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Valentina Acava Mmaka is a writer and human rights activist. Born in Italy and raised in South Africa, she lives in South Africa and Kenya. She started as a journalist corresponding from different African countries. She has published seven books in Italian 〔(WorldCat author page )〕 from 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); novels (''Cercando Lindiwe'' ) (Epoché 2007) and (''Il Viaggio Capovolto'' ) (Epoché 2010; poetry ''L'Ottava Nota (Prospettiva 2002)'' with a preface by Nobel candidate Brazilian Poet Marcia Theophilo; plays (''Io...donna...immigrata... volere dire scrivere'' ) (I...immigrant...woman...) (Emi 2004) and ''The Cut-Lo Strappo'' soon to be published in 2014. ''Io... donna... immigrata...'' (I...immigrant...woman...) has been staged in Italy, France, Congo, Kenya, South Africa. (''The Cut-Lo Strappo'' ) is the final work produced out of the Gugu Women Lab, a collective of women from South Africa and other African countries in 2011 in Cape Town. It is based on the true experience of some of the participants who have undergone Female Genital Mutilation. The performance has been in tour in 2013 in Italy and in the early days of 2014 received the advocacy of (Amnesty International Italia ) for its value in promoting awareness on Female Genital Mutilation. Her novel Cercando Lindiwe (Seeking Lindiwe) has been published in a new edition on April 2014 by (KabilianaPress ) in coincidence with the 20th anniversary of the end of apartheid in South Africa. She has published her poems and short stories in different magazines, in English and Italian: Authors in Africa, Pambazuka, Alma, Warscapes (Warscapes )). A Selection of her unpublished stories has been published in 2013 on the 2nd issue of (Italian Studies of Southern Africa Journal ) (UNISA - Pretoria 2013). She has represented South Africa, along with other writers from the Africa Continent, at the International Grinzane Cavour Meeting "Il deserto e dopo. La letteratura africana dall’oralità alla parola scritta” in 2007. Her novel Cercando Lindiwe was chosen by Prof. Antonella Piazza (Department of Italian Studies of UNISA-Pretoria) for her comparatistic work: “The issue of Identity in ''Cercando Lindiwe'' by Valentina Acava Mmaka and ''If this is a man'' by Primo Levi” which was presented for the first time in occasion of the Ist Colloquium of Italian Studies at UNISA/Pretoria in September 2011. She speaks at International meetings, universities, conferences. Her monologue "Farida" has been published in the collection "Time to say NO" - edited by Philo Ikonya and Helmuth Niederle by Asutrian PEN Club. ==Biography== Valentina A. Mmaka was born from Italian parents of greek origins and raised in South Africa during apartheid. "I grew up more being a good listener of stories than a reader myself. I grew cradled by the voice of my nanny Sera, who was a second mother to me, spending almost half of the day with her eating what she had prepared for herself, mainly pap (corn flour) and spiced minced meat with a considerable amount of fried onions, instead of what she had cooked for me. Every day I was longing for more stories till she was at the door, with one foot out and my hand on her belly asking to stay, just a little more, ignoring that she had six children in her house in the township of Alexandra, waiting for her care. Ignoring that in about an hour she would start to work again, taking care of her own family till late, while others were going to sleep and rest." When she was a teen she moved to Europe and it was the most shocking experence of her life: "It was tremendous, alienating. I remember my schoolmates describing South Africa in a way I could not recognize the country I loved. They talked about it pretending to know it better than I. They barely even knew where South Africa was on the map. I told them that it was simply at the South of the African continent, but still they didn’t get it and continued to annoy me with questions of no means. They pointed at me as a girl going to school following a long muddy path in company of elephants and zebras. Well, I wouldn’t mind, but it was not like that. It was not real. I attended a normal school in Houghton, Johannesburg. Of course it had a green field, but was quite different from being any kind of wild bush. South Africa was out of the collective imagination of people..." She started travelling when she was 8 months and since then she never stopped. The spirit of her nomad life is condensed in this quote by Hugo of St. Vicor quoted by Edward Said "The man who finds his homeland sweet is still a tender beginner; he to whom every soil is as his native one is already strong; but he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign land." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Valentina Acava Mmaka」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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