The poetry of an orphaned nation: newspaper poetry and the death of Nyerere

This article takes as its starting point readership poetry published in newspapers following the death of Julius Nyerere in October 1999, taking these as an incidence in which popular literature can help us to explore political phenomena. Through analysis of these poems it explores the ‘Father of the Nation’, as Nyerere was often known, as both narrative and discoursive. Using this particular manifestation of mourning for his death as a starting point, it explores some of the ways in which the powerful discourse about Nyerere functioned both during his life and immediately after his death. In doing so, it illuminates both the power and salience of the familiar discourse which surrounded him and the extent to which at the same time readers, and the public at large, might chose their own interpretations despite the powerful narrative surrounding him.