Mda next received a master's degree in mass communication, also from Ohio University. Mda went to schools in Lesotho and Switzerland before moving to the United States to pursue a master's degree in theater at Ohio University, after his first published volume of plays, We Shall Sing for the Fatherland and Other Plays (1980) met with great acclaim. The move forced the family to learn a new language and Mda's feelings of inadequacy in both his native tongue and that of his new country led him to begin writing his creative works in English when he was in high school. In 1963 Mda's father was forced into exile in the Basotholand Protectorate-later the independent Kingdom of Lesotho-and a year later, Mda crossed the border to join him two years later, the rest of the family followed. Because of his father's political involvement, the young Mda came into regular contact with some of South Africa's leading activists, and for a brief period he lived in Mandela's home, Orlando. His mother, Nompumelelo Rose Mda, was a nurse. Mda, was a founding member of the African National Congress Youth League, where he worked with Nelson Mandela, before leaving that group to join the more radical liberationist Pan Africanist Congress. His paternal grandfather, Charles Mda, was a petty chief whose job was to enforce apartheid laws. Mda was born in 1948 in the Herschel District of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. In his writings he explores both the causes and the effects of a society organized in terms of racial dominance and exploitation, as well as the spirit of revolt that eventually led to its dismantling. Born into the apartheid system-which, from 1948 to 1990, legally mandated racial segregation and the subservience of blacks to whites in all aspects of social and political intercourse-Mda witnessed its malevolence firsthand. INTRODUCTIONĪ prolific author of works in a variety of genres, Mda is considered one of the foremost writers in post-apartheid South Africa. (Born Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda) South African playwright, novelist, poet, and nonfiction writer.

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