Masimba Musodza

Julius Masimba Musodza (born 29 March 1976) is a Zimbabwean author.

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.

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. His first book was The Man Who Turned Into A Rastafarian, 2006, an anthology of short stories about Rastafarian life in Zimbabwe. This anthology, with the Dread Eye Detective Agency stories have established his reputation as a pioneer in African "Rastafarian Literature".

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? Masimba Musodza is a Charter Member of the African Speculative Fiction Society.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.

• The Rapture of Pastor Agregate Makunike, Chitungwiza Musha Mukuru: An Anthology From Zimbabwe's Biggest Ghetto Town, Mwanaka Publishing, Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe, 2020
• The Witch of Eskale Hall, "Creep" anthology, ed. Jay Chakravarti, Culture Cult Magazine, India, 2019, ISBN 978-1073442454
• The Interplanetary Water Company, AfroSFv3, 2018, StoryTime, ISBN 978-9198291339
• MunaHacha Maive Nei? (2nd edition), 2016, Belontos Books, ISBN 978-1-908690-24-1
• African Roar (Anthology, contributed Yesterday's Dog, a short-story) edited by E. Sigauke/I.W. Hartmann, Lion Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-9562422-8-0
• Shavi Rechikadzi, 2015, Belontos Books, ISBN 978-1-908690-24-1
• Here be Cannibals, Jungle Jim #23, Afreak Press, Cape Town, 2014
• When the Trees were Enchanted, Winter Tales, Fox Spirit Books, ISBN 978-1-909348-88-2
• Chishamiso, Bookends, The Sunday Observer, Kingston, 2012
• Uriah's Vengeance, Lion Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9558082-5-8
• The Man who turned into a Rastafarian,2007, Diggory Press, ISBN 978-1-84685-537-5
• The Village Idiot, Trends, Bulawayo, 2006

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 (2001) 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 (August, 2010). 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 (Episode 11), 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 the 9th of June 2016. His most recent appearance has been in the short film I Need help (Ben Stainsby,2018), where he plays 'The Wise Man'