Representations of ‘Economic Hit Men’ in selected Malawian poetry

Abstract

Africa’s worsening socio-economic plight has been the subject of extensive scholarly debate. Much of this debate has flourished in the social sciences where it has been pointed out, for example, that Structural  Adjustment Programmes have had negative effects on Africa’s social and political conditions. This paper proceeds from a similar premise. Specifically, it resolves how David Rubadiri, Felix Mnthali and Bright Molande imagine the Bretton Woods Institutions in sub-Saharan Africa and simultaneously negotiate the relationship between ‘the West and the rest of us’ in their poetry. I also argue that a reading of the poems allows for an opening up of a discursive debate on the effects of neoliberal ideologies in the ‘Third World.’

Keywords: Bretton Woods Institutions, poetry, socio-economic plight, Structural Adjustment Programmes, Third World