Banda-Aaku is a Zambian writer. Born in
the UK in 1965,
she grew up in Africa where
she studied Public Administration at the
University of Zambia. In 2007 her short story, Sozi’s Box, won the
Commonwealth Short Story Competition.Banda-Aaku has published
three children’sbooks, Yours Faithfully Yogi [2008], Twelve
Months [2010]
and Wandi’s Little Voice, which won the
Macmillan Writer’s Prize for
Africa in 2004. Her other two books,, Her short stories have been published in anthologies. In 2006, she sat on the judging panel
of the Macmillan Writer’s Prize for Africa.
In 2010, her manuscript, Patchwork, won the
fiction category for the inaugural Penguin
Prize for African writing. Patchwork was selected
out of 250 entries
for the fiction category of the competition.
In African Writing:
Ten Questions - Ellen Banda-Aaku 
11 (Interview)
Q.: What African language — or languages — do you speak? Have you ever been tempted
to write in an African language?
A. I speak Bemba and Nyanja two of the most
widely spoken languages in Zambia.
I use Bemba and Nyanja words here and there
in my writing. However, my challenge is that I
have not been taught to read and write in my
local languages because at the time I went to
school in Zambia, English was the only language
we were taught in.
continues...
