Zakes Mda

Zakes Mda (/ˈzɛɪks/ /mˈdɑː/), legally Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda (born 1948) is a South African novelist, poet and playwright and he is the son of politician A. P. Mda. He has won major South African and British literary awards for his novels and plays. He is currently a Patron of the Etisalat Prize for Literature.

Zanemvula Mda was born in Herschel, South Africa, in 1948. 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.

When he started publishing, he adopted the pen name of Zakes Mda. In addition to writing novels and plays, he has 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. He has been a visiting professor at Yale and the University of Vermont.

Mda is a founding member and currently (as of 2011) serves on the advisory board of African Writers Trust, "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."

On 8 June 2012 Zakes Mda was awarded an honorary doctorate of the University of Cape Town for his contributions to world literature. His novels have been translated into 21 languages, the translation of Ways of Dying into Turkish being the latest.

Mda's first novel, Ways of Dying, 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, 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.

• 1978 Amstel Playwright of the Year Award, special merit award for We Shall Sing for the Fatherland
• 1979 Amstel Playwright of the Year Award, winner for The Hill
• 1997 M-Net Book Prize, Ways of Dying
• 2001 Commonwealth Writers' Prize: Africa, The Heart of Redness
• 2001 Hurston-Wright Legacy Award, The Heart of Redness
• 2001 Sunday Times Fiction Prize, The Heart of Redness
• 2004 Top Ten South African Books published in the Decade of Democracy, The Madonna of Excelsior
• 2017 Barry Ronge Fiction Prize, Little Suns