Zakes Mda's Non-Human Characters in the Economy of Indigenous Knowledge Systems. Issue 1 (2nd January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sewlall, Harry
• Is Part Of: Current writing. Volume 29:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 37
• Page End: 46
• Publication Date: 2017-01-02
• Subjects: Mda -- human/animal symbiosis -- Indigenous Knowledge Systems; Southern African literature (English) -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 820.996805
• DOI: 10.1080/1013929X.2017.1287413
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1013-929X

Abstract

Abstract : Through the juxtaposition of the real and the unreal, Zakes Mda's novels attest to an investment in indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) which are imbricated in local epistemologies, iconographies and cosmologies. A significant part of Mda's fictional landscape features non-human characters interacting with humans in a manner that defies logic, but is consonant with the writer's worldview on the human/animal connection. This article traces the various interfaces of the human/animal symbiosis which could be located within the ambit of local cultural knowledge formation or, stated differently, within the economy of IKS in the southern African context.