIGHT ANGLE TV in the UK as well as the SABC. In 2001 her CD and book of Nozincwadi Mother of Books was produced as part of her nationwide reading road show to South African rural schools. Her work has received awards from BBC Africa Service for Radio Drama, The Fringe First Award in the Edinburgh Festival, the Josef Jefferson Award in Chicago, and OBBIE in New York. Gcina Mhlophe has received four Honorary Doctorates from the London Open University, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, 1992, University of Pretoria and Fort Hare University in 2008.
In July 2006 Gcina represented South Africa at the Soccer World Cup in Germany, the highlight of her performances being the official revealing of the 2010 World Cup Emblem for South Africa. The performance was broadcasted live around the world to more than a billion viewers! In 2009 Gcina created a new Workshop Theatre production with Greenlandic performers in NUUK, Greenland, to be performed at the Olymic Winter Games in Vancouver in March 2010.


Her NOZINCWADI Mother of Books Literacy Campaign, started in 2001, is still alive and touching thousands of children in hundreds of schools around South Africa. Gcina travels to perform storytelling in mostly rural schools and bringing books to set up school libraries and promote literacy.


Gcina published several books and writing and Storytelling continue to be the main focus of her creative energies. She lives in Durban with her husband and their daughter Nomakhwezi,the morning star !