Chris Magadza

Magadza was born in a village in Chief Kaswas’s area, now called Burma Valley, in Manicaland, Zimbabwe. He was educated at St Augustine’s Mission, Penhalonga, near Mutare, and Fletcher High School in Gweru, and read for a B.Sc. and M.Sc. at the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Magadza completed his Ph.D. in New Zealand.

Magadza is a limnologist, though now retired; he was a member of the International Lake Environment Committee and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He has worked on New Zealand, Zambian, and Zimbabwean inland waters. For his post-retirement activities, Magadza is involved with the International Lake Environment Committee in attempts to restore Lake Chivero; he also established the Middle Zambezi Biosphere Reserve in the Global family of UNESCO Biosphere Reserves after twenty-three years of work.

In 2007, Magadza retired from the University of Zimbabwe but still teaches; in the same year he was made co-recipient of the Noble Peace Prize given to the International Lake Environment Committee and former President Al Gore for work on Climate change assessment.

Magadza is the proud grandfather of Sipiwe and Langa. Essay
The Poetry of Chris Magadza Reviewed
Background critical essay by Musaemura Zimunya