The Last of the Sweet Bananas: New & Selected Poems

Because he was a radical poet-his first book of poems was banned-Jack Mapanje was imprisoned without trial or charge by the dictator Hastings Banda of Malawi for nearly four years. The themes of his poetry range from the search for a sense of dignity and integrity under a repressive regime, incarceration, release from prison, exile and return to Africa, and reconciliation with torturers, to the writer in Africa and the continuing African liberation struggle in a hostile world. His poems are lifted up by a generosity of spirit and irrepressible humor that helped sustain him through his prison ordeal.