A biographical reading of David Rubadiri’s <i>An African Thunderstorm and other Poems</i>

Abstract

Personal experiences of David Rubadiri, as a Malawian born in colonial Africa and rising into literary and academic prominence in its postcolonial state, shaped his literary endeavours. This paper explores how Rubadiri‟s poetry serves as a critique of Africa‟s postcolonial state plunged into disillusionment and hopelessness by its rulers. The paper deploys Biographical Criticism as a guiding theory from which significant contextual background reliance is justified. The analysis dwells on his only poetry collection, An African Thunderstorm and Other Poems (2004) which spans across his writing career and depicts the socio-political malaise plaguing the (post)colony.