Barbara Makhalisa

In 2015, she received an honorary degree from the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Bulawayo.

Her writing in English includes The Underdog and Other Stories (Mambo Press, 1984) and Eva's Song: A Collection of Short Stories (Harper Collins, 1996). Her story "Different Values" appears in Margaret Busby's 1992 anthology Daughters of Africa.

In 1981 she became an editor for the publishers Longman Zimbabwe. In 1991 she left Longman and worked with her husband in the family company for five years before being invited to head International Bible Society Zimbabwe (IBS Zimbabwe) as a national director in Malawi and Zimbabwe. she coordinated the translation and publishing of the new IBS Shona and Ndebele Bibles, as well as Chichewa New Testament. She left IBS in 2005. She now runs a company called Radiant Publishing Company, whose vision is to publish for transformation.

Barbara Clara Makhalisa was born in Zimbabwe, and studied at Gweru Teachers' College, majoring in Ndebele and English. Her writing career began when she won a national competition with her first book, Qilindini, a detective thriller written in Ndebele, at which time she was only the second female writer in Ndebele. Her second book, the Ndebele novel Umendo ("Marriage Is A Gamble", 1977, Mambo Press, 1977), is considered a classic. She has said: "I feel people should write in their mother tongue.... Our whole culture is stored in language, and literature is the storehouse for culture."

Barbara Makhalisa (born 1949), also known by her married name as Barbara Nkala, is a teacher, Zimbabwean writer, Ndebele translator, novelist, editor and publisher, one of the earliest female writers published in Zimbabwe. She is the author of several books written in Ndebele, as well as in English, of which some have been used as school textbooks. Barbara is married to Shadreck Nkala. They have three adult children and six grandchildren.