Literary scholar Asante Mtenje traces the political and the personal as expressed in Malawian popular arts, specifically in the use of a dress called the chitenje. This traditional wrap-around cloth is considered a respectable form of dress that upholds Malawi’s cultural values. Representations of the chitenje in Malawian popular arts, are used as a site for examining how questions of gender, sexuality, class, and national belonging are negotiated. Focusing on representations of chitenje in local newspaper cartoons and popular songs Mtenje proposes a novel and critical method of reading the chitenje as a social text.
