Zakes Mda
Zakes Mda | |
|---|---|
| Born | Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda 1948 (age 75–76) Herschel, Eastern Cape, South Africa |
| Occupation | Novelist, poet and playwright |
| Alma mater | Ohio University University of Cape Town |
| Notable works | Ways of Dying (1995), The Heart of Redness (2000) |
| Notable awards | Commonwealth Writers' Prize Sunday Times Fiction Prize 2001 |
| Parents | A. P. Mda (father) |
Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni "Zakes" Mda (/ˈzɛɪks mˈdɑː/) (born 1948) is a South African novelist, poet and playwright. He has won major South African and British literary awards for his novels and plays. He is the son of politician A. P. Mda.
Early life and education
[edit]Zanemvula Mda was born in Herschel, South Africa, in 1948.[1] and completed the Cambridge Overseas Certificate at Peka High School, Lesotho, in 1969. He pursued his BFA (Visual Arts and Literature) at the International Academy of Arts and Literature, Zurich, Switzerland, in 1976. He completed a MFA (Theater) and a MA (Mass Communication and Media) in 1984 at Ohio University, United States. He completed his PhD at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, in 1989.
Career
[edit]When he started publishing his work, he adopted the pen name of Zakes Mda. In addition to writing novels and plays, he taught English and creative writing in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Most recently, he went to the United States, where he became a professor in the English Department at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.[2] He has been a visiting professor at Yale University and the University of Vermont.[3] As of July 2021, he is a Lecturer in Advanced Academic Programs at Johns Hopkins University.[4]
Mda is a founding member and (as of 2011) serves on the advisory board of the African Writers Trust,[5] "a non-profit entity which seeks to coordinate and bring together African writers in the Diaspora and writers on the continent to promote sharing of skills and other resources, and to foster knowledge and learning between the two groups."[6][7]
In 2013, he became a patron of the Etisalat Prize for Literature (alongside Ama Ata Aidoo, Dele Olojede, Ellah Allfrey, Margaret Busby and Kole Omotoso).[8][9]
At the 2024 "Time of the Writer" festival in Durban, Mda delivered the keynote address, titled "Reflections, Resonance and Revival".[10]
Literary works
[edit]Mda's first novel, Ways of Dying (1995), takes place during the transitional years that marked South Africa's transformation into a democratic nation. It follows the character of Toloki. After finding himself destitute, he invents a profession as a "Professional Mourner". He traverses the violent urban landscape of an unnamed South African city, finding an old love amidst the internecine fighting present in the townships and squatter settlements.
The Heart of Redness (2000), Mda's third novel, is inspired by the history of Nongqawuse, a Xhosa prophetess whose prophecies catalyzed the cattle-killing of 1856–1857. Xhosa culture split between Believers and Unbelievers, adding to existing social strain, famine and social breakdown. It is believed that 20,000 people died of starvation during that time. In the novel, Mda continually shifts back and forth between the present day and the time of Nongqawuse to show the complex interplay between history and myth. He dramatizes the uncertain future of a culture whose troubled relationship with the colonizing force of Empire, as well as their own civil factions, threatens to extinguish their home of Qolorha-by-Sea.
Mda's account of the cattle-killing draws heavily on that of historian Jeff Peires in his book The Dead Will Arise (Mda acknowledges this at the outset of his novel). Like Peires, Mda identifies Mhlkaza, Nongqawuse's uncle and one of the key players in the event, with William Goliath, the first Xhosa person baptised in the Anglican church.
Mda's 2011 book, Sometimes There is a Void, was described by The New York Times as a "gregarious and transfixing memoir": "First fate, then choice, have shaped Mda into a perpetual outsider who partly belongs to the three societies — Lesotho, South Africa and the United States — that have served as his provisional homes. He writes from inside the exile's ambiguous fate, acknowledging that the uprooted life brings new perspectives but at the cost of a haunting fear of inner incoherence. Yet, as his autobiography discloses, on the stage and on the page Mda has found a different kind of continuity through the steadying presence of imaginative belonging. To his credit, in a deeply unsettled life, he has nurtured this capacity to find within the creative act itself new, reviving forms of homecoming."[11]
On 8 June 2012, Mda was awarded an honorary doctorate of the University of Cape Town for his contributions to world literature.[12][13] His novels have been translated into 21 languages, including the translation of Ways of Dying into Turkish.[14]
Awards
[edit]In 2004, The Madonna of Excelsior was named one of the top ten South African books published in the Decade of Democracy.[citation needed]
| Year | Work | Award | Ressult | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | We Shall Sing for the Fatherland | Amstel Playwright of the Year Award | Special Merit Award | [citation needed] |
| 1979 | The Hill | Amstel Playwright of the Year Award | Winner | [citation needed] |
| 1997 | Ways of Dying | M-Net Book Prize | Winner | [15] |
| 2001 | The Heart of Redness | Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book: Africa | Winner | [16] |
| 2001 | The Heart of Redness | Hurston-Wright Legacy Award | Winner | [17] |
| 2001 | The Heart of Redness | Sunday Times Fiction Prize | Winner | [18] |
| 2017 | Little Suns | Barry Ronge Fiction Prize | Winner | [19] |
Publications
[edit]- (1977) New South African Writing
- (1979) We Shall Sing for the Fatherland
- (1979) Dead End
- (1979) Dark Voices Ring
- (1980) The Hill
- (1982) Banned: A Play for Radio
- (1982) Summer Fires
- (1986) Bits of Debris: The Poetry of Zakes Mda
- (1988) And the Girls in their Sunday Dresses
- (1989) Joys of War
- (1990) The Plays of Zakes Mda
- (1991) The Nun's Romantic Story
- (1992) Soho Square
- (1993) When People Play People
- (1993) And the Girls in Their Sunday Dresses: Four Works
- (1995) Ways of Dying
- (1995) She Plays with the Darkness
- (1998) Melville 67
- (2000) The Heart of Redness
- (2002) The Madonna of Excelsior
- (2002) Fools, Bells and the Importance of Eating: Three Satires
- (2005) The Whale Caller
- (2007) Cion
- (2009) Black Diamond
- (2011) Sometimes There is a Void: Memoirs of an Outsider
- (2012) Our Lady of Benoni
- (2013) The Sculptors of Mapungubwe
- (2014) Rachel's Blue
- (2015) Little Suns
- (2019) The Zulus of New York
- (2021) Wayfarers' Hymns
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Zanemvula Kizito Mda". South African History Online. SAHO. Archived from the original on 21 March 2024. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
- ^ "English Department". www.english.ohiou.edu. Archived from the original on 21 December 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
- ^ "Madonna of Excelsior" Archived 7 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine at Barnes & Noble.
- ^ "Zakes Mda". Johns Hopkins University. Archived from the original on 26 July 2021. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
- ^ "Advisory Board" Archived 8 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine, African Writers Trust. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
- ^ "What is African Writers Trust?" Archived 6 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine African Writers Trust. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
- ^ Lamwaka, Beatrice, "Goretti Kyomuhendo of African Writers Trust" Archived 20 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, 22 May 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
- ^ Agbedeh, Terh (26 June 2013). "Sustainability of literary prizes, as new one debuts". National Mirror. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "2015 Etisalat Prize for Literature Longlist Revealed". African Literary Magazines. The Single Story Foundation. 12 November 2015. Archived from the original on 24 July 2023. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
- ^ "Time of the Writer 2024 Keynote Address" (Press release). University of KwaZulu-Natal. 15 March 2024. Archived from the original on 21 March 2024. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
- ^ Nixon, Rob (27 January 2012). "Memories of South Africa During and After Apartheid". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 26 July 2023. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
- ^ "Honorary docs for two" Archived 13 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine, University of Cape Town, 8 June 2012.
- ^ Doctoral acceptance speech Archived 17 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine live broadcast from UCT Website on 8 June 2012.
- ^ Alberts, Margaretha Johanna (November 2024). The potential of an Afrikaans translation of Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness to renew the South African national narrative (PDF) (Thesis). University of Pretoria, Faculty of Humanities. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 March 2024. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
- ^ De Waal, Shaun (17 March 2000). "A decade of prizes". The Mail & Guardian. Archived from the original on 2 August 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
- ^ "Commonwealth Writers' Prize Regional Winners 1987–2007" (PDF). Commonwealth Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 October 2007.
- ^ "The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award". African American Literature Book Club. Archived from the original on 31 March 2023. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ "Previous winners of the Alan Paton Award and the Sunday Times Fiction Prize". The Sunday Times. 4 June 2007. Archived from the original on 26 February 2009.
- ^ Malec, Jennifer (25 June 2017). "Zakes Mda and Greg Marinovich win Sunday Times Literary Awards". JRB. Archived from the original on 19 April 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
- 1948 births
- Living people
- 20th-century dramatists and playwrights
- 20th-century South African male writers
- 20th-century South African novelists
- 20th-century South African poets
- 21st-century dramatists and playwrights
- 21st-century South African male writers
- 21st-century South African novelists
- 21st-century South African poets
- South African male dramatists and playwrights
- Ohio University faculty
- South African atheists
- South African dramatists and playwrights
- South African male novelists
- South African male poets
- Writers from the Eastern Cape