The country’s representative at this year’s International Writing Programme (IWP) Fall Residency being held at the University of Iowa in United States of America (USA), Smith Likongwe, on Friday participated in the first panel confab.
The residency started early this month and runs until November this year.
The veteran dramatist and playwright, who is a lecturer at the University of Malawi (Unima) in Zomba, tackled the issue of ‘Storytelling in the Digital Age’.
In his presentation, Likongwe observed that the gradual emergence of digital storytelling is slowly pushing traditional storytelling on the brink of disappearance in certain areas of the world depending on technological advancement.
“It is crucial at this point to first address what is lost when digital storytelling overrides traditional storytelling,” Likongwe said.
In the presentation, Likongwe looks at the advantages and disadvantages of digital and traditional storytelling.
He concluded by saying that whereas traditional storytelling may be limited to localised audiences that are familiar with relevant customs and traditions in stories, digital storytelling “may transcend traditional and indigenous boundaries with relative ease”.
“Writers or storytellers would normally aspire to tell their stories to larger audiences.
“And with digitisation, it is easier to retain certain renditions of stories as opposed to the traditional storytellers whose stories may keep changing direction with the passing of stories from one storyteller to another,” Likongwe said.
He ended it by saying that he believes the writer is challenged more now to be ready for multimedia storytelling beyond the text written.
The other panelists were Chris Tse from New Zealand, Phodiso Modirwa from Botswana and Karoline Karmel from Egypt.
Likongwe, whose publications include Kamuzu Banda and Other Plays (2019), Living Playscripts: A Trilogy (2018) and Prose, Poetry and Drama: A Malawian Anthology (2023), is among 32 selected writers from different countries.
He has made the grade for the 2024 IWC, following in the footsteps of writers such as Shadreck Chikoti (2019), Muthi Nhlema (2021), Wesley Macheso (2023), the late Edison Mpina (1982), Professor Steve Chimombo (1983) and Steve Sharra (1997).
Since 1967, over 1,600 writers from more than 160 countries have been in residence at the University of Iowa.
The United States Department of State is the major source of support for the programme.
