Mandla Langa

Mandla Langa (born 1950 in Stanger, Durban) is a South African poet, short-story writer, novelist, and cultural activist. He grew up in KwaMashu township of Kwazulu Natal.[1] His novel The Lost Colours of the Chameleon won the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Africa region).[2][3] Langa enrolled for a degree in English and Philosophy at the University of Fort Hare, but was expelled in 1973 as a result of his involvement in the activities of the South African Student Organisation. In 1976, he went into exile and has lived in different countries of Southern Africa as well as in Hungary and the United Kingdom.[4]

Mandla Langa
Born1950 (age 70–71)
Stanger, Durban, South Africa
OccupationWriter and cultural activist
EducationUniversity of Fort Hare
Notable worksThe Lost Colours of the Chameleon (2008)
The Memory of Stories (2000)
Notable awards2009 Commonwealth Writer's Prize
1991 Arts Council of Great Britain’s Bursary for Creative Writing
RelativesPius Langa (brother); Bheki Langa (brother); Ben Langa (brother).

Langa was brought in to complete the second volume of Nelson Mandela's autobiography, left in an unfinished draft when Mandela died in 2013, and published in 2017 as Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years.[5]

Early life and education

Mandla Langa was born in Stanger, Durban, South Africa, in 1950 and grew up in KwaMashu township 20 miles north of Durban,[6] during the implementation of the apartheid system. He is one of nine children. His brother Pius Langa served as Chief Justice in South Africa. Another brother, Bheki Langa, served as South Africa's ambassador to Russia. Mandla Langa attended Gardner Memorial School, Sibonelo High School in Durban, and then the University of Fort Hare. Despite the substantial number of political strikes during his college career, he was able to complete his BA in English and Philosophy in 1972. He taught at a high school in KwaMashu in 1973–74.[7]

In 1974, he became actively involved as a director of the South African Students' Organization (SASO), maintaining this position until his arrest in 1976 for attempting to leave the country without a permit. As a result he served 101 days in jail.[8] According to Charles Larson (editor of Under African Skies), Langa himself said that his arrest was due to sedition.

While imprisoned, Langa continued to improve his writing skills. After serving his sentence, he fled to Botswana, marking the start of his life in exile. He also spent time in Lesotho, Angola, where he participated in military training at the MK camps, also known as Umkhonto we Sizwe.[9] In addition to Lesotho, Langa spent time in Mozambique, Zambia, Hungary and the UK.[6] He held various ANC posts abroad, including cultural attaché in the UK and Western Europe.[10]

Personal life

Langa has two daughters with his wife June Josephs.[11] He has two brothers, Pius Langa who served as South African Chief justice and Bheki W. J. Langa who is a diplomat.

Career

Literary work

Among Langa’s early published work are poems such as "Pension Jives" and "They No Longer Speak to Us in Song". In addition to writing poetry, he began writing prose. His story "The Dead Men Who Lost Their Bones" was his first to be published in Drum Magazine in 1980, winning a prize.[8] Langa's success prompted his literary evolution to novel writing. In 1991, he became the first South African to be awarded an Arts Council of Great Britain Bursary for Creative Writing.[8] Langa's diverse work includes penning an opera, Milestones, with music composed by jazz musician Hugh Masekela. In 1999, Milestones was featured at the Standard Bank Festival in Grahamstown.[6][12]

His published books are Tenderness of Blood (1987), A Rainbow on a Paper Sky (1989), The Naked Song and Other Stories (1997), The Memory of Stones (2000), and The Lost Colours of the Chameleon (2008), which won the 2009 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Best Book in Africa).[13][14] Head judge Elinor Sisulu said: "Langa deconstructs the inner workings of a mythical African state, laying bare the frailties of leaders too blinded by power to effectively confront the major challenges of their times."[10] . Langa appeared at the 2011 Paris Book Fair.[15] He also be participated in the Bush Theatre's 2011 project Sixty-Six Books with a piece based upon a book of the King James Bible.[16]

Langa was brought in to complete the follow-up volume to Nelson Mandela's 1994 autobiography Long Walk to Freedom. Based on Mandela's handwritten notes and a draft left unfinished when Mandela died in 2013, as well as archive material and interviews, Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years by Nelson Mandela and Mandla Langa, with a prologue by Graça Machel, was published in 2017, its title taken from the closing sentence of Long Walk to Freedom: "But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended."[5][17][18][19][20]

Awards and honours

In 2007, Langa received South Africa’s National Order of Ikhamanga (Silver) for literary, journalistic and cultural achievements, the citation specifying his "excellent contribution to the struggle against apartheid, achievements in the field of literature and journalism and contributing to post-apartheid South Africa through serving in different institutions".[8] In February 2003, the Pan African Writers' Association (PAWA) featured Langa in an event promoting him as a distinguished South African writer: "An Evening with Mandla Langa".[9]

Administrative positions
  • Cultural Representative of the African National Congress (ANC)[8]
  • July 2001–05: Chairperson of the first council of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) – (merging of the IBA and the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority - SARRA)[9]
  • Chairman of Board at MultiChoice South Africa[21]

Currently Langa is serving on the following boards:

  • Business and Arts South Africa (BASA)[22]
  • Foundation for Global Dialogue (FGD)[23]
  • Institute for the Advancement of Journalism (IAJ)[24]
  • The Rhodes University School for Economic Journalism[22]
  • Trustee of the Nation's Trust[25]
  • Trustee of the Read Educational Trust[25]
  • Trustee of the South African Screen Writers' Laboratory (SCRAWL)[25]
  • Director of Contemporary African Music and Arts (CAMA)[22]

Media positions

Works

Fiction
  • The Lost Colours of the Chameleon. Picador Africa, 2008, ISBN 978-1-77010-084-8
  • The Memory of Stones. New Africa Books. 2000. ISBN 978-0-86486-408-6. – a collection exploring the nature of South African society after the end of apartheid
  • The Naked Song and Other Stories. New Africa Books. 1996. ISBN 978-0-86486-313-3.
  • A Rainbow on the Paper Sky. Kliptown Books, 1989
  • Tenderness of Blood. Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1987, ISBN 978-0-949225-30-6

Non-fiction

Collaborative works
  • 2006: Youth 2 Youth: 30 Years after Soweto ’76 (Introduction by Mandla Langa, edited by George Hallett)
  • 2004: Moving in Time: Images of Life in a Democratic South Africa (Introduction by Mandla Langa, edited by George Hallett)
  • 2004: South Africa's Nobel Laureates: Peace, Literature and Science by Kader Asmal, David Chidester, and Wilmot Godfrey James (Introduction by Mandla Langa)

Collections

Other
  • Milestones – musical opera in collaboration with the jazz musician Hugh Masekela

References
  1. Mandla Langa profile, The Guardian (London), 24 June 2008.
  2. "Mandla Langa and Uwem Akpan Win the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prizes – Africa Region", Books Live, 11 March 2009.
  3. "Mandla Langa wins Commonwealth Writers' Prize", Artsmart, 19 March 2009.
  4. "Mandla Langa" Archived 2 October 2014 at Archive.today, PEN America.
  5. Gillian Slovo (22 October 2017). "Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years by Nelson Mandela and Mandla Langa review – an impossible act to follow". The Guardian.
  6. "Mandla Langa (South Africa)". www.cca.ukzn.ac.za. Centre for Creative Arts. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  7. Tymon Smith, "The Fiction Prize – The Judges", Times Live, 6 May 2012.
  8. "Mandla Langa (1950– )" Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The Presidency, Republic of South Africa.
  9. "PAWA to Host Mandla Langa", Modern Ghana, 18 February 2003.
  10. Khanyi Magubane, "Commonwealth nod to SA writer", Media Club South Africa, 17 March 2009.
  11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. John Matshikiza, "Milestone for the new South Africa", Mail & Guardian, 11 June 1999.
  13. List of overall and regional winning authors of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize#1990s
  14. Katie Allen, "Commonwealth regional winners announced" Archived 6 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine, The Bookseller, 23 March 2009.
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 9 May 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. "Sixty six books – to October 29" (2011), ReviewsGate.
  17. Prakash Naidoo, "BOOKS: Mandla Langa completes Madiba’s work", Financial Mail, Business Live, 17 October 2017.
  18. Alet Janse van Rensburg (18 October 2017). "Dare not Linger: Mandela's 'new' memoir offers unique insights". News24.
  19. "Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years". Pan Macmillan. 19 October 2017.
  20. Mandla Langa, "Book Extract: The Presidency and the Constitution, from Mandla Langa’s Dare Not Linger", Daily Maverick, 27 October 2017.
  21. "Leadership Changes At Multichoice South Africa Holdings", Multichoice press release.
  22. Tourism, KZN Literary. "Mandla Langa". www.literarytourism.co.za. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  23. "Global Dialogue Foundation | Illuminating the World | Celebrating Life". www.globaldialoguefoundation.org. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  24. "Institute for the Advancement of Journalism | Leading-edge-mid-career journalism and communications training across Africa". www.iaj.org.za. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  25. "損することなく宝石の買取に出す方法｜お店選びが肝心". www.intofrench.org (in Japanese). Retrieved 8 January 2018.
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