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Jack Mapanje: Difference between revisions
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'''Incident(s)''': | '''Incident(s)''': | ||
'''1981''':When [[Of Chameleons and Gods]] was published in 1981 it was neither officially proscribed nor cleared for sale. Thus bookshops were not allowed to display it, but no one could be prosecuted for possessing a copy. In 1985 the Ministry of Education and Culture issued a circular banning its use in schools and colleges. | '''1981''':When [[Of Chameleons and Gods]] was published in 1981 it was neither officially proscribed nor cleared for sale. Thus bookshops were not allowed to display it, but no one could be prosecuted for possessing a copy. In 1985 the Ministry of Education and Culture issued a circular banning its use in schools and colleges. | ||
'''1987''': Jack Mapanje was arrested by police at the Gymkhana Club in Zomba on September 25, 1987. Since then he has been detained without charge--and without any public explanation--at Mikuyu Prison. For the first twenty months of his incarceration, Mapanje was not allowed visits from his family or friends (he is married to a mid-wife, Mercy Mapanje, and they have three children). Nor has he been allowed to see a present--Mapanje is a practicing Roman Catholic. In the absence of any statement from the government the precise reasons for his detention are a matter of speculation, although clearly it was Mapanje's writing which upset the authorities. After his arrest, Mapanje was first taken in handcuffs to the University of Malawi, where he is head of the Department of English Language and Literature. The police searched his office and seized various manuscripts, including poems and the paper delivered at a Conference in Stockholm in 1986, entitled | |||
'''1987''': Jack Mapanje was arrested by police at the Gymkhana Club in Zomba on September 25, 1987. Since then he has been detained without charge--and without any public explanation--at Mikuyu Prison. For the first twenty months of his incarceration, Mapanje was not allowed visits from his family or friends (he is married to a mid-wife, Mercy Mapanje, and they have three children). Nor has he been allowed to see a present--Mapanje is a practicing Roman Catholic. In the absence of any statement from the government the precise reasons for his detention are a matter of speculation, although clearly it was Mapanje's writing which upset the authorities. After his arrest, Mapanje was first taken in handcuffs to the University of Malawi, where he is head of the Department of English Language and Literature. The police searched his office and seized various manuscripts, including poems and the paper delivered at a Conference in Stockholm in 1986, entitled ''Censoring the African Poem: Personal Reflections''. This includes an account of his problems with the Malawi Censorship Board. It is likely that the authorities were also concerned about Mapanje's plans to bring out a second volume of poems, provisionally entitled ''Out of Bounds'', and about an invitation for him to take up the post of writer-in-residence at the University of Zimbabwe. | |||
'''Author's Views on Censorship''':In his 1986 paper Mapanje quotes the polish novelist Tadeusz Konwicki to the effect that censorship "forces the writer to employ metaphors which raise the piece of writing to a higher level." He is amused that the Malawi Censorship board may have actually improved his poems. | '''Author's Views on Censorship''':In his 1986 paper Mapanje quotes the polish novelist Tadeusz Konwicki to the effect that censorship "forces the writer to employ metaphors which raise the piece of writing to a higher level." He is amused that the Malawi Censorship board may have actually improved his poems. | ||
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'''Source:''' Human Rights Watch/Africa Watch, "Where Silence Rules, The Suppression of Dissent in Malawi," October 1990, Pg. 75-79 | '''Source:''' Human Rights Watch/Africa Watch, "Where Silence Rules, The Suppression of Dissent in Malawi," October 1990, Pg. 75-79 | ||
[[Category:20th | [http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/writingprog/archive/writers/mapanjejack/251198/ Recordings of the poet reading his work] | ||
[[Category:1944]] | |||
[[Category:1981]] | |||
[[Category:1987]] | |||
[[Category:1980s]] | |||
[[Category:20th century]] | |||
[[Category:Poets]] | [[Category:Poets]] | ||
[[Category:Africa]] | [[Category:Africa]] | ||
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[[Category:Literature]] | [[Category:Literature]] | ||
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