Mohalenyane Phakela
MASERU — In celebration of the sixth annual Mohlomi Memorial Lecture, Friends of Morija Museum and Archives (F-MMA) will have a gala dinner at Lesotho Sun on Thursday. Speaking at a press conference held at their offices in Maseru West on Thursday, their principal secretary Tlalane Sebeko said: “We host this kind of event in remembrance of King Moshoeshoe’s doctor and advisor Mohlomi who played a very critical role in the foundation of the Basotho nation.
“We always have a key speaker who addresses topics at hand. The topics we choose are those burning issues facing the country as a whole which also helps students know about concerns at hand. “Last year’s speech was based on the relations between Lesotho and South Africa with regard to dual citizenship which was an issue on everyone’s lips.
“We have hosted icons like Dr Mokete ‘Musi, Professor Rakotsoana, Professor Machobane, Professor Ndebele and Dr Ralitapole. “Our main act this year is Professor Zanemvula “Zakes” Mda who will be discussing the topic “A further critique of culture and the African Malaise”. The topic is all about all the dimensions of Basotho culture, its diversity and how it interacts with other foreign cultures, said Sebeko.
Zakes Mda is a novelist, poet and playwright born in Herschel, South Africa, in 1948. He studied and worked in Lesotho, South Africa and the United Kingdom — where he became a professor in the English Department at Ohio University in Athens. He has won major South African and British literary awards for his novels and plays.
Among them is his novel The Heart of Redness, published in 2002, which won the Richard Wright Zora Neale Hurston Legacy Award. He started writing in 1977 and has written over 25 novels that won him five prizes.
Mda is the founding member of African Writers Trust and is currently a patron of the Etisalat Prize for Literature.
F-MMA’s Public Relations Officer Nthabiseng Phohleli said they chose Professor Mda because of his extraordinary appreciation of culture. “Authors and historians like Zakes Mda are people who can paint a visual rendering about culture and humanity.
He told us that he will talk more about life of an African child. “We host quite a number of events for MMA and raise funds for their projects, so this is one of those that precede its cultural festival which will start on Friday,” she stated.
Invited are; the royal family, members of parliament, respective diplomats and the general public, especially students.
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