Emily Lilly Mkamanga (27 December 1949 – 28 November 2021) was a Malawian writer and social commentator. She was one of the few well-known female writers in
Malawi
Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...
.
Early life
Emily Lilly Mkamanga was born in
Chilumba
Chilumba is a town in Malawi. It is an urban centre in Karonga District.
Location
Chilumba is located along the western shores of Lake Malawi, at the southern end of Karonga District, in the Northern Region, Malawi, Northern Region of Malawi. T ...
, Nyasaland, on 27 December 1949. She was educated at
Livingstonia
Livingstonia or Kondowe is a town located in the Northern Region district of Rumphi in Malawi. It is north of the capital, Lilongwe, and connected by road to Chitimba on the shore Lake Malawi.
History
Livingstonia was founded in 1894 by mis ...
, Uliwa,
Lilongwe
Lilongwe (, , ) is the capital and most populated city of the African country of Malawi. It has a population of 989,318 as of the 2018 Census, up from a population of 674,448 in 2008. In 2020 that figure was 1,122,000. The city is located in th ...
Girls' Secondary SchoolAdrian A. Roscoe, ''The Columbia Guide to Central African Literature in English'' Since 1945, Columbia University Press, 2008 pp161-2 /ref> and the
University of Malawi
The University of Malawi (UNIMA) is a public university established in 1965 and until 4 May 2021, when the university underwent a delinking, was composed of four constituent colleges located in Zomba, Blantyre, and Lilongwe. Of the four colleges, ...
, where she studied in the Bunda College of Agriculture and graduated in 1971.
Career
After working at Chitedze Agricultural Research Station, she spent fifteen years as an Agricultural Information Officer at the National Bank. While still there, in 1990 she published ''The Night Stop'', a novel about "the long-suffering wife of a promiscuous lawyer".Fiona Michaela Johnson Chalamanda, Interpretations in Transition': Literature and Political Transition in Malawi and South Africa in the 1990s'', University of Stirling, 2002 /ref>
Mkamanga's 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
John Lloyd Chipembere Lwanda (born 1949) is a Malawian medical doctor, writer, poet, researcher, publisher, and music producer. and a "
polemic
Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...
" that becomes "a form of prosecution of Banda". The word "dance" in the title refers to the women's dancing arranged at political rallies praising Dr. Banda.Lisa Gilman, "The Traditionalization of Women's Dancing, Hegemony, and Politics in Malawi." ''Journal of Folklore Research'' 41, no. 1 (2004): 33–60 /ref> 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. Mkamanga said 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
Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's Lineage (anthropology), lineage – and which can in ...
cultures. Many people in Malawi would describe the dancing as a traditional part of their culture, an idea promoted by Banda, while Mkamanga considered that women in Malawi are generally guided by "patriarchal traditions and cultural norms". 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''.
Mkamanga was a regular columnist for the ''
Nyasa Times
''Nyasa Times'' is an online newspaper providing Malawi
Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered ...
'', and also wrote political and social opinion pieces elsewhere. She has been called a "social historian" 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, the others were
Walije Gondwe Walije Gondwe (born 1936) is a writer who was the first Malawian woman novelist to have her work published. Most of her books are young adult fiction published in the 1980s and 1990s. She now runs an educational charity, Vinjeru.
Early years
She ...
and Janet Karim.
Mkamanga served 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.
Death
Emily Mkamanga died on 28 November 2021 at the age of 71 in Wezi Medical Centre in Mzuzu.