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Sometimes there is a Void: Memoirs of an Outsider
But who, really, is this multi-talented man? And how did he come to achieve recognition in so many different creative spheres? Sometimes There Is A Void, a disarmingly candid account of the life of Zakes Mda, provides us with some answers. In this memoir Mda weaves together past and present to give an intensely personal story of his development in life, in love and in learning, and the events and people who shaped him. Forced to follow his father, PAC 'founding spirit' A P Mda, into exile in Lesotho (then still Basutoland) at the age of fourteen, Zakes initially finds freedom from close parental discipline irresistible and becomes a frequenter of shebeens and an exponent of fast living, but he also becomes politicised during this time. We are given a fascinating insight into the growth and development of both the PAC and the ANC in exile, as well as contemporary social history. Mda's musical and artistic talents develop at an early age, a little ahead of his literary gifts. But his poetry and playwriting soon take precedence, as Mda's early plays win awards and are performed and published in South Africa. On the strength of his published work, Mda is accepted by Ohio University where he earns two master's degrees and, later, a doctorate at the University of Cape Town. His doctoral thesis is published internationally, and he writes his first novel in 1993. Although based in Athens, Ohio, he travels to South Africa regularly to visit the beekeeping collective he founded for the economic empowerment of people living in his former ancestral village in the Eastern Cape and to work with members of the Southern African Multimedia AIDS Trust which he established in Sophiatown. He continues to be actively involved in the development of indigenous South African theatre through his work with local playwrights.
576 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2011
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481 people want to read
About the author
Zakes Mda
33 books255 followersZakes 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 14, 2012
This is a beautifully written book which spans the past 60 years of South Africa (and Lesotho's) history as experienced by the writer and artist Zakes Mda. His family was deeply involved in the struggle against apartheid - his father was a founding member of the PAC and ANCYL and they went to live in exile in Leotho in the early 1960's.
He has been very involved in the cultural and arts world in Lesotho and South Africa during the years and his plays are performed across the world.
He has been very involved in the cultural and arts world in Lesotho and South Africa during the years and his plays are performed across the world.
May 1, 2019
I've often found that I enjoy literary biographies and memoirs more than the works of the writer themselves, and this one is no exception. I had read one of Mda's novels, Ways of dying but I knew him mainly as a newspaper columnist before I came across this memoir in the library. I found it very interesting, partly, no doubt because the life and times of Zakes Mda overlapped so much with my own.
For a fuller version of this review, see my blog here.
Like me he was born in the 1940s, so we belong more or less to the same generation. He grew up in Johannesburg and in the Herschel district of the Eastern Cape, near the Lesotho border. His father was a political activist, first in the African National Congress (ANC), later in the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), and had to go into exile in Lesotho, along with his family. So Zakes Mda finished his schooling in Lesotho after dropping out and going back to complete his high school education.
He tells his story in a series of flashbacks -- visiting places from his past, and then telling of past events in those places. And so I discovered that he was far more than a novelist and newspaper columnist. He had begun as an artist, hawking paintings to tourists in Maseru, and his fame was chiefly as a playwright. He also became a teacher, teaching literature and creative writing both in Lesotho and in the USA.
I knew vaguely that plays that were banned in South Africa were sometimes performed in Lesotho -- my wife had once travelled from Durban to Maseru with her cousins to see Godspell, which was then banned in South Africa. What I was not aware of was that there was such a lively literary scene in Lesotho, with local authors and playwrights mingling with South African exiles, so Mda's memoir reads like a who's who of southern African writers.
I am more historically inclined, so what I found most interesting was Mda's take on historical events that I had been aware of, but from a different viewpoint. The ANC/PAC split of 1959, for example, and its relation to the politics of Lesotho. I had then been living in Johannesburg and at university in Pietermaritzburg, where I had once tried to explain it to some of my fellow students, and I was interested to see that my explanations fitted pretty closely with Mda's experience.
I had visited Maseru a few times in the 1960s when attending student conferences over the border at Modderpoort in the Free State. On free afternoons groups of us went to Maseru just to enjoy a freer atmosphere. There we sometimes met a bloke in a pub, Desmond Sixishe, whom we didn't quite trust, and thought was a South African government spy. On one such visit we saw a procession of vehicles, mainly LandRovers, with flags waving, hooting and celebrating. They were from the Basutoland National Party, which had just won a by-election. We stood at the side of the road as they went past, giving the hand signals of the opposing parties, the Basutoland Congress Party and the Marema-tlou Freedom Party. A few hours later in the pub Demond Sixishe told us he had seen us, as he had been in the procession. It turned out he was a big BNP supporter. And from Zakes Mda's memoir I learned that he had become a cabinet minister. But he later died in an ambush on a mountain road.
I was in Namibia when the BNP lost the 1970 general election, but continued to rule by staging a coup. I was then far away in Namibia, but Mda confirmed that it was just as nasty from close up as it looked from a distance, and after that Lesotho immigration and other border officials went from being the friendliest and most welcoming on the subcontinent to being the surliest and most arrogant and officious.
I found the last hundred or so pages a disappointment, however. Mda was going through an acrimonious divorce, and lets a lot of the acrimony spill over into the pages of his memoir. During much of that time he was teaching at a university in Ohio in the USA, but he says little about his classes or what he was teaching, or the literary characters he met. It was all about his wife and his marital problems. I've no doubt that that played a big part in his life and affected his creative work, and so could not be left out. But there seemed to be too much self-justification, and trying too hard to persuade the reader that his wife was an evil villain. But for that I might have given it five stars on GoodReads.
Mda was also asked by many why he lived in Ohio and taught at a university there, now that South Africa is free. Why did he not return home to help build the nation? And he explains that there was no place for him in South Africa, dominated as it is by crony capitalism, where who you know is more important than what you know and in applying for a job party affiliation trumps competence every time.
For a fuller version of this review, see my blog here.
Like me he was born in the 1940s, so we belong more or less to the same generation. He grew up in Johannesburg and in the Herschel district of the Eastern Cape, near the Lesotho border. His father was a political activist, first in the African National Congress (ANC), later in the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), and had to go into exile in Lesotho, along with his family. So Zakes Mda finished his schooling in Lesotho after dropping out and going back to complete his high school education.
He tells his story in a series of flashbacks -- visiting places from his past, and then telling of past events in those places. And so I discovered that he was far more than a novelist and newspaper columnist. He had begun as an artist, hawking paintings to tourists in Maseru, and his fame was chiefly as a playwright. He also became a teacher, teaching literature and creative writing both in Lesotho and in the USA.
I knew vaguely that plays that were banned in South Africa were sometimes performed in Lesotho -- my wife had once travelled from Durban to Maseru with her cousins to see Godspell, which was then banned in South Africa. What I was not aware of was that there was such a lively literary scene in Lesotho, with local authors and playwrights mingling with South African exiles, so Mda's memoir reads like a who's who of southern African writers.
I am more historically inclined, so what I found most interesting was Mda's take on historical events that I had been aware of, but from a different viewpoint. The ANC/PAC split of 1959, for example, and its relation to the politics of Lesotho. I had then been living in Johannesburg and at university in Pietermaritzburg, where I had once tried to explain it to some of my fellow students, and I was interested to see that my explanations fitted pretty closely with Mda's experience.
I had visited Maseru a few times in the 1960s when attending student conferences over the border at Modderpoort in the Free State. On free afternoons groups of us went to Maseru just to enjoy a freer atmosphere. There we sometimes met a bloke in a pub, Desmond Sixishe, whom we didn't quite trust, and thought was a South African government spy. On one such visit we saw a procession of vehicles, mainly LandRovers, with flags waving, hooting and celebrating. They were from the Basutoland National Party, which had just won a by-election. We stood at the side of the road as they went past, giving the hand signals of the opposing parties, the Basutoland Congress Party and the Marema-tlou Freedom Party. A few hours later in the pub Demond Sixishe told us he had seen us, as he had been in the procession. It turned out he was a big BNP supporter. And from Zakes Mda's memoir I learned that he had become a cabinet minister. But he later died in an ambush on a mountain road.
I was in Namibia when the BNP lost the 1970 general election, but continued to rule by staging a coup. I was then far away in Namibia, but Mda confirmed that it was just as nasty from close up as it looked from a distance, and after that Lesotho immigration and other border officials went from being the friendliest and most welcoming on the subcontinent to being the surliest and most arrogant and officious.
I found the last hundred or so pages a disappointment, however. Mda was going through an acrimonious divorce, and lets a lot of the acrimony spill over into the pages of his memoir. During much of that time he was teaching at a university in Ohio in the USA, but he says little about his classes or what he was teaching, or the literary characters he met. It was all about his wife and his marital problems. I've no doubt that that played a big part in his life and affected his creative work, and so could not be left out. But there seemed to be too much self-justification, and trying too hard to persuade the reader that his wife was an evil villain. But for that I might have given it five stars on GoodReads.
Mda was also asked by many why he lived in Ohio and taught at a university there, now that South Africa is free. Why did he not return home to help build the nation? And he explains that there was no place for him in South Africa, dominated as it is by crony capitalism, where who you know is more important than what you know and in applying for a job party affiliation trumps competence every time.
June 5, 2012
Reading this book made me realize how little I know about African literature. It made me want to read more of Mda's books. This autobiography is part personal journey, detailing all the drinking, carousing and women in his life. Part of it is political evolution and the anti-apartheid movement, which his father played a more central role than he did, though there are some fascinating scenes with Mandala. The third part is cultural, showing the cultural richness of Africa. It's funny how Africans are so aware of American culture, like how into American jazz they were (and all the jazz musicians that went there to perform) and when he came to America and lived in a small rural town in Ohio he was amazed there was no jazz. The saddest part was about his marriage to Adele, his second wife. It was a grueling affair. I enjoyed this book. The thread he uses to hold it together is a bee keeping collective he started on his grandfather's land. That appears to be his legacy as much as his art and writing.
March 21, 2015
Long and rambling, full of disarming honesty. Disappointing to one who loves his novels. Disappointing in the sense that he radically demystifies himself, not pulling punches in describing his own long periods of despair, drinking and womanising - firmly taking himself off the hero's pedestal. Perhaps more disappointing in that the book feels like a rough draft - too long, and ending in the midst of a rave about a messy divorce the story of which would have benefited from the perspective of time.
Nonetheless worth reading: a real insight into the tough lives of political exiles in Lesotho, and disarming in his openness about the way he lives his life, while holding onto some important principles of honesty and kindness even as these are visibly shaken along the way.
Nonetheless worth reading: a real insight into the tough lives of political exiles in Lesotho, and disarming in his openness about the way he lives his life, while holding onto some important principles of honesty and kindness even as these are visibly shaken along the way.
March 8, 2016
Worth a 10 Star rating!
September 10, 2023
I have always preferred fiction but Ntate Mda changed my perspective. He writes generously and i was able to follow his life story. It looks like nothing was left out, from his days in SA jumping the border to Lesotho and ultimately in the US. This is one book i will read over and over.
July 31, 2019
I've read a few books by Zakes Mda and this memoir shows why he became a prolific writer. Spanning over 60 years and interceded with the political climate in South Africa and his family's involvement, I found it to be informative and interesting.
August 11, 2013
The subtitle of this memoir is "Memoirs of an Outsider", and at the end of the day, I am not exactly sure what he is referring to. The obvious answer might be that due to his father's political activities he grew up outside of South Africa in neighboring Lesotho. His is a typical African family with a complicated web of inter-relationships, but despite that Mda felt like he had been abandoned by his father, or at least he was not loved enough by him. That might be the outsider status that he refers to.
Mda does not candy coat his story--nor does he really focus on some of the things that would be helpful to have a first hand account of. Throughout the first half of the book, while South Africa is living under apartheid, there is very little detail about the effect that had on his life--and perhaps living in exile it did not have much of an impact, but he does write about people participating in armed rebellions, brothers being killed by compatriots, things that seem like a big deal, but instead Mda focuses on his personal life and his lack of ability to be a good partner with a woman.
The memoir is messy, as one reviewer tells it. It is really about him and not the time he lived in. There is very little background in this memoir, and at times I felt like he was using his access to a literary vehicle to make a case that his ex-wife was entirely mean spirited and he was blameless--well, a memoir does allow you to tell your side of the story, but ideally it is a story that others want to hear, and that was not the case for me. I think you have to read his fiction to hear his thoughts on the political landscape of Africa.
Mda does not candy coat his story--nor does he really focus on some of the things that would be helpful to have a first hand account of. Throughout the first half of the book, while South Africa is living under apartheid, there is very little detail about the effect that had on his life--and perhaps living in exile it did not have much of an impact, but he does write about people participating in armed rebellions, brothers being killed by compatriots, things that seem like a big deal, but instead Mda focuses on his personal life and his lack of ability to be a good partner with a woman.
The memoir is messy, as one reviewer tells it. It is really about him and not the time he lived in. There is very little background in this memoir, and at times I felt like he was using his access to a literary vehicle to make a case that his ex-wife was entirely mean spirited and he was blameless--well, a memoir does allow you to tell your side of the story, but ideally it is a story that others want to hear, and that was not the case for me. I think you have to read his fiction to hear his thoughts on the political landscape of Africa.
November 18, 2011
Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda is a very vivid and meticulous writer who brings the reader to his world and I cant wait to get home to read the next chapter. Now I’m interested to read more of his work.
March 16, 2015
This is the best memoir I have read. Bra Zakes is simply a brilliant story teller.
August 7, 2018
My experience of "Sometimes There Is A Void Memoirs Of An Outsider" was equivalent to having a captivating, honest, marathon conversation (moqoqo) with Zakes Mda about his sixty plus years.
We go through a roller coaster of emotions and flash backs as Mda fuses past and present. He addresses me directly, bares it all, and then proceeds in an easy, laid back fashion. The book read like a novel. Intriguing real life events of : simultaneously in love affair with twin sisters . Giving a lift to a murderer. A married man who has an affair in the same street. Being arrested at an " after tears". A mother who kidnaps her own kids. Sneaking into a women's only traditional after birth ritual. A village with mainly a population of twins, and many more.
Mda gives account of his life in different parts of South Africa, Lesotho, and America .We are let in on his incredible physical , mental and spiritual metamorphosis from a thin wayward urchin, an abuser of alcohol, and a philanderer ; to a sort after, renowned, teacher, professor, poet, cartoonist, musician ,playwright, painter, author , political analyst, and bee keeper. At age 70, he continues to make his mark.
Throughout his journey, Mda encounters in a “personal and human way” a myriad of people and influences, who make an impact on his life. The likes of Chris Hani, whom he called Bhut Thami, Nelson Mandela, Bessie Head, Sello Duiker, who was like a son to him, Frank Leepa, King Letsie 111, Gibson Kente, Gcina Mhlophe, Nakedi Rebane. Barney Simon, Kori Moraba, Oliva Tambo, and Meriam Makeba just to mention a few.
I loved how Mda shared on the inspiration behind numerous of his works, plays, poems, paintings and books. If you have read his work you will definitely resonate. He stresses on the importance of artists in perusing their contracts and to having rights of their work.
Mda's reflections on religion , politics, patriarchy, poverty and anthropology are clear and profound. Despite his volatile and tempestuous relations with various women, he unequivocally states ”.. every woman with whom I have intimately interacted has contributed something in the moulding , for a better or for a worse of who I have become “ He further asserts “…before Christianity was introduced to my people , when they still adhered to African traditional religions , most of their spiritual leaders were women…..religious patriarchy was brought to these shores by our erstwhile colonial masters”
A fulfilling, colorful, enviable and celebrated life, yet Mda has a void. He does not quite pinpoint where the void iminates from. I think that he feels like "an outsider" because as a resident and student in three different countries , he grapples with matters of identity and belonging. His feeling of inadequacy may stem from the missed opportunity to leverage from his dynamic and influential father. The worst blow was being misunderstood, blended opinionated, used, and sidelined on his return home to South Africa: to the extent that he opted to go back overseas for employment . To Mda" South Africanness is not his paramount identity.
The book dragged some what on the story of the second wife Adele. She got too much air time, to a point as if it had become her memoir. Gugu is Mda's third wife, It is only divulged to reader much later into the book, about 100 pages down the line, yet we hear about her name from inception. As I read on , I frequently wondered who she was.
A unique memoir. It's holistic nature is refreshing. The lived experiences can be crossrefenced to actual historical events. After reading you will no doubt fully comprehend what makes the gentle giant that is Zanemvula Gatsheni Kizito Mda.
Do not despair about the big and long nature of the book. It reminded me of "Long Walk To Freedom" , " Indaba My Children" and "The Quiet Violence Of Dreams" , all just under 700 pages. Try it , it flows ,goes quickly. fascinating, informative, educational.
We go through a roller coaster of emotions and flash backs as Mda fuses past and present. He addresses me directly, bares it all, and then proceeds in an easy, laid back fashion. The book read like a novel. Intriguing real life events of : simultaneously in love affair with twin sisters . Giving a lift to a murderer. A married man who has an affair in the same street. Being arrested at an " after tears". A mother who kidnaps her own kids. Sneaking into a women's only traditional after birth ritual. A village with mainly a population of twins, and many more.
Mda gives account of his life in different parts of South Africa, Lesotho, and America .We are let in on his incredible physical , mental and spiritual metamorphosis from a thin wayward urchin, an abuser of alcohol, and a philanderer ; to a sort after, renowned, teacher, professor, poet, cartoonist, musician ,playwright, painter, author , political analyst, and bee keeper. At age 70, he continues to make his mark.
Throughout his journey, Mda encounters in a “personal and human way” a myriad of people and influences, who make an impact on his life. The likes of Chris Hani, whom he called Bhut Thami, Nelson Mandela, Bessie Head, Sello Duiker, who was like a son to him, Frank Leepa, King Letsie 111, Gibson Kente, Gcina Mhlophe, Nakedi Rebane. Barney Simon, Kori Moraba, Oliva Tambo, and Meriam Makeba just to mention a few.
I loved how Mda shared on the inspiration behind numerous of his works, plays, poems, paintings and books. If you have read his work you will definitely resonate. He stresses on the importance of artists in perusing their contracts and to having rights of their work.
Mda's reflections on religion , politics, patriarchy, poverty and anthropology are clear and profound. Despite his volatile and tempestuous relations with various women, he unequivocally states ”.. every woman with whom I have intimately interacted has contributed something in the moulding , for a better or for a worse of who I have become “ He further asserts “…before Christianity was introduced to my people , when they still adhered to African traditional religions , most of their spiritual leaders were women…..religious patriarchy was brought to these shores by our erstwhile colonial masters”
A fulfilling, colorful, enviable and celebrated life, yet Mda has a void. He does not quite pinpoint where the void iminates from. I think that he feels like "an outsider" because as a resident and student in three different countries , he grapples with matters of identity and belonging. His feeling of inadequacy may stem from the missed opportunity to leverage from his dynamic and influential father. The worst blow was being misunderstood, blended opinionated, used, and sidelined on his return home to South Africa: to the extent that he opted to go back overseas for employment . To Mda" South Africanness is not his paramount identity.
The book dragged some what on the story of the second wife Adele. She got too much air time, to a point as if it had become her memoir. Gugu is Mda's third wife, It is only divulged to reader much later into the book, about 100 pages down the line, yet we hear about her name from inception. As I read on , I frequently wondered who she was.
A unique memoir. It's holistic nature is refreshing. The lived experiences can be crossrefenced to actual historical events. After reading you will no doubt fully comprehend what makes the gentle giant that is Zanemvula Gatsheni Kizito Mda.
Do not despair about the big and long nature of the book. It reminded me of "Long Walk To Freedom" , " Indaba My Children" and "The Quiet Violence Of Dreams" , all just under 700 pages. Try it , it flows ,goes quickly. fascinating, informative, educational.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 16, 2018
A sprawling and undisciplined book--frequently Mda admits he forgot to mention something earlier, but instead of bothering to then insert this information in its correct place, he just ploughs forward. So Void has the feeling of a rough draft written in a hurry. Nevertheless, it's full of fascinating stories and reflections on an extraordinary literary and political life, and the warmth of its humanity is palpable.
April 24, 2022
Bra Zakes has lived a bold and beautiful life. We read, here, of his childhood in South Africa, and early exile to Lesotho and the development of an artist and writer. We also learn about his family life, childhood under the illustrious A P Mda, his father and the ANCYL stalwart, and of his relationships. The honesty is disarming. An uplifting read.
September 26, 2018
Quite a comprehensive insight into the life of the author. At times, in fact, I thought he shared too much. I really enjoyed the book, not just because of the great penmanship, but throughout I could listen to a soundtrack of the music that featured in his life.
January 22, 2018
I really enjoyed the book from Chapter 5 onwards. The ending was a little abrupt. He has had an interesting life so far, which makes for an enjoyable read.
April 29, 2022
Fascinating story of an African man of letters - will leave you with some history of Southern Africa and help you understand what it took for this great writer to achieve what he has
September 6, 2016
I love to read memoirs and this one intrigued me and did not disappoint me at all. It sure does explain the man behind the writing. He writes about his life, links this to political situation at the time in Lesotho and in South Africa as his father is one of the founders of the PAC. I do really like the thinking and perspective in this book, because it resonates with me on both a personal and political level.
HE also speaks about his life in Ohio as a Professor there. This book is an important read because it adds to our experiences of history as told from an African perspective (which I crave more and more). It is a frank and very personal perspective (as I think memoirs should be) and raises the curtain behind the author and man - Zakes Mda.
I identify fully with his overall issue about being "outsider" and what it means in SA.
HE also speaks about his life in Ohio as a Professor there. This book is an important read because it adds to our experiences of history as told from an African perspective (which I crave more and more). It is a frank and very personal perspective (as I think memoirs should be) and raises the curtain behind the author and man - Zakes Mda.
I identify fully with his overall issue about being "outsider" and what it means in SA.
July 1, 2012
Zakes comes across as very open about his life, his foibles, his talents, his loves, his losses. In reading his memoir I liked him and wondered why I was unaware of his writing. He's a playwright and novelist. He admits to drawing heavily from his own life experiences. I particularly appreciated his account of living in two different worlds...one his home country of South Africa and the other his adopted home of Athens, Ohio where he is on the faculty of Ohio University.
March 21, 2012
Though dominated by his battles with his ex-wife, this memoir is a very intriquing read from Zakes Mda. I was however let down by the writing, definitely not his best work but still recommended.
January 20, 2016
Excellent read!!
March 13, 2021
I found it to be a bit rambly, as is the case with many autobiographies/memoirs of writers. Still a solid and interesting read. I hope to re-read it soon.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews