'You may never have been, may never go, may never even have heard of the
place - but Malawi will repay your attention. It is one of the smallest,
poorest countries in Africa, often overlooked; but its relationship with
us in the West has been extraordinary.'
In a ruined dictator's palace, Alexander Chula - a
classicist-turned-doctor, fresh out of Oxford - stumbles upon an oak
treasure chest. Inside is a priceless, antique edition of Julius
Caesar's Gallic War. This unexpected talisman of Western high culture
belongs to the mercurial Dr Banda, a man of many parts: scholarly
physician, anti-colonial hero, brutal tyrant, and fallen
philosopher-king.
Banda leads the author deep into the heart of this mysterious country,
there to uncover a bizarre meeting of worlds: between one of Africa's
most fascinating indigenous cultures and the best and worst of our own.
Here tribal ritual collides with Greek theatre; masked dancers with
roving classicists; poets and pop stars with missionary-explorers;
hippies and kleptocrats with long-suffering peasants.
The story is enigmatic but exhilarating, by turns edifying and deeply
uncomfortable. But we would do well to examine it: Malawi presents
urgent lessons which resonate piercingly in our vexed age of culture
wars and identity crisis.
