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And Crocodiles are Hungry at Night: A Memoir by Jack Mapanje Banbury : Ayebia Clarke Publishing , 2011. Pp. xi + 413. £12·99 (pbk)
Reviews
Jack Mapanje's prison memoir is an important book for those searching for a meaningful understanding of the post-independence past. Whereas in the heady days of democratisation there was a tendency to locate what had gone wrong in Africa in the period from independence to democratisation, there is now often a mood in reverse, where the immediate post-independence period is seen as relatively unproblematic. Yet, that was a time when detention without trial was widespread in Africa, and particularly so in Malawi. Jack Mapanje was detained without trial for three years, seven months, sixteen days, and more than twelve hours. This book is highly evocative of the particular suffering brought by such political detention. In the case of criminal conviction, there is a definite reason to be in jail that may be correct or not. The sensible reaction in the case of detention without trial is not to think about possible reasons for detention as these are not given, but the prisoner is usually racking his or her brain about what may have caused their detention and what they may have done wrong. Jack Mapanje does so throughout this book, giving a harrowing feeling of the uncertainty and insecurity of social contacts in a totalitarian state. Also, when a person is convicted for a criminal offence, every day served in prison is one less, but in the case of political detention each day adds to the prisoner's condemnation. Logically, this leads to endless speculation about possible release, and Jack Mapanje...