Random Thoughts on Violence against People with Albinism

It is yet another Friday and once again we get the chance to read the random thoughts shared on this blog. Despite the mixed feedback I got for my political article last week, the DPP Ntcheu rally had me tempted to write something political yet again. I changed my mind when I realized that it is good to focus on positive things and to avoid picking on people. That was a nice show, by the way (this goes to the Blue readers, if there are any around).

This week has been punctuated by a whole lot of stories surrounding the issue of attacks on people living with albinism. Our honorable cabinet minister responsible for curbing this very malpractice went on the podium and suggested that the issue is not as serious as the Association of People with Albinism in Malawi are making it sound. Calling them cry-babies, basically. Then there was this issue of the suspect who was nabbed in connection with the abduction of a child with albinism. Everyone was looking forward to hearing this man crack the whole mystery open with his testimony. He was later found dead in his Police cell. This issue got people travelling back the memory lane to fish out screenshots of online news articles covering this very issue. What did they get? A story of another suspect who allegedly died after committing suicide by jumping out of a moving Police vehicle and more recently another one who committed suicide in Karonga.

I took my own trip down the memory lane. About four or five years ago I found myself watching an episode of Ray Donovan, then one of my favorite TV shows. In it was a conversation between one of the characters and a mentally ill person in which the latter was saying that what was happening in Tanzania with the murdering and abduction of people with albinism in Tanzania was a shame. A couple of years later I found myself travelling for a students conference and having the opportunity to be around a lot of people from different countries, I got overly zealous with marketing my country as a tourist destination. Most of the guys I was talking to had never heard about Malawi before and when I met them after they had looked my country up, they came with questions not about the game parks, the beautiful lake or towering mountains. They came asking about why we hated people with albinism so much so that we were killing them. My tourism stunt had backfired. This was in June 2016 and close to three years down the line we are still crying about the same things of our brothers and sisters with albinism being violently attacked, abducted and killed for some rituals of sorts.

The fact that we have stayed for so long with this issue got me thinking as to what the root cause to the persistence of the problem may be. I was lured into thinking that the problem may be that we do not know much about what is happening but I am somehow beginning to think that we know enough about is happening and that what we know may just be enough to stop if we were decisive enough.  

One can stand on a podium and a keyboard warrior may type on a couple of WhatsApp groups and post a couple of status updates. A prophet may stand on a pulpit and an online news page may post about the abduction and killings of people with albinism. But we know that already. We may make all the noise about how there are big people involved in the syndicate. But we know that already from the complexity of the whole scheme and how people have managed to continue to kill their fellow humans for years without being brought to book. Perhaps the big thing we do not know is who is perpetrating the evil acts and our energy and resources should be focused on finding out the who and the how before anything else.

I am bringing this point of focusing on finding out who is behind the killings and abductions for a number of reasons the first of which is the debate that has ensued between factions with different lines of reasoning. To others, a firing squad or the needle for everyone who is caught in the sage is the answer to all this. I beg to differ. Handing the death penalty to the small fish we catch with human parts in our localities wouldn’t be the solution. The guy you need to find is the one who sends the one who sends these locals, luring them by amounts below 7 figures in Malawi kwacha to take a life. Trust me, putting someone who got convinced by MK800, 000 to abduct someone in front of a firing squad will not solve anything. What will happen is that his master will go on and find another one to replace him. What we need is the information these guys possess and unfortunately it seems suicide or some natural death comes in before we are able to extract the much needed information.

Others have argued that we need to relocate people with albinism to some secure location. The association of people with albinism is proposing that people with albinism seek asylum in some other country because the government has failed to protect them. I somehow find the local relocation argument flawed while I think the asylum idea may not be that practical. I look at the idea of taking someone away from his daily routines and imprisoning them in a place that is supposedly safe as wrong, segregatory and myopic. What about those who are professionals and business persons? How will they sustain themselves? How long do we plan on keeping them in those “safe” locations, anyway? Until a lasting solution is found? When? Perhaps our two prong focus should be on protecting them in our localities while cutting off the head of the snake. Practical? Not too sure.

With elections drawing closer, people have labeled this party or the other as the perpetrator of this evil act with their argument being that people in those parties are doing all this to win the oncoming elections. Others have taken this as an opportunity to score some political points by posing as the sole sympathizers of people with albinism. One leader pointed out that if he was to be the nation’s CEO this whole issue would come to an end within a month. That statement was received with a heavy barrage of criticism (and understandably so) but that was political rhetoric. What disheartens the nation is that the government of the day is not even pretending to be doing something. The minister said what he said and that led to the withdrawal of the representation of people with albinism from the presidential task force on the protection of people with albinism. Moving on, the efforts (if any) will be disjointed. What a missed opportunity. All in all, politicians ought to refrain from riding on our deceased brothers backs to gain some political mileage. This is a national security issue and everyone needs to treat it as such.

There are some who are of the idea that civic education could play a role in educating the masses about how a human part cannot miraculously make you rich overnight. I think that somehow we are way past that and that would just be a misplacement of efforts. Reason? The events surrounding these attacks say it all. These issues started in Tanzania (and Rwanda, I think) before spreading to Malawi. It is an international syndicate and I doubt that the end market for these human parts is in the Warm Heart of Africa. Civic education wouldn’t surmount the people’s hunger for blood money and their superstitious beliefs.

Having outlined all that, I find myself hopeless with little if any solutions to offer. While I feel like it is the responsibility of all to protect our brother s and sisters with albinism, I feel like we are not doing enough and that is not because we do not want to. We just do not have the means. I found myself criticizing people who were posting pictures with messages against the violence but lately I have realized that they were just doing what was within their reach. The effort from our law enforcement and justice system still leaves a lot to be desired and the presidential task force isn’t doing much either. Every passing day we are fed with lots of propaganda but we are left with no answers to the critical question as to who is the man who was able to motivate a health professional and a man of the collar into the human parts business. Until then, I pray for the protection of our brothers and sisters with albinism and for the breakthrough in the case.

Those Papers

It is yet another wonderful Friday and Valentine’s Boxing Day. I am told that this is the day of the MG2 and if your spouse gave excuses for not seeing you yesterday, it probably was because he was with the MG1. You will get your roses and chocolate today but chances are that the relationship will not amount to anything. I just read that somewhere, anyway. Don’t kill the messenger.

The choice of a topic for the day wasn’t as difficult. While I initially thought of writing something to do with the season of love we are going through, the negative response that I got from some readers (mostly ladies) when I asked whether I should write a Valentine’s Day article got my pen shifting to the political scene. On the other hand, there was deafening silence from Richie Online when political activity was the high the presentation of nomination papers for presidential aspirants (and aspirantial presidents).  We are making up for that.

The country’s electoral commission has now released the final list of nine candidates who will be on the ballot come May 21. Worth noting is that our Rastafarian aspirant and the NASAF presidential candidate did not make the cut and the country will have to choose between Abusa, Adadi, Amayi, ukiti ukiti, the professor of hematology and the baby. Completing the matrix of candidates are the likes of Peter DSD Kuwani of the Mbakuwaku Movement for Development, the independent Reverend Hadwick Kaliya and former veep, Dr Cassim Chilumpha.

Rather interestingly, there were 23 people who collected and were supposed to present presidential nomination forms. Out of those, 10 successfully presented and it is out of those that the list of the 9 has been made following the disqualification of the candidate for the National Salvation Front. In line with all the proportions, one would wonder why more than half of the people who collected the nomination forms either did not present the papers or did not make the final cut of the candidates.

Starting with the obvious, some of the candidates who collected the nomination papers ended up being squished into some electoral alliances or endorsing other candidates. That was Hon. Enock Chihana and Honorable Khumbo Kachali who have joined forces with UTM and have endorsed the Malawi Congress party respectively.

The other set of candidates simply just collected the papers and decided not to show up with them when the time they were allocated for presentation came. Rather interestingly, this was a mixture of independents and candidates representing parties. One would wonder as to why they ended up not presenting their papers. I have two possible explanations for this. The first could be that the candidates or their respective parties changed their minds and decided not to give the presidency a shot. The second could be that they felt that they did not satisfy the conditions for the candidacy. These ones had the decency and they voluntarily chose to save the time and resources we were using to follow the proceedings. Kudos.

The main reason I wrote this article, however was that bunch of candidates that came in with their nomination papers having not fulfilled the requirements. I am told that one Miss Florence Fulayi who some mean people decided to call Amayi Maria showed up two or three days after her allocated slot. She  probably did not have the required nominators and I doubt she deposited the fees.

The legendary Smart Swira showed up on time but without a running mate. He was seen trying to call his running mate and upon being asked whether he had fulfilled all the requirements, he told journalists that all they needed to do was wait for the announcement from commissioners. The announcement? He did not pay the fee, had no particulars of his running mate on the forms, was not a registered voter and did not give proof of his Malawian citizenship. The running mate who had been on the road, according to the “aspirantial president” had turned back because her child had gotten injured at school and was being rushed to the hospital. Good motherly instincts, right there. One Damiano Ganiza showed up at Chichiri Convention Center with his Bible and looking like he wanted to preach, according to a good friend of mine. Ha had come on time but from the look of the MEC report, the guy did not submit the papers.

Ras Chikomeni (I know you were waiting for this one). Here is one guy who shook the airwaves when he announced that he was vying for the presidency. The guy could articulate issues and one could clearly see that he understands the laws on which the foundations of this nation are built. He picked his mum for running mate and when the day of presentation of his nomination papers came, he pulled crowds (anthu okonda zinthu a ku Kabula). It was only after the introduction of the running mate and the scrutinization of his papers that it was noted that he did not have adequate nominators and he had not paid the nomination fees. When he was asked by journalists, he clearly said that he did not have the money. He then quickly switched to activist mode and began to school us all on how the electoral processes favor people in political parties who have structures and the rich people who can manage to pay what he described as inhibiting and exorbitant fees. He was described by many as a hero and activist by many, who thought he was fighting for the voiceless. I did not buy into that logic because I thought that was just some misplaced posturing and some publicity stunt. For me, those nominations and fees really are the minimum one should give us as Malawians for them to be given a shot at the post of the country’s CEO. Its unfortunate someone used this whole process as a platform for activism. Koma nzabhobho.

With all the big heavyweights but abusa keeping their running mates under wraps until the presentation of nomination papers, there was a lot of reaction  to the choices that presidential candidates made. JB picked up one Dr Jerry Jana, a career diplomat whose academic and work profile seems to beat them all. The current veep picked up comedy sensation and former ADRA director, Dr Michael Ussi and AAM unveiled  Frank Mwenifumbo as running mate before el presidente dropped a nuke of surprise by picking honorable Overton Chimulirenji to run with him. There was a lot of discussion surrounding the choice of “Manganya” as UTM running mate with some not thinking it was a good decision considering his apolitical background. Others also thought that he was not someone we could put in a post as big as one of being the country’s second in command. Counter arguments flowed in and more than a week later some are still talking about this.

One other interesting pick was honorable Chimulirenji. When the video feed showed him going in with adadi, everyone who was watching on Zodiak was left wondering as to who the guy  was. We later learnt that this was the man of integrity and well educated man that APM had chosen to run with. Haters were soon posting screenshots of 2013 posts from his Facebook wall. Others were all over posting how he was not adequately educated and had difficulties with expressing himself in the Queen’s language. Counter arguments flowed in from the blue camp. A post was released to explain what APM had avoided by choosing the former minister of defense. Flyers of his profile indicating how he studied business management flooded our WhatsApp forums. I would like to believe that APM was objective and that his hand was forced to pick as people stipulate. What I am failing to understand is how a good number of people who supposedly follow politics were unable to recognize a cabinet minister of their own country; one with high chances of being the country’s number 2. Topic for another day.

The picking of running mates whose abilities and identities leave people in awe and the collection and presentation of nomination papers for the presidency without the prescribed requirements has got me asking whether we as a country take the office of the president with the seriousness it deserves. I got picked on when I wrote on Facebook that some of these candidates do not qualify for the post because of their inability to raise the nomination fees. In my line of thought,  while raising and managing such an amount is not a sufficient condition for the presidency, it is a very necessary condition. Others begged to differ, of course. Opinions.

One person proposed that the lack of seriousness demonstrated by aspirants may just be a product of the current leadership; which has made everyone think that they can do better than what we have. I personally think that this is a far-fetched idea, but what if the guy has a point?

We have our nine candidates and their running mates and unfortunately your favorite Rastafarian did not make the list. Whether you will draw him on the ballot paper and vote for him as some have suggested on WhatsApp is a question of another day but what this year has shown us is that there is a need for some serious amendments in our electoral laws.

Reporting live from the Men’s Conference.

Parenting and Childing: a Reflection

It is another wonderful Friday and despite the political noise in this week and day, we have somehow managed to get an apolitical article on the serving. The temptation to write some piece with politics smeared all over it was very strong and the only reason I managed to resist it was that I am trying to be loyal to the readers to whom I promised an article titled “Parenting and Childing”. You might wonder about whether the childing word is part of the formal English vocabulary. Well. It probably wasn’t until now, and in the next few paragraphs you will learn what it is all about, if you haven’t already figured that out.

Let us start from last week’s article. Expectations. After a bulk of you enjoyed that article had enjoyed that article, you joined my grandmother and my uncle in pestering me on the whole issue of when I was going to buy a car and find love. I was under so much pressure but I enjoyed giving crazy responses to the messages that filled my inbox. What many did not know was that it was my way of trying to console myself and forget that her condition was not that good. A few hours after posting the article in which I shared about my conversations with the old woman, I had my last chat with her and about 14 hours after the article one of the nicest people I had known had passed on to the other side. May she rest in eternal peace.

A couple of days after laying her to rest I found myself reflecting on the conversations we had in the last few weeks of her life. I was asking myself why she had kept so much pressure on me, asking me as to why I had been showing up alone to see her on her bedside three times a day, when I should have been coming with my spouse. It is a question that attracted crazy answers aimed at dismissing her but during my reflection and combining the car issue, one thing I realized was that she did not mean to put me under pressure. What she had desired to see, on the other hand was her grandson having the two things that could make him happy; basic material needs and companionship. Thinking about this got me thinking about a conversation which I had had a couple weeks prior with another friend.

In our chat, this new friend and workmate of mine was telling me about how she lost her father to a heart problem. One thing that caught my attention throughout the time I listened to the narrative was her composure throughout the whole conversation. I later learnt that it all came from the fact that she had no regrets because she felt she had spent so much time with her father when she had a chance. While his departure was a bad experience, it was a good thing that she had created good memories while the time was there. I found myself relating with this. While I had been raised by my grandmother for a good chunk of my early years, school and professional training separated us for most of my short adult life. Our re-connection came in towards the end of her life and I find it consoling that I created some memories.

Interestingly enough, the whole situation and reflection got me reflecting about my attitude towards my parents. Let me use the article as a confession box. I am one of those guys who can spend the whole week without talking to my parents and still be okay with it. Well. I was. There are those times that my dad would call and ask me, “muli mtauni momuno, akulu?" after not seeing me for ages when we live in the same city and work in offices separated by a 10 minute drive. To me, as long as my parents are silent, it means they are okay and we don’t need to talk regularly. Does it work? I survive it, but after the recent experience I have learnt that such a thing may end up catching up with me (or them) the wrong way should the unfortunate happen.

While we may all not have biological parents in our lives, we have people who raised us to the level where we are able to read an article on Richie Online (this means munaraiza, if you didn’t know). At some point,  we get educated, get a bit of money, begin paying rent and get to afford a Samsung Galaxy S6. Attaining this financial independence gets us to feel invincible and we begin to feel like that  is our ticket to full independence from guardians and parents. Wrong.

One person once told me of how his pastor (who is a famous preacher man in town) once fell into tears upon hearing words of authority from his mother. At this occasion, he had gone to the mother with the sole purpose of informing the mother that he had decided to marry. In his words, he told his mother that at the point he felt like he had accomplished all he had wanted and had made up his mind about settling with a woman of his choice. The mother in turn wondered about whether he felt so grown so that he was telling it in the informative and not the opinion seeking tone he had always used in their prior interactions.

I would understand you for not relating with the example which some of you may consider extreme. We relate with our parents differently. Some of you can fly to South Africa for a week without telling your guardians while some of us (stubborn as we may be) cannot take a ride beyond Zomba without letting our parents know about it. The point, however, is that the people who raise us still consider us as their children and still expect a certain level of connection and interaction, although they may not say it. It may seem like a useless or boring venture to go on a normal day (that is not Mother’s Day)and just check on parents. Parents repeatedly ask the same questions despite you providing the same answers over and over. They will keep telling you the same stories for the hundredth time, but if not you, who will they empty their chests unto? Avail yourself.

I know there are not that many readers who are parents but my prophecy is that half of my readership will have some offspring of sorts (official or unofficial) in five years time. We (inenso ndikhala mgulu lokhala ndi ana) will have a parental obligation to our children. While we still are a couple of miles from that, we need to know the essential difference between a father and a daddy as well as the difference between a mother and a mummy and if you think it is about the earnings, you are wrong. On the other hand, it is all about how much of yourself (in time and resources) you invest in the upbringing of your children. Your money will not cut it if you do not make yourself available for your child as a father because every child needs to grow with both parents whenever possible. The fact that you held your child within you for 9 months will not count if you avoid her by leaving her to be raised by your parents without your presence whatsoever.  Ndiye kuli enanu amene mukumangofesa ana mmidzimu ndikumangokana mimba. Wrong. The point? We all need to know the implications of parenthood and prepare for it beforehand; before we get into anything that can get us into parenthood that isn’t well prepared for.

As you can observe, most of us are or will soon be at the point where we have parents to look up to and children looking up to us. We will be presented with a situation in which we need to do some parenting to our children and some childing to our parents. Let us not feel too grown for our parents while learning how best to avail ourselves for our children. Kumafika pakhomo kukuwala kuti ana adzitiona nkhope komanso kumakawaona makolowa.

This article would have been incomplete without the interesting example of parent-child relationship that the nation saw a couple of days ago. Ras Chikomeni David Chirwa, a presidential  candidate who had picked his mother Catherine Kayange as his running mate showed up with his mother by the side  to present his nomination papers at the Chichiri Convention Center. In the midst of the proceedings, the Chair of the electoral body announced that the papers had been rejected because the candidate had not paid the prescribed fee. One would wonder as to whether the mother cum running mate knew about the fact that his son had not paid the fee. In the end, a mother supported his son, who had picked his mother as a running mate for the presidential race despite whatever people said (praising her for her abilities along the way). 

May all your parent-child relationships be like Catherine and Chikomeni’s. Its time to child and its time to parent. Have a wonderful weekend.

Ndikulowera ku COMESA koperekeza adadi kukasiya ma papers.

Expectations

It is yet another wonderful Friday and once again we get to be treated with an article. It has been a fair week despite personal issues taking the better part of my happiness but I am grateful for some of the hurdles as they have allowed me to deviate from talking about political press conferences that were filled with obvious and overdue comments, the overfilled list of presidential aspirants, 180 kilometer long bridges in the lower Shire  and the picking of mothers as running mates. As you might have noted from the title, today I am sharing some insights about expectations.

You might be wondering as to why we are reflecting on expectations on a Friday such as this. The drive behind this article has been purely personal and I will share a bit about that.

When I visited my grandmother over the weekend due to the fact that she was not in the best of health conditions, I did not expect much of a personalized chat. However, barely five minutes into the chat she switched the topic from her health to how things are with me. This was done with a rather blunt question; Kodi wagula galimoto? Yeah. You read that right. Grandma asked if I a driving yet and she did it in a rather impatient tone. The question drove me back to the time when she was teaching me how to ride a bicycle. When she had taught me a couple of times and I was confident enough to ride on my own, she told me of how she had done me a favor by teaching me. She went on to tell me that she expected that later in life I would teach her how to drive my car in the same way she taught me how to ride her Humber. Turns out that I owe her a lot.

About an hour after that trip in the memory lane I found myself on a table with my uncle. As we were eating, he threw yet another Joker of a question at me. Kodi apongozi anga ndiakuti? Now, there were a number of things that were (and still are) wrong with this question, which was asking about where my non-existent spouse resides or comes from. The first wrong thing is that the question assumed that there is a lady roaming around bearing the Lady Richie title. Rather related to the first, the second issue was that the question overestimated my ability to have a lady and stay silent about it; without flaunting her to the masses.

The two big questions which were thrown at me in such a short space got me thinking about how much people expect of me. This was also coupled with the fact that the rest of the interactions I had with my family earlier that day had shown that despite the fact that I am still that young and I am not yet bamboo a ujeni my extended family now views me as an adult of sorts who needs to perform in line with certain standards.

Talking of the questions on getting a car and a spouse, this was not the first time that those questions came across. I am constantly battered with a heavy barrage of questions of why I am not yet dating and when I am getting to it. The moment I picked up a job at my current workplace, people started jumping with joy saying that it was time for me to get wheels. My father, who I had a good chat with on Christmas day also reminded me that it was time to start travelling comfortably. At my workplace, a few colleagues have at some point laughed at me owing to the fact that ndimayenda wapansi ngati chiweto mtauni muno. What that tells me is that to many, having a car is one of the minimum things that are expected of me.

In the next couple of days, I found myself reflecting on expectations. Growing up, I have always set goals and expected myself to perform to certain levels in different disciplines. Back in the year 2013, I remember being handed a 22 page planning notebook by one Henry Kachaje so that I could fill in and define what I wanted my life to be like in 10 years time. As it stands, I can with mixed emotions confirm that my life will not be as I wrote it in the planner (which I am sure Henry is keeping in a safe place and ready to give back so that we can feel bad). This is partly because I have chosen to revise the dream and change career direction and partly because I do not think I will be able to realize some of the dreams (honestly I think I am running a bit too late for being married and having two kids like I documented in the planner). I am not too sure of what the conversation with Mr Kachaje will be then but I am sure I will be ready with my explanations and excuses when he comes charging at me to haunt me with the documentation of the dreams of a younger me.

Overwhelmed with these thoughts about expectations, I dragged one of my good friends into my maze by asking her what she thought about expectations. I did this in line with the fact that on top of personal expectations there always are people who expect us to do certain things at certain times. In a few minutes, we were locked in a deep conversation on how expectations matter and how we need to view and value them based on where they are coming from. While I was of the extreme view of paying little attention to the expectations of others and more to your own, el good friend told me that sometimes its good to think about what others who matter think about and expect from you.

The chat on expectations took me on another ride back in the memory lane. I found myself reliving the 2010 moment after I had just gotten my Malawi School Certificate of Education results. Having performed that well, I knew that I had an almost clear path into my dream career of being a computer programmer. Ironically, it was this very moment that led to the death of the dream of being a coder as pressure from family and friends got me heading to the College of Medicine. The reasoning from family was simple. A health related career guaranteed job security and being a doctor higher perks. 

Having graduated from medical school and watched myself and classmates get compensated (instead of being paid) after some back-breaking work and scrambling for jobs, I am not too sure if the future they saw for me tallies with the life I am living now. One thing I am sure about, however, is that they meant well when they pointed down the road when I was opting to stop at the Polytechnic. I cannot complain about the life I live now and I love doing what I do in a bid to put food on the table nowadays, having crafted my own career path away from the mainstream medical practice that is expected of every medical graduate. I shut my ears to everyone who had a million expectations and saw me being either a DHO, senior Ministry of Health Official or some super specialist for the things I do now, and largely it is because I honor my expectations more. 

Having gone through what I have been through over the past week, however, I feel like it is high time I needed to consider how others envision me and adjust wherever necessary. It will be a difficult balance to strike because it may force me to spend my capital with people who are spending their profits but this is one thing we can't run away from, in all honesty. 

There we go. Expectations, whether our own or others are very real. We need to somehow strike the balance between the two in order to live a rational life because not all who expect us to live in a certain way wish us well. You may wonder why I haven’t included the dimension of what we expect from others. Perhaps we could in one line remind one another that it is safe to expect little from others and more from our own selves and if you think I am wrong with this one, check with those who had high hopes from the Vice President’s presser (s).

Happy new month! I hope ma resolutions aja akuyenda bwino. May your expectations be reasonable for the rest of the year.