Call to arm agains despicable laws

THIS book is set in the early 1990s just towards the end of the rule of K.K – Kenneth Kaunda in Zambia. Though, it is a court-room fiction, The Lions’ Den is a call to arm against the despicable laws governing human conduct in many African societies.

- DON MAKÁTILE

It is a book about homosexuality – an act criminalised in close to 33 out of 55 countries on the African continent.

A trained lawyer, the author Iris Mwanza could easily have been autobiographical in this acerbic novel. Her debut novel, Elspeth Molzi, Grace Zulu, is a newly graduated law student who lands a Pro-Bono case in her first work assignment. Her client, Williess Mulenga is charged with homosexualise, cited as a crime “against nature” and a harsh week in this homophobic society. This is virtually a death sentence for, indeed, Bessy, disappears through the system and is eventually found in the hospital morgue.