The Ivorian writer, Gérard AkéLoba, once stated that Africans laugh when they are happy, angry or unlucky. This hints at the psychological role of laughter in African contexts. This paper focuses specifically on Malawian humour with the aim of appreciating how Malawians portray themselves in everyday contemporary jokes. Our main focus is on what we term contemporary Malawian humour in the digital age, by which we refer to humour such as comic videos and internet memes whose production and circulation has been aided by technology. More specifically, our study draws on humour that Malawians share through social media and other forms of digital circulation. Drawing on insights from debates on Malawian humour initiated by Steve Chimombo and Enoch Timpuza-Mvula as well as on the discourse on humour and self-esteem especially as espoused by Stefan Stieger, Anton Kormann and Christoph Burger, among others, we observe that Malawian humour is often self-directed. While we appreciate that making fun of oneself may be one way of coping with whatever adversaries one is facing, we argue that these self-derogatory comments tend to demean, devalue and underrate anything Malawian. As such, what is perpetuated in the long run is an inferiority complex which reiterates colonial structures of meaning.

中文翻译：

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一个自嘲的国家：数字时代的马拉维幽默

科特迪瓦作家 Gérard AkéLoba 曾经说过，非洲人在高兴、生气或不幸时会笑。这暗示了笑在非洲环境中的心理作用。本文特别关注马拉维幽默，旨在了解马拉维人如何在日常当代笑话中描绘自己。我们的主要重点是我们所说的数字时代当代马拉维幽默，我们指的是幽默，例如漫画视频和互联网模因，它们的制作和流通都得到了技术的帮助。更具体地说，我们的研究利用了马拉维人通过社交媒体和其他形式的数字传播分享的幽默。根据史蒂夫·奇蒙博和伊诺克·廷普扎-姆武拉发起的关于马拉维幽默的辩论以及斯特凡·斯蒂格、安东·科曼和克里斯托夫·伯格等人所支持的关于幽默和自尊的话语的见解，我们观察到马拉维幽默通常是自我指导的。虽然我们理解取笑自己可能是应对自己面临的任何对手的一种方式，但我们认为这些自贬的评论往往会贬低、贬低和低估马拉维的任何东西。因此，从长远来看，持续存在的是一种自卑情结，它重申了殖民意义的结构。虽然我们理解取笑自己可能是应对自己所面临的任何对手的一种方式，但我们认为这些自贬的评论往往会贬低、贬低和低估马拉维的任何东西。因此，从长远来看，持续存在的是一种自卑情结，它重申了殖民意义的结构。虽然我们理解取笑自己可能是应对自己所面临的任何对手的一种方式，但我们认为这些自贬的评论往往会贬低、贬低和低估马拉维的任何东西。因此，从长远来看，持续存在的是一种自卑情结，它重申了殖民意义的结构。