Congrats Litete, Kapalepale
Jah people, two things occurred in the euphoria of independence celebrations that remind me about deceased author Percy Perry Litete.
First, my friends Luke Tembo and Vhai Kumwenda wedded on Monday. Second, Litete himself got national recognition for Mkwatibwi Wokhumudwa, the book in which drunken Joe Gibson Mandimba disappears and finds himself in Lilongwe just when he is supposed to be wedding his sweetheart Flora several towns away.
Welcome to the world of fiction where midnight scenes come to light with real life drama—and it happened two years ago to a bloke I befriended during my early encounters with the newlyweds.
Congrats to the Tembos for not deserting each other like our Mandimba-like playmate who hogged headlines for imitating the stuff of fiction.
Recognised alongside Kapalepale (real name Smart Likhaya Mbewe), PP Litete was no ordinary author, but an imaginative genius whose works call on artists to keep their style and offerings simple and straightforward.
Apart from Kapalepale who used to sentence the entire nation to 30 minutes of entertaining radio drama every Saturday, some of us learnt to love vernacular books because of Litete and company whose works were being taught in school.
To us, the national recognition symbolises triumph of the unsung sublime souls of old over the overrated half-baked new breed.
Ever since the oldies bowed out, Malawians have been struggling to choose between bulks of overseas books and overpriced local flops graciously marketed by seemingly clueless reviewers.
At worst, the golden generation has left Malawians’ tales at the mercy of Western writers with misconceptions of Africa as the heart of darkness. I have in mind The Boy who Harnessed the Wind, William Kamkwamba’s uplifting and heartwarming autobiography in which Chichewa phrases are grossly misplaced, facts detestably embellished and the situation distorted as co-author Bryan Mealer struggles with grim stories of hunger, disease, poverty and superstition.
The book might have earned the desired endorsement from Western press and leaders, but it reminds us what we have lost by not taking the initiative to tell our stories as did Likhaya, Litete and company.
