Ignatius Tirivangani Mabasa
Ignatius Tirivangani Mabasa is a Shona-language storyteller, writer and translator who has been at the fore of promoting the intellectualisation of African languages, multilingualism and the documentation of indigenous knowledge. Ignatius teaches at the University of Zimbabwe and is the first Zimbabwean to write a PhD thesis in the Shona language. He is a former Fulbright scholar (USA) and former writer and storyteller in residence at the University of Manitoba (Canada). For the past 15 years, he has been giving fresh impetus to Shona folktales by making them available in film and on social media platforms. His digital folktales project won the University of Zimbabwe 2022 Research and Innovation Award. He is a research associate with the School of Languages: African Languages at Rhodes University, South Africa.
From Mapenzi to Madmen: A conversation with Ignatius Mabasa
2024-11-19In 2025, AmaBooks Publishers will publish Tsitsi Mutiti’s translation of Mapenzi by Ignatius Mabasa into English under the title Madmen, while the University of Georgia Press is set to release the translation in North America. Philani A Nyoni talks to Ignatius Mabasa about this new lease of life on his iconic multi-award-winning book, and what it means to him and the zeitgeist after a quarter century in circulation.
Translated or repatriated? An interview with Ignatius Mabasa on translating Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous conditions
2024-03-06"In a bid to understand the process, nuances, motives and challenges of the process while also uncovering the politics of language, Philani A Nyoni converses with Ignatius Mabasa, the man who translated Nervous conditions into Shona."