Zakes Mda’s Followers (255)

Zakes Mda

Born

in Herschel, South Africa

January 01, 1948

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ZakesMda

Genre

Poetry, Literature & Fiction

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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 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. ...more

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Zakes Mda’s books

Average rating: 3.79 · 7,140 ratings · 794 reviews · 33 distinct works • Similar authors

	Ways of Dying (Toloki #1) 3.89 avg rating — 1,953 ratings — published 1995 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Heart of Redness 3.72 avg rating — 1,634 ratings — published 2000 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Madonna of Excelsior 3.97 avg rating — 916 ratings — published 2004 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Whale Caller 3.56 avg rating — 568 ratings — published 2005 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Black Diamond 3.56 avg rating — 358 ratings — published 2009 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Little Suns really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 214 ratings — published 2015 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cion (Toloki #2) 3.63 avg rating — 213 ratings — published 2003 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Sculptors of Mapungubwe 3.87 avg rating — 158 ratings — published 2013 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Zulus of New York 3.73 avg rating — 161 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sometimes there is a Void – Memoirs of an Outsider 3.98 avg rating — 114 ratings — published 2011 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Zakes Mda…

Series by Zakes Mda

Toloki (2 books)
by

Zakes Mda

3.86 avg rating — 2,165 ratings

Quotes by Zakes Mda (?)

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

12 likes

“If you are truly telling a South African story then it will be political — because you are dealing with people who lead political lives in an environment which is highly politically charged.”
― Zakes Mda

7 likes

“The girls cannot contain their joy. They must start rehearsing immediately. They teach Saluni a new song that they have composed at the swamps. It is about croaking frogs in their green and brown colours and how the girls caught them and pierced their eyes with sharp sticks and set them free to hop about in wonderful blindness. It is a haunting melody. They tell Saluni that the song is all about the fun they had at the swamps today. The blinded frogs will live peacefully because now they won't be bothered by the bright rays of the sun. They won't have to run from danger, because they won't see it. They will therefore be safe since danger only catches those who run away from it.”
― Zakes Mda, The Whale Caller

3 likes

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Polls

Which book(s) would you like to read for Southern Africa (Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland) in May/June 2018?

July's People by Nadine Gordimer

12 votes, 30.8%

Down Second Avenue: Growing Up in a South African Ghetto by Ezekiel Mphahlele

7 votes, 17.9%

When Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head

6 votes, 15.4%

Lost Ground by Michiel Heyns

6 votes, 15.4%

The Heart of Redness by Zakes Mda

4 votes, 10.3%

A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn

2 votes, 5.1%

Little Suns by Zakes Mda

2 votes, 5.1%

Rachel's Blue by Zakes Mda

0 votes, 0.0%

39 total votes

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Zakes Mda’s Followers (255)

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Combine Editions
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