Mzuni, Germany ‘varisty sign MoU on literature
Mzuzu University (Mzuni) and Germany’s University of Justus Liebig have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to foster the development of literature in the two institutions.
Mzuni vice-chancellor Dr Robert Ridley and research associate at Justus Liebig Michael Kretzer signed the memorandum on Thursday in Mzuzu at the end of a three-day conference on Malawian literature organised by Mzuni.
The MoU has plans on joint publications, staff and student exchanges as well as curriculum development.
Kretzer said Justus Liebig will also be a partner in organising the bi-annual conference on Malawian literature.
“This memorandum is very important because both universities will learn a lot from each other,” he said.
Mzuni head of languages and literature department Joshua Kumwenda said the memorandum stems from the success of the first conference the department organised in 2012.
“This conference is becoming popular both locally and internationally; that is why more and more people want to be part of it,” he said.
Mzuni, in partnership with Birkbeck College of the University of London, organises the conference once in every two years. The gathering brings together overseas and local based scholars to discuss Malawian literature.
During this year’s event, scholars shared their diverse views on ‘Orature and its place in Malawian Literature.’
Among other issues discussed, scholars agreed that oral literature is still thriving in the country despite technological advancement.
A young scholar, Nicholas Magaga Msowoya, for instance, argued in his presentation ‘Locating Oral Tradition in the New Media’ that oral literature is making headway in the social networks such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, and others.
He said clips making rounds in the social media, sometimes with anonymous authors, are a form of oral literature. He said the rise of these clips has not negatively impacted on literature but rather that it is a manifestation that oral literature is taking a new shape.
Chancellor College literature lecturer Dr Emmanuel Ngwira agreed with Msowoya in his presentation ‘Contemporary Vernacular Oral Poetry from Malawi: A search for New Metaphors’ that the popularised vernacular poems in the country are genuine pieces of literature which, he said, should not be mistaken as mere comics.
He said these follow principles or characteristics of literature in that they are creatively composed, have themes, use language imaginatively and that they are shared orally, even to the illiterate communities.
At least 20 presentations were made during the conference, and organisers plan to publish some of them in a Journal of Southern African Studies (JSAS).
