Colleen Madamombe was born in 1964 in Salisbury, Rhodesia (after independence in 1980 Harare, Zimbabwe) and attended school in Kutama from 1979 to 1984. From 1985 to 1986 she obtained a diploma in fine arts at the BAT Workshop School of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. In 1986 she married the Zimbabwean sculptor Fabian Madamombe, with whom she later had seven children. She initially specialized in drawing and painting, but in 1987 she joined her husband in sculpting at the Chapungu Sculpture Park. Colleen Madamombe struck up a close friendship with the sculptor Agnes Nyanhongo. She quickly found her own style during the three years she worked full time in Chapungu. She died on May 31, 2009. Her grave is near her rural home in Zvimba. Many of Colleen Madamombe' s works have been exhibited and sold outside Zimbabwe. For example, they were part of traveling exhibitions of works by Chapungu artists that were shown in botanical gardens in the United Kingdom and the USA. She has received the "Best Female Artist of Zimbabwe" award three times. In 2010, the National Gallery of Zimbabwe held an exhibition about her life and works.