Dancing for Our Mother: Performance, Maternalism, and Joyce Banda’s Brief Presidency in Malawi1

Heralded across the world as a victory for women in leadership, Joyce Banda’s presidency (April 2012–May 2013) in Malawi was welcomed with hope and enthusiasm by many in the country and across the world. Replete in the discourse that pervaded the country was the hope that her leadership would be transformative because she would truly attend to the people, as a mother does her children or a woman her community. This essay examines the maternalism of the discourse that pervaded political praise singing and dancing during her presidency in relationship to her actual leadership and to Malawian women’s political and economic empowerment.