found: Dictionary of African Biography, accessed February 24, 2015, via Oxford African American Studies Center database:(Mda, Zanemvula 'Zakes' Kizito Gatyeni; fiction writer, poet, painter, sculptor, motion picture producer / director; born 06 October 1948 in Sterkspruit, South Africa; BFA in art and literature from the International Academy of Arts and Letters in Switzerland (1974); MFA in theater and MA in radio and television from Ohio University (1984); PhD at the University of Cape Town (1990); wrote famous playwrights, We Shall Sing and The Hill (1978-1979); lecturer at the National University of Lesotho; published book, When People Play People: Development Communication Through Theatre (1993); second collection of plays, And the Girls in Their Sunday Dresses (1993); published novels, She Plays with the Darkness and Ways of Dying (1995); third collection of plays, Fools, Bells and the Habit of Eating (2002); best-known novel, The Heart of Redness (2000); professor at Ohio University (2002); fourth novel, The Madonna of Excelsior (2002); latest novels include, The Whale Caller, Cion, and The Black Diamond (2005, 2007, 2009); honors include, South African Amstel Playwright's Merit Award (1978); the Amstel Playwright of the Year Award (1979))
