BECAUSE THE SCENE WON'T BE ACTED,THEN HISTORY MUST BE REPEATED

BY
Dave Mankhokwe Namusanya

DISTANCE is good. Distance is bad. Distance separates. Distance murders, distance kills – ruthlessly for that matter. And James Ngugi, or Ngugi wa Thiong’o as he may want us to claim, knowing the bad nature of distance authored a short story ‘The Return’ in which he laments the death of a romantic affair between Kamau (a boy) and Muthoni (a girl) because of distance.

And the whites, being intelligent like Eneke the bird – who has learnt to fly without perching since men have learnt to shoot without missing – in Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’, devised ways to kill distance. They formulated ways to save the romantic lives of many. Internets, tele and cell phones are just some of the ways of manipulating distance on top of good transport like cars.

And to prove that no matter how cruel distance can be but it can still more be conquered, Mzuzu University Writers’ Forum is embarking on a journey. A long journey out of Mzuzu University, out of Mzuzu city, out of the Northern region – a long journey trekking towards the South, not the South in Ama Atta Aidoo’s ‘Certain Winds From The South’ that appears in the Short Story anthology, ‘Looking for a Rain God’. This is another kind of south, a South explored by Felix Mnthali in his short story ‘Fragments’ that appears in the collection, ‘The Unsung Song’, that was edited by Zondiwe Bruce Mbano, Max J. Iphani and Reuben Makayiko Chirambo.

The savants from Luwinga trek to the South, no! The East, for something. Something important. Something strong. Something beautiful. Something irresistible. Something that is a feast, a literary feast. A feast that will have nothing on its course but literature and writing only – creative writing to be a bit boastful.

They will be in the South – in Zomba – at Chancellor College to be specific, in Room B to be painfully specific on Saturday, the 21st day of the second to last month of the ‘twelve-monthed’ year, November of this year, 2009 Anno Dommini – AD.

If the Catholic University of Malawi Writers had not declared that it was not possible for the Chanco Writers’ Workshop to visit them, then it could have been said that the Mzuni (as Mzuzu University is tenderly called) scribes will be coming two weeks after the Workshop has been in Nguludi but since the CUNIMA Writers’ Grouping has said that it is not possible for them to be visited then no such claim will be uttered…

The then President (or rather Chairperson) of the CUNIMA Writers’ Grouping, Alfred Jabulani, broke the news last Thursday that it was not possible for the literary imbibers of Chirunga to visit them. Reason? The grouping has a new executive and as it is per (their) tradition, a new executive comes together with a new Patron and that makes it impossible for them to be visited since the executive will just be new and as of Thursday last week (the last Thursday of the Month of October 2009), they never had any Patron. Therefore, the much expected scene that was to be acted, the scene that was to start from Zomba to Nguludi will not be acted; perhaps ‘next time’ as they said. Really, there always is next time no matter how long it can take for it to exist.

But for now, the Chancellor College Writers’ enthusiasts must prepare for their colleagues from Mzuni so that what happened last year must be redone. The same last year when Mzuni Writers’ Forum visited Chancellor College Writers’ Workshop on a Saturday, 25th October 2008, the day some Lhomwe grouping was being launched at Chonde in Mulanje district – yes, it was also the same day that some writers, only being separated by distance, were talking writing.

History must really be repeated in Room B with the first session being in the morning and then another session being in the evening after a break in the afternoon. And this year, the feast has to extend to some other quarters – secondary schools based in Zomba and literature gurus based in not only Zomba but the whole Malawi.