Jack Mapanje

Jack Mapanje (born 25 March 1944) is a Malawian writer and poet. He was the head of English at the Chancellor College, the main campus of the University of Malawi before being imprisoned in 1987 for his collection Of Chameleons and Gods, which indirectly criticized the administration of President Hastings Banda. Mapanje was released in 1991 and emigrated to the UK, where he worked as a teacher.

Background The child of Nyanja and Yao parents, John Alfred Clement ("Jack") Mapanje was born in Kadango Village, Mangochi District, Malawi. He was an active member of the Malawi Writers Group.

He subsequently became head of the Department of Language and Linguistics at the University of Malawi. The book received no official ban, but was "withdrawn from circulation". Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience and campaigned for his release. Mapanje was also awarded the 1990 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award during his imprisonment, which carried a US$3,000 cash award. PEN's president, US novelist Larry McMurtry, stated that "the point [of the award] is to generate enough heat so Mapanje gets out of jail". Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka and UK playwright Ronald Harwood also campaigned for his release.

Mapanje was held for three-and-a-half years before being released in 1991. which was also adapted into a play. The notion is described in his 1981 book, Of Chameleons and Gods.

Works Of Chameleons and Gods, 1981 On the Interpretation of Aspect and Tense in Chiyao, Chicheŵa, and English. University College London Ph.D. thesis, 1983 The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison, 1993 (Editor) Gathering Seaweed: African Prison Writing, Pearson Education, 2002 The Last of the Sweet Bananas: New and Selected Poems, 2004 The Beasts of Nalunga, 2007 And Crocodiles are Hungry at Night – a memoir. Ayebia Clarke Publishing, 2011

Awards 1988: Rotterdam Poetry International Award 1990: PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award 2002: African Literature Association (USA) Fonlon-Nichols Award