The Jive Talker: Or How to Get a British Passport
Samson Kambalu
A uniquely vivid and wickedly funny memoir of growing up ambitious, creative and sometimes hungry in Malawi.
With exuberant prose, a cast of extraordinary characters and a rebellious spirit, Samson Kambalu tells the story of how a little boy obsessed with fashion, football, Nietzsche and Michael Jackson won a free education at the Kamuzu Academy (‘The Eton of Africa’) and began his journey to art school and artistic success.
The son of a philosophising, hard-drinking, poorly paid hospital manager, Kambalu’s award-winning conceptual work is shown in galleries across the world, and still evokes that childhood landscape of literary excitement, family chaos and music; post-colonial injustice, poverty and Aids.
“... insights into the rich mythology that underpins [Kambalu's] work stream out of his cheekily titled memoir The Jive Talker, or How to Get a British Passport.”
Clare Armitstead, Guardian
“An African memoir unlike any other I have read … Filled with wonder, humour and hope. It is a magnificent achievement.”
Aminatta Forna, Sunday Telegraph
“Read Kambalu, cry, clap your hands.”
Iain Finlayson, The Times
