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Zakes Mda

Author profile

born

January 01, 1948 in Herschel, South Africa

gender

male

genre

Poetry, Literature & Fiction

About this author

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Zakes Mda is the pen name of Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda, a novelist, poet and playwright.

Although he spent his early childhood in Soweto (where he knew political figures such as Walter and Albertina Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela) he had to finish his education in Lesotho where his father went into exile since 1963. This change of setting also meant a change of language for Mda: from isiXhosa to Sesotho. Consequently Mda preferred to write his first plays in English.

His first play, We Shall Sing for the Fatherland, won the first Amstel Playwright of the Year Award in 1978, a feat he repeated the following year. He worked as a bank clerk, a teacher and in marketing before the publication of We Shall Sing for the Fatherland and O...more Zakes Mda is the pen name of Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda, a novelist, poet and playwright.

Although he spent his early childhood in Soweto (where he knew political figures such as Walter and Albertina Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela) he had to finish his education in Lesotho where his father went into exile since 1963. This change of setting also meant a change of language for Mda: from isiXhosa to Sesotho. Consequently Mda preferred to write his first plays in English.

His first play, We Shall Sing for the Fatherland, won the first Amstel Playwright of the Year Award in 1978, a feat he repeated the following year. He worked as a bank clerk, a teacher and in marketing before the publication of We Shall Sing for the Fatherland and Other Plays in 1980 enabled him to be admitted to the Ohio University for a three-year Master's degree in theatre. He completed a Masters Degree in Theatre at Ohio University, after which he obtained a Master of Arts Degree in Mass Communication. By 1984 his plays were performed in the USSR, the USA, and Scotland as well as in various parts of southern Africa.

Mda then returned to Lesotho, first working with the Lesotho National Broadcasting Corporation Television Project and then as a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Lesotho. Between 1985 and 1992 he was director of the Theatre-For-Development Project at the university and founded the Marotholi Travelling Theatre. Together with his students he travelled to villages in remote mountain regions working with local people in creating theatre around their everyday concerns. This work of writing theatre "from the inside" was the theme of his doctoral thesis, the Ph.D degree being conferred on him by the University of Cape Town in 1989.

In the early nineties Mda spent much of his time overseas, he was writer-in-residence at the University of Durham (1991), research fellow at Yale University. He returned for one year to South Africa as Visiting Professor at the School of Dramatic Art at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is presently Professor of Creative Writing at Ohio University. (less)

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Books by Zakes Mda

Average rating: 3.75 · 1,048 ratings · 145 reviews · 19 distinct works

	Ways of Dying: A Novel 3.78 avg rating — 336 ratings — published 1995 — 6 editions	My rating:
	The Heart of Redness 3.74 avg rating — 265 ratings — published 2007 — 4 editions	My rating:
	The Madonna of Excelsior: A Novel 3.89 avg rating — 185 ratings — published 2006 — 6 editions	My rating:
	The Whale Caller: A Novel 3.77 avg rating — 106 ratings — 8 editions	My rating:
	Cion: A Novel 3.71 avg rating — 63 ratings — published 2003 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Black Diamond 3.29 avg rating — 34 ratings — published 2009 — 3 editions	My rating:
	She Plays with the Darkness 3.31 avg rating — 29 ratings — published 2004 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Sometimes there is a Void – Memoirs of an Outsider 4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	My rating:
	We Shall Sing For The Fatherland And Other Plays 3.40 avg rating — 5 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:
	Fools, Bells, and the Habit of Eating 4.25 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2003	My rating:

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Quotes by Zakes Mda

“Our elders say that an elephant does not find its own trunk heavy.”
― Zakes Mda

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Around the World ...: Lesotho	2	14	Aug 16, 2011 04:49pm
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Around the World ...: South Africa	4	43	May 16, 2012 05:55pm
The History Book ...: SOUTH AFRICA	24	92	May 22, 2012 06:07pm
The Seasonal Read...: Spring Challenge 2012: Completed Tasks -DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2344	417	May 31, 2012 09:02pm

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