Masimba Musodza
Julius Masimba Musodza is a Zimbabwean author.
Life
Musodza was born at the cusp of the emergence of the new Zimbabwe, the eldest son of a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Lands. The Musodza family are of the Buja people of Mutoko, north east Zimbabwe. Reading was encouraged in the Musodza household. He was educated at Avondale Primary School, Harare and St Mary Magdalene's High School, Nyanga. After school, he trained as a screenwriter, selling his first screenplay to Media For Development Trust in 2002. Barely a month after, as political and socio-economic uncertainty engulfed Zimbabwe, Musodza relocated to the United Kingdom, where he has lived ever since. He lives in the North East England town of Middlesbrough.Writing
An avid reader as a child, Musodza aspired to be a writer from the time he discovered that it was possible to earn a living from it. Musodza has contributed to StoryTime e-zine, which was founded by Sweden-based Zimbabwean author and publisher, Ivor Hartmann., Jungle Jim, Bookends, Winter Tales and other periodicals.He is also the author of the first definitive science fiction novel in the Shona language, MunaHacha Maive Nei? Musodza states that he began to write science-fiction in ChiShona when he was 10, when he translated Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for his maternal grandmother. His use of ChiShona challenges the widely-held perception that indigenous languages lack the "sophistication" with which to conceptualise and articulate "complex" ideas such as are found in science-fiction. He has also stated that he is inspired by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's Decolonising The Mind. Musodza explores writing science -fiction in ChiShona in an essay, Writing and Publishing 'Complicated Stuff' in an African Language, which appeared in Vector 289, the magazine of the British Fantasy Association He is one of two Zimbabwean writers who have been featured in Geoff Ryman's 100 African Writers of SF
In addition to two personal blogs, Musodza, an advocate for Zionism, blogs for The Times of Israel. He has taken part in the Battle for Ideas Festival
Novels and novellas
Aquilina , 2020, Belontos Books,, translated into English as Aquilina , 2024, Carnelian Heart Publishing, United Kingdom Shavi Rechikadzi, 2015, Belontos Books, MunaHacha Maive Nei?, 2016, Belontos Books, Uriah's Vengeance, Lion Press, 2009, Coventry, United KingdomShort fiction
Our Soil, Afrofuturism Short Stories, Flame Tree Press, United Kingdom, 2025Cousin/Sister Modesta's Halloween Pumpkins, Halloweenthology-Witches' Brew, Wicked Press, India, 2024Highly Civlised Men, the other side of hope, Volume 3, Issue 2, Winter 2023.The Head Gardner, Skobeloff Horror & Ghost Stories Anthology, Skobeloff Publishing, United Kingdom, October 2023Ask The Beasts, Omenana Speculative Fiction Magazine, Vol. 26, Seven Hills Media, Nigeria/online, July 2023Running Out, African Writer Magazine, Nigeria/online, July 2023Black Tax, Agbowo, Issue 6, November 2022, Y, Nigeria, 2022, translated into Igbo by Yvonna Chioma Mbanefo as Ụtụ Ojii, Olonga Africa Anthology, Nigeria, 2023Ronak's Shame, Lolwe Literary Magazine, Nairobi, Kenya, 2022The Sandship Builders Of Chitungwiza, Save The World: Twenty Sci-Fi Writers Save The Planet, ed. J.Scott Coatsworth, Other Worlds Ink, United States, 2022Here I Am, My Son, Sticks & Stones Magazine, Bright Lights Media House, United Kingdom, 2022Warrior Mine, Omenana Speculative Fiction Magazine, Vol. 19, Seven Hills Media, Nigeria, 2021Tek-Tek's Game, Other Side of Hope Vol 1, Other Side Of Hope Publishing, United Kingdom, 2021What Bastet Saw, Undead Press, online, 2021Imba YaSekuru Browne, Mosi-oa-Tunya Literary Review, Zimbabwe, 2021The Rapture of Pastor Agregate Makunike, Chitungwiza Musha Mukuru: An Anthology From Zimbabwe's Biggest Ghetto Town, Mwanaka Publishing, Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe, 2020Aquilina edited by E. Sigauke/I.W. Hartmann, Lion Press, 2010, Here be Cannibals, Jungle Jim #23, Afreak Press, Cape Town, Republic of South Africa,2014When the Trees were Enchanted, Winter Tales, Fox Spirit Books, London, United Kingdom, 2014Chishamiso, Bookends, The Sunday Observer, Kingston, Jamaica, 2012To The Woods, With A Girl, StoryTime e-zine, SwedenIn The Blood, StoryTime e-zine, Sweden, 2008Framed, StoryTime e-zine, Sweden, 2008 The Village Idiot, Trends'', Bulawayo, 2006Critical Reception
Musodza was listed in Geoff Ryman's 100 African Writers Of Speculative Fiction. His literary works have been examined by several academics, mostly as part of the African Speculative Fiction corpus, such as Alena Rettova, Maria Prozesky, Joanna WoodsActing
Masimba Musodza's professional acting debut was in Edgar Langeveldt's play, No News, which premiered at Theatre-In-The-Park, Harare, in 1997. He also appears in a short film, Vengeance is Mine by Tawanda Gunda. However, it was not until he settled in Middlesbrough that he began to pursue acting more seriously. He appeared in a short play, To Be Or Not To Be, written by compatriot Dictator Maphosa, as part of the Middlesbrough Council-sponsored Boro Bites short plays. In 2011, he joined the Arc Sketch Group, an extension of the Writers Block North East workshops, which put on themed sketch shows at the Arc Theatre, Stockton-on-Tees until it disbanded in 2012.Since then, Masimba Musodza has been a film and TV extra, appearing in such productions as Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands, where he plays a Vani warrior. He can also be seen in the festival teaser and UK trailer for Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake. He has also appeared in Make! Craft Britain, which was aired on BBC4 on June 9, 2016. His most recent appearance has been in the short film I Need help, where he plays 'The Wise Man'