In a quest aimed at helping budding poets remain in the lane of poetry, veteran poet Benedicto Wokomaatani Malunga has said that there was need to respect and understand Chinyanja poetry on its own terms.
With poets celebrating World Poetry Day last month, the ‘Ndizakutengera Kunyanja Ligineti’ creator, dared poets not to throw the rules to the wind and that innovation must be grounded in deep understanding to avoid distorting what he described as a scared literary heritage.
He said in an era where anyone who strings a few lines together in Chinyanja is called a poet, it is vital to clarify what truly constitutes Chinyanja poetry.
“While Chinyanja poetry shares certain universal traits with poetry across languages—such as rhythm, figurative language, and emotional resonance—it also has unique characteristics rooted in its Bantu linguistic heritage and the cultural, social, and historical contexts of Central and Southern Africa,” Wokomaatani said.
He zeroed in on language and style saying Chinyanja poetry is known for its expressive vocabulary, idiomatic richness, and frequent use of repetition, proverbs, and metaphors that reflect lived experiences and the environment.
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