Jack Mapanje

Jack Mapanje (born 1944) is a Malawian writer and poet. He was the former head of English at the University of Malawi, and is currently a senior lecturer in English at Newcastle University.

The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison (1993)
Pretending it has nothing to do with us...
 * The crime is how we deliberately keep out of touch,

How familiar the metaphors, we think, suspecting our House servants of having killed & eaten our pet cats!

At the University, expatriate lecturers gesticulate, Finger the leaves of Marx to a batch of yawning students, Nervously trying to define something or other...

Colonies of storks in flamboyant trees look down on The valley dust and the last of the sweet bananas.
 * "When the Shire Valley Dries Up Patiently"