Phillippa Yaa de Villiers

Phillippa Yaa de Villiers (alizaliwa 17 Februari 1966
) ni mwandishi na msanii wa maonyesho wa Afrika Kusini, anayefanya kazi yake kitaifa na kimataifa. 

Anatambulika vema kwa kazi yake ya uandishi wa mashairi iliyochapishwa kwa mikusanyiko na katika majarida mengi na hadithi. Vile vile anatambulika kwa tawasifu yake ya Original Skin iliyoeleza hali ya kutoelewa utambulisho wake akiwa mdogo kutokana na kulelewa na mama mwenye asili ya Australia na baba mwenye asili ya Ghana katika kipindi cha ubaguzi wa rangi nchini  Afrika Kusini. Aliandika: "nimekuwa Phillipa Yaa pale nilipompata baba yangu mzazi, aliyeniambia ya kuwa alikuwepo kipindi nilipozaliwa, na jina la kwanza kupewa lilikuwa Yaa, Yawo au Yaya lenye asili la Akan wanayopewa Watoto wote wa Ghana wanapozaliwa siku ya alhamisi. Hivyo lengo la  kubadili jina langu ni kujivunia katika asili yangu ya uafrika. Baada ya kukua kama mtu mweusi katika watu weupe wa Afrika Kusini, ilisababisha kuwepo ukweli hasi kuhusiana na namna watu Weusi walivyo. Nilihitaji kuukomboa utu wangu kutoka kwangu mwenyewe kutokana na pingamizi zilizokuwepo. "  
Alisema pia: " kwasababu sikuambiwa ya kuwa nililiewa na walezi mpaka nilipofikisha miaka 20, nilikosa misamiati ya kujielezea mimi ni  nani na nimetokea wapi hivyo maonyesho na uandishi zikawa njia ya kujitambua kwangu".
Kama  Tishani Doshi alivyotazama tovuti ya New Indian Express: "Kazi yake inahusiana sana na ujinsia, asili, na matabaka ndani ya Afrika Kusini"

Malezi
De Villiers alizaliwa Hillbrow Johannesburg nchini Afrika ya Kusini  
Ambapo alitumia miezi kadhaa ya mwanzo wa maisha yake katika nyumba ya kulelea watoto iitwayo “the Princess Alice home”. Akiwa nusu Muaustralia na nusu mghana, alilelewa na walezi weupe bila ya kuambiwa kuwa ni mtoto wa kulelewa mpaka alipofikisha miaka 20. 
Aliandika kuhusiana na athari na uzoefu alioupitia: 
"Nilianza uandishi wa mashairi nikiwa mtoto, shairi langu la kwanza ilichapishwa nilipokuwa na umri wa miaka 11. Nlikuzwa kwenye familia inayopenda mashairi hususani katika lugha ya kiingereza. Nilipokuwa mkubwa ndipo nilipotambua ya kuwa uandishi ni zaidi ya maneno yanayoonekana katika kurasa. Uandishi humjumuisha mwandishi, historia yake, mambo yanayomhusu na muktadha katika jamii. Historia yangu ilichangia sana katika ubunifu wangu pale nilipoanza kuchunguza asili yangu kama mwanamke mweusi aliyelelewa na familia ya watu weupe kipindi cha ubaguzi wa  rangi Afrika Kusini. Nilihisi kama watawala na watawaliwa wanapigana ndani ya ubungo wangu."

Elimu ya juu na kazi
Alisoma shahada ya uandishi wa Habari katika chuo kikuu cha Rhodes 
Na pia alipata shahada ya heshima ya uigizaji na uandishi wa hati kutoka chuo kikuu cha Witwatersrand.
Ni mhitimu wa shule ya kimataifa ya maonyesho la L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq iliyopo Paris nchini Ufaransa ambapo alisomea maonyeso. 
Aliishi Los Angeles kwa mda  kabla ya kurudi Afrika Kusini mwaka 1998 na kuishi Johannesburg. 
Alifanya kazi kama mwigizaji kwa miaka miwili, akifanya maonyesho  na kushinda kupitia kazi zake zifuatazo, Kwamanzi, Horn of Sorrow na Elephant of Africa.
Miaka nane iliyofuata, alikuwa mwandishi wa hati za runinga kwa matamasha kama vile Backstage, Tsha Tsha, Thetha Msawawa, Takalani Sesame na Soul City

Fasihi zilizochaguliwa
 Taller Than Buildings (Cape Town: Centre for the Book, 2006, 
 with Keorapetse Kgositsile, Don Mattera and Lebo Mashile, Beyond Words: South African Poetics (an Apples & Snakes project; flipped eye publishing, 2009, )
 The Everyday Wife; foreword by Margaret Busby
 Editor (with Kaiyu Xiao and Isabelle Ferrin-Aguirre), No Serenity Here – an anthology of African Poetry (Beijing: New World Publishers, 2010).
 ice cream headache in my bone (Cape Town: Modjaji Books, 2017)

Kama mchangiaji
 "Staying Safe", Konch Magazine, Special Issue, The Virus: Volume II, 2020.
 Marike Beyers (ed.), The Only Magic We Know: Selected Modjaji Poems 2004 to 2019, 2020.
 "Research That Is Real and Utopian: Indigenous Knowledge as a Resource to Revitalise High School Poetry" (with Louis Botha and Robert Maungedzo), Education As Change, 23 December 2020.

Viungo vya nje

 Phillippa Yaa De Villiers on Facebook.
 "Women’s Month Profile: Phillippa Yaa de Villiers" , Alberton Record, 10 August 2016.
 Matthew Mokoena, "The Shedding Of Society’s Original Skin"  (interview with Phillippa Yaa de Villiers), Consciousness Magazine, 19 May 2010.
 "Beyond Words – Interviews 2 Phillippa Yaa De Villiers". Vimeo.
 Phillippa Yaa de Villiers performing at The Drum, Birmingham, 31 October 2009. Sustained Theatre.
 "Phillippa Yaa De Villiers at Word 'n Sound, Johannesburg", 2011. YouTube.
 "The Quiet Conversation – Phillippa Yaa De Villiers (Poet). Fred Wisdom (Jazz guitar)", 2008.
 Phillippa Yaa de Villiers page at Passa Porta , International House of Literature in Brussels, 2009.
 Phillippa Yaa de Villiers (including podcast) at Badilisha Poetry X-change.
 "The poet Phillippa Yaa de Villiers talks about her new collection, The Everyday Wife, with Janet van Eeden", Litnet, 3 June 2010.
 Phillippa Yaa De Villiers performs her Commonwealth Day poem at Westminster Abbey, 10 March 2014. The Royal Commonwealth Society, YouTube.
 Phillippa Yaa de Villiers reading at The Poetry Archive.
 Phillippa Yaa de Villiers at Lyrikline.
 MarLa Sink Druzgal, "Around the World with the Poetry of Phillippa Yaa de Villiers", Traveling Marla.
 Crystal Wilton, "Interview with Phillippa Yaa de Villiers" , Odd Magazine, October 2017.

Marejeo

Wanawake wa Afrika Kusini
Watu walio hai
Waandishi wa Afrika Kusini
Watu wa Afrika Kusini