Nixon Mateulah

Men in dirty overalls are decorating the streets of the city for my visit They are planting rows of white poles on either side of the street At the tips of the poles the […]

It is 10 June 2024, morning. Vice president of Malawi, Dr Saulos Klaus Chilima, kisses his wife and bid his two children goodbye, not knowing that this is the last […]

The village is imperceptibly noisy at nightlike the cry of a drowning boy under waterbubbling up the surface. The nubile village girl’s face is beckoninga neon-like laser –‘come to my […]

It is 5 a.m., my shrieking alarm clock wakes me up. The winter cold stabs my face like a knife as I poke out my head from under the blanket. […]

Life was going well in our family like any other poor household in our township, until one uninvited, cruel guest – death, visited and took away our only breadwinner: my […]

Three poems by Nixon Mateulah appear in Euphoria Poets Anthology: Poetry Collections by Various Poets (Kindle Edition) 1. Time to say goodbye 2. A Country We Lost 3. On the […]

Exorcising Jinn One day your grandpa, Sheikh Malik and I were walking through a neighbourhood in Zomba. We heard a strange screaming of a child, so strange that your grandpa […]

Cry of Reason May 1993 Safia could not stop crying when her mother told her that she must stop going to school and concentrate on learning the Qur’an and getting […]

You have messed up our country,           says a white man. You messed up our country,           says a black man.                                            You are messing up our country now!           says […]

I have just arrived in Malawi from Cape Town. It was such a long three-day, boring journey by bus. My feet are swollen from sitting on an uncomfortable seat and […]

Edited by Gala Morake, Bhasani Mlambo, Phumelele Manitswana First published in 2023 by The UCT Poetry Society © Contributors Logo Design: © Naledi Siluma Editor’s Note “Our lives are marked […]

I have overstayed my visit in this hapless land. I came as a child in an adult body strapped on my shoulders were burdens of my father. * My borrowed […]

We are going to South Africa to look for work. Our country cannot give us work. Our corrupt leaders are digging early graves for the people. People are starving like […]

Sorry that I was rude yesterday. You always say that love that is not shown is very expensive to get than the one you get cheap in public. These days […]

People are chewing the country’s national flag. The rain does not bow onto the land. They have turned water to wine. The sun refuses to rise. They have crucified Thomas […]

A mad man with ragged dreadlocks wearing a dirty white Steve Biko T-shirt, is upsetting the city council’s bin, the innards of bureaucrats puked out onto the pavement. Shaking his […]

Lilongwe, Malawi Being born to parents, who had never been to school; many wonder where I drew my love of books? The only books that I saw while growing up […]

I am in Cape Town now. It is late in the morning. Back in Pretoria, I have heard about the glitz and glittering V & A Waterfront. V & A […]

It is December 1996. I have just arrived in Pretoria from Malawi a few days ago. I have come to this country with one sole mission – to become a […]

The early years in Malawi                                                                            Being born to parents, who had never been to school; many wondered where I drew my love of books. The only books that I saw […]

AS THE SUN was sinking down behind the Mangoshi hills, Mystery Child and his mother were approaching a border post of the Mangoshi Kingdom. There were not many people still […]

One Saturday afternoon after work at around three, my boss and I leave for Muizenberg beach. It is very hot today. We find the beach full: black and white people […]

They’re exercising their duty to hunt down immigrants like game and heartlessly send them back to their broken homes. Just like what apartheid did to the privileged white children – […]