Scrubbing the Furious Walls of Mikuyu by Jack Mapanje

"Of all the prison poems I've written I think this is my favourite little one. We were asked to scrub the walls of the prison to clean the place up and we saw on one wall graffiti and several prisoners refused to touch it, to scrub it out, because it was good. It was a rude statement about the country's politics, hence this poem."

Scrubbing The Furious Walk Of Mikuyu

Is this where they dump those rebels,

These haggard cells stinking of bucket

Shit and vomit and the acrid urine of

Yesteryears? Who would have thought I

Would be gazing at these dusty, cobweb

Ceilings of Mikuyu Prison, scrubbing

Briny walls and riddling out impetuous

Scratches of another dung-beetle locked

Up before me here? Violent human palms

Wounded these blood-bloated mosquitoes

And bugs (to survive), leaving these vicious

Red marks. Monstrous flying cockroaches

Crashed here. Up there the cobwebs trapped

Dead bumblebees. Where did black wasps

Get clay to build nests in this corner?

But here, scratches, insolent scratches!

I have marvelled at the rock paintings

Of Mphunzl Hills once but these grooves

And notches on the walls of Mikuyu Prison,

How furious, what barbarous squiggles!

How long did this anger languish without

Charge, without trial, without visit here, and

What justice committed? This is the moment

We dreaded: when we’d all descend into

The pit, alone, without a wife or a child –

Without mother; without paper or pencil

– Without a story (just three Bibles for

Ninety men), without charge without trial;

This is the moment I never needed to see.

Shall I scrub these brave squiggles out

Of human memory then or should I perhaps

Superimpose my own, less caustic; dare I

Overwrite this precious scrawl? Who’d

Have known I’d find another prey without

Charge, without trial (without bitterness)

In these otherwise blank walls of Mikuyu

Prison? No, I will throw my water and mop

Elsewhere. We have liquidated too many

Brave names out of the nation’s memory.

I will not rub out another nor inscribe

My own, more ignoble, to consummate this

Moment of truth I have always feared!

Jack Mapanje

Jack Mapanje is a Malawian poet and currently a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He is the author of 4 collections of poetry, the editor of several more, and the recipient of awards including the Rotterdam Poetry International Award and the African Literature Association (USA) Fonlon-Nichols Award.