Decoloniality and cultural promotion in selected Malawian plays

Abstract

Various cultural as well as religious beliefs and indigenous performance traditions were condemned as pagan rites and almost forced into extinction through the coming in of Christianity and colonialism in Malawi (Nyasaland). These included spirit mediums that would be invoked upon to intervene in the bringing of rains through performances by designated rainmakers, in addition to transmitting messages received in a state of ecstasis. There was also the invocation of beliefs in other gods and the promotion of the existence of only one God and one medium in the name of Jesus Christ. The condemnation of indigenous cultural and religious beliefs in mainstream dramatic literature has promoted epistemological coloniality in various aspects. The resultant praxis has been the eradication of knowledge systems (epistemicide), as well as the suffocation of indigenous culture (culturecide). The challenge is that generations born after colonialism and Christianity eschew their own cultural beliefs under the guise of modernity. Through critical discourse analysis, this article analyses the attempts of two selected playwrights in decoloniality of knowledge and speaking back for indigenous Malawian cultural and religious beliefs. The critical discourse analysis is done through script analysis of Steve Chimombo’s The Rainmaker and Du Chisiza Jr’s Nyamirandu. A reading of the two scripts surfaces decoloniality and cultural promotion. Through the results of this research, it shall be seen how some plays have engaged with coloniality and fronted indigenous cultural beliefs.