Greetings from Grandpa

By Jack Mapanje

Jack Mapanje was imprisoned without trial or charge by Malawi's dictator Hastings Banda for nearly four years, chronicling his prison experiences with boundless wit in his previous books. In Greetings from Grandpa – his sixth collection – Mapanje is still effervescent, with his wry humour defiantly intact. Some treacherous African tyrants may have been deposed or died horrific deaths, leaving their snoops in exile washing cars to survive – but these are mere metaphors of another life.

The narratives in Greetings from Grandpa are mellow and cheerful testimonies of the sojourn of the human spirit as it survives freedom under implausible circumstances, whether at home or in exile. Grandchildren are born, calming the nerves of exile; dear friends back home die of AIDS, unsettling gentle memories; China and Asia arrive in Africa and nobody raises a finger; greedy bureaucrats syphon billions from accountant general's coffers; but Africa marches on regardless, stubbornly celebrating life, sometimes in traditional symbols; sometimes by inventing delightful beef festivals.

The collection also includes Mapanje's version of Kalikalanje, a well-known legend among the Yao speaking African peoples of Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania, whose trickster hero comes into the world endowed with knowledge of past, present, future times and events. Kalikalanje is a lover of life, freedom, peace, truth, justice, and above all, fun. His enemies try to kill him only to bring destruction on themselves instead. This age-old tale has universal appeal – and is popular with children – but its symbolic, social-cultural-political nuance makes it especially relevant in today's world of persistent liars and impostors.

Jack Mapanje's previous collection, Beasts of Nalunga, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection in 2007. His earlier work – including the prison poems – is available in The Last of the Sweet Bananas: New & Selected Poems (2004).

'Given the regime, Mapanje's satire can seem strangely generous, impressively blending the memory of terror with a sense almost of farce when he considers his captors.' – Sean O'Brien, Sunday Times

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
• Release date: May 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781780373126

Book preview

JACK MAPANJE

GREETINGS FROM GRANDPA

Jack Mapanje was imprisoned without trial or charge by Malawi’s dictator Hastings Banda for nearly four years, chronicling his prison experiences with dogged wit in his previous books. In Greetings from Grandpa – his sixth collection – Mapanje is still effervescent, with his wry humour defiantly intact. Some treacherous African tyrants may have been deposed or died horrific deaths, leaving their snoops in exile washing cars to survive – but these are mere metaphors of another life.

The narratives in Greetings from Grandpa are mellow and cheerful testimonies of the sojourn of the human spirit as it survives freedom under implausible circumstances, whether at home or in exile. Grandchildren are born, calming the nerves of exile; dear friends back home die of AIDS, unsettling gentle memories; China and Asia arrive in Africa and nobody raises a finger; greedy bureaucrats syphon billions from accountant general’s coffers; but Africa marches on regardless, stubbornly celebrating life, sometimes in traditional symbols; sometimes by inventing delightful beef festivals.

The collection also includes Mapanje’s version of Kalikalanje, a well-known legend among the Yao speaking African peoples of Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania, whose trickster hero comes into the world endowed with knowledge of past, present, future times and events. Kalikalanje is a lover of life, freedom, peace, truth, justice, and above all, fun. His enemies try to kill him only to bring destruction on themselves instead. This age-old tale has universal appeal – and is popular with children – but its symbolic, social-cultural-political nuance makes it especially relevant in today’s world of persistent liars and impostors.

JACK MAPANJE

Greetings from Grandpa

To adorable grand children

and their parents for calming

the nerves and fears of exile

Exile is round in shape:

a circle, a ring.

PABLO NERUDA

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Grateful thanks to Alison Rigg, colleagues and students in the Faculty of Arts, York St John University; Julian Forrester and Polly Clark at Cove Park writers’ retreat, Scotland, where ‘Kalikalanje’ was structured; Professor Arua eke Arua, Tiro Sebina, Barolong Seboni, David Kerr and other colleagues and students in the Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, University of Botswana, where the first version of this selection was assembled when I was on sabbatical leave among them; Physics Professor Pearson Luhanga for printing the original drafts of the poems at home without tiring; and to Jack Little in Mexico.

Earlier versions of some of these poems have appeared online, in books, pamphlets, newspapers, poetry magazines including, recently, POEM, Poetry Wales, Modern Poetry in Translation (MPT) in the UK, and others in France, Germany, Mexico, Malawi, Uganda and Botswana; many thanks to the editors who accepted them.

For compiling this final version with a peaceful mind, I gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance of Eileen Gunn and her executive committee at the Royal Literary Fund, London and a grant from Paula Johnson and her committee at the Society of Authors, the Authors’ Foundation and K. Blundell Trust, London. Special hugs to Neil Astley and his diligent team at Bloodaxe Books for the fine production of this definitive edition.

CONTENTS

Title Page

Dedication

Epigraph

Acknowledgements

Imagining Home

Surviving Freedom in Sunderland

Lu’s Home Delivery (Welwyn Garden City)

The Carwash, Clifton Moor, York

Princess Alexandra Smiling (Luxembourg)

Some Anglo-Deutsch-Malawi Wedding!

Watching