May Lenna Balisidya Matteru (May 10, 1947 – December 27, 1987) was a Tanzanian author writing in the Swahili language.
She was born in Dodoma and attended primary and secondary school there.
Balisidya received a BA from the University of East Africa at Dar es Salaam in 1970 and a MA in oral literature from the University of Dar es Salaam in 1978.
She obtained her PhD in African literature from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in November 1987.
[1][2] From 1977 to 1987, she was a lecturer in the Kiswahili department of the University of Dar es Salaam.