ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the constructions of COVID-19 in Malawian and South African poetry. The chapter discusses poems by recent and largely unknown poets from the two countries, focusing on myths, misinformation, and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 to communicate their message. It also examines how the poets interweave psychological distress with precariousness, technological mishaps, and man’s irrational behaviour towards the ecosystem in his writing. It concludes that the authors frame a sense of anxiety that is limited to itself yet hinged on hoping for a better tomorrow in the face of adversity. The chapter demonstrates that COVID conspiracy and an infodemic carry a very complex, frightening, and controversial discourse.
