Black Diamond by Zakes Mda

`Whereas Don long accepted his menial status, Tumi has never forgiven any of his former comrades for being successful beneficiaries of the government’s Black Economic Empowerment policy, while her fiancée has to work for a security company. It is a sore point with her that Don’s comrades forgot about him when they reached Paradise, after he sacrificed so much in exile fighting for the overthrow of the apartheid state?. She vowed to herself that one day Don would show everybody what he was really made of: he was going to be a Black Diamond in his own right.’

Black Diamond is Zakes Mda’s exuberant new novel, full of his characteristic verve, humour and sense of irony. Set in contemporary Johannesburg the story follows an eclectic cast of characters as they work out their roles in a city where BEE rules, old stereotypes are smashed, criminals demand revenge on the justice system and protest is a weapon for anyone to use.

Meet Don, the security consultant and his ambitious fiancée, top model Tumi; the unbending magistrate Kirsten Uys who reveals a completely different side to her character when at home alone with her cat; and the criminal Visagie brothers and their supporters led by Ma Visagie and Aunt Magda who bring their own inimitable style to the campaign to free Stevo Visagie from jail. A superbly entertaining read that will have you laughing at yourselves and waiting with baited breath to see who comes out on top.


Zakes Mda is a South African writer, painter, composer and film maker. He commutes between South Africa and the United States of America, working as a professor of creative writing at Ohio University, and as a dramaturge at the Market Theatre and director of the Southern African Multimedia AIDS Trust in Johannesburg. He has been the recipient of the M-Net Book Prize (Ways of Dying), as well as the Commonwealth Prize and the Sunday Times Fiction Award (The Heart of Redness).

Date of Publication: November 2009
ISBN: 9780143026198
Publisher: Penguin Books SA