Of Life, Love and Death

Steve Chimombo

Description

Innovative, interesting, out of the ordinary, are accolades used to describe the stories in Of Life, Love and Death. They grew out the turbulent years of Malawi's third republic, through the years beyond to the second and into the third and reflect the times, places, and concerns of the people at all times. Some were molded, if not mutilated, by the oppressive political climate Malawi experienced in the thirty years of Banda's first republic between 1964 and 1994. Some of them could not have been conceived and written during that period without reprisals from the all-powerful Censorship Board, which dictated what could or could not be published. Others were written, but denied publication until the more democratic era after 1994.

Sujets

• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Luviri Press
• Date de parution: 31 décembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789996098239
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Of Life, Love and Death

© Moira Chimombo 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any from or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission from the publishers.

Published by Luviri Press P/Bag 201 Luwinga Mzuzu 2

ISBN 978-99960-66-77-1  eISBN 978-99960-98-23-9

Luviri Reprints no. 13 First published by WASI in 2009

The Luviri Press is represented outside Africa by: African Books Collective Oxford ([e-mail])

www.luviripress.blogspot.com www.africanbookscollective.com

Of Life, Love and Death Collected Short Stories Steve Chimombo Luviri Press Mzuzu 2021

Dedication To my short story writing students down the years. I learned more about the craft in those sessions than I could have learned anywhere else.

By the Same Author Poetry Napolo and Other Poems(WASI) Napolo Poems(Manchichi) Napolo and the Python(Heinemann) Epic of the Forest Creatures(WASI) Breaking the Beadstrings(WASI) Python! Python!(WASI) The Vipya Poem(WASI) Ndakatulo za Napolo(Manchichi) Plays The Rainmaker(Popular Publications) Wachiona Ndani?(Dzuka) Sister! Sister! (WASI) Achiweni Wani? [translation ofWachiona Ndani?] (Manchichi) Novels The Basket Girl(Popular Publications) The Wrath of Napolo(WASI) Folktales Caves of Nazimbuli(Popular Publications and Luviri)) Child of Clay(Popular Publications) Operation Kalulu(Popular Publications and Luviri)) The Bird Boy’s Song(WASI and Luviri) Short Stories Tell me a Story(Dzuka) The Hyena Wears Darkness(WASI and Luviri) Folklore Malawian Oral Literature(Center for Social Research and Luviri) Napolo ku Zomba(Manchichi) Criticism The Culture of Democracy [with Moira Chimombo] (WASI) AIDS Artists and Authors(WASI) General Directory of Malawian Writing(Dept of Arts and Crafts)

Acknowledgements Some of the stories collected here have appeared in local and international publications, as follows. “The Rubbish Dump” has been widely anthologized locally and internationally. Among the anthologies areContemporary African Short Stories(Heinemann),Patterns(Cappelen) and Namaluzi(Dzuka). “Taken” (reprinted here as “Another Writer Taken) appeared inWASIandUnder African Eyes(Farrar Straus and Giroux, Inc.). “A Party for the Dead” appeared inWASIand later inThe Unsung Song (Chancellor College Publications). “Go Back to Your Room” also appeared first inWASI, before being included inLooking for a Rain God and Other Stories from Africa(Macmillan). WASIfirst published the following stories: “MGP505: 10/6/64- 25/6/71,” “Snakes Eat Mice Too,” and “The Blue Room.” “Mangadzi Was Here” appeared inQuest, and “A Visit to Chikanga” inThe Weekend Nation. “The Basket Girl’s Mother” was originally written as a short story, but eventually appeared as a chapter inThe Basket Girl (Popular Publications), a novelette. Similarly, “Burial at Your Own Risk” was integrated intoThe Wrath of Napolo(WASI), a full-fledged novel. “The Widow’s Revenge” and “The Hyena Wears Darkness” were originally written as separate short stories inWASI. They found themselves later inThe Hyena Wears Darkness(WASI), a novelette. The stories were later translated and published in French by Kagni Alem as L’Ombre de la Hyène(Ndze).

6

Table of Contents

 Dedication  Acknowledgment  Introduction 1 The Blue Room 2 Mangadzi Was Here 3The Basket Girl’s Mother 4 The Rubbish Dump 5 Go Back to Your Room 6 Another Day at the Office 7The Spider’s Web 8 Another Writer Taken 9 MGP505: 10/6/64-25/6/71 10 A Visit to Chikanga 11The Widow’s Revenge 12 A Party for the Dead 13 Snakes Eat Mice, Too! 14 Burial at Your Own Risk 15 The Hyena Wears Darkness

7

4 6 8 12 26 36 48 58 70 79 86 97 109 115 130 139 150 173

Original Introduction Some of the stories in this collection were molded, if not mutilated, by the oppressive political climate Malawi experienced in the thirty years of Banda’s first republic between 1964 and 1994. Some of them could not have been conceived and written during that period without reprisals from the all-powerful Censorship Board, which dictated what could or could not be published. Others were written, but denied publication until the more democratic era after 1994. The shape some of these stories took, then, is not only due to aesthetic considerations but also to non-literary impositions, as the remarks below suggest. “Another Writer Taken” is about a writer detained without trial and the persona’s involvement in the event. The story is based on fact and, although the names and places have changed, the original participants have consented to its publication in its present form. The story was suppressed for local and even international publication for obvious reasons. For example, a London editor who knew the prevailing conditions and the main character, regretfully did not dare publish it for fear of what would befall the author. “You must be courageous,” he wrote in his rejection slip, “to want to publish this story.” I was not being brave, I was frustrated. I knew I had a good story that would not see the light of publication unless the political climate changed. The oppressive Banda days not only affected the time and place of publication. They affected the form and content of the stories, too. The fact that Malawian poets adopted cryptic and metaphoric strategies to express themselves has been well-documented elsewhere, by both the writers and their critics. What has not been examined is how even the themes were affected. The worst effect is self-censorship, especially on political themes. “MGP505: 10/6/64-25/6/71”is a case in point. Written in the days of harassment by Youth Leaguers, arbitrary arrests by the Special Branch, detention without trial of even innocuous non- political figures, I had several options. Thus it became the story of a lover

8

 Introduction hounding his rival to prison and forcing him into suicide, the way I had originally heard it from a friend. There was no mention of rival lovers who were party chairmen or cabinet ministers who could fit the role and actually make the story more interesting. Instead, the characters were a harmless returning mine boy and a taxi driver who cooks up the reason for him to be thrown into jail. I didn’t change it after the first régime. “Snakes Eat Mice, Too” took on a symbolic mode. Instead of the artist pitting his pen or wits against the oppressive forces, it was a solitary mice- eater who is thwarted in his pursuits by a snake after the same quarry: the mole. These were still interesting writing experiments, but could have been more widely explored. Or the themes could have had deeper implications. Most people think that the mid-1970s were the peak of Malawi’s oppressive years. However, one could feel the impending doom earlier than this. I left the country in 1970 and returned in 1972. My re-entry was quite traumatic. I could not discuss the political situation openly with anyone. Not that I could even do so before I left. Incidents were reported from the mid-1960s of what happened to “dissidents,” “subversive elements,” or “rebels.” Some were forced into exile, others into inarticulacy. Some of the stories written in the same period had to be onsafeor neutralsubjects. They were openly discussed at the Writers Workshop, Chancellor College, although, even then, writing was an unhealthy occupation. The talent seemed to prove one’s potential for subversion. In any case, “The Rubbish Dump,” the story of a little boy and the garbage collector at the airport was written then. It was non-political and won the first prize in a national short story writing competition. “Another Day at the Office” was also safe, because it concerned the personal suffering of a clerk at home and the work place. Superficially, it had nothing to do with the political realities in the larger world. It was like this to write at the time. The other stories are recent ones, written toward the end of the period: “A Party for the Dead” commemorates those who die by non- political means, i.e. by road accidents and natural causes, as opposed to those who wereaccidentalized(as some term politically instigated

9