Steve Chimombo

Steve Bernard Miles Chimombo (4 September 1945 – 11 December 2015) was a Malawian writer, poet, editor and teacher. He was born in Zomba.

Life

He was educated at Zomba Catholic Secondary School, then at the University of Malawi where he earned a B.A. At the University of Wales, he took a teaching diploma in English as a Second Language. At Columbia University in the United States, he was awarded his M.A. and Ph.D. in teaching. After studying at Leeds, England, Chimombo returned to Malawi to edit the literary bulletin Outlook-lookout.

He was a professor of English at Chancellor College in Malawi and was considered one of the nation's leading writers. In 1988 his Napolo Poems gained him honorable mention for the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa. He was married to Moira Chimombo.

The poet Stanley Onjezani Kenani wrote the following appreciation of Chimombo: "Except for J.W. Gwengwe, D.D. Phiri, Jack Mapanje, and Francis Chipasula, I cannot think of any Malawian who has contributed more to Malawian literature than Prof. Chimombo."

Death

He died at the age of 70 on 11 December 2015 in Blantyre.

Works

Poetry

• Napolo Poems, Manchichi Publishers, 1987
• Python! Python! An Epic Poem, Wasi Publications, 1992
• Napolo and the Python, Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1994,

Plays

• The Rainmaker (1975)
• Wachiona Ndani? (1983)

Novels

• The Basket Girl, Popular Publications, 1990
• The Wrath of Napolo, Wasi Publications, 2000,

Children's literature

• The Bird Boy's Song, Wasi Publications, 2002,

Short stories

• The Hyena Wears Darkness (2006)

Nonfiction

• Malawian Oral Literature: The Aesthetics of Indigenous Arts (1988)
• The Culture of Democracy: Language, Literature, the Arts and Politics in Malawi, 1992–94 (1996)