Poetry · A way to begin
Of Chameleons and Gods
Jack Mapanje · 1981
Synopsis
Poems written over some ten years and arranged in four parts, including sketches of London and a homecoming entitled “Re-entering Chingwe's Hole”. Under a seemingly harmless conversational tone, nourished by riddles and oral forms, they mock the leaders and those who serve them, and artists reduced to selling their objects to tourists, and return to coded images, such as the dawn and the cockerel which recall the party's flag.
Context
Published in London in 1981 in Heinemann's African Writers Series, the collection was put on sale in Malawi neither banned nor authorised there, so that bookshops could not display it. Reprinted in 1984, it was withdrawn in June 1985 from schools and universities by the Ministry of Education and Culture, which judged it unsuitable. Its author was arrested two years later, with no official explanation given.
Who it is for
Short, allusive poems in English, in which the coded image matters more than the name; knowing Banda's Malawi helps in reading them.
Prizes and reception
While its author was in detention, the collection received the Poetry International prize in Rotterdam.
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