Paulina "Poulli" Chiziane is an author of novels and short stories in the Portuguese language. She studied at Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo. She was born to a Protestant family that moved from Gaza to the capital Maputo during the writer's early childhood. At home she spoke Chopi and Ronga. Chiziane was the first woman in Mozambique to publish a novel. Her writing has generated some polemical discussions about social issues, such as the practice of polygamy in the country. For example, her first novel, Balada do Amor ao Vento, discusses polygamy in southern Mozambique during the colonial period. Related to her active involvement in the politics of Frelimo, her narrative often reflects the social uneasiness of a country ravaged and divided by the war of liberation and the civil conflicts that followed independence. Her novel "Niketche: Uma Hist�ria de Poligamia" won the Jos� Craveirinha Prize in 2003. 

June 4th, 1955 in Manjacaze (Age 69) as Paulina Chiziane