ABSTRACT
The Hyena Wears Darkness, published in Zomba, Malawi, in 2006 by Malawian Steve Chimombo's own publishing house, WASI Publications, consists of three stories or chapters — 'The Widow's Liberation', 'The Widow's Revenge' and the title story The Hyena Wears Darkness. They narrate an indigenous woman's experience with cultural practices that may spread the HIV virus, such as kuchotsa fumbi, the ritual deflowering of initiates; kusudzula, the sexual cleansing of the widow; and kulowa kufa, widow inheritance. During the same period of writing and publishing these stories, Chimombo also conducted research on the representation of AIDS in the arts in Malawi. Chimombo's amusement and apparent dissatisfaction with the quality of these 'formula-stories' is based on his understanding of the role of the writer. With his stories, the novelette and his book on AIDS in the arts, Chimombo continues his experiments with a specific topic in different genres, reaching different readers, providing different aspects on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
