{"id":19188,"date":"2016-02-20T08:54:37","date_gmt":"2016-02-20T06:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=19188"},"modified":"2016-02-20T08:58:42","modified_gmt":"2016-02-20T06:58:42","slug":"hoffman-aipira-from-non-fiction-to-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2016\/02\/20\/hoffman-aipira-from-non-fiction-to-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Hoffman Aipira: From non-fiction to fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

G<\/strong>ranted. There is always one candle that kindles other candles, each with the same intensity as the first, yet the first retains its originality.<\/p>\n

To poet Hoffman Aipira, that original candle is his father, Cheliza Leonard Aipira who, despite staying in Zimbabwe, still pulled the family strings in Malawi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot deny: The love of words, writing, started way back after my father, Leonard Aipira sent me a dictionary from Zimbabwe. I was in Standard 4 at Mvundula Primary School in Mangochi at the time,\u201d recollects Aipira.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, when I went through the book, I discovered that it had no pictures. I rushed to my mum, Adisi Aipira, and asked her: \u2018What does dad want me to do with a book that has no pictures?\u2019 I then took it to my Primary School teacher, who advised me to take care of the picture-less book, saying it would help build the foundation for my vocabulary later,\u201d says Aipira, who comes from Mvumba Village, Traditional Authority Nankumba, in Mangochi.<\/p>\n

In the world of the children of yester-years, according to Aipira, a book was not judged by its cover alone. Pictures were worth more than the cover.<\/p>\n

\u201cI then developed interest in flipping the pages. I must say that the sound of the clicking pages fascinated me and I am sure that my love for words sprouted from there. Later, I graduated from marveling at the sound of the flipping pages to \u2018building\u2019 my vocabulary. The vocabulary gave me a footing in writing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Aipira adds that, whereas his father inspired him, his mother played the disciplinarian by, among other things, not giving him the leeway to go swimming or fishing\u2014 as is the norm with children born along the lake. Ironically, his mum was self-taught and knew how to read and write,\u201d says Aipira, the last-born in a family of three boys and two girls.<\/p>\n

Unlike other people who find it difficult to cope with life when one of their parents decides to leave their homeland and seek greener pastures in a foreign land, Aipira has kind words for his father, who used to be a city council worker before embarking on a trip to Zimbabwe where he could only communicate with his family back home through the Post Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father went to Zimbabwe in a bid to secure a job and be able to pay school fees for his sons. You see, my father had tailoring and fishing enterprises. He registered little success in tailoring and, as regards fishing, someone stole his fishing gear. He also tried tobacco cultivation, with no success. Thus, angry, he left for Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents had interest in education. In those days, in the 1950s, they sent the first-born in our family to Khola, a boarding school in Ntcheu\u2014away from Mangochi, away from the hustle and bustle of fishing and swimming,\u201d Aipira explains.<\/p>\n

Foray into poetry<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, with the help of the picture-less book, Aipira built the foundation for his writing career and, today, he can proudly look at \u2018Reflections and Sunsets\u2019, a collection of over 50 poems published by Kachere Series, with pride.<\/p>\n

About 500 copies of \u2018Reflections and Sunsets\u2019 were published and, to put an<\/p>\n

icing to the cake, rights of book were sold to the United Kingdom through African Books Collective [ABC] by the publisher.<\/p>\n

\u201cI composed the poems in \u2018Reflections and Sunsets\u2019 collection when I was in the United Kingdom. Some of the poems were even featured in American and Irish literary magazines,\u201d says Aipira.<\/p>\n

One can see traces of his father\u2019s influence in the collection, as evidenced in one of the poems \u2018Dad\u2019.<\/p>\n

Take the hoe my son<\/p>\n

Carefully tie the seed-bag<\/p>\n

At the end of the hole-handle<\/p>\n

At first light<\/p>\n

Before the dew is dry<\/p>\n

Mark a patch of soil<\/p>\n

To carry this seed<\/p>\n

And give life<\/p>\n

Hope.<\/p>\n

The persona in the poem is waxing lyric about agriculture and the emphasis is, clearly, on working. It is common knowledge that if one toils, their life is given the impetus of hope. The one who works neither suffers nor depends on others.<\/p>\n

Maybe Malawi, our dad, can learn from this. For 51 years, Malawi has failed to \u201ctake the hoe\u201d and \u201cMark a patch of soil\u201d, \u201cTo carry this life seed\/And give life\/Hope\u201d. Not surprisingly, donor dependence has become Dad Malawi\u2019s way of post-independence life. Dad Malawi is, therefore, a bad \u2018dad\u2019.<\/p>\n

There are three sections in \u2018Reflections and Sunsets\u2019. The first one, titled \u2018Reflections and Sunsets\u2019 see the personae reflecting on life back home. We can only assume that the persona is Malawian. The section has such poems as \u2018The first rains\u2019, \u2018Dad\u2019, \u2018At Wenela Bus Station\u2019, \u2018Sunset at Lake Malawi\u2019.<\/p>\n

Section two, under the title \u2018Another Winter\u2019, could as well be described as a reflection of new experiences of a persona whose body has been trapped in a foreign land\u2014 on, say, academic, religious, tourism grounds\u2014but the mind is stationed at home.<\/p>\n

The foreign destination must, surely, be Europe, where the shadow of winter defines the sequence of life. Poems such as \u2018Crossing continents\u2019, \u2018Waiting for Pelicans at St James Park\u2019 and \u2018An evening on the city\u2019 offer hints that the setting is another continent and ably support the theme.<\/p>\n

But, then, what goes around comes around. So, section three, titled \u2018Distant drums\u2019 is about anticipation, which defines the mood when time to go back home approaches. So, it is not a surprise that \u2018Two halves\u2019, \u2018Grandfather\u2019s footsteps\u2019, \u2018Telling tales\u2019 are some of the dominant poems in the section.<\/p>\n

The last section, titled \u2018Telling tales\u2019, is a reflection of the African spirit that prioritises story telling. Ironically, instead of telling tales of the personae\u2019s experiences in the foreign land and knowledge acquired abroad\u2014 in much the same way grandmothers gathered their grandchildren around a fire and told stories that had been told, retold, retold, and retold by, and from, one generation to another, before the winds of modernity blew the communal spirit away\u2014 the stories shared are about the native country.<\/p>\n

This is reflected in \u2018Chichiri 3 pm\u2019, \u2018The granaries at Kanengo\u2019, among others.<\/p>\n

Other grounds<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, \u2018Reflections and Sunsets\u2019 is not the only work associated with Aipira. He has also co-edited the anthology \u2018The Time Traveller of Malavi: New Poetry from Malawi\u2019. The anthology, which features creative writers such as Yamaha Ali, Sylvester Chabuka, David Lubadiri, Temwani Mgunda, Zondiwe Mbano, Ken Lipenga, Matilda Kampezeni was co-edited by Malawi Writers Union president, Sambalikagwa Mvona and Hoffman Aipira.<\/p>\n

Aipira continues his journey of reflections in the anthology through such pieces as \u2018Visiting Maone\u2019, \u2018Malawi\u2019, \u2018The delights of Nankumba Peninsula\u2019.<\/p>\n

Says Aipira: \u201cThe poem I love the most in \u2018The Time Traveller of Malavi: New Poetry from Malawi\u2019 is \u2018The delights of Nankumba Peninsula\u2019 because I talk about home, Mangochi.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has also contributed poems to the anthology \u2018Operations and Tears\u2019, edited by Anthony Nazombe. Aipira\u2019s poems include \u2018A letter from home\u2019, \u2018Mix and match\u2019, \u2018Water fall\u2019.<\/p>\n

Family business<\/strong><\/p>\n

But Aipira is not the only writer in the family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe third-born in our family, Okomaatani Steven Aipira, is an established author. He authored \u2018Business Studies for Developing Countries\u2019 which is being used by students. The book was published by Dzuka Publishing Company,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Wokomaatani has also authored \u2018Malawi takes off\u2019, a book published by Kachere Series. The book focuses on the late Bingu wa Mutharika\u2019s first term in office [2004 to 2009].<\/p>\n

That time, Malawians were running high on both hope and economic prospects, as evidenced by the fact that, according to the Economist Magazine, the country registered the second-fastest growing economy in the world after oil-rich Qatar.<\/p>\n

Oases <\/strong><\/p>\n

Zangaphee Chizeze and Edson Mpina may have grown up believing that they were nothing more than human beings. To Aipira, however, they also served as his sources of inspiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I grew up, I looked up to Chizeze and Mpina. In the case of Chizeze, I came across his poem \u2018If ifs were ifs\u2019 while I was at Bunda College of Agriculture and I said: \u2018There is beautiful writing here\u2019. As for Mpina, I was left speechless by his poem \u2018Summer fires of Mulanje Mountain\u2019, which won a BBC award in Commonwealth. It\u2019s a very short poem, but it is well written,\u201d says Aipira.<\/p>\n

Outside Malawi, he is a fan of William Wordsworth and Seamus Heaney, the Irish poet who won the Nobel Prize of Literature.<\/p>\n

Landscaper-cum-author<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aipira, who studies General Agriculture at Bunda College of Agriculture from 1976 to 1979, started off as a humble civil servant when he joined Ministry of Works and Supplies in 1980.<\/p>\n

He was one of the pioneers of the Landscaping section, a development that meant Malawi had joined two other African countries\u2014 South Africa and Kenya\u2014 that had landscaping sections. For this reason, International Federation Architects president, ZVI Miller, visited Malawi in 1982.<\/p>\n

His expertise in landscaping saw him writing for non-fiction magazines.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I did landscaping, I was a member of the Association of Advancement of Science of Malawi [AASOM], whose chairperson was architect Dr Bernard Zingano. AASOM had a magazine and he asked workers, especially new graduates, to contribute articles to the magazine. You can imagine how happy I was to see my article published,\u201d says Aipira.<\/p>\n

In 1985, he got a scholarship to study at the University of Bath in England, where he studied horticulture between 1985 and 1989 and received an award in \u2018Outstanding Performance in Horticulture\u2019 along with a white girl called Alice Forbes. Thereafter, he pursued a post-graduate degree at the University of Iowa, Northern England, United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

While there, he made a u-turn and shifted his interest from Horticulture to urbanisation. He even published the article \u2018Urban farming: Making Africa\u2019s cities sustainable\u2019 in \u2018ECODECISION: Environment and Policy Magazine\u2019 published in Montreal, Canada in 1995.<\/p>\n

He also had his articles featured in the United Nations magazine \u2018Nature and Resources\u2019 Volume 32 Number 2, 1996. The title of his article was \u2018Urban Food Production\u2019 published under UNICEF in Paris, France.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the beginning of my interest in the role of cities. We even coined the term \u2018The bush of the rural areas and the pull of the cities\u2019. The United Nations, through United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) took interest in putting the issue on top of the global agenda,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Aipira also worked on a UNEP report titled \u2018Urban farming in low income cities: Report prepared in connection with the first workshop on urban farming: strategy for food and environmental health in low income cities\u2019. It was published by the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, University of York, in One World Studies, on November 24, 1993.<\/p>\n

He then worked on the report \u2018Urban and Rural Change in the Developing World: procedures of the International Workshop on Urban Farming and Rural Tourism: Priorities for Action in the 21 Century\u2019, which he edited with Noorizan Mohamed and Charles Cockburn.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, at [University of] York, they wanted me to establish a department but I said: \u2018I have to go back home\u2019. I came back home in 2009,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Maybe, as he continues writing, he may become another candle that kindles other candles without losing its vigour\u2014 like his father did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Granted. There is always one candle that kindles other candles, each with the same intensity as the first, yet the first retains its originality. To poet Hoffman Aipira, that original candle is his father, Cheliza Leonard Aipira who, despite staying in Zimbabwe, still pulled the family strings in Malawi. \u201cI cannot deny: The love of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19188"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19194,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19188\/revisions\/19194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}