The Mad

A novel by Ignatius T. Mabasa, translated from ChiShona to English by Tsitsi J. Mutiti. Ignatius Tirivangani Mabasa is a Zimbabwean storyteller, writer and translator who mainly creates in his mother tongue Shona. Mabasa's writing often explores themes of identity, culture, and social justice, drawing on his experiences as a black Zimbabwean living under colonial rule as well as during and after the country's transition to independence. His award winning Shona novel Mapenzi, translated here as The Mad, was chosen as one of "the most significant books to have come out of Africa" in The Times Literary Supplement. It also won the Zimbabwe Book Publishers Association Best Book Award and was chosen by the Zimbabwe International Book Fair as one of Zimbabwe's 75 Best Books of the Century. His other literary publications include Imbwa Yemunhu, Ndafa Here?, The Man, Shaggy Leopard and Jackal, Tipeiwo Dariro, Muchinokoro Kunaka and Zvingori Zvidhori Nezvigure Zvakadhakwa. He is a Research Associate with the School of Languages at Rhodes University, a Senior Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and is currently lecturing at the University of Zimbabwe.