Cont Mhlanga PDF Print E-mail

 

Cont Mhlanga 


Click to view: The Members

Click to view: Photo Essays by Cont

 

Cont Mhlanga has had an illustrious career in the arts industry and his notable achievement has been the founding of Amakhosi Productions in 1980 and subsequently founded and spearheaded the building of a multi purpose arts complex, Amakhosi Township Square Cultural Center in Bulawayo which was the first of its kind in Zimbabwe in 1995.  He also founded  www.amakhosi.org and www.voicesfromzimbabwe.com.


Cont Mhlanga has written 21 plays and published 3 books and has produced several TV programs. He has directed and produced over 15 productions by other writers. He founded Amakhosi Performing Arts Academy that provides formal arts training in 1987 and the arts training academy has provided graduates in the fields of music, theatre, drama, television and film in the country.


His works have been produced in various countries and some of it has toured extensively internationally. Mhlanga developed a theater for development concept called Theatre for Community Action, which is being increasingly used across Africa as a community research and community participatory tool in order to foster social development.

 

Mhlanga has performed in stage and film productions. He created a television soap Amakorokoza and a radio soap NgokwakoSigadula. He also founded Inxusa Festival in 1990 and with Sam Mkhithika and the late Maxwell Mhlanga founded Intwasa Festival Ko Bulawayo.


He has participated in several joint projects of top of the shelf productions with various international partners.  He founded MCM Foundation Trust to manage all his copyright intellectual property licensing and royalties. He is an arts trainer and arts consultant of note who has traveled to all the five continents to run workshops, seminars design and manage arts and culture projects for both community institutions, groups, NGO’s academic institutions including colleges and universities under his training brand The Cont Institute.


Cont Mhlanga is the holder of several awards both in Zimbabwe and Internationally including Civic Honors from the City of Bulawayo his home town and a Rotary Citation in recognition of his contribution to arts and culture. He is largely self taught in the fields of arts as he graduated in agriculture and not the arts. His projects and clients are too numerous to count in a carrier that has been brilliantly guided by his ancestors and God for the past 27years.


He is currently working with one of his performing arts graduate, Sarah Mpofu, a newspaper fashion columnist, actress, businesswoman in writing and recording his experiences for the past years in the industry in a magazine series called ‘Cont Mhlanga-Episodes Of His Life’ This is to capture his experiences, what he has learnt, so that the country’s future generations can learn from the path of life that he has been blessed to walk.