A short life of the author
Zakes Mda (born 1948) is one of the most significant South African novelists of the post-apartheid era — a writer whose fiction has charted the country’s transformation from the violence of apartheid to the complexities of democratic transition with a combination of magical realism, satirical wit, and deep engagement with African cultural traditions. His work stands alongside that of J.M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, and André Brink, but his sensibility is distinctively African rather than European-inflected: his novels draw on Xhosa oral tradition, community ritual, and the rhythms of township life.
Life and Career
Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda was born in Herschel, Eastern Cape, South Africa. His father, Ashby Peter Mda, was a founding member of the Pan Africanist Congress, and the family went into exile in Lesotho when Zakes was young. He studied at universities in Lesotho and the United States, eventually earning a PhD from the University of Cape Town. He has taught at the University of the Witwatersrand and at Ohio University.
Mda first achieved prominence as a playwright — his plays, including We Shall Sing for the Fatherland (1979) and The Hill (1980), were performed across Africa and won awards at the Edinburgh Festival. His turn to fiction came relatively late.
Ways of Dying (1995, Oxford University Press) was his breakthrough novel — set in the transitional period between apartheid and democracy, it follows Toloki, a self-appointed professional mourner in a South African township. The novel’s combination of violence and tenderness, its mixing of naturalistic and magical elements, and its refusal to simplify the chaos of the transition made it an immediate classic. Toloki’s profession — mourning the dead in a society where death is constant — is both darkly comic and profoundly humane.
The Heart of Redness (2000) was more ambitious — a dual-timeline novel connecting the 1856 Xhosa cattle-killing movement (in which a prophetess persuaded the Xhosa to destroy their livestock) with a contemporary conflict between development and tradition in an Eastern Cape village. The novel’s treatment of the cattle-killing — neither condescending nor romanticizing — is a landmark of postcolonial historical fiction.
The Madonna of Excelsior (2002), The Whale Caller (2005), and Cion (2007) continued his exploration of South African life in different registers. The Zulus of New York (2019) was a novel set among Zulu migrants in New York City.
Key Works
- Ways of Dying (1995)
- The Heart of Redness (2000)
- The Madonna of Excelsior (2002)
- The Whale Caller (2005)
Collecting Mda
Ways of Dying first edition (Oxford University Press, South Africa, 1995) is the key collectible — fine copies bring $50–$200. The Picador (UK) and FSG (US) editions are more accessible. The Heart of Redness first edition (Oxford University Press SA, 2000; FSG US, 2002) signed is $30–$75. Mda signs at South African literary festivals and occasionally at international events. South African first editions are preferred by collectors of African literature. Mda’s reputation is strong in academic circles and among readers of world literature, and his work is likely to appreciate as interest in post-apartheid fiction continues to grow.