Since 1994, as writers’ critiques have become muted and spasmodic in the ‘multiparty’, musicians have consistently been loud and forceful voices on behalf of the poor. From 1953 to 2006, orature has been a continuous tool of resistance whereas literature has been an intermittent response, often related to patronage, to political and socio-economic events. Further, while literature tends to be concerned predominantly with human rights and democracy issues, orature is concerned with these as well as socio-economic rights; a distinction reflective of class, the rural/urban divide and education in Malawi. The findings are generalisable to other Bantu-language-speaking countries such as Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Mozambique. I posit that assessments of Malawi's current and future socio-economic and political cultures that exclude oral critiques miss significant and critical factors impacting on developmental changes in these spheres. 相似文献