Amandina Lihamba

Amandina Lihamba (born 1944) is a Tanzanian actor, playwright and director. She is a professor at the University of Dar es Salaam in the department of fine and performing arts. She has served as the dean, head of department, and university councilmember there. In 1989 she co-founded the national Children Theatre Project and festival. She also founded the girls drama group Tuseme (Let's Speak Out) Festival with Penina Muhando in 1998.

Lihambra was born in Morogoro District, Tanzania in 1944. She earned her Ph.D from the University of Leeds. Her 1985 doctoral dissertation was on "Politics and Theatre in Tanzania after the Arusha Declaration 1967–1984". In it she describes how after the Arusha Declaration the Tanzanian verse drama ngonjera evolved from a propaganda tool of the ruling party into a subversive and syncretic form.

Lihambra created a gendered adaptation of Senegalese film director Ousmane Sembène's The Money-Order.

Filmography

• The Marriage of Mariamu (1985)
• Khalfan and Zanzibar (1999)
• Maangamizi: The Ancient One (2001)