Legson Kayira

Who is Legson Kayira?

Legson Kayira was a Malawian writer best known for the extraordinary true story of his journey from Nyasaland to the United States in pursuit of education, and for the novels and memoir he later wrote about Malawian life. As a teenager in the late 1950s he set out on foot, walking roughly 2,500 kilometers over more than a year through Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia, Tanganyika, Uganda, and toward Sudan, sustained by odd jobs and the hope of reaching Cairo and eventually America. His persistence was rewarded when he secured a scholarship to Skagit Valley College in Washington State, and he went on to study at Cambridge University in England. He recounted the journey in his acclaimed memoir "I Will Try" (1965), and wrote several novels exploring colonial and post-colonial Malawian society, including "The Looming Shadow" and "Jingala." He later lived and worked in Britain until his death in 2012.

Sources: Kayira, Legson, "I Will Try" (1965) · The Guardian, obituary "Legson Kayira" (2012) · Dictionary of African Biography entry on Legson Kayira