Dr. Vincent P. Magombe

Vincent Magombe was born in Uganda, on 24 December 1959. He now lives and works, as a lecturer, researcher, journalist and writer, in England.

A Laureate of the 1998 Chukolskii Prize for Literature, Magombe is author to a number of theatre and radio plays (some of which have been broadcast by the BBC), and has published poems, children’s books, as well as short stories. In his home country Uganda, Vincent Magombe is best remembered for his play “The Fall and Trial of Idi Amin, which led to his fleeing into exile, after an assassination attempt on his life by a group of Idi Amin’s soldiers.

Since 1992, Vincent Magombe has been involved in the work of the writers’ organization, International PEN. From 1998 to 2002, he was a member of the International Board of PEN. Currently, he is the President of the organizations African Writers Abroad Centre. Until June 2000, he was Head of PEN's 'Writers in Exile Program. In 1998 he wrote International PEN’s Report on Exiled Writers. He has also co-coordinated the work of the African Literature Forum, a literary promotional organization for African writers living abroad.

Dr. Magombe is currently a Director of the London based media agency 'Africa Inform International', which aims to impact on the way British media images Africa and the Africans. He regularly features, as an African affairs expert, on a number of media programs, including: BBC TV and Radio, Channel Four News, SKY News, CNN, and Voice of America.

Vincent Magombe is also a lecturer at the University of Westminster, where he teaches Third World Cinema Studies. He has also taught at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he runs a module in Media Studies. Since 1997, Magombe has been teaching African courses at the City Literary Institute in London.

From 1994 to 1996, he taught a course, 'African Perspectives on Health and Social Care' to UK Health and Social Service providers. As a Program and Education Officer at the Africa Centre (1994-1995), he designed and taught short courses in African literature.

His research studies on African literature, cinema, politics, and socio-culture have been published in wide-ranging publications, including Larousse Encyclopedia, the Oxford History of World Cinema, the Oxford Dictionary of World Art, etc. His articles and essays on African affairs have appeared in journals and newspapers, such as the Times Higher Education Supplement. In 1996 Dr. Magombe co-authored the Development Education Association ˜Handbook on North-South Partnership in Development Education'.

He has been on lecture tours in the USA, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, and Africa, and has participated, as guest speaker, at seminars and workshops organized by the various PEN Centers, the Open University, and the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Leeds, and Sheffield. He has shared platforms with renowned authors such as Wole Soyinka, Maya Angelou, Ben Okri, Dennis Brutus, Jack Mapanje, Buchi Emecheta, James Kelman, and Taslima Nasrin.

Dr. Magombe studied in Uganda, Russia, and the United Kingdom, and holds a Ph.D. in Philological Sciences (having majored in the Literary and Cultural Aspects of Mass Communication). He has additional Master of Arts Degrees in Theatre and Film Studies, as well as in Journalism. He has also studied Radio Studio Production Techniques with the BBC Training Program at Grafton House. Besides, he is a qualified teacher of Russian Language. In 1996, Vincent Magombe was appointed a Fellow of the George Bell Institute (Birmingham).