Shadreck Chikoti (born 7 October 1979) is a Malawian writer and social activist.
Chikoti writes in both English and Chichewa. His published works include Free Africa Flee! (2001) [1] and Mwana wa Kamuzu (The Son of Kamuzu) (2010). [2] His short story “The Beggar Girl” was included in the anthology Modern Stories from Malawi (2003), edited by Sambalikagwa Mvona. [3] “The Baobab Tree,” for which he won third prize in the 2008 FMB/MAWU Literary Awards, was published in The Bachelor of Chikanda: And Other Stories (2009). [4]
Chikoti has received national and international recognition for his writing. In 2001, he received the Peer Gynt Literary Award for his short story, “The Trap.” [5] In 2011, Chikoti was selected to attend the Caine Prize African Writers’ Workshop in Cameroon, and the story he wrote while there, “Child of a Hyena,” was published in the Caine Prize 2011 anthology, To See the Mountain and other Stories . [6] Chikoti won the 2013 Peer Gynt Literary Award for his science fiction/fantasy novel Azotus the Kingdom, published in Malawi by the Malawi Writers Union in 2015. In 2014, Chikoti was nominated by the Africa39 project as one "of the most promising 39 authors under the age of 40 from Sub-Saharan Africa and the diaspora." [7] An excerpt from Azotus the Kingdom titled “The Occupant” was published in the Africa39 project anthology in October 2014.
Chikoti is also the Director of Pan African Publishers [8] and founder of The Story Club, which gathers writers, critics, and others to share and discuss literature by Malawian writers. [9] The Story Club currently has two branches, one in Lilongwe and the other in Mzuzu.
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 the central region of Malawi, in the district of the same name, near the borders with Mozambique and Zambia, and it is an important economic and transportation hub for central Malawi. It is named after the Lilongwe River.
Hastings Kamuzu Banda was the prime minister and later president of Malawi from 1964 to 1994.
Kasungu is a town in the Kasungu District of the Central Region of Malawi. The population of Kasungu was 58,653 according to the 2018 census. Kasungu is approximately 130 kilometres (81 mi) north-west of the capital of Malawi, Lilongwe, and is 35 kilometres (22 mi) east of Kasungu National Park. The main industry in Kasungu is tobacco-growing.
Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ is a Kenyan American poet, author, and academic. He is associate professor of literatures in English at Cornell University and co-founder of the Safal-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Writing. His father is the author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. His family was deeply impacted by the bloody British suppression of the Mau Mau revolution.
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, the largest is Chancellor College in Zomba. It is part of the Malawian government educational system. The last Vice-Chancellor was Professor John Kalenga Saka. UNIMA celebrated its golden jubilee from the 24 to the 26 September 2015.
Chika Nina Unigwe is a Nigerian-born Igbo author who writes in English and Dutch. In April 2014 she was selected for the Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature. Previously based in Belgium, she now lives in the United States.
Stanley Onjezani Kenani is a Malawian writer of poetry and short stories. He has performed at the Arts Alive Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa, Poetry Africa in Durban, South Africa, Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) in Harare, Zimbabwe, and at the Struga Poetry Evenings in North Macedonia. He has read with several famous African and world poets, including Mahmoud Darwish of Palestine, Natalie Handal of Palestine/USA, Carolyn Forche of USA, Dennis Brutus of South Africa, Keorapetse Kgositsile of South Africa, Shimmer Chinodya of Zimbabwe, Chirikure Chirikure of Zimbabwe, Benedicto Wokomaatani Malunga of Malawi and Alfred Msadala of Malawi among others.
Silver Strikers Football Club is a Malawian professional football club based in Lilongwe, currently playing in the TNM Super League, the top division of Malawian football. The club was founded in 1977 as a social team for Reserve Bank of Malawi staff members. hence the nickname the bankers.
Arthur Peter Mutharika is a Malawian politician and lawyer who was President of Malawi from May 2014 to June 2020. Mutharika has worked in the field of international justice, specialising in international economic law, international law and comparative constitutional law. He informally served as an adviser to his older brother, President Bingu wa Mutharika, on issues of foreign and domestic policy from the onset of his election campaign until the President's death on 5 April 2012.
Steve Bernard Miles Chimombo was a Malawian writer, poet, editor and teacher. He was born in Zomba.
The Malawian Defence Force is the state military organisation responsible for defending Malawi. It originated from elements of the British King's African Rifles, colonial units formed before independence in 1964.
Zukiswa Wanner is a South African journalist, novelist and editor born in Zambia and now based in Kenya. Since 2006, when she published her first book, her novels have been shortlisted for awards including the South African Literary Awards (SALA) and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. In 2015, she won the K Sello Duiker Memorial Literary Award for London Cape Town Joburg (2014). In 2014, Wanner was named on the Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define trends in African literature. In 2020, she was awarded the Goethe Medal alongside Ian McEwan and Elvira Espejo Ayca, making Wanner the first African woman to win the award.
Charles Shemu Joyah is a producer and director from Malawi. He was born in Zimbabwe. His third movie, The Road to Sunrise, was selected as the Malawian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards.
Malawi Airlines is the flag carrier airline of Malawi, based in Lilongwe and with its hub at Lilongwe International Airport. It was established in 2012 after the liquidation of Air Malawi, the former national airline. Ethiopian Airlines operates it under a management contract and owns 49% of the airline after it emerged as the winner following competitive bidding.
Africa39 was a collaborative project initiated by the Hay Festival in partnership with Rainbow Book Club, celebrating Port Harcourt: UNESCO World Book Capital 2014 by identifying 39 of the most promising writers under the age of 40 with the potential and talent to define trends in the development of literature from Africa and the African diaspora. Launched in 2014, Africa39 followed the success of two previous Hay Festival initiatives linked to World Book Capital cities, Bogotá39 (2007) and Beirut39 (2009).
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim is a Nigerian writer and journalist. He was described by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle as a northern Nigerian "literary provocateur" amidst the international acclaim his award-winning novel Season of Crimson Blossoms received in 2016.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Lilongwe, Malawi.
Qabaniso Malewezi, also known as Q, is a Malawian musician and poet. A former producer for the hip-hop band Real Elements, he has since authored several collections of poems including the audio collection People. In 2015 he received an honorary doctorate from Mzuzu University.