Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
his creation; a four-bladed windmill. Soon, neighbours were coming to see him to charge their phones on his
windmill. His next windmill was used to pump water.
When news of William's invention spread, people from across the globe offered to help him. Soon he was re-
enrolled in college and travelling to America to visit wind farms.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
charts his in-
credible story. Since his book's success, William has been mentoring kids, teaching them how to create their own
independent electricity sources - which in turn are powering computers in their primary schools.
Literature
Like most countries in Africa, Malawi has a very rich tradition of oral literature. Since in-
dependence, a new school of writers has emerged, although thanks to former president
Hastings Banda's sensitivity to criticism, many were under threat of imprisonment and
lived abroad until the mid-1990s. Oppression, corruption, deceit and the abuse of power
are common themes in their writing.
Poetry is very popular. Steve Chimombo is a leading poet whose collections include
Napolo Poems
. His most highly acclaimed work is a complex poetic drama,
The Rain-
maker
. Jack Mapanje's first poetry collection,
Of Chameleons and Gods,
was published
in 1981. Much of its symbolism was obscure for outsiders, but not for Hastings Banda -
in 1987 Mapanje was arrested and imprisoned without charge; he was eventually released
in 1991.
Most critics agree that Malawi's leading novelist is Legson Kayira, whose semi- autobi-
ographical
I Will Try
and
The Looming Shadow
earned him acclaim in the 1970s. A later
work is
The Detainee
. Another novelist is Sam Mpasu. His
Nobody
'
s Friend
was a com-
ment on the secrecy of Malawian politics - it earned him a 2½-year prison sentence. After
his release he wrote
Prisoner 3/75
and later became minister for education in the new
UDF government.
A more modern success story is Samson Kambalu, whose autobiography
The Jive Talk-
er: or, how to get a British Passport
tells of his transition from schoolboy at the Kamuzu
Academy to conceptual artist in London.
