Charles Mudede

Charles Mudede
Charles Mudede in 2016
Born	Charles Tonderai Mudede (1969-02-08) February 8, 1969 (age 48) Que Que, Rhodesia
Occupation	Writer, filmmaker, journalist, editor, critic

Charles Tonderai Mudede (born February 8, 1969) is a Zimbabwean writer, filmmaker, and leftwing cultural critic. Though born in Kwekwe (then called Que Que, Rhodesia), he spent much of his childhood in the United States, and returned to Zimbabwe shortly after independence. Between 1982 and 1988, his mother, Tracy Mudede, was a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, and his father, Ebenezer Mudede, was an economist for the Zimbabwe government. Between 1990 and 2001, his father worked as an economist for the Botswana government and his mother lectured at the University of Botswana. 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 (1979–1980).

Mudede is currently Associate Editor for the Seattle-based weekly The Stranger, as well as lecturer in English Humanities at Pacific Lutheran University near Tacoma, Washington. His Police Beat column was turned into a film of the same name in 2004. The movie was selected for competition at the Sundance Film Festival 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 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.