Features Africa Scene: Iris Mwanza by Michael Sears

Africa Scene: The Lion’s Den by Iris Mwanza

By Michael Sears

Iris Mwanza is a Zambian-American author and gender equality advocate. Born and raised in Zambia, early exposure to inequality has been a driving force in her life – becoming a lawyer, writing a Ph.D. dissertation on women and children’s rights, a career fighting for gender equality. Her day job is Deputy Director of the Women in Leadership team in the Gender Equality Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and her night job is to write. Her debut novel THE LIONS’ DEN, a thriller with gender equality as its heart, took nine years of nights and weekends to finish. The plot revolves around a gay man arrested and thrown into prison, and a young lawyer set on rescuing him at the cost of her own job and personal interests. Paula Hawkins described it as “A vibrant and pacey legal thriller with a big-hearted heroine you’ll be rooting for from the very first page.”

Iris, would you tell us a bit about your background and how you came to write the THE LIONS’ DEN?

As a student in the late 80s and early 90s, it seemed not only possible but probable that democracy and world peace would prevail over authoritarianism and war. Since then, I’ve had careers in law, global health during the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and now the fight for gender equality. I tried to weave many of these experiences into this story, but mostly I wanted to write a fast-paced thriller that was gripping and exciting to read while tackling issues that I’m deeply passionate about.

Iris Mwanza
© Ball & Albanese

Your protagonist, Grace Zulu, is a remarkable woman. From being a girl in a small village in Zambia with no money and no opportunities, she manages to become a lawyer, get a job, and take on the police and government of Zambia. Her commitment to her first client leads to the driving force of her life. What gave you the inspiration for a legal thriller built around this protagonist?

I have many sources of inspiration, but I’ll share two. First, the women in my family. In my father’s generation only the boys were educated, there were no schools for girls for most of the colonial era. So, my aunts, who were probably more brilliant than the boys, remained in the village as subsistence farmers while the boys all went on to university, with my father getting a PhD in economics from Cornell University. This inequity continues today where boys are given opportunities that girls aren’t. The second source of inspiration is the women I meet in my work on gender equality, the ones born without privilege or advantages but who fight the good fight despite the costs and sacrifices. Grace is this kind of heroine. She can’t not do the right thing.

The novel is set in 1990 on the cusp of the end of Kenneth Kaunda’s rule. What attracted you to write a historical novel?

I’m aging myself but I was a student at the University of Zambia, and it was such an exciting time. There was global and national momentum for pro-democracy movements – the Berlin Wall had come down; Nelson Mandela was finally free. These events gave us hope during a time of economic suffering that combined created the moment of opportunity for change. It’s also important to show that democracy even when hard won doesn’t equal inevitable progress. We are seeing this now with the rise of authoritarianism everywhere, even here in the US.

Iris at Lubuto Library cultivating the next generation of Grace fans.

The role of women in Zambia at the time makes Grace’s achievements even more remarkable. Only her father sees her as possibly having a career, her mother rejects her ambition and wants her to be another wife for the much older village chief. Would this have been a normal expectation in a rural village?

Early marriage is certainly not rare in rural Zambia, but I think it’s important to show how these decisions are driven by poverty and the lack of choices. Grace’s mother is a widow, her other children have died, and she and Grace are literally starving. In her mind, the odds of her daughter succeeding at university are long and will take years, versus the immediate security that will come from marrying the Chief. They will not go hungry ever again. So, while this is the ultimate betrayal of her daughter – and Grace will never forgive her mother – I wanted to explain the context of how it can happen.

Jacaranda trees in full bloom.

Bessy Mulenga is a crucial focus for the novel. As a gay man he is outside the law, denied by his mother, and spurned by the general populace. He’s an unlikely hero. Yet in the end, his fate becomes a rallying point for rejecting authoritarian rule. Did you choose the struggle for the recognition of rights for gay people in Zambia as a major theme for the novel?

Yes. This was intentional and my effort to counter the rise of homophobia and anti-LGBTQ+ laws and sentiment in the political, religious and social spaces across Africa. It was important to build a human rights story that presents Bessy as circumstantially vulnerable but with a strong sense of identity and tremendous courage, and Grace who understands that discrimination in all its forms needs to be eradicated.

Statue outside the High Court of Zambia

While her client’s rights are trampled by the police, Grace fights for her client in court, even in his absence. Could the judiciary be relied upon to be independent and fair?

Part of the story captures the disfunction of the judicial system and how the system fails poor and vulnerable people. This is almost universal and certainly very clear in the US, but in authoritarian regimes, the judiciary is not independent, rather it’s an extension of executive power. Despite this, you do find independent judges who will do the right thing so in the book, there’s tension around who Judge Simbyakulya, the presiding judge, will turn out to be.

THE LIONS’ DEN has a powerful sense of place. Was one of your aims to write a novel that would introduce a wider audience to Zambia and its capital, Lusaka?

Yes and no. I certainly wanted to capture some of the beauty of my hometown. Zambia is in the tropics, so everything grows, and you see bougainvillea, Jacaranda, Flame, Eucalyptus trees everywhere. It’s magical when the trees are in full bloom. But mainly the themes in the book are universal.

Are you working on another book? If so, would you tell us a little about it?

Yes. Two books! A legal thriller set in the US during Black Lives Matter protests, and then a sequel that finds Grace a bit older and a bit wiser, but still hell bent on justice.