BY IDRISS ALI NASSAH
During MCP’s long rule, artists had to be cryptic in delivering messages of dissent; or they would be hunted down to be bludgeoned, arrested and detained without charge. For publishing ‘Of Chameleons and Gods’–a collection of poems–Jack Mapanje spent almost four years at the dreaded Mikuyu Prison. Some were forced into exile while the most unfortunate ones were disappeared and fed to hungry crocodiles for their mischief.
At Chancellor College a story is told of a hockey field that was left desecrated and in disrepair following a week-long congress of the powerful Cecilia Kadzamira’s Chitukuko Cha Amai m’Malawi (CCAM). One clever student then wrote a protest poem ‘Come Come And Mend’ (CCAM) that earned him expulsion from Chanco and exile into Zambia.
But not anymore.
Mlaka Maliro could have gone for broke and he would have been fine: “Iwe Saulosi your antics of lifting of 50kgs of fertilizer and doing push-ups at rallies have brought us zilch”.
And:
“Iwe Lazaro, your nauseating pseudo-American preacher’s accent is as fake as your promises to lead a clean, non-corrupt, non-nepotistic, ‘servant-leadership’ government”.
