Charles Mudede
Encyclopedia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
n family, he spent much of his childhood in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, only to return to the newly independent Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
in 1981. Between 1982 and 1988, his mother, Tracy Mudede, was a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe
University of Zimbabwe
The University of Zimbabwe in Harare, is the oldest and largest university in Zimbabwe. It was founded through a special relationship with the University of London and it opened its doors to its first students in 1952. The university has ten faculties offering a wide variety of degree programmes...
, and his father, Ebenezer Mudede, served as an economic advisor to Robert Mugabe
Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...
. Between 1990 and 2001, his father worked as an economist for the Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
n government and his mother lectured at the University of Botswana
University of Botswana
The University of Botswana, or UB was established in 1982 as the first institution of higher education in Botswana. The university has four campuses: two in the capital city Gaborone, one in Francistown, and another in Maun. The university is divided into six faculties: Business, Education,...
. Mudede's teen years were spent in Chisipite, an affluent neighborhood in the capital of Harare
Harare
Harare before 1982 known as Salisbury) is the largest city and capital of Zimbabwe. It has an estimated population of 1,600,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area . Administratively, Harare is an independent city equivalent to a province. It is Zimbabwe's largest city and its...
. In 1989, he moved to the US to study literature, art history, and political philosophy. He has never returned to Zimbabwe, and his parents moved to the US from Botswana in 2002 for medical reasons. The Mudedes are Manicas and were once close to Bishop Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa, the prime minister of the short-lived coalition government called Zimbabwe Rhodesia
Zimbabwe Rhodesia
Zimbabwe Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Zimbabwe Rhodesia, was an unrecognized state that existed from 1 June 1979 to 12 December 1979...
(1979–1980).
Mudede is presently Associate Editor for the Seattle-based weekly The Stranger
The Stranger (newspaper)
The Stranger is an alternative weekly newspaper in Seattle, Washington, USA. It runs a blog known as Slog.-History:The Stranger was founded by Tim Keck, who had previously co-founded the satirical newspaper The Onion, and cartoonist James Sturm. Its first issue came out on September 23, 1991...
, as well as lecturer in English Humanities at Pacific Lutheran University
Pacific Lutheran University
Pacific Lutheran University is located in Parkland, a suburb of Tacoma, Washington. In September 2009, PLU had a student population of 3,582 and approximately 280 full-time faculty...
near Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
. His Police Beat
Police Beat
Police Beat is a 2005 American crime film directed by Robinson Devor and written by Charles Mudede. It follows the life of an African-born Seattle bicycle officer simply known as "Z" for a week. While Z goes about on his policing duties, he finds himself mentally preoccupied with his girlfriend...
column was turned into a film of the same name in 2004. The movie was selected for competition at the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
2005. In 2003, Mudede published a short book called Last Seen with Diana George. Mudede was also a member of the now defunct Seattle Research Institute, a Marxist circle inspired by the Frankfurt School
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...
and the work of Hardt and Negri. SRI published two books, Politics Without The State and Experimental Theology. (Mudede and George edited the former.) Mudede has also published essays and articles with Nic Veroli, a French American Marxist philosopher, and is on the editorial board for Arcade, an architectural journal.
Mudede's work has appeared in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
, LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
, and Ctheory
Ctheory
CTheory is a peer-reviewed academic journal published since 1996. It focuses on technology, media theory, and culture, publishing articles, interviews, book reviews and "event-scenes." It is edited by Arthur and Marilouise Kroker. The journal is published by the University of Victoria, BC, Canada....
, which published one of his most popular pieces of writing, "The Turntable," a theory of the hiphop practice of scratching and sampling. Charles Mudede is also the writer of Zoo, a movie about the late Kenneth Pinyan
Kenneth Pinyan
The Enumclaw horse sex case was a 2005 incident in which Kenneth Pinyan , an American Boeing engineer residing in Gig Harbor, died from receiving anal sex with a stallion at a farm in an unincorporated area in King County, Washington, near the city of Enumclaw...
and the Enumclaw
Enumclaw, Washington
Enumclaw is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 10,669 at the 2010 census.The Enumclaw Plateau, on which the city resides, was formed by a volcanic mudflow from Mount Rainier approximately 5,700 years ago....
stallion incident, and he played a priest in The Naked Proof
The Naked Proof
The Naked Proof is an independent feature film directed by Jamie Hook. Concerning the trials of a confused and unhappy philosophy student whose life is turned upside-down by the appearance of a mysterious, possibly fictional pregnant woman, the film premiered at the Seattle International Film...
, released in 2003. He and the director Robinson Devor recently completed a new film, North American, which will be released in 2009.
External links
- Articles by Charles Mudede in The Stranger.
- Verve Feature on Mudede Charles Mudede in YouTube.
- Onscreen interviews Mudede Charles Mudede in Onscreen.
- http://www.myspace.com/mudede Charles Mudede in Myspace.