It is a wonderful Friday and as per the ritual, we are here
on Richie Online. A lot has happened since the last article and that has led me
to the writing of this not so personal article. Let’s get on with it.
Malawi turned 55 on the 6th of July, this year.
That was a day after I had dropped the article on getting married, sentiment of
which many of my single friends echoed (y’all people will die alone opanda
okulirani). As usual, there was some sort of stadium event where there were parades,
dances, prayers and a bit of sports. I have never been a big fan of that event
taking into account the partisan tinge that coats the celebrations. Despite not
following, I have an idea of how it might have gone. I might get back to that
if my mind doesn’t wander off midway through the article but I would like to
get to the part of the celebrations which I missed.
For the past couple of years, Blantyre City Council has been
mounting some fireworks on the Independence Arch in a bid to celebrate
independence. Here is the idea (and I wonder what was going through the mind of
the guy who conceived it). Block off the highway, set up a stage, hire a
thousand cops, get food and drinks and let people dance, drink and eat on the
highway until midnight. At midnight, blow up some fireworks, dance and drink a
little more and then go home. It might sound pointless for some, but it is
actually fun for people who love things like me. This year, of course, we could
not do it as the event was cancelled due to security threats. Of course it made
sense to not continue with celebrations when people had been demonstrating in a
not so peaceful manner. Wina akanakabako ma speaker a Jai Banda.
Pictures from the Kamuzu stadium where the Independence Day
events were held showed people clad in party colors. For some reason that does
not irritate me anymore because I think that is what we have been doing since
we got independent, if at all we are. There were no foreign leaders making some
sarcastic people beg the question as to why the only other president that was
present was the FA’s Walter Nyamilandu. That was not important but perhaps what
was more important is the fact the big man’s speech did not sound that palatable
to some people who thought he shouldn’t have been that provocative to the
people who are questioning the legitimacy of his presidency. Later in the
afternoon, el presidente’s two favorite teams (to whom he promised stadiums
during campaign time) squared it off on the pitch.
While the demonstrations that disturbed our firework display
and derailed the president’s speech were against the leader of the electoral
body, this week saw us witness the opposite. In what most of us could not
imagine, the commercial capital witnessed an all-woman, pro-Jane Ansah march.
Going a few days back, there was a presser called for by some forum of
concerned women (probably set up for the purpose of the demonstrations). Their
message? Calling on men to stop abusing the good woman called Jane Ansah. The gender
card was played and to spice things up, some of the concerned women even went
on national television.
A few days from the presser we saw the peaceful demonstrations
come to reality. By the time people were getting into offices, pictures of
women being arriving from different places in trucks were already circulating
and in no time each one of those was on the street clad in a while “I am Jane
Ansah” t shirt. We were later greeted with reports that the women had been taken
from various districts across the Lhomwe belt, being told that they were going
to receive maize. Upon arrival, they were given t-shirts and placards, and then
ushered into the roads to protest in support for Dr Jane Ansah, a person a good
number of them did not know. To add to that, the social media got awash with
video clips of women that had attended the presser receiving money afterwards.
Wrong? Nope. Probably a transport refund. Eyebrow-raising, though. What left
many of us wondering was the question as to whether the gender card was relevant
in this whole thing and whether telling a woman who thought Jane Ansah is the “wife
to Bingu” didn’t amount to exploitation.
Let’s switch gears and talk about something I saw in the papers
today. You probably saw this on the social media or something and in case you
haven’t guessed it already, I am talking about the apology by the Ministry of
Agriculture. The ministry in question is apologizing to the citizenry for poor
procurement processes and poor disposal of tractors. Check this out. The government gets a loan in
the hundreds of millions of kwacha and buys tractors to benefit local farmers.
Genius, right? Yes. Save that the tractors did not reach the intended targets
but ended up being bought at less than a fifth of the price by top goons in the
gaffment. Meanwhile you and I and our children will have to service this loan
for years and all we will get for the incompetence and mismanagement is an apology.
Closer to India where we got the loan is a country called to China where a
mayor of one city was sentenced to death because of corruption which I would
believe was of a lesser magnitude than the stupidity we are seeing here. One
PLO Lumumba whose speeches I like to listen to once said that we cannot talk
about corruption in Africa because there is nothing intelligent about the
stealing and looting of public resources that happens in this part of the
globe. This is one typical case, and we will happily crown this scandal as
tractorgate. Zausatana, zauchisilu, zopanda ntchito but unlike what Bingu said,
izizi tisadzisiye. These are the issues to demonstrate for, and not some
deluded causes. If only we had common sense at 55 as Malawians!
So here we are. Demonstrations, looting and exploitation. At
the end of the day there will be little, if anything that will be done and we
will continue to live as if nothing has happened. If we happen to go to the
streets and submit a petition, it will be sat on and nothing will happen which
begs the question as to whether peaceful demonstrations yield anything in
Malawi. Before you stone me for inciting violence, I should make it a point
here that I also do not believe a in violent demonstrations. All I feel is that
Malawi is just one country where things work in a very unnatural order that is
beyond the comprehension of the many of us. Somehow we just do not want to do
things the right way. We write a proposal for funding for a project and when
the MK7 million comes, we embezzle it. We get a loan from some foreign
government for development and it ends up in the pocket of leaders who end up
walking free even after their reigns have come to an end. No wonder some guys
don’t give back ti ma 4 pin tikumabwerekana mmakwalalamu (instead of kubweza
amadzapempha ina).
I will not go into the details of the arrests of the civil society leaders who should be having a moral high ground and I will not talk about the deaths of the people that were involved in the elections. Malawi Queens not getting enough funding? Nah. I will not get into that either. Perhaps the front pages will come up with something a bit more positive. In the meantime, we could perhaps find some place where people are playing stringed instruments and join in the listening (perhaps recreational fluid) as we await for the courts and possibly more demos.
One English teacher of mine once told the class that common
sense is not common. Perhaps it is such a rare thing in Malawi that we do not
have it from top down. Mwinatu. The doctor side of me wishes we had supplements
for common sense. Perhaps only then could we fortify our salt in the same way
we do with iodine. Or perhaps we could have introduced it as part of our
vaccinations and continued supplementing till adulthood. Penapake umunthu udzitisutsa. Too much anger in this, but come on. We can do better.
Have a nice weekend, all.
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