VALENTINA ACAVA MMAKA

An African Life

A U T H O R

I was born in Rome from Italian parents of Greek origins. I raised in South Africa during the apartheid regime. It has been my first great experience of life, living and growing in a country where racism was legal. I believe, as Jean Grenier said, "in every one's life there is a moment from where everything started", that in my life this moment was the life spent in South Africa. That background really influenced all my future choices as a woman, writer and mother.

I've been an avid reader, I grew alone, with no brothers or sisters close to me, and I also started very soon to appreciate solitude as a moment for creativity. I used to invent my characaters and stories. I started writing them down when I was thirteen with a special preference for poetry.

My childhood was characterized by trips all around the world, books, nature and adventures.

With the Nursery Uniform

At the farm

One of the most important presence in my childhood was my nanny, Sera, We had a special relationship. She used to prepare my meals and while ve mine sitting at the table, she took hers sitting by the stove distant from me. I ate that distance, so I used to take my chair and sit close to her, eating her tasty spiecy food. In my family we often used to spend our week ends at my aunt's farm, Zoetendal (the sweet valley), thirty km from Pretoria. Here I was really in touch with nature. My companions were dogs (among all I have to remember the unforgettable Bruno), rabbits, sheeps and chicken.

At that time I had another special friend, Titus. He was a worker of the farm. I had the privilege to listen to his stories. I was really fed by the rythm of his words.

After fourteen years I returned to Italy and was the first most painful experience I ever lived, I felt uprooted . It hasn't been an easy period for me also because Italy was so different and was so much ignorant about how South Africa was... a wonderful country with a heavy history to carry.

To rejoin with what I use to consider my "country", I found the occasion in the first South African democratic elections. At that time I was already collaborating with some italian newspapers, and witnessing the new coming era were racism would have been banned... was a great opportunity for me. On 27 april 1994 I was there. What emotion! Between 1994 and 1995, I interviewed lots of writers, politicians and activists.

From there I retrned again to Italy finishing my studies in Sociology and running creative writing workshops. From there I decided that my dialogue with the African continent was still open so I returned, first in South Africa then mooving to East Africa. During this period I wrote several monologues and dramas, collaborating with different women associations. My drama I... immigrant... womand was staged.

Since I returned again in Italy, nine years ago, I started bringing my life's experience in Africa working as a multicultural mediator collaborating with schools, libraries, associations. I've been invited in many conferences, festivals, readings and round tables talking about my writing, my African life, my workshops.

Meeting children in schools is definetly one of the most exciting things I could do... they alwayas surprise me with their sincere vision on life. Through them I also understood many things about how Italy is unprepared in dealing with multicultural issues and this challenged me more developing always new projects.

ABOUT MY BOOKS

It's always hard to say how a book comes to life. Generally books don't have a precise start and end. By the way I can say that my first children's book Il mondo a colori della famiglia BwanaVal was written thank's to my eldest daughter. Since she was still little, she used to ask me almost every day why she had parents with different skin colors. Even if I knew one day I would have write something about this issue, the occasion came first and I had to catch it! Would you be able to ignore a very important question of your child? So to find an answer to her big question I asked my creativity and invented a story. Once the book was published (soon will be in reprint) I 've travelled all over Italy presenting it, I've adapted several theatre perfomances on it, one music school did a soundtrack for it and wherever I've been , children, parents and teachers loved it. Many thanked me saying that after reading my book they found the way to explain their children what was diversity. Since the beginning I can say that my children are my first source of inspiration. I read them my drafts when it comes to children's stories, they suggest, they express their feelings and curiosity.

Children's books:

Il mondo a colori della famiglia BwanaVal (Kabiliana 2002)

Jabuni:il mistero della città sommersa (EMI 2003)

I nomi della pace. Amani (EMI 2004).

Fiction-Poetry

I... immigrant... woman... to say to want to write ( EMI 2004)

Cercando Lindiwe (Epoché 2007)

L'ottava nota - poetry collection (Prospettiva 2002).

Today I continue collaborating with schools, I run my workshops (theatre, creative writing, social theatre for immigrants), I do reading of my books and I'm invite din Fetsivals and conferences. Among my last appearences: Festival Letteratura Mantova (2003), Festival Sguardo Meticcio (2 edizioni), Festival Oriente e Occidente di Rovereto (2003), Festival Internazionale di Poesia di Genova, Suq di Genova 2007, Premio Grinzane Cavour (2007)

I'm the Italian translator of many children's short stories and of the book by Meschack Asare Sosu's Call.

I collaborate with different literary magazines such as WUZ and Stilos.

In 2008 I started the Kabiliana Educational Project, a project that intend to support literacy in different African countries.

DEGREE THESIS ON HER WORK *

Valentina Acava Mmaka. La Poetica e il Teatro in Il Teatro Multietnico nell' era globale: prospettive pedagogiche interculturali. Di Eleonora Orrù, Dott.ssa in Scienze dell'Educazione Università degli Studi di Messina. Anno 2006.

La Letteratura della migrazione in Oltre la cittadinanza: comunità inoperose e nuovi intrusi. Di Ramona Parenzani. Corso di Laurea in Filosofia Università degli Studi di Urbino. Anno 2007

Anonime in terra straniera in Femminilità negata nel mondo. Di Daniela Spaletra. Accademia delle Belle Arti di Carrara. Anno 2007.

* known by the author