234. Smouldering Charcoal by Tiyambe Zeleza

Smouldering Charcoal (Heinemann, 1992; 183) by Tiyambe Zeleza belongs to the immediate post-colonial African literature, which includes such texts as Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful Ones are not Yet Born, and Ngugi wa Thiong'o's A Grain of Wheat. More specifically, it belongs to those collection of works which exposes the disillusionment of independence and questions the integrity and vision of the post-independence leaders, usually the first presidents, who became harsh, corrupt, and more cruel.

However, published in the early 1990s, when the equalisation of the genders had become the song and aim of government policies and therefore major themes of every work, the novel could equally be pushed into the social commentary sub-category of African literature aimed at instigating a social change. Consequently, Smouldering Charcoal is a socio-political novel. But its deficiency is the subliminal and sometimes conspicuous social commentaries it makes. In a word, it is misandrist and functions perfectly within that set template that has made a lot of novels 'successful' in recent times. That template which makes the men in novels inhuman, flat, non-emotive (or specifically exuding only negative emotions), and above all beastly. This mis-characterisation of men has taken roots in African literature and has come to define it. Any novel that lacks it is considered 'not African enough'. This is pernicious message need to be examined. Its consequence will be felt some years from now. For today, one can only ask questions. For example, assuming that the roles were turned and all these mis-characterisations were of the women, how would the book and its author had been received? Definitely, the book will be blacklisted for its misogynistic tone; its sexist writer would not get any publishing contract, even from male publishers again. What therefore makes it necessary, imperative, even germane to lampoon one sex but highly unethical, and career suicide to to do same to the other? These are necessary questions that need to be asked. Suddenly, novels have become NGOish in their content, following the popularity trail.

Smouldering Charcoal tells the story of Chola and his girlfriend Catherine and Mchere and his wife Nambe. These two belong to different social strata: Mchere and Nambe are lower class (dirt poor) and Chola and Catherine middle class. The unnamed country they lived in is ruled by an unnamed dictator simply referred to as The Great Leader. He is wicked and does nothing for the people. He praises himself for unimportant projects, which the The Party members consider development. The Great Leader is surrounded by bootlickers and grovellers working tirelessly to outdo each other in their praises to him, leading to outrageous behaviours. Meanwhile, the country is draped in dilapidation, misuse and abuse and one meets poverty at every turn of a bend. In the midst of all this, the people always told there is development - they are developing. Chola, a been-to (some one who has travelled abroad before), works as a journalist. He is frustrated with a system that interprets rot as development and does nothing to uplift the people from their deteriorating predicament. This frustration finds themselves infused into his daily reports to the annoyance of his Editor. Together with Catherine, Chola represents the new and educated young men and women who are not ready to tolerate an impotent system. They demand real change, real development and are ready to overthrow everything, including archaic traditions, to achieve this. Nevertheless, Chola is a pacifist and a Marxist. Catherine, however, is in her final year at the university. She is intelligent and do not give a hoot about certain traditional practices. The two have plans to marry after she completes her studies.

Mchere and Nambe on the other hand live on the outskirt of town, 8 miles from the capital, in ramshackle wooden structure that leaks during rainfall. They are the lowest of the lower class and has nothing to offer. Nambe is not employed; Mchere works at a bakery. They have five children, the eldest Ntolo is eight, and Nambe is pregnant again. Mchere's weekly salary cannot even buy two loaves of bread. He owes his landlord several weeks of rent. Furthermore, he has brought grandmother to live with them; the old woman is usually reticent. At the bakery, a strike is being organised to insist on salary increases and improved working conditions. The leaders of the bakery are not ready to give in and had asked the workers to work whilst they negotiate. The leaders of the strike, knowing that this is a ploy to get them to work, insisted on going on the strike until their grievances are addressed.

Chola chanced on this impending strike and decided to investigate and report on it as it unfolds and use it as the basis for his book. Chola's coverage of the event will bring the two - Mchere and Chola - together and the meeting will change both of them in ways they never expected. They will go on to meet at the hospital and in prison.

The major problem with this is its misandrist tone. There was not a single dialogue between and among women where men were never insulted. They were all liars, wicked, womanisers, or other equally negative associations. There was a man who was cheating on his wife. One day the girlfriend and the wife arranged for the wife to take the place of the girlfriend and meet the man at their usual place, which happens to be a church. Now when the man came to meet the 'girlfriend', he said nothing - no greeting, no preliminaries, no conversation. He moved straight to sex. It was after the sex, in the darkness of the church, that the man began praising the 'girlfriend' of her beauty; the 'girlfriend' then asked why he does not say such nice things to her at home. The man realising that it was his wife ran and left her. How much more unemotional, unfeeling and beastly could a man be not to even greet a person he was meeting for a rendezvous? That his mind was  so hooked on the sex that he neglected the social chit-chat is highly impossible.

When Nambe's son Ntolo was stung by bees and fell from a tree, when they went into the forest (against their mother's advice) to pluck mangoes, Nambe had gone to see the priest to help her transport his son to the hospital for medical attention; but the Priest refused claiming that he had a scheduled meeting and proposed to pray for Ntolo. From there Nambe went to see the Party Chairman (the two are the only ones with non-public transport in the entire Njala community, and public transport was not working at the time). However, the Party Chairman was not different from the Priest; he also refused to help claiming that his car was filled with fish.

However, it was Mchere who epitomises all that was wrong with the men in the book. He was dirt poor, could not pay his rent, owed his friends, could not provide for his family but found ways to be a drunkard, a smoker and a womaniser. He goes to a bar to drink, is informed that there is a problem at his home, yet he still finds time to have sex with his bar girl. After, he quickly rushes home and suddenly descends on his wife for no apparent reason. He beats his pregnant wife mercilessly before he asks what the problem is only to be told what has happened to Ntolo. How suddenly, Mchere is stupendously transformed. He carries Ntolo at his back and journeys the 8 miles, through the rains, to the hospital, where he stays in a queue for almost two days.

When Mchere's wife, at the early stages of their marriage, started producing local gin for sale, (and here too she was approached by the Party Chairman and other male party members who wanted to sleep with her before allowing her to sell that gin) he would always drink more than his fair share of the gin distributing some to his friends and topping the bottles up with water until Nambe's business collapsed when customers complained that her gin is not 'hot'. When Mchere was questioned, he claimed that as the head of the family he can do what he want. Could there be anyone more moronic than Mchere?

There was not a single emotive, thinking male character. Even the educated Chola, who knew all the books and was all modern was not left out. When his friend, Dambo, was murdered Chola discovered that he could be next and so planned on going into exile. He suggested to Catherine that they go together; but when Catherine asked if she should quit her education and join him, Chola suddenly exploded into a never-seen-before anger with bloodshot eyes sending Catherine into shock. In fact, Chola's lovemaking to Catherine was even questioned, that it lacked some passion. Later it was their houseboy, whom they have taken in as family and had overpaid who betrayed them to the authorities.

Bota, the leader of the strike at the bakery, was so dumb and stupid that he could think of no other alternative to his plan, even though he knew well that they were living in a dictatorial regime where the Great Leader does not countenance such 'wayward' behaviours. This lack of alternative plan would later send them to prison. In prison, Chola would be tortured by prison wardens and he would later be killed by Bonzo, a convicted murderer. In prison, the strikers lost their unity and great animosity fell amongst them. Two groups emerged, those who joined the Movement (a reactionary group that Chola became its leader in prison though he was not a member when he was outside) and those who did not.

The lecturers were not left out. First, her lecturer maltreated her when she 'over answered' the question in her assignment. Later this same lecturer would attempt raping her when on the pretext that he wants to support save her from dismissal, the university's punitive measure meted out to spouses of a political convict.

Even Nambe's children were not left out. They did nothing at home and could insult their mother at will. They refused to be sent, did what they wanted and fought at random. When Nambe was ostracised from Njala, she had had moved with Mchere's grandmother to their village, where she was was raped by Mchere's cousin, Gwapa, whom she later burnt, with four others, to death. In short almost all the male characters, both minor and major, were like these.

Apart from these, there were several structural inadequacies in the novel. For instance:

1. The author rushed to complete the novel. Thus, the arc is steep towards the end. Sentences became packed with events that the reader virtually had to gallop along, especially after Mchere was released after a year in prison. This also created a fairy tale ending where a certain manuscript (which turned out to be the story) was discovered; Catherine married Ndatero, a lecturer-convict who happened to be part of the political prisoners who were released after their mistreatment was published in international newspapers. Ndatero was Catherine lecturer before he was jailed and he met Chola in jail. Because of the rush, Nambe's escape into exile, whilst pregnant, occurred in a single sentence, though from all likelihood the conditions of the time would not have made this escape smooth;
2. There were certain missing messages of information. For instance, when Nambe went to the Priest's house, there was no mention of her taking an umbrella or borrowing one (which would have more likely been the case), but suddenly when she left the Party Chairman's house, the reader finds her holding one against the rains;
3. There were also certain inconsistencies. When Mchere was recollecting certain incidences in his childhood, he said he was not sure if the policeman (askari) had a gun; however, several sentences later he described how his father was hit with the butt of a gun. One would have thought that the presence of a sure statement will render the unsure statement void;
4. Mchere was nothing more than a dullard (or that's what the reader is made to believe); he relished his father's strength and boldness but was himself timid and afraid of participating or not participating in the strike. It was only in prison that he metamorphosed into a hardened member of the Movement, contributing actively to the writing of the letter whose publication in international newspapers led to their release;
5. Chola was never a member of the Movement; he never joined until he was put into prison. Thus, it was surprising that he suddenly got to understand and appreciate the vision of the Movement to the extent that he recruited some prisoners into it and formed units (or cells) within each cell;
6. We are told that Mchere left school at Standard Five but was the one who led the writing of that long letter that detailed how they were being treated and whose publication led to their release;
7. Chola belonged to the middle class, worked as a journalist, though not as an editor. However, Chola could afford an apartment, a servant and a car. This is not a characteristic of a rundown country as was described in the novel.
8. Working as a journalist Chola was suppose to report on issues, but chose to fill his reports with his personal beliefs; however, unless one is doing an opinion piece, which is entirely different, a journalistic report should capture the essence of what is being reported and not the journalist's expectations or beliefs.

There were other issues as well:

Nambe was dirt poor but his husband's cousin Biti, a seamstress, was so much burdened with job that her male competitors were envious (again, see how the males behaved?). So - and the two were friends to the extent that Biti sometimes give them food - why did it not occur to Nambe that helping Biti would make her earn some money, if she was really bothered about their poverty? Couldn't Mchere have asked for the direction to the wards or the OPD when he got to the hospital, instead of carrying his son on his back and going round in circles at the mortuary? Why would a prison warden torture an inmate for choosing not to eat when the prison guards themselves had not enough to eat and were usually bribed with food?

There was also a question of development. Chola did not understand why a country which could not manufacture a hoe would establish a car assembly plant or open a brewery and call it development. This is somewhat baffling. Should a country go back to produce the minutest of things before it moves up the chain? Besides, which of the two will create more employment? Perhaps the issue is that assembling cars for a people who can't afford does not make sense and that hoes would better serve the peasantry. Even if this is the aim, assembling of cars and exporting it within the sub-region will produce enough resources to spur on development and engender the manufacturing of hoes through its positive externalities. 

These issues could result from my own parochial reading and my stand on this male-bashing literature. Regardless of these, Zeleza's description of the rot in the city and in Njala especially was detailed and imagistic. He also unsheathed Mchere's poverty one skin at a time. It was like lighting a dark hall one candle at a time until the two hundredth candle is lit. Though this novel did not work for me, you could equally read it to find out for yourself.

177. SHORT STORY: Love on Trial by S. O. Kenani

Love on Trial is the last of the Caine Prize Short I am reviewing. The story was published in the For Honour and other stories anthology by the author. Love on Trial extracts from a real incident that took place in Malawi. It is about the arrest and sentencing of two Malawian homosexuals to fourteen years in prison; an incident that got the whole world shouting and cutting aid to the country which led to their pardon. 

In this story, Charles is a third year law school at the university. He has been stumbled upon by the village drunk, Mr Kanchingwe, when he was having an affair with his lover in a school lavatory. Charles was seen and had to face the villagers whilst his lover bolted not to be seen or heard of in the story again. Mr Kanchigwe has become something of a cult-hero for having stumbled upon the two and so, for a tot of the local gin, Kanchigwe will give some details of what he saw. For, the details more tots have to be provided for him and his growing crowd of friends. The author explored society's reactions to what is normally described as 'evil' and 'foreign'. Charles hardly had any sympathisers as most saw his actions as ungodly, though none question the numerous corruption, bestiality - as someone was quoted to have slept with a goat - and other evils that go on in the country.

In an interview with the MBC, the nation's broadcasting corporation, Charles was outspoken and argued with the host, showing maturity in thought and in observation. It was there that he refuted the argument that he had become homosexual because he had at a point in his life come into contact with a westerner; to him, he was born with it and that was his natural orientation. Whereas the host quoted the bible to speak against him, Charles also quoted the story of David and Jonathan to support his sexual orientation. He gained some support after this interview, though his enemies were immeasurable. This argument sought of put the writer  on a higher pedestal, pointing accusing fingers at everybody, telling them they are hypocrites and that they either be with the accused or suffer, which was the direct import of the fable at the end of the story. The argument in the dialogue between Khama, the interviewer, and Charles was dogmatic and trite. It was ineffective in carrying out what it was meant to do and will do more harm than good. For instance, in presuming that everybody in the society was evil, he implicitly quoted  evil to support his quest making it seem, in the text, as if homosexuality is evil. A quick glance at the characters showed how Kenani put them below Charles: the villagers were in torn shorts, the adults were mostly drunkards, the pastors were sleeping with their flock, some of the villagers were sleeping with animals, etc.

Whereas a story like this plagues most countries on the continent and therefore unique with few authors like Tendai Huchu writing about homosexuality in his novel The Hairdresser of Harare, Kenani's prose is too journalistic and jarred at certain points. The author depended too much on the real story instead of using it as a canvass to paint his, taking away the plot and tension that could have been part of such a story. For instance, what happens if the main character isn't a Law student and therefore capable of quoting and refuting? What happens if he is an illiterate in the village? Again, we are told that Charles, the most brilliant student in his class - have been approached by several female lovers - an issue that usually comes up in such discussions; but including the daughter of the President? I think stretching and overstretching sometimes make stories difficult to take in. During Charles's interview he relied mostly upon the text-book western-natural dichotomous argument that plagues any discussion of homosexuality.

So great was the effect of what happened on the story that the author went further to describe breakdown in the economy due to aid-cut and how the country struggled and almost became bankrupt due to the sentencing of Charles. In fact, Kenani suddenly made Kanchigwe got infected with HIV so that the cut in aid (in cash and in kind) meant no provision of retro-viral drugs and hence a decline in his health and possible death. This part of the story was not necessary as part of Love on Trial. For instance, donors can threaten to cut aid on any issue not only on a breach of human rights. They could and have chosen to do so even if governments refuse to do something of great importance to their countries that is against the interest of the donors. As much as every individual's right has to be respected, so must countries be left to decide on whatever they want to do and not be coerced by aid-cuts. This threat of aid-cut has cajoled countries on the continent to act in line with donor-countries' prescriptions.

Following the death of Bingu wa Mutharika and the assumption of power by his vice Joyce Banda, the rights of gays and lesbians - in general LGBTs- has been almost granted as she has pledged to repeal the law and donor aid has started to flow. The issue is, would Banda surrender to donors on every issue when aid is threatened? And would Kenani write in support of a threat of aid-cut by a foreign government that wants to purchase a mining-company the country owns, assuming Malawi has one?

The story itself, not the theme, is plain and had it not being a short story would have been boring to read. It was predictable at several places; for instance, I predicted and was shocked though when Kanchigwe became a victim of a story he helped popularised. That should this be chosen as an exemplar writing - prose-wise - of African writing? No. It is what others have referred to as polemic and this does not necessarily make it a stellar prose. Though I wish it doesn't win to avoid other writers thinking that writing on mere polemics translates into stellar writing, Kenani has written a story on a theme that few has written about but which everything points to its eventual crowding. Kenani as a writer seems - as two (those I've read) out of many (those he has possibly written) is not enough grounds to make a sure judgement - to hover around stories of love as shown in his story Happy Ending which was included in the Caine Prize Anthology A Life in Full and other stories.
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About the author: Read about the author here. Read the story here. For a deeper analyses of this story visit here. The author share most of my views.

150. SHORT STORY MONDAY: Happy Ending by Stanley Onjezani Kenani

After finding a love letter in his wife's handwriting with no name or address, Dama concluded that his wife of infidelity. He therefore sought the help of a spiritualist to deal with this offending man. The spiritualist, Simbazako, older than anyone in the village, listened to Dama's concerns and told him he had no problem. Simbazako is famous for the things he could do, though some were mere exaggerations. Before he proceeded he offered Dama the options available for him to make his choice.

There was one in which the man could die as if stung by a puff adder a few hours after the act. There was another in which the lover could be tortured slowly, feeling like a million needles were pricking his stomach. There was another in which the lover could go on for a month, every second, every minute, until death put the victim out of his misery. Dama, however, had decided not to be so cruel, so he'd settled for kuthamokondwa. The man should die in the act, he thought. [125]

Back home and Dama was still in between thoughts: should he or should he not. The spiritualist had told him that he could the food, after he had mixed it with the herbs he has provided, with her wife and nothing will happen to him but for his wife the moment he takes in the food, the medicine will starts its work. What he should realise was that if his wife doesn't cheat on him in a year he would be the one to die.

Now playing with the medicine it inadvertently fell from his hands into the food. So he removed it and stirred it. Dama had remained chaste and is afraid of any notion of sex outside marriage because of what happened to his father, which later shame the whole family. His father, a shameless womaniser who would follow anything female, was the first person in the whole of Malawi to be diagnosed of AIDS. After his and her wife's death, Dama became the item of gossips and a laughing stock to the people. People point hands at him as if he was the father and had committed the crime.

After the death of his parents, the young Dama was left to cater for his younger brother Abisalomu. To help him do all these, he married Tithelepo. But with time the two found that children will not be forthcoming and so adopted his brother as his son. But then the village folks began to gossip.

One day, coming from his daily rounds, Dama heard his wife shouting from behind the news. Rushing to the scene he found his brother, Abisalomu, dead.  Tithelepo ran away and Dama ran to the old Simbazako only to discover his decomposing body in his hut. Later Tithelepo will come back to her husband but between them lay an uneasy coldness. Dama had overheard a conversation between his wife and her friend as to how she forced Abisalomu to do what he did, that he was doing it to bring happiness to Dama. That month she got pregnant.

The first part of the short story was brilliantly told. But the denouement or the revelation in this case is artificial and too forced. The dialogue itself was constructed as if it were meant for Dama to hear and be convinced. Again, and this is personal, was this a happy ending because the woman became pregnant and the family had the child they had always wanted? Or was it a happy ending because the woman got the child that would erase the 'shame' of childlessness, even if in this case was the man's problem. Because sleeping with a man's brother is no justification for infidelity unless it has been agreed between the two. But then this is one of those moral issues whose answer is subjective.

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About the author: Stanley Onjezani Kenani is a Malawian writer and poet. As a poet, Kenani has performed at the Arts Alive Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa, Poetry Africa in Durban, South Africa, Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA), Zimbabwe, and at the Struga Poetry Evenings in Macedonia. Kenani has won several awards in his country for his short story writing. In 2007, his short story, For Honour, won the third prize in an HSBC/SA PEN Competition. The same short story was shortlisted for the Caine Prize in 2008 and appeared in the anthology African Pens: New Writing from Southern Africa 2007 (Source). Read more about the author here.

60. The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison by Jack Mapanje, A Review

Title: The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison

Author: Jack Mapanje

Genre: Poetry

Publishers: Heinemann (African Writers Series)

Pages: 99

Year of First Publication: 1993

Country: Malawi

For the Africa Reading Challenge

Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison is a collection of forty-five poems grouped under four sections: ANOTHER FOOLS' DAY HOMES IN; OUT OF BOUNDS; CHATTERING WAGTAILS; and THE RELEASE AND OTHER CURIOUS SIGHTS. Together these interwoven poems tell the story of what got the poet arrested, his time in prison and his time out of prison. Jack Mapanje was arrested and detained in Mikuyu Maximum Detention Center for three and half years without charge. This arrest came on the back of the reprinting of his first collection of poems Of Chameleons and Gods.

Right from the beginning, in the Prologue, darkness forebodes as 

Laughters and ceaseless tears shed/In the Chaos of invented autocracies//Now darkly out of bounds beyond [...] (Page 1)

The first set of poems is proved a little difficult to penetrate but reading it twice helped; and we realise that Mapanje not only reports of the corruption of the day but also judges our understanding of life and our appreciation of it. For in Haggling Old Woman at Balaka, Jack - a keen observer - was shocked to see women trading exchanging the best of what they have for the worst the world has to offer. He writes 

You sell chicken eggs for cokes and fantas/To suckle your babies, then you ask me/Why your babies are rickets and ribs? (Page 9)

Yet, we know that Jack could possibly not be referring to the old women but to the country's politburo, who are eagerly exchanging the resources of the country (chicken eggs) for postiches that would eventually cause the nation and its people to suffer (rickets and protruding ribs). And on the pretext of national development they build

Brick houses on old women's dying energies (Page 9)

It is these keen observations and metaphorical writings that caused dissatisfaction among the government, for Jack seems to speak his mind, as any excellent poet would, without fear. In For Another Village Politburo Projected, Jack addresses politicians who sit on committees, stand on daises to bamboozle the populace. He writes:

Hyenas with the gilt of our skulls behind will/Tumble in chicken bones fattened by the meager/Women of this village (Page 11)

He also shows how the people have become unwilling participants, accepting their incapability of making progress and the general lack of vision as the norm: 

We will all tune in to these levities, some/Plodding on to the dais, others shrugging without bitterness (Page 11)

Everything seemed doomed forever

Unless some soldier-bee cracks in on us one day! (Page 11)

 Jack Mapanje's pen does not, however, spare the docile masses who have been cowed into submission and those who are genuflecting or salaaming before the rulers; he abhors those who keep the pain on the periphery of their senses, lest they be hurt. According to him

The crime is how we deliberately keep out of touch,/Pretending it has nothing to do with us, we've bee/Through it all. (When the Shire Valley Dries Up Patiently, Page 14)

And the punished are not always the hoi polloi but includes party people who try to remain credible; who choose truth ahead of lies. Vigil for a Fellow Credulous Captive describes such an incident. This piece marks the general observations of Jack Mapanje and the section on Another Fools' Day Homes In.

In Out of Bounds, Jack writes on issues that he definitely knows would bring him trouble. Here Jack further denudes the problems facing the society; showing them as they are. So that after the husbands have been sent to the mines,

... the wives survive by their wits & sweats:/Shoving dead cassava stalks into rocks, catching/Fish in tired chitenje cloths with kids, picking Baobab fruit & whoring... (Baobab Fruit Picking (or Development in Monkey Bay))

a word (whoring) Jack uses several times to indicate the extent of the suffering. This word, when used in a country where the mere discussion of sexual issues is nearly a taboo, is worth noting. This piece together with the one the follows it Moving into Monkey Bay (Balamanja North), also address governments sale of national property to enrich the politicians.

While writing on thievery with capitalism facade, Jack also decries the negatives that have pervaded society under the flag of civilisation. In doing so, he compares the man who deems himself civilised with the animal. According to him whereas the former changes, putting on the clothes of negativity, the latter remain true to its nature. This and more is the theme of The Farm that Gobbles the Land at Home, which was written after Kofi Awoonor's The Sea eats the Land at Home. In this piece we read how everyone is taking advantage of the other; how locally-made composts are banned so that farmers would be forced to rely on foreign fertilizers that channels all their earnings into another's pocket; how peasant farmers are swallowed up by commercial farmers with the latter becoming wage earners on the plantations or sharecroppers - all these under the guise of capitalism. They could be metaphors for the government but I prefer to see it as a competitive market economy with government interference and heavy individuals with ulterior motives - a system where rent-seeking activities are the norm.

One farmer gathers smaller farmers into WETs/ (Wage-Earning-Tenants) offering them thirty coins/ Per day, stopping their mixed planting: cheap/ Original ashes or compost manures are banned/ (To maximise profits) and fertilizers (only farms/ Can afford) imposed. (Page 26)

In spite of all these, when the old people keep to their tradition; to doing what they know how to do best, they are deemed witches (Burning witches for Rain (The Dark Case)).

The last entry in this section - the poem that gave the section its subtitle - Out of Bounds (or Our Maternity Asylum) is about an overcrowded maternity ward with broken and missing facilities and poorly paid staffs. The imagery in this piece is haunting. Again, in this piece Jack bemoans the masses too eager to please the political elite by altering reality; so that they would prefer to borrow or hire out beds when the president comes visiting than to let him see the realities of the situation.

Sixty inmates of spasming women top & tail/ On thirty beds; ninety others with infants/ /Scramble over the cracked cold cement floor - /A family under each bed, most in between

Chattering Wagtails, which marks the third section, basically deals with the treatment the poet went through during incarceration. The poet talks about how they were made to strip naked like ordinary criminals in The Streak-Tease at Mikuyu Prison, 25 1987. He also talks about the fear a prisoner has for his family from colleagues and neighbours who would begin to treat them as a contagion. The most hurtful treatment are those who pretended to love the prisoner while he was with them and because of the fear that the government would associate them with the prisoner they cut all ties with his family. This was the theme in Fears from Mikuyu Cells for Our Loves. In The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison, Jack Mapanje bemoans what has become his fate; he narrates how the prison came to be built, describing the manner of people who came who came to head them and his associations with the wagtails, whose shits he had to clean daily. He as well bemoans how the real criminals are released the very day they are arrested while they - who want to fight for the common good of the country - are arrested and put into bars for years. It was clear that there were a lot of political prisoners in Mikuyu Prison, who would later be all released.

However, Jack was to be released when fellow writers and activists pressured the Malawian government to the extent that on his day of release he was asked who he is. The Release: Who Are You, Imbongi? is the first poem of the final section The Release And Other Curious Sightings. What would a poet do if he is afraid to write what he sees? So Jack continued to write, to question.

Straggling shackscape a chaperon and/ A boy defiantly declare their UNHCR/ Wares beside the highway: tins of butter/ /From European Community mountains,/ Paraffin glass lanterns from Mozambique/ And gallons of American cooking oil/ /(Bantering for the much needed dry fish/ The donors overlooked). (The Straggling Mudhuts of Kirk Range Page 76).

Jack also writes on women whose husbands have gone to fight for a freedom they would not enjoy from; or who have gone to the mines to keep their homes running but may not return to fulfill their dreams or to see them fulfilled. The poet frequently counts himself as part of the victims or the victimised. Aside whoring, another word the author kept referring to was accidentalized, defined by the author as "to kill and pretend it was an accident when everybody knows it was not" (Page 24). It was first used in Smiller's Bar Revisited (1983) in the first section and last used in The Deluge after our Gweru Prison Dreams, the last poem in this anthology. In the latter use, as in the first, it is the seekers of truth who were accidentalized, indicating that nothing has changed.

This is a great collection of poetry; I believe many lovers of the genre would enjoy reading this as most of the poems are not so difficult. The collection reads like a circle, with no beginning or an ending. For the things that took the poet to prison are the things he wrote about in the last section; hence had he not left the country, he would possibly have either been arrested or accidentalized like his other colleagues.

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Jack Mapanje

Brief Bio: Malawian poet Jack Mapanje taught in Malawi Secondary Schools before he joined the Department at Chancellor College, University of Malawi, in 1975, first as a lecturer, then as Head of Department of English. He has a BA and Diploma in Education from the University of Malawi, an M.Phil in English and Education from The Institute of Education London, and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from University of College London in 1983. His first collection of poems, Of Chameleons and Gods, was published in the UK in 1981 and withdraw from bookshops, libraries and all institutions of learning in Malawi in June 1985. He was imprisoned without trial or charge by the Malawian government in 1987, and although many writers, linguists and human rights activists including Harold Pinter and Wole Soyinka, Susan Sontag, Noam Chomsky and others campaigned for his release, he was not freed until 1991. The poems in The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison (1983) were composed while he was imprisoned, as well as most of his third collection of poetry, Skipping without Ropes (1998).

Jack Mapanje lives in York, and is currently teaching Creative Writing and Literature of Incarceration in the School of English, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. His book, The Last of the Sweet Bananas: New and Selected Poems was published in 2004, and his latest poetry collection is Beasts of Nalunga (2007). (Source)

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