Kondwani Kamiyala

I am happy that my short story, Loafing Blues, has just been published in the Crossing Borders Magazine, a virtual magazine bringing together emerging writers from from Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. You can read the story and the others at http://www.crossingborders-africanwriting.org/magazine/issueeleven/ Good reading!!

Short story by Kondwani Kamiyala First Published in The Weekend Nation on May 19, 2007 This earth is like a giant ant eater. We, petty men, are like ants. One by one, we are swallowed by the earth. It is no matter how we are swallowed by this aardvark: we may be rich or poor, great or not but at some point, an accident may lead us into the gut of the earth, if not, a lengthy ailment. Some are born dead, others go ripe with old age. Yet, we all meet that same unavoidable end—a yawning grave. To some, death comes like some form of healing to long incurable diseases, to others it is God’s most awaited call that beckons us to some higher realms to account for our lives. No matter how imminent death may be, no matter how prepared we may be for it, we all fear and tremble at the thought that some day, we will be gone. To look into the eyes of a dying man, no matter how young they may be, causes cold shivers ran down the spine. Such cogitations come to my mind as I hold Ndaziona, my only sist...

Remember that how you (Malawians) conduct yourselves during and after the referendum (on 14 June 1993) is most important, since it will not only show our maturity as a nation, but also determine whether we move forward as a nation or degenerate into chaos. –Dr Kamuzu Banda, first president of Malawi Today is 14th June, Malawi’s Freedom Day. On 14th June, 1992, Malawians lined up, after 31 years of a one party dictatorship, to vote in a referendum. Before them was the chance to vote for either the lighted lamp (a symbol for democracy and multiparty proponents) or the black cockerel (representing the Malawi Congress Party led by Dr Kamuzu Banda, which was fighting for a continued one party rule). In Malawi, and indeed the rest of the African continent, when a kerosene lamp is lighted, cocks go to. So the lamp was lighted and the cock went to sleep for the MCP was defeated in the multiparty elections that were to follow in 1993. Questions about our democracy have been asked. Are we reall...