This book is a collection of non-fiction by the prolific author Zakes
Mda. It showcases his role as a public intellectual with the inclusion
of public lectures, essays and media articles. Mda focuses on South
Africa's history and the present, identity and belonging, the art of
writing, human rights, global warming and why he is unable to keep
silent on abuses of power. Some of his best-known novels include Ways of
Dying (1995, MNet Book Prize); The Heart of Redness (2000, Commonwealth
Writers' Prize: Africa, and Sunday Times Fiction Prize); The Madonna of
Excelsior (2002, one of the Top Ten South African books published in the
Decade of Democracy); The Whale Caller (2005); Cion (2007); Black
Diamond (2009); The Sculptors of Mapungubwe (2013); Rachel's Blue
(2014); and Little Suns (2015, Sunday Times Literary Award). Zakes Mda
was born in Herschel in the Eastern Cape in 1948 and studied in South
Africa, Lesotho and the United States. He wrote his first short story at
the age of fifteen and has since won major South African and British
literary awards for his novels and plays. His writing has been
translated into twenty languages. Mda is a professor of Creative Writing
at Ohio University. [Subject: Zakes Mda, Literature, Journalism, Media
Studies, African Studies, Current Affairs, History, Politics,
Non-Fiction]
