Emily Mkamanga

Emily Mkamanga (born 1949) is a Malawian writer and social commentator. She is one of the few well-known women writers in Malawi.

Biography

Emily Lilly Mkamanga was born in Chilumba on 27 December 1949.[1] She was educated at Livingstonia, Uliwa, Lilongwe Girls' Secondary School[2] and the University of Malawi, where she studied in the Bunda College of Agriculture[3] and graduated in 1971.[2] After working at Chitedze Agricultural Research Station she was for fifteen years an Agricultural Information Officer at the National Bank.[2] While still there, in 1990 she published The Night Stop, a novel about "the long-suffering wife of a promiscuous lawyer".[4]

Social and political writing

Her retirement from the bank in 1993 coincided with the end of Dr Hastings Banda's 30 years in power. In 2000 her account of those years was published by John Lwanda's publishing firm Dudu Nsomba. Called Suffering in Silence: Malawi women's thirty year dance with Dr Banda, the book has been described as "an analysis of the obsessive psyche of a modern tyrant"[2] and a "polemic" that becomes "a form of prosecution of Banda".[4] The "dance" of the title refers to the women's dancing arranged at political rallies praising Dr Banda.[5] While the dancing had once been associated with female activists it came to be required of all women and controlled through the Malawi Congress Party leadership.[5] Mkamanga says women were coerced and exploited to satisfy the ruling dictator, even though he presented himself as a guardian to women: as a nkhoswe, meaning an authoritative uncle or brother in Malawian matrilineal cultures.[6] Many people in Malawi would describe the dancing as a traditional part of their culture, an idea promoted by Banda,[5] while Mkamanga considers that women in Malawi are generally guided by "patriarchal traditions and cultural norms".[7] In the same year that Suffering in Silence appeared she also co-authored Road to Democracy: role of the media in the 2000 Malawi local government elections: final report.[8]

She is a regular columnist for the Nyasa Times, and also writes political and social opinion pieces elsewhere.[9] She has been called a "social historian"[2] as well as commentator or journalist. In 2013 the president of the Malawi Writers Union described her as one of the only three "known" women writers in the country.[10] (The others were Walije Gondwe and Janet Karim.) She serves on the boards of various institutions including ActionAid in Malawi, the Media Council of Malawi, the Journalists Union of Malawi, Youth and Society, and the Institute for Investigative Journalism.[3]

References
  1. Library of Congress Name Authority File
  2. Adrian A. Roscoe, The Columbia Guide to Central African Literature in English Since 1945, Columbia University Press, 2008 pp161-2
  3. "Youth and Society, Malawi: trustees". Archived from the original on 2016-08-14. Retrieved 2016-07-30.
  4. Fiona Michaela Johnson Chalamanda, 'Interpretations in Transition': Literature and Political Transition in Malawi and South Africa in the 1990s, University of Stirling, 2002
  5. Lisa Gilman, "The Traditionalization of Women's Dancing, Hegemony, and Politics in Malawi." Journal of Folklore Research 41, no. 1 (2004): 33-60
  6. Lisa Gilman, The Dance of Politics: Gender, Performance, and Democratization in Malawi, Temple University Press 2009 pp47-48
  7. Alinane Kamlongera "What Becomes of 'Her'?: A Look at the Malawian Fisi Culture and Its Effects on Young Girls." Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, no. 74 (2007): 81-87
  8. Emily Lilly Mkamanga and Paul Akomenji, Road to Democracy: role of the media in the 2000 Malawi local government elections: final report, pub. Media Council of Malawi, 2000.
  9. The Nation 28 Feb 2016
  10. 'Mawu decries poor women participation', The Nation, 26 Sep 2013
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