Born in Durban, South Africa, Mandla Langa went into exile in 1976 and has lived in various African countries, Hungary and the United Kingdom.
After winning an Africa-wide story contest in 1980, Mandla was awarded the British Arts Council bursary for creative writing in 1991. Mandla has been the ANC’s Cultural Representative in the UK and Western Europe.
A former newspaper columnist, he led COMTASK, a task group in 1997, which restructured apartheid’s communication systems. From 1999 to 2005, he chaired the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA).
His published works include Tenderness of Blood (1987), A Rainbow on a Paper Sky (1989), The Naked Song and Other Stories (1997), The Memory of Stones (2000), The Lost Colours of the Chameleon (2008), which won the 2009 Commonwealth Prize for Best Book in the African Region and The Texture of Shadows (2014).
He wrote Dare Not Linger using Mandela’s archives (2017) and was a fellow with STIAS (Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies.) His novel, The Lost Language of the Soul (2021) was declared the Best Book of 2021 and won the HSS Award and the UJ Prize for Creative Writing in English in 2022.
A recipient of honorary doctorates from several universities, Mandla sits on various boards and is South Africa’s High Commissioner to Cameroon.
