Iris Mwanaza’s debut literary endeavour The Lions’ Den is poised to propel her to the forefront of African contemporary literature

The Lion’s Den will be launched at Exclusive Books Rosebank on Thursday March 2025, at 6pm.

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

In a dingy police station staffed by crooked police in far away Lusaka, Zambia, a teen mysteriously disappears from the police station after being arrested for what the laws in that country call a crime “Against the order of Nature”. His crime was that he was accused under suspcious circumstances of having had sex with another man in an ironically openly operating gay club in Lusaka, frequented, of course secretly, by the monied and powerful of Lusaka. 

Fun though is that this bar called MacGyver operated so openly that it could be said that it operated in broad day light. And therefore whatever happened could not have been hidden from authorities who were not only becoming increasingly conservative, but autocratic as well. 

That was in 1991, when KK was in power, but power was slipping off his hands as one Federick Shiluba, a onetime union leader turned powerful politician was about to take the reigns of power through a free and fair election. That election is recorded as a game changer in Southern African politics as a liberation party, UNIP was dislodged from power by a new party without blood being shed. But as they say, the more things change the more they remain the same. That is if you asked Zambians as to whether their lot improved after the transfer of power.

It is under these circumstances that that teenager, the one who dressed in women’s clothes and who was popular as a ‘dancer’ in the MacGyver Bar, a man-only bar,  Willbess, disappeared from the police station after his arrest. Official account was that he was subsequently released as the Deputy Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) decided not to prosecute anymore.This is even though rumour was that DPP vowed to personally prosecute the case, and hopefully send out the message to Zambian society that homosexuality was not going to be tolerated in Zambia.

This case however, plunged young and ambitious lawyer, Grace Zulu, who had just graduated from law school at the  University of Zambia into the intricacies of power play, cover up  and the corrupt nature of Zambian politics of the time. She was out to find justice for Willbess personally, but broadly justice for society and the “invisible’ queer community in a hyppocritical society that refused to see them and criminalised love among them through a law inherited from colonialism.

In this book, which is especially notable for the author’s crafty crafiting of its characters that are powerful, Iris Mwanaza’s debut literary endeavour The Lions’ Den is poised to propel her to the forefront of African contemporary literature.

It is a powerful way of looking and zooming in on an issue that today continues to divide several African countries, most of whom are grappling today with the issue of gay people in their midst. This is irrespective of the existence of laws in their books that outlaw such love between people of the same sex. The Lions’ Den therefore it could be argued, is a new kind of fiction to be produced in a country that refuses to acknowledge gay people in their midst, and in fact prosecutes them whenever they are outed.

I met iris this week at Creme Dela Creme, a space which is a favourite of mine when it comes to interviewing artists, having on several ocassions, interviewd South Africa’s leading satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys and South African based and Democratic Republic of Congo visual artist Thonton Kabeya among others there. Iris had just flown in from the US where she is based, to promote The Lions’  Den.

With an unmistakeable American drawl, thanks to many years of living in the US as a Zambian-American- first studying law at Cornell University and international relations at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Iris is also a law graduate from the University of Zambia, where her father was an economics professor, before becoming the university’s Vice Chancellor and mother a university adminstrator  at the same university.

Her day job is that of Deputy Director of Women in Leadership in the Gender Equality Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Besides her law degrees, Iris also holds MA and PHD degrees from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

This novel, the way it has been crafted and the nuanced approach to dealing with the lives of gay people and the complexity of character development, making one either completely love or hate the characters in the book, one would swear that the writer has some sort of training in creative writing. I was especially impressed by the character development in this novel.

For example, you will meet Suzzana from Grace Zulu’s university years, who together with a group of her snobbish rich friends on campus going by the name of Londoners, has an uncomfortable relationship with alcohol. She is a struggling alcoholic who does not care missing studying time in favour of the brown bottle. Her character will probably remind you of people like that during your own university days.

You will meet a generous businessman, Mr. Patel of indian origin who owns the only shop in Grace Zulu’s Village, her benefector who paid her university  fees, a friend of her late father’s but whom Grace’s mother hates so much that she even connived with the local community to burn down his shop. Mr Patel lives a mysterious existence.

No child, no partner and he is definitely gay in a society that does not accept people like him, adding to the community’s suspicion about him. You will meet Father Sebastian who struggles to reason with the curious and slowly faith losing Grace Zulu to explain why the Catholic priest readily accepts Angels and yet does not extend the same acceptance to ancestoral spirits and yet both seem to be the same. You will meet Big Daddy, the larger than life owner of MacGyver Bar who does not shy away from using violence whenever someone crossed his path the wrong way.

You will meet Mrs Mulenga, Willbess’s mother, who runs her household as as a strict matriarch, but struggles accepting that her now disappeared only son is gay. She like several Zambians comes from a strict Christian background where homosexuality is regarded as both a curse and a disease. Her struggle though being that Willbess, her only cross dressing son is her favourite child. You will meet Dennis Banda, DP, the owner of the law fame DB & Associates where Grace Zulu is working, who is supportive of Grace Zulu’s efforts to find justice for the missing Willbess This is despite strong opposition from the fame’s senior associate Avaristo Daka, who constantly threatens to fire Grace Zulu if the case she is pursuing does not turn out well.  Sfatre all-it is a Paro bono case that is not bringing money into the firm. Nevertheless the founder of the law firm is fully behind his young recruit, even from his death bed. Only problem though is that DB’s health is failing as he has full-blown AIDS.

And thereforein Lion’s Den,  you will meeting several other interesting characters in this novel, who you are going to hate very much and yet others love very much. There is no way you are not going to hate the brush, arrogant and pompous Attorney General who belittles, though at his own peril, before the judge, the legally smart young lawyer Grace Zulu.

You are not also not going to empathies with the missing Willbess.  He was caught in a situation in which he has no control, but the powers that be believe strongly that there is no homosexuality to be tolerated in Zambian society, eve though some of them are in fact hidden gays who frequent the MacGyver bar under the cover of darkness. For example the police character of Muntu, oa one time lover of Willbess’ who decides to get married to a woman while hiding his double life. There is more to this character and his connection to power in this novel.

In short, this is a beautiful novel crafted by a gifted writer who has all the chracteristics of being well grounded in the the discipline of creatiive writing, and one would justifiably be excused that Iris has qualifications crative writing and not just law and international relations.

“I actually do not. But the point is as I grew up in Zambia, in an academic environment at the University of Zambia where my parents worked, I had access to books and read all sorts of books. Reading is in fact a form of learning, and I guess that is how I learned creative writing techniques,” she told CITYLIFE/ARTS.

However for me the hero in this book is Grace Zulu, the young lawyer who although eventually the pompus Attorney General in court won habeas corpus petition drawn up by Grace Zulu to try and force the police to either bring Willbess Mulenga to court for trail or his body, the young lawyer went toe to toe with the pompus lawman. the court prsenetation of Zulu in fact threatened to floor the experinced lawyer infront of his colleagues. Iris told me that till this day laws in Zambia illgalise same sex love and in fact some people are in jail for that.

“People in South Africa where same sex marriage is legal, I think take things for granted that the rest of Africa, including Zambia, life for gay people is easy. it is not. For example, last year, I had made arrangements to go back to Lusaka to an event arranged by the biggest book club in the country to launch  The Lions’ Den. I looked forward to the event. But then on the last minute I got a call from the oragniser who said that we should meet for coffee. During that meeting, she dropped the bomb and told me that the event was off. I pushed her for the reason, and she told me that some people, members of the book club feel that this book of yours is controversial,”  Isris said.

Iris went on to contextualise the mindset of Zambians when it comes to homosexuality by telling a chilling story involving a young person who dressed in a dress and went to one of the biggest markets in Lusaka. Big mistake.

“The boy was attakced by a mob. The story that was carried in a newspaper said that he had provoked the people by dressing in a woman’s clothe and strutt his stuff at the market. It was so sad because instead of condeming such behaviour the newspaper instead blamed the victim of violence.” she said.

But how has the book been received in Zambia ever since it was first published in 2024? 

“It is not easy. For example I had to work hard to convince bookshops to have the book,” she said.  And for the first time, the ever smiling and laughing writer took on a serious facial demeanour. “However i am so determined to promote this book in Zambia. After all I am Zambian. And coming from a law background, this issue of crimanalising same sex love is a human rights and social justice issue. It cannot be right.”

With that, that was the end of the interview with the writer of The Lion’s Den. However for those that would like to interact with Iris, this Thursday, March 20, 2025,  the writer will be in conversation with well known actress Chi Mhende at Exclusive Books in Rosebank, where the book will be launched. The event, which is free to attend starts at 6pm.