Patrick Craven shows us the ugly side of politics in The Battle For Cosatu.

Highly recommended, especially to those who have not yet read any of Mda’s other work. The narrative looks at his indomitable search as he drags his body, now limp and frail, through a countryside which is changed and unfamiliar, where much of value has been supplanted. This is an entertaining but also moving book. He remains faithful. After 20 years he returns to find her. They are separated by the conflict and his flight. He is also deeply in love with and committed to Mthwakazi. It is then the story of tribal loyalties and the intricate web of custom and tradition, ripped apart by colonial arrogance and stupidity. Malangana is a man seeking in all things to keep true to his position and his upbringing and his own integrity. It is primarily the story of Malangana, brother of a king, and his great love for a woman, Mthwakazi, of the abaThwa people, the great trackers. The factual history that underlies the novel is that of a British magistrate, Hamilton Hope, who overrides the sensibilities of a king in mourning and brings about his own assassination. Zakes Mda is a master of this genre, telling of a people – his own ancestors – exiled from Qumbu to Lesotho, and the tragic events leading up to that exile. Little Suns is a marvellous work of fiction, romance, history, myth and legend. His writing has been translated into twenty languages.The Battle For Cosatu by Patrick Craven 7 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. Zakes Mda was born in Herschel in the Eastern Cape in 1948 and studied in South Africa, Lesotho and the United States.

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). 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. It showcases his role as a public intellectual with the inclusion of public lectures, essays and media articles. Summary: This book is a collection of non-fiction by the prolific author Zakes Mda.

Little suns zakes mda