Patrick Achitabwino articles

The life of a girl child in Africa in general and Malawi in particular is always at a crossroad. In as much as she aspires to rise to stardom through education so too is she pulled back by social customs. The society expects her just to get married and give her husband children. In other cultures, she faces the risk of forced marriage and the danger to acquire HIV through dangerous practices like fisi. But who can explain much better those circumstances than the girl child herself. At last, a collection of winning stories from the 2008 Malawian Girls’ Literary Competition tears off the curtain of silence and exposes to the public the dilemma many a girl-child faces.

Winning stories is an anthology that comprises of Chichewa and English award winning stories in the competition that was organised by Malawi Writers Union (MAWU) and Stephanie Bosch. Going through the stories you will notice a common theme: the girl child can rise to any highest peak in the professional world. Much of the stories in the book portray the girl child surviving unpleasant circumstances to become a medical doctor, lawyer, accountant, and community developer.

One noticeable trend in the book is that it brings to light the aspiration of girls in their lives, the social-ills that need to be abolished to necessitate them attain their dreams, the need to wage a fierce war against property grabbing, and more greatly, the need to treat orphans with a human face.

The anthology Winning Stories carries the following beautiful pieces of literature: Pamela Mithi’s Nambewe the heroine, Clara Chikuni’s Ndaziona mwana wamasiye, Tiseke Chilima’s Be careful what you wish for, Nthambi Chikuse’s Zomwe Chisomo adawona, Grace Bandawe’s The rising sun, Khama Khomba’s The song of life, Prisca Ngoma’s The absurd teacher, Linda Mulera’s Mwana wotayidwa mchimbudzi and Yewo Benadette Kajawo’s Peace at last.

These wonderfully crafted stories are more of free lessons. For instance the story Ndaziona mwana wamasiye ends: Kwa olera ana amasiye, ‘mwana wamzako ndi wako yemwe, ukachenjera manja udya naye.’

Male teachers who capitalize on their profession to sexually abuse the girl child will find a rude awakening in Prisca Ngoma’s The absurd teacher. The story can be said to be a girl-child’s fight for respect, dignity and justice. It exposes how a male teacher who is bent at proposing love to school girls can frustrate the education ambitions of a girl who has denied his sexual advances. In this story the girl goes as far as taking the issue to the court of law.

Another exciting perspective that the winning stories expose is that young Malawian ladies have an admirable and immense talent in creative writing. The structure of the stories, styles and angles of writing used, exploration of theme lines, all manifest the literary potential that girls have in the country. Reading the stories, you will certainly be amazed to note that the stories were authored by secondary school students.

Of course one can easily notice that some expressions used in some of the English short stories might have been copied from some great literary works. However, writing being a learning process and these authors being at infant stages in their creative world, they were likely to face the trap of coping some jargons and clichés.

Winning stories is a beautiful feminine voice that can make a good resource for teaching creative writing. It can also be a good reference point at writing workshops. As for males, the anthology opens their eyes to the world of the girl-child – her dreams and aspirations.