Ignatius Mabasa's The Mad now available!

We’re proud to announce the release of The Mad, a searing, satirical novel that paints a vivid portrait of poverty, violence, dehumanisation, and postcolonial dislocation in Zimbabwe.

Originally published in ChiShona as Mapenzi, this powerful translation by J. Tsitsi Mutiti brings Ignatius Mabasa’s groundbreaking work to a wider audience. The novel unfolds through dramatic monologues and dialogue-driven exposition, navigating moral ambiguity and steeped in the politics of language and decolonial thought.

The Mad is not only a milestone in Zimbabwean literature, it is a bold contribution to African and global literary landscapes, challenging conventional forms and redefining what the modern African novel can be. Mapenzi was selected in The Times Literary Supplement as 'one of the most significant books to have come out of Africa.'

It is a novel that asks urgent questions: How do societies manage cultural continuity amid rupture? What happens when colonial legacies collide with poverty, violence, and the forces of globalisation?

The Mad is co-published in Zimbabwe and in the United Kingdom with Carnelian Heart Publishing

Cover art by Lovemore Kambudzi

Available now on Amazon or directly from Carnelian Heart Publishing. 

Not available in North American markets till next spring. 

Huge congratulations to Ignatius T. Mabasa

Potholes in 'Whatever Happened to Rick Astley?'

Raisedon Baya discusses the story 'Potholes' from Bryony Rheam's short story collection Whatever Happened to Rick Astley?, which was being discussed by the Bulawayo Book Club.

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"Potholes"

I'm a sucker for political satire. I sometimes see it where it's not there. So please forgive me for seeing Potholes as some kind of political piece. Subtle but there. I don't know if there is anything called "covert satire" but in this piece I see a writer taking a short dig at politicians and the government. 

The futility of one man's, Gibson Sibanda's, attempt to solve a national problem is sad if not laughable.  Everyday we laugh at our problems and at ourselves. It's nothing new. The potholes are not only in Napier road but everywhere, as we later find out in the story. "He went first to Ilanda and then to Famona and finally settled on Pauling Road in Suburbs."

The dig is more pronounced when suddenly the city council wakes up to quickly fix the road because the the Vice President has bought a house in the neighbourhood. They quickly fixed the road so that the VP of the country would drive safely, and unbothered, to his new house. Here is a government of the people that has been captured and now panders to the whim of politicians. Politicians' lives have become more important than the ordinary people that the government claims to serve. Somehow priorities have been turned upside down. The servant has become the master. 

Potholes are a sign of roads gone bad. Unattended to. Unrepaired. And a danger to motorists. Potholes could also be a metaphor of something horrible gone wrong with our politics. Something that needs fixing immediately. And not by one person. 

Whether or not the author intended the piece to be a  political satire or not, the story effectively highlights the absurdity and injustice of a system that prioritises the needs of the powerful over those of the general population.

The story is also a typical example of "there is complexity in simplicity." It looks and reads so simple but on a closer look its depth is outstanding.  Potholes is just but of the 16 stories in Bryony Rheam's outstanding collection aptly titled Whatever Happened to Rick Astley?

Ignatius Mabasa's The Mad is Here

We're excited that The Mad, the translation from ChiShona into English by J. Tsitsi Mutiti of Ignatius Mabasa's novel Mapenzi, can be preordered now on Amazon  https://amzn.eu/d/8hP1FFI

The Mad, published by amaBooks and Carnelian Heart Publishers, will be released on July 29.  The cover is from an art work by Lovemore Kambudzi.  

The novel was chosen in the Times Literary Supplement as 'one of the most significant books to have come out of Africa.'