Unleashing the Mind: William Kamkwamba, Malawian Genius, and the New Media

His is the most inspirational story I have read this year. In 2002 William Kamkwamba was unable to continue with his secondary school education, as his parents couldn’t afford the school fees. This was just after two terms in Form 1 (high school freshman), and he was 14 years old. But his desire to keep reading and learning led him into a library at a nearby primary school in the central region district of Kasungu, and to a book on how to make electricity. He went ahead and made a windmill just following the instructions in the book. The school library was donated as part of the Malawi Teacher Training Activity (MTTA), a USAID teacher development project that started in September 2004, and has involved teachers in four districts in Malawi, namely Kasungu, Machinga, Mzimba South, and Phalombe. MTTA involves partners who include the American Institutes of Research (AIR), Miske Witt & Associates (MWAI), and the Malawi Institute of Education (MIE).

I show later in this posting that Kamkwamba’s story holds an important lesson for Malawi and other countries about educational beliefs and practices, and their potential to either facilitate or kill emergent talent and creativity. In addition to William's story, I use two more examples to make the above point. I write about Andrews Nchessie, a primary school teacher also in Kasungu who is now a teacher educator, and whose own unique story shares similarly fascinating parallels with William. I also write about Nolence Mwangwego, a Malawian teacher of the French language who invented a writing script. I finish with two Malawian farmers who have made significant contributions to agricultural practices in Malawi by inventing new ways of irrigating farms: one is Friday Nikoloma of Thyolo, and the other is Dr. Chinkuntha of Dowa.

When the MTTA deputy chief of party, Dr. Hartford Mchazime heard of William’s windmill and its origins in the library donated by MTTA, he went to visit William. He brought with him journalists, and a story that appeared in the Daily Times was picked up by bloggers including Soyapi Mumba (http://soyapi.blogspot.com/) and Mike McKay (http://www.vdomck.org/). Early this month the program director of the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) annual conference, Emeka Okafor, himself a prominent blogger who saw William’s story on the above Malawian blogs, invited Kamkwamba to attend and talk at TEDGlobal, one of the world's largest technology conferences, held this year June 4-7 in Arusha, Tanzania.

Kamkwamba’s life has not been the same since. The 2007 TEDGlobal conference was also attended by the likes of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Larry Page (the guy who gave us Google), Phillipe Starck, Bono, and on previous occasions, Bill Clinton, and many other famous Who are Whos in the world. Two weeks ago he touched a computer for the first time in his life, opened an email account, and last week he started his own blog. Comments and congratulations are coming in from around the world, and in the words of one of the organizers at TED, there is a “firestorm” of interest brewing for Kamkwamba.

Not long ago stories like these used to appear once in a generation, but are now becoming more believable, thanks to the power of 21^st century innovations and technologies. The theme of the African renaissance, expressed in the phrase Afrika Aphukira, gets full expression in young people such as William and Andrews, Nolence Mwangwego, and in farmers such as Nikoloma and Chinkuntha, in Malawi, Africa, and around the world.

There is one major coincidence in Kamkwamba’s and Nchessie’s stories that I can’t resist writing about. Some time in the mid-1990s The Nation, the second of Malawi’s daily newspapers, published on its front page the story of a primary school teacher in Kasungu (same district where Kamkwamba hails from) who had invented an early flood warning system. Being in the 1990s, there were no blogs at the time, and in Malawi the Internet was non-existent. Thus the story did not go as far as Kamkwamba’s has. That teacher was Andrews Nchessie, who became my best friend when I transferred to Police Secondary School in 1988, from Nankhunda Seminary where I had been expelled for not seeming to possess the priestly vocation.

Andrews Nchessie did not stop at the early flood warning system. He went on to introduce fish farming, wind vanes, and other scientific experiments with his primary school pupils at Kasungu Demonstration Primary School, on the campus of Kasungu Teachers’ College where he trained as a teacher. He even organized Open Days at the school, inviting members of the public, including journalists, to come and see what pupils at the school were doing. One time his class experimented with goat urine as a cure for an outbreak of scabies at the school, in a science unit that involved lab technicians at the Kasungu District Hospital. This news also made the front page of The Nation.

A scientist and curriculum specialist at MIE, the late Harold Gonthi, visited Nchessie at his school, and soon started inviting him to national research conferences for educational researchers in Malawi. Soon those invitations extended to international conferences in the region and beyond, and led to an international award for his innovative teaching. He visited universities and other educational institutions in Zambia, Mocambique, South Africa, Ghana, Togo, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, and recently, Germany and Norway. After spending 13 months at various universities in Norway in 2005-2006, Nchessie returned to Kasungu Demonstration Primary School, and to his Standard 4 classroom (4^th Grade). With him he brought more than a dozen computers and networking equipment, which he used to establish the first ever computer lab at Kasungu Teachers’ College. The administration recognized his efforts and promoted him from being a primary school teacher to being a lecturer at the teachers’ college.

There is one very important lesson that the stories of William Kamkwamba, Andrews Nchessie, Nolence Mwangwego, Friday Nikoloma and Dr. Chinkuntha which I talk about later in this article, teach us in Malawi but also in Africa and beyond. It is very tempting to conclude from the these stories that the problems affecting our countries, which we like to couch in the discourse of backwardness, originate in individuals not being committed enough, not working hard enough. If only every one worked as hard as William or Andrews, our countries would be very different today.

The problem with this perspective, and here is where the lesson comes in, is that it attributes the causes of the problems we always talk about to individuals, blaming them for not being diligent and hard working enough. And that is where the perspective misses the point. There is no denying that William and Nchessie are unique individuals who are serious and thoughtful in their outlook on the world. To get to where they are today, they have had to overcome insurmountable problems which many others in their community and in Malawi have failed to. While individual traits and character do play an important part in propelling one to greater realization of their potential, we live in a world in which many people are never provided opportunities through which their traits and character can blossom and shine for the world to see.

There is a conundrum here that is easy to miss. On the one hand, something is seriously wrong with a system in which somebody like William is unable to proceed with school because or lack of money for school fees, or, in Andrews’ case, unable to obtain university education because he failed to make it to the super-selective University of Malawi in 1990. On the other hand, it is not possible to tell with definitiveness whether William’s talents and hard work would have come out with such a bang had he been able to continue in a conventional secondary school. School systems can be places where individuals can indeed blossom and take off, but they are also known all over the world as places which can force one’s intellect into a conventional box and stifle one’s creativity and genius. This is a conundrum which is not easy to resolve.

In Malawi, a huge factor of the limited opportunities for enterprising individuals such as William and Andrews is the political economy and its vicious cycle of poorly equipped schools, poorly trained teachers, and very few opportunities for one to advance beyond basic education. The political economy of Malawi is tied to that of the rest of the world, and is affected by instabilities and fluctuations originating elsewhere in the world. To qualify for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC), for example, countries like Malawi are required to maintain a specific ceiling on budgetary expenditure, which for some countries means putting a freeze on hiring new teachers, nurses, and other key personnel, and also on raising their salaries.

But historical factors also play a role, in how modern education came to Malawi and what that meant for endogenous ways of producing and disseminating new knowledge. All these factors have resulted in the adoption of a system that thrives on beliefs about knowledge and individual ability that label the majority of people as lacking, deficient, and undeserving of opportunities for advanced education.

We should be grateful for stories such as William’s, Andrews’, Nolence's, Friday's and Chinkuntha's, which from time to time renew our faith in our humanity and in our potential to contribute to the understanding of our own problems and the pursuit of solutions. They are young people who show us rare examples of what an excellent teacher looks like, and how an exceptional student needs the support of the broader global community in order to realize his or her potential. These stories should help us rethink how we can better restructure our economies and political systems so they can benefit more people rather than only a minority, elite few. More such stories might hopefully help us better understand how to also rethink not only our educational practices but also the beliefs that drive those practices and policies.

Therein lies the exponential potential of new media technologies, a point made astutely by Mike McKay in an email yesterday. An article appearing on the Daily Times website was easy to pass on and blog about, with links. The news spread from one blog to another, until it reached the eyes of somebody with enough influence to make things happen. It would be naive to promise that everyone else who has a remarkable story to tell will end up being recognized for it, but it is also true that without these new technologies, it is difficult to say how far the innovative hard work and achievements of William would have gone.

There are a few other stories of innovations and creativity, in addition to William and Andrews, that unfortunately have not received wider attention. Recently an article in The Nation, by Kondwani Kamiyala, described how exactly ten years ago this year Nolence Mwangwego, a teacher of the French language, launched his unique style of writing called the Mangwego script. The then Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture Kamangadazi Chambalo lauded the invention, and expressed that government was going to show interest. Although one would have hoped that the minister himself would consider his presence at the launch as government interest, and take the lead in promoting the invention, very little has come out of that interest.

In April this year I was told, by Bright Malopa, about a farmer in Thyolo who invented an irrigation system that propels water from a river and pushes it upland and irrigates his farm. Levi Zeleza Manda tells me that this farmer’s name is Friday Nikoloma, and he works with a team of four other farmers. No Malawian needs convincing about the vital importance of irrigation in Malawi, given the erratic rains we get from time to time which in recent years have caused severe food shortages. We are uniquely blessed with a huge lake, and a big river, which we have so far been unable to utilize for agricultural and food security purposes.

Another Malawian farmer who has also beaten the odds and sidestepped a stifling conventional educational system is Dr. Chinkuntha, of Dowa, said to have devised a farming system that also defies erratic rainfall. Dr. Chinkuntha never went to university, but his farming system is frequented by university researchers and students who come from beyond Malawi and the Africa region to marvel at his genius. The University of Malawi has recognized his achievements by awarding him an honorary doctorate.

I am sure there would be more stories of such type if one looked hard enough. Not all of them will receive the recognition they deserve, but without the opportunities new media technologies make possible, it would be even harder to know about these inspiring stories and learn from them. In taking advantage of the new possibilities unleashed by technology, a laudable goal will be to work hard at bridging the so-called digital divide. This entails bringing down costs and making it less expensive for more ordinary people to afford them. Such a goal needs the participation of not only government and its parastatals, but also institutions and individuals with a self-less spirit and a desire to encourage and promote less privileged Malawians, who are in the majority, and always working very hard. Thus the change we envisage in beliefs about educational practices needs to be embraced by us all in the way we understand our communities and what it means to use the spirit of uMunthu and appreciate how the success of one is the success of us all.

[In addition to William Kamkwamba's own blog, and many others that have picked up his story, the blog African Path is presenting developments in his life as they unfold.]

Festering Africa’s Wounds: Nicholas Kristof and his Africa Trips

In his column announcing the second ‘Win a trip’ contest in March of this year, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof asked “why the world continue[d] to allow 30,000 children [. . .] to die each day of poverty” (March 9, 2007). The two winners of Mr Kristof’s contest, high school teacher Will Okun, from Chicago, and recent Washington University medical school graduate, Leana Wen, have now spent one full week on the trip, and are blogging about their experience at http://twofortheroad.blogs.nytimes.com/ (TimesSelect, requires paid subscription).

Will and Leana’s reflections on their time in the parts of Africa they will visit will definitely go some distance towards answering Mr. Kristof’s question, about “why the world continues to allow 30,000 children [. . .] to die each day of poverty.” But there is another question, much more malignant and often avoided in mainstream conventional thinking, that neither Mr Kristof nor his two Africa guests will be asking, let alone attempting to address. It’s a three-fold question: One, what are the deeper, underlying causes of poverty in Africa? Two, in trying to find lasting solutions to Africa’s problems, to what extent are persistent images of poverty and suffering, with no follow-up on what might the historical and global causes of those problems be, going to be of help in answering Mr. Kristof’s benign question? In other words, what effects might describing African poverty and suffering in this manner have on the kinds of solutions that get proposed to solve the said problems?

Mr Kristof deserves to be commended for the role he is playing to promote awareness about the Darfur crisis, HIV/AIDS, the devastation in the Congo, poverty and other ills ravaging parts of Africa. Equally remarkable is his idea last year to bring an American student, and this year a student, Leana, and a school teacher, Will, on his trips to African countries. In Mr. Kristof’s column announcing the contest, he was candidly forthright in his criticism of American indifference to the poverty and suffering of Africans: insularity, foreign policy that empowers the wrong people, and the failure by US universities to prepare students for what he termed global citizenship. As important as faulting American indifference might be, a focus on interventionist solutions can become a red herring, misdirecting attention from more grounded and analytically informed perspectives.

What is missing from such well meaning and considerably inspiring soul-searching exercises is the ability to bring in deeper analyses that address the legacies of past injustices and their ongoing unaddressed effects today. In addressing the problem Mr. Kristof identifies as American indifference, which seems perplexing indeed, it might be important to ask whether the image of a helpless, hopeless and ahistorical Africa might not be one of the explanations as to why Americans don’t seem to care, as an unintended consequence of the African continent that Mr. Kristof presents to his American readers.

These questions are relevant because when they are not asked, the solutions that end up being suggested and implemented are the same ones that have been tried over the decades, and have not brought any long-lasting, sustainable relief. Intervention from outside, per se, ought not to be a problem; it is in fact one important solution, but it is far from adequate, let alone sustainable. Intervention from well-wishing outsiders such as Americans and other wealthy societies is not necessarily undesirable, but at least it could take on a shape and form aimed more toward adequate and more sustainable solutions.

There are no easy, straightforward answers to the question of what causes African poverty, AIDS, and other types of suffering. Perspectives differ widely, even amongst Africans themselves. In fact there is no shortage of Africans who brook no criticism of the West, which they see as being a paragon of civilization, and above reproach. But what is always and routinely ignored is the larger picture of global, historical, political and economic contexts in which poverty, conflict and suffering occur not only in Africa but in many parts of the world, including some parts of the wealthiest countries such as the United States itself. One important cause is the perpetuation of images of pathology, hopelessness, death and destruction as endemic and innate to these places. It is as if poor and suffering people do nothing to find solutions to their problems. The dominance of the images of damnation blots out the histories, energies and solutions created by the people themselves. In the process, the only solutions deemed viable end up being intervention by well-wishing outsiders.

Yet precedents of African boldness and determination abound. This year Ghana is celebrating 50 years of independence, and for many African people worldwide, it has been an occasion to take stock of the courage and energy created by the desire for freedom and independence. The story of Ghana is a continuing inspiration for many African countries and peoples worldwide. Many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa achieved their own independence with the financial, moral as well as ideological support of Ghana and its first president Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

To pessimists, Ghana is just another poor, African country, frequently compared with Malaysia said to have had the same levels of poverty when it also gained independence in the same year as Ghana. What’s not mentioned is that Nkrumah’s material, financial and ideological support for independence for all of Africa meant a huge sacrifice at the expense of Ghana itself. Dr. Nkrumah was overthrown eight years after Ghana’s independence, by circumstances strongly linked to US foreign policy. This process was repeated in other African countries, some of whom, including the Congo DRC where Kristof, Will and Leana are visiting this week, have never known peace and stability since. Yet events such as these are never linked to causes of African poverty and instability, since the question of deeper, historical causes is always and conveniently avoided.

There are success stories in many African countries, including peaceful transitions to new forms of democracy, economies growing at exponential rates, community care for HIV/AIDS orphans, to name just a few. To his credit, Mr. Kristof does write about some of these successes too, although the backdrop of the poverty, conflict and suffering is always dominant. Many African societies are rich in social networks, spirituality, art, music, and many other facets of life that no quantitative measurements can ever capture. But because the emphasis is on the death and destruction, poverty and misery, and on solutions from outside intervention, these aspects are never written about. This is not to dispute the presence of very difficult problems of poverty and instability that many African communities indeed face everyday. The daily reportage in the mainstream media overflows with these problems, which admittedly do make it harder to believe that there are alternative realities also happening on the same complex continent of Africa.

The failure to write more about Africa’s successes and what the Reverend Stewart Lane calls social and spiritual wealth are part of the reasons why after several decades of outside, well-wishing monetary and material interventions, the images of hopelessness and instability persist. Individual Americans going to and returning from Africa, like the previous winner Casey Parks and the current winners Leana and Will, might profess profound personal transformation, but it will always be in the juxtaposition of privilege and deprivation. For most others, the response is the indifference that Mr. Kristof is rightly concerned with.

It is important to re-emphasize that Mr. Kristof’s work is admirable and deserves the gratitude of many of us. The opportunities he is affording to the Americans he selects to accompany him on his trips are invaluable. But his efforts, and that of other well-wishing Westerners who go to Africa, could be equally transformative for African societies if they worked more to capture the hidden, suppressed histories, the successes and the social and spiritual riches of the various societies and countries that make up Africa.

Rest in peace, Mde First Lady

I wish to join fellow Malawians, Zimbabweans, other Africans and friends of Africa around the world in mourning the sad passing of Mrs. Ethel Mutharika, the wife of Malawi's president, Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika. Mrs. Mutharika is reported to have died on Monday, May 28, 2007.

Reports say she was suffering from cancer, but very little else is known about her illness. Mrs. Mutharika was born in Zimbabwe, and is believed to have been in her 60s, according to reports sourced from Malawi's State House.

In April this year rumors spread across Malawi of her having been critically ill and then dying, but they turned out to be false. With no official word from government as to whether the first lady was indeed sick or not, speculation was rife, with one radio station actually making news out of the rumors. Later a government press release accused the media and the opposition of innuendo, but still said nothing about the condition of the first lady.

Mrs. Mutharika founded the Ethel Mutharika Foundation that was helping poor Malawians and orphaned children, an important intervention at a critical time for Malawi just recovering from severe food shortages, and still reeling from HIV/AIDS. She will be sorely missed. May your soul rest in peace, Mde First Lady.

The New African and 21^st century Pan-Africanism

During the days of Life President Dr. Kamuzu Banda in Malawi, the only way I was able to read The New African, the London-based pan-African monthly magazine, was through a relative who managed to bring copies to Malawi from Zimbabwe, where he was teaching. The relative sadly passed away in 1997, three years after the end of one-party rule in Malawi. By that time The New African was on sale in Malawi, although I am not sure whether it had been on the list of banned publications or not during Dr. Banda’s rule.

Last Saturday, 21^st April, I entered The Central Bookshop in the Shoprite shopping mall in Blantyre, and saw a copy of the current issue of The New African. I promptly picked it up. It was the first time I was buying a copy since 1997 (a friend gave me a copy two or so years ago that he had found, quite strangely, in a bookstore in Lansing, Michigan). Although I would have bought the copy anyway, my decision was made much more conscious by the recent exhortation of two good friends, one a historian of the sexual politics of racism in colonial Ghana, who runs a column in the magazine, and the other a professor of international relations and politics who found it incredulous to learn that I did not have a subscription to what she felt was the best pan-Africanist magazine available.

So it was in the company of another very good friend, Bright Malopa, that I entered the Central Bookshop and saw a copy of The New African. Bright had urged me the previous night to buy a copy of a book by D.D. Phiri on Clements Kadalie, a Malawian who played a highly significant role in the struggle for freedom in the early years of the 20^th century in South Africa. It is titled _I See You: Life of Clements Kadalie, the man South Africa, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Namibia should not forget_ (2000).

I will write about D.D. Phiri’s book on Kadalie when I have read it in the coming weeks, but for now I want to talk about the current issue of The New African, which I must confess I now feel guilty for not having followed in the last decade or so (Thanks a lot Carina, Kiki, and Bright).

Splashed across the front page of the current issue is the title of the cover story, “Confessions of a CIA AGENT: How the imperial powers control Africa.” This story is followed by an essay on the Special Court in Sierra Leone and how it is seen as persecuting people whom Sierra Leoneans regard as heroes. Of interest to Malawians will be the fact that the Registrar of the Special Court in Sierra Leone is Lovemore Munlo, a Malawian attorney who once served as Minister of Justice in the dying days of Dr. Banda’s rule. Announcing the death of Chief Sam Hinga Norman, who was being tried by the Special Court, Mr. Munlo referred to the hip surgery that took the life of Hinga Norman as “successful,” a reference seen by many Sierra Leoneans as in bad taste, and a betrayal of the people’s wishes.

In the features section are articles on Ghana’s 50^th independence anniversary and President Kuffour’s choice to wear a suit rather than the traditional Kente; the crisis in Darfur; the Nigerian elections; Liberia’s Blue Lake; and The Gambia’s first university. Cameron Duodu’s column discusses a recent article by the British historian Nial Fergusson, who, writing about Ghana’s 50^th independence anniversary, commented on how colonialism was good for Africa as evidenced by what he sees as the failure of Africans to govern themselves. The Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo is quoted, in an interview with Ruth Tete, as saying “Africans underestimate themselves and do not have confidence in themselves. Time has come for Africans to have confidence in themselves, and to take their destiny in into their own hands. Time has come for Africans to have partners and not masters.”

The remainder of the magazine contains articles on the improving picture of health in Africa; the need to protect what is known as the “African brain”; African prostitutes storming Europe; the perspective of Canada’s Senate Committee of Foreign Relations on Africa as a “lost cause”; stopping Black Americans from voting in 20^th century United States; footballing news; and a young African industrial designer who is GM’s lead designer on their latest car, the Volt.

It would need a much longer essay to go into the details of each article in this particular issue, but suffice it to say that the magazine speaks to the continuing importance of pan-Africanist perspectives in understanding the contemporary African world. The cover story describes a new book by Larry Devlin, who was the Chief of Station in the DRCongo when the then Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was assassinated. The book reveals how the assassination of Patrice Lumumba was ordered by the then US President, Dwight Eisenhower, for fear that Lumumba would turn to the Soviet Union and thereby thwart the US’s efforts to control what is considered Africa’s most strategically placed country. The article’s focus is on how the same policies aimed at gaining control of strategic resources on the continent still continue to this day, and should serve as a warning to current and future generations of African leaders (My note in the margins reads: “Tchvangirai, take note”—though not necessarily as an expression of uncritical support for Mugabe’s methods either).

The article’s author, Osei Boateng, also sends a message to African journalists to be critical of claims of objectivity and independence by the Western media, which has always operated on the principle of serving the foreign policy of their governments. Boateng’s implied caution is that some (not all) African journalists tend not to be aware of this and instead take the side of the Western media in propagating policy objectives of Western governments against those of their own countries, in the naive belief that they are pursuing objectivity and independence. I find Boateng’s argument persuasive, although I would add that in fact many Western journalists have a lot to learn from some African journalists when it comes to objectivity and independence.

Of even greater relevance to the optimistic expression of Africa’s rebirth (as in Afrika Aphukira) is the interview with President Gbagbo. His observation that Africans underestimate themselves should not be understood as pessimistic; rather, it should be understood as a diagnosis aimed at encouraging boldness amongst Africans to trust in their own perspectives and potential. Gbagbo says Africans could play a stabilizing role in the world, but the lack of confidence means that Africans are not even aware of the importance of African perspectives in the world. He says Africa has the capability to generate what he calls a “solidarity fund,” in the form of a development bank, that could come from taxes on Africa’s unique natural resources, yet Africans prefer to continue being dependent on the IMF and the World Bank.

Gbagbo talks about young Africans managing some of the world’s biggest financial institutions, yet they have no confidence in generating and managing capital for Africans. The story of Jelani Aliyu in the same issue, a young Nigerian who is the lead creative designer for the global automaker General Motors, is another example of the potential that Africans possess, but which is hampered by the lack of confidence, and is therefore stifled in many young Africans who end up languishing in the villages and on the streets.

As for Malawi, there is a growing sense of optimism amongst the middle class, who see a new Malawi emerging before their eyes. While some of this optimism is being generated by government policies that stress fiscal discipline, food security and economic stability, some of the vitality is also being generated by ordinary Malawians who have never stopped working hard, despite popular beliefs to the contrary held by the educated elite. Some have asked if Malawi will also experience a rebirth as the rest of Africa does, and my response has been that it will take a pan-Africanist perspective that asserts our place on the continent. Obviously that needs further redefinition, but I am glad to say The New African appears to me to be a part of that process to redefine pan-Africanism for the 21^st century.

We’re all Ghanaians: Reclaiming Pan-Africanism for the African Renaissance

On January 22, 1957, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, then Prime Minister of the then Gold Coast, wrote a letter to Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois and his wife, Shirley Graham Du Bois, inviting them to attend the auspicious occasion of what would on March 6 of that year become the independent nation of Ghana. It would be the first Black African country to achieve independence from a European colonizing country, and would be joining North African countries, including Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Sudan, who had already achieved their independence.

The US Government refused to issue passports to Dr. Du Bois and his wife Shirley to travel to Ghana. They ended up missing the hugely significant occasion. But Du Bois replied to Dr. Nkrumah’s letter, in which he performed a highly meaningful and symbolic act for the future of the Black world. Considered to be the father of Pan-Africanism, Dr. Du Bois bequeathed to Dr. Nkrumah the presidency of the Pan-African Congress, which had first met in 1919, in Paris. The next Pan-African Congress would be meeting on African soil for the first time ever, and Dr. Nkrumah would, as per Dr. Du Bois’s bestowing, be presiding over it. Thus the torch of Pan-Africanism, the struggle for people of African descent worldwide to overcome centuries of dehumanization and exploitation, was passed on to Kwame Nkrumah, to Ghana, and to Africa.

The celebrations marking 50 years of Ghana’s independence this week reassert Ghana’s place as the world center of Pan-Africanism (Pierre & Shipley, 2003, in Falola, Ed., Ghana in Africa and the World). In addition to being proud and happy for all Ghanaians in the world, I’m also very pleased for Malawi’s participation in this momentous celebration. The President of Malawi, Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika, is in Ghana as I write, with a Malawian contingent that is reported to include traditional chiefs and the Kwacha Cultural Troupe, Malawi’s national traditional dance troupe that preserves the best of Malawi’s performing arts heritage.

In Malawi we have every reason to join the Ghanaians, and the entire Pan-African world, in celebrating Ghana’s jubilee. As Walusako Mwalilino reminds everyone on the Malawi listserv Nyasanet, it was in Ghana that Malawi’s first president, Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, spent a good part of the 1950s, where he became very close to Dr. Nkrumah, having first known each other in London where Dr. Banda has been practicing medicine for sometime. Dr. Nkrumah would eventually become actively engaged in Malawi’s own struggle for independence from the British. We are indebted to Kanyama Chiume, a Malawian who played a crucial role in the struggle, for giving us an elaborate and inspiring account of the support Malawians received from many Africans on the continent and others beyond, at the height of the struggle.

In his autobiography, Kanyama (1982) writes about visiting London in 1959, whereupon learning of his presence, Nkrumah sent ₤100 to help in the work Kanyama was doing in London. Days later Nkrumah offered Kanyama an airticket so that on leaving London Kanyama should fly directly to Ghana to continue strategizing and mobilizing resources to aid Malawi’s freedom struggle. In Ghana Kanyama was given a triumphant welcome, and “was carried shoulder high amidst shouts and placards to the effect that a Nyasalander murdered is a Ghanaian dead” (p. 122).

And more support from Nkrumah and Ghana was yet to come when Kanyama met with Nkrumah:

“When I saw Nkrumah personally he was most vehement in his denunciation of imperialism in Nyasaland. Since the Devlin Commission had already been appointed, and we were determined to defend our colleagues in detention, he offered ₤10,000 to cover the defence costs. In addition, he placed at our disposal the services of an able Ghanaian lawyer, Mills Odoi, to accompany whoever we chose to go to Central Africa for the purpose.”

When Kanyama met Nkrumah again in early 1964, Nkrumah could not have been more forthright and passionate about the significance of Pan-Africanism:

“Nkrumah talked about the urgent need for an All-African government. ‘Many of our troubles, Chiume,’ he emphasized, ‘are due to the fact that we are not united. We must have a continental government to prevent the further balkanization of Africa and, as far I am concerned, when Malawi is finally free and only seven of us are ready, we should just plunge into it. Others will follow.” (p. 167).

The ideals of Pan-Africanism as practiced by Du Bois, Padmore, Nkrumah, Kenyatta, Toure, Nyerere, Obote and others played a very important role in helping Black Africa overcome a racist, oppressive colonialism, but it did not solve all of Pan-Africa’s problems. Even at the height of the independence struggle problems arose due to betrayals, as Gamal Nkrumah, the son of Kwame Nkrumah told the BBC this week; lack of unity; and external interference by the colonialists who were determined not to see Africans govern themselves. In the months following Malawi’s independence, Banda became increasingly dictatorial and intolerant of opposing views. He and Nkrumah fell out, and Banda even ordered the closure of the Ghanaian Embassy in Malawi. In Ghana itself internal divisions, fomented by the CIA and other Cold War suspicions, also led to problems, including the military overthrow of Nkrumah. To this extent, the Pan-Africanist philosophy was ill-prepared for the unforeseen tragedies that followed.

Whereas some might think that this spelled the death of Pan-Africanism, others think that these events provide us lessons with which to re-examine Pan-Africanism as a framework, and reclaim it for contemporary realities. The 50^th anniversary of Ghana’s independence gives us that moment to reflect on our history and re-envision the future. The African Renaissance project provides a framework in which to reassess Pan-Africanism and retool it for the struggles ahead.

Ghana has embarked on a comprehensive program to lead the rest of the Pan-African world in imagining a new Africa. The program involves harnessing the resources of the African continent and its Diaspora, to place them at the disposal of the new demands now facing us. Ghana has initiated the Joseph Project (click here for more details), inspired by the Biblical story of Joseph who was sold away by his jealous brothers, and who prospered in the foreign lands to which they sold him. He later rescued his family in their time of need. With the project, Ghana is offering citizenship, land and other rights to people of African descent from anywhere in the world. A similar idea has been discussed in the African Union, according to the blog Black Looks, and is so far looking at giving citizenship to Black Americans. Although the project has already been criticized for being economistic in its outlook, it needs no emphasizing the role that Diaspora Africans can play in reviving the entire continent of Africa. In this regard, the two types of Diasporas, the historic and the contemporary, the latter also inclusive of migration within the African continent itself, have enormous roles to play in this renewal (Zeleza, 2005, in Mkandawire, Ed., African Intellectuals).

A long-term strategy in re-envisioning Pan-Africanism for the African Renaissance will not be feasible if it does not place at its center educational curriculum and pedagogy, both on the continent and in the worldwide Diaspora. Curriculum and pedagogy, both at the teacher education and school level, constitute one of the comprehensive strategies that will awaken a Pan-Africanist consciousness in school children, teachers, and their communities, by generating new knowledge about African peoples, their histories, their struggles and aspirations. As with the Pan-Africanism of the 1960s, problems will surface, but the advances made by African peoples worldwide in various spheres of world influence in the last several decades should reassure us of our capabilities to overcome these difficulties. There will be a few who will decide that the African Diaspora identity means nothing to them, "thank God for slavery"; but there will also be plenty more who will reaffirm their Pan-African identity. Thus Ghana’s happy occasion this week is also a time to ask ourselves new questions about what Pan-Africanism might look like, and what role each of us can play, in the era of the African Renaissance.

Black History, pan-African citizenship, and the 21^st century

As Black History Month winds up in the United States and in US Embassies around the world, I want to reflect on the larger meaning of the month, and to imagine how a pan-African identity for the 21^st century might consolidate the gains of the Black world and help usher in a whole new different reality. The Public Affairs Section of the American Embassy in Malawi has carried out several activities in several cities and towns in Malawi to commemorate the history of Africans in America. According to The Nation edition of February 14, 2007, activities marking the month have included poster shows, book exhibitions, film screenings, and public discussions. On January 15, the Public Affairs Section hosted secondary school students and their history teachers to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is celebrated on the same day that Malawi celebrates Chilembwe Day.

I have already written on the significance of Chilembwe Day in Malawi being celebrated on the same day that is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States, pointing out how both leaders should be seen as activists for peace and social justice. Although they lived their times separated by over half a century, the issues they both dealt with, the struggles of Black people against racism, have a much longer history. It is true that a lot has changed since these two courageous men sacrificed their lives as part of the struggle for the dignity of Black people, and that a lot more still needs to change. I grew up and went to school in Malawi, and even trained as a primary school teacher, but learned very little about Africans in America, let alone about Martin Luther King Jr, or Malcolm X. Hence it is significant that the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy in Malawi is commemorating Black History Month, and encouraging discussion of Black History in educational institutions. It is imperative that Black History, and its continuing struggles, become integrated into the school curriculum, and in the wider public sphere, especially the media, so that as many Malawians as possible become aware of the lives and achievements of Black people in and outside the African continent.

In integrating Black History into the Malawian curriculum and in the public sphere, it will be necessary to overcome the tendency to teach only the safe, benign aspects of Black History, leaving out the difficult parts. This entails telling our children the truth about the dehumanization that Black peoples have suffered at the hands of powerful white people and their institutions, as well as the continuing disdain and disrespect Black people continue to suffer at the hands of racists of all races, including a few fellow Black people as well. Of continuing concern are educated, elite Blacks who, unable to understand racism and its insidious ways, choose the easiest way out, disinheriting their Blackness and identifying themselves with racist white power and privilege.

I have recently learned, from my pan-Afrikan sistas at Black Looks, of suggestions made by the African Union for African countries to offer dual citizenship to wealthy Black Americans as a way of encouraging them to financially support African countries. The idea is brilliant, especially if it can be stripped of its financial motivation and made instead to focus on forging solidarity and the championing of pan-African causes. The financial aspects will be there alright, but not as the primary motivation. As the sistas at Black Looks and Baffour Ankomah urge, the concept must be extended to Black people around the world, not just Black Americans. The uniting factor here must be understanding and appreciation of the Black struggle, and hence solidarity must be sought with all peoples who share in this ideological cause, regardless of geography and of race. There are a few non-Black people who share a rich, meaningful appreciation of this cause, and who must be acknowledged for their humility, deference and solidarity.

In a powerfully and poignantly argued essay, Ezrah Aharone has written about the contradiction of the strategic importance of Africa and its resources to the West, and now, increasingly, to Asia, while African Americans have more or less abandoned ties with their ancestral homeland. Aharone decries the absence of Africa in the Black America revival project outlined in Tavis Smiley’s Covenant with Black America, observing that: “It’s urgent and imperative therefore that all leaders of African descent understand the ‘geo-strategic economics’ of how the world was fashioned into this current state. Otherwise they are, by default, perpetuating a world system rooted in irresolvable inequities.”

Back on the continent itself, the struggle for unity continues, with the ideals once championed by Kwame Nkrumah further receding into oblivion, as the education system fails to educate young Africans about pan-Africanism and Black Consciousness. The evidence of this oblivion can be seen in recent threats to potentially unifying, ultra-modern projects such as the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy), aimed at connecting a large part of the continent South of the Sahara to reduce telecommunications costs for ordinary Africans. Charges and accusations of control and exploitation have already stalled progress on the project, and now an Indian technology company, Reliance Corporation, has announced plans to construct a cable line along the same route originally planned for EASSy.

In Malawi, the Shire-Zambezi waterway, a multi-billion Kwacha project that President Bingu wa Mutharika had hoped would reduce Malawi’s exports and imports costs by linking the country directly with the Indian Ocean via the Zambezi and Shire Rivers, is reportedly threatened by Mocambique’s plans to construct a bridge along the waterway targeted by the project. A recent report in The Nation reveals details about miscommunication and lack of consultation between the Malawian and Mocambican governments.

Many Africans do realize the crucial importance of regional and pan-African cooperation in the many projects needed to uplift the continent, but outside conscious efforts that build on historical struggle and shared destinies, such projects end up falling victim to capitalist greed and profit-mindsets. Even when these projects are initiated and developed by the most highly educated Africans with the best technical know-how, without this important aspect of education—pan-African consciousness—the greatest ideas for the enhancement of the continent will always be frustrated. The pan-African consciousness I am talking about here should also embrace Africa-centered ways of knowledge production, based on the values of uMunthu/uBuntu, which, according to Desmond Tutu, celebrate the achievements of others in the knowledge that our humanity, and hence our destiny, are bound up with one another. Much of Western-style schooling as inherited and practiced to this day is completely devoid of these virtues, as have argued Rev. Dr. Augustine Musopole and Rev. Prof. Harvey Sindima. As a result, we have the most highly educated minds coming up with very bright, innovative ideas, but with no direct benefits for the majority of the African people.

Whether it is in the realm of Black History, or in the realm of 21^st century technological innovations meant to lift the continent out of its doldrums, a pan-Afrikan consciousness, and solidarity with other Black people around the world, and others who share in these ideals, need to be an integral part of our thinking.

Legacies of peace and justice: John Chilembwe and Martin Luther King Jr.

That the month of January is set aside in Malawi and in the United States to commemorate two black leaders in two different periods of history, and on two different sides of the world, is a coincidence only the heavens can arrange. In Malawi, January 15^th is celebrated as Chilembwe Day, in honour of the Reverend John Chilembwe. In 1915, Chilembwe led the first ever uprising against white racism and colonialism in what was then known as Nyasaland. 

John Chilembwe, his wife Ida and their child. 
Photo copyright George Shepperson & Thomas Price, 
Independent African

In the United States, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated every third Monday of January, in honour of the man who led the civil rights struggle, protesting racism, and fighting for the rights of Black people and other minorities in the United States. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, also protested against US imperial aggression, and its invasion of Vietnam.  In 2007, the day falls on 15th January, coinciding with John Chilembwe Day in Malawi. 

It is important to note that the recognition for the roles these two clergymen played for the freedom and equality of their people did not come automatically. In Malawi, it took the 1994 transition to multiparty democracy for the new government, led by then President Dr. Bakili Muluzi, to recognize Chilembwe’s selfless contribution to trailblazing the path that several decades later led to the formation of the independent Malawi nation. The Muluzi government went on to even issue new banknotes bearing a portrait of Chilembwe.

In the United States, the struggle to fully recognize Martin Luther King Jr. continues, because the day is still not yet fully recognized in certain states. Worse still, some of the important messages Dr. King gave have been the subject of manipulation and distortion by racist whites and conservative blacks. In California, Texas, and now in Michigan, as of last November 2006, affirmative action has been banned, on the twisted logic that it serves as reverse racism, and that people should be judged based on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. The argument about judging people based on character rather than skin color is a sick, unfortunate and devious misunderstanding of history and of what Dr. King stood and fought for.

The reactionary forces that work to distort history, justify and perpetuate racism are at work not only in the United States but also in many countries that have suffered colonization, exploitation and repression. One successful strategy these forces use is to co-opt individuals from the victimized societies and make them spokespersons of conservative, right wing ideology, who take the side of the powerful and privileged, and blame the victims for their suffering. They work to stifle resistance to oppression by using the word “victimology” to refer to any efforts at raising concerns about effects of racism and inequality. 

For some of these spokespersons, it is a question of not having been properly educated about the history of the world and the violence that white racism has inflicted on Black, Asian, Native and other societies. One hears a lot of self-hating views in Malawi and elsewhere. For some people, as in the case of some who say black people always blame others, this comes as a result of having not had the occasion to study and reflect on the broader, complex context of racism, its historical trajectory, and its continuing presence today. 

The same type of thinking is present in the evocation of the so-called pull-him/her-down syndrome (PhD) syndrome. The people who bring it up might indeed be facing some hardship at the hands of their compatriots, but attributing this to such as a generalization betrays an inability to analyze the roots of resentment that comes as an inevitable result of inequitable allocation and distribution of resources and opportunities for advancement. In Malawi these problems are deeply entrenched, and rarely analyzed in depth.

But there is another category of such spokespersons who have gone to the best universities available, and have learned about these histories, but who still choose the side of the racist, rich and powerful. Examples can be found in books such as Keith Richburg’s Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa, and Chika Onyeani’s Capitalist Nigger: The Road to Success, among others. The authors of such books view Africa and Africans from a pathological perspective that sets apart the continent and its history as aberrant, grotesque and irredeemable. 

Instead, the affluent global North is viewed as the antithesis of Africa, set apart from her history and her present, and having developed completely on its own devices, and on it own innate superiority. This is the more disturbing category because it persists in the face of evidence of how the global North developed its wealth by violent exploitation, plunder and looting of Africa, ongoing to this day. Also ignored is the role African people, from times ancient to the present, have played in contributing to the building of the modern world, and who, by being denied their place in history, suffer real consequences that actually perpetuate marginalization for those sidelined from the march of capitalist exploitation.

It is tempting to imagine the disappointment both Reverend John Chilembwe and Reverend Dr. King would have felt at hearing the views of the Malawian bloggers above, or reading the books by Richburg and Onyeani. Perhaps they would not have been so surprised; there were probably many black people, let alone people of other races, who did not understand then that the black struggle was a freedom struggle, shaped by real, practical occurrences in the world. 

Old buildings in Nguludi, in the area where Chilembwe lived. 
Photo copyright Steve Sharra

For John Chilembwe, even the scholarship on what happened in 1915 has tended to portray him as a psychopath, while the British colonialists of the same time have been praised, according to the late Dr. Mekki Mtewa (1977). Writes Dr. Mtewa: “It fits the burden of history that, for this reason, and this reason alone, Harry Johnston was knighted by the British Government, and he still lives as a symbol of colonial posterity in the Museum of Malawi. While the other, a native of the country itself, died like a dog, and is crowned with the most epithetic titles, and his mark is subject to ridicule” (p. 229). 

Being 1997 when Dr. Mtewa’s article came out, it is gratifying that Chilembwe’s place has been properly restored in Malawi, with the commemoration of his heroism on this day, January 15^th, and his immortalization on the Malawi currency, the Kwacha.

The legacies that both men of the cloth have bequeathed to us remain relevant today: to recognize injustice when we see it; to fight on the side of the oppressed and the marginalized; and to dedicate our lives to making the world a better, more peaceful and equitable place for all.

Language, politics and development in Malawi

The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) last week made an announcement that should open the way to new ideas in not only determining what qualifications prospective Members of Parliament (MP) in Malawi ought to have, but also in how to revitalize Malawian languages for more widespread development. The Commission announced that it has removed the requirement that a prospective MP be in possession of the Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE), the secondary school leaving certificate, or that they sit for an English proficiency test, if they do not possess the MSCE. The timing of this announcement coincides with the next National Language Symposium, organized by the University of Malawi’s Center for Language Studies, with the theme Literacy for Development: The role of the African language. The twin issues of language and politics are extremely important, and have consequences that affect the long-term development plans of any society. At the heart of the matter is the question of the production of the knowledge necessary for a society to better understand itself, and to find new ways of solving its intractable problems.

As was to be expected, a few Malawians expressed disappointment and bewilderment with the announcement, claiming that the legislature would now be free for all. In other words, these Malawians feared that parliament would now be open, in their view, even to “uneducated” and “illiterate” Malawians. Some wonder how Malawian MPs can communicate with each other if they are not obliged to use English, arguing that not every Malawian can ably debate using Chichewa. "How does the MEC expect the electrorate [sic] to be assures [sic] that their represantive [sic] will contribute if they cannot speak English?" asks someone on Malawitalk. Such views are common and widely held not only in Malawi but in many countries as well, and they need to be addressed in a methodical, organized way.

To begin with, it was a huge blunder all along to equate school certificates or English proficiency with what we may term “the type of intelligence or capability required to represent one’s people”. The reasons why we have always made this blunder are understandable. First, it is the only way we are familiar with of accounting for one’s ability to be a representative. Second, it is what we have always done, what was bequeathed to us by the colonial administration, and we have been content with carrying it on, without the need to change anything. Third, there exists this very strange, widely held notion and totally mistaken view that the best way of measuring any kind of intellectual capability for any kind of occupation is English proficiency. This view is widely held not only in Malawi but in most parts of the world, especially the formerly colonized world. Not only is it a mistaken view, it is also a very inefficient way of accounting for intelligence or capability. The numerous boxing bouts in our political parties, the widespread political prostitutions, lack of creative and critical thinking among our politicians, etc, should be ample evidence of this inefficiency.

It is possible to devise a better, more efficient and accurate way of ascertaining whether one is capable of being a leader or a representative, but it needs a lot of effort, energy, time, creative and critical thinking. It is certainly something no country, to the best of my knowledge, has ever done before, at least not on a deliberate, elaborate scale. And this fact need not daunt us at all.

One way could be to begin by studying past and present MPs. To do this, we would need to come up with a widely agreed upon set of criteria as to what are regarded as good characteristics of an MP or other types of representatives. Who have been the best MPs Malawi has had since independence? What were their backgrounds? Why were they elected by their people? How did they do their campaigning? How did they do their work of representing their people? And many more questions.

We could draw out detailed, lengthy auto/biographies of these MPs and their time in parliament, views of the people they represented, their records of performance in the august house, and their own perspectives of how they about their duties (for those still alive). From this we could chart out the most desirable qualities and qualifications for an MP.

Knowing that the current measures, and the previous ones, have not been perfect, chances are the auto/biographies that would emerge from this arduous, long-term process would not be perfect either, but that would be no reason not to embark on the exercise. It might also be necessary to draw out characteristics of other equally successful leaders and representatives in other areas of Malawian life, not restricted by electoral politics, nor these types of qualifications and English proficiency tests.

The goals in such a process would be manifold. First and foremost, for us to destroy the dangerous myth that intelligence = school certificates or English proficiency, or vice versa. That way, we would be opening up the arena to other equally deserving Malawians who have none of these alien qualifications, but are sufficiently endowed with Malawian wisdom and a deeper understanding of who we are as a nation, what our heritage is, and what destiny we want. We have many Malawians who fit this description, but we haven't taken the time to find out who they are (see this Daily Times article on a form one drop out who has created electricity for his house and his parents’ house <http://www.dailytimes.bppmw.com/article.asp?ArticleID=3312>.

Another goal would be to promote ways of making the knowledge required to represent people and run our nation widely available to every Malawian. So far this knowledge is restricted to only those who have school certificates and can read and write English, who are less than 10 percent of the population. We can not go on running a nation in which over 90 % of the population are in the dark as to how the country is or should be ran. Related to this, we would also be constructing new knowledge for running the nation. We would uncover lots of buried knowledge that has been kept hidden because of the restrictions we have had in place up to now.

An obvious advantage with widening access to knowledge of running the country would be that it would encourage more, better qualified, well deserving Malawians to seek public office. More Malawians would also be encouraged to seek out this type of knowledge, as it would be familiar, available in a language they use and understand, and relevant. A lot of the practices we follow in running our economy, education, judiciary, sports, community services, politics, etc, are alien and irrelevant. This is one of the reasons we have anger, frustration, despair, hopelessness and even feelings of inadequacy among many Malawians.

It will be important for as many Malawians as possible to understand the historical and political reasons behind the entrenchment of foreign, colonial languages in most formerly colonized countries. Language plays such a crucial role in the development and underdevelopment of any society. In many formerly colonized countries, the failure to use local languages in government systems has been at the heart of the underdevelopment of these countries. One only needs to look at all those countries that are considered more successful, and ask what languages they use for government business, education, their economic systems, legal and judiciary systems, and other important social institutions. They all use their own languages, and not languages they inherited from foreigners. And a quick look at all the poorest countries of the world will also show how for government and other important business, most of them use the language inherited from their former colonizer. Much of this has to do with practical realities, but of the short-term. Language policy and planning are long-term endeavors, and require leaders and researchers who have long-term visions for their countries.

This is not an argument for the abolition of the English language from our government and social institutions, far from it. It is true that English is a language of global importance, and that knowing how to write and speak it enhances one’s social standing. And I am not oblivious to the irony that I am writing this in English. But there is an ugly side to the over-reliance of a foreign language for the most important business of any country. This over-reliance creates obstacles in the creation and flow of knowledge and information needed for development. When the most important knowledge in education, health, the economy, governance and other institutions is in a language other than one people are familiar with, people’s access to knowledge and information is restricted. And this is what leads to the underdevelopment we all love to complain about. It is myopic of us not see the connection between the suppression of knowledge production because of the choice of language, and the underdevelopment and inequality that surrounds us. The many Malawian private schools that prohibit the use of Malawian languages and institute English-only policies are making this myopia worse, and the consequences for the country are going to be dire. The right policy ought to be a healthy balance between English and Chichewa, with Chichewa receiving the same amount of research and intellectual attention as does English. It is suicidal for Malawians to imagine that there's no need to conduct research and intellectual inquiry in Chichewa and other Malawian languages. If we want to learn from the developed countries, let us learn their respect and love for their languages, which they continue researching, writing and publishing in.

To return to the argument about why the school certificate and English proficiency requirements were both absurd and insane, the example of Lucius Banda has been a striking one for me. I find it disturbing that I have not met one Malawian who has ever questioned why Lucius felt the need to forge an MSCE certificate in order to be eligible to run for a parliamentary seat. Many people I have discussed the issue with have said he deserved it, and they have offered various reasons. “He did the crime, he had to do the time.” “He became too important for his own sake.” “He was fooled by other politicians who wanted him to do their dirty work.” “He was playing with the government and the president.” My next question has been whether Lucius really needed an MSCE or an English proficiency test to prove that he is an intelligent person and can represent his people. Here, the vindictive attitude ceases, and a willingness to rethink the issue sets in. “He is very bright”; “He is very successful”; “His English is superb”, “His music is some of the best Malawi has ever produced,” “He has wisdom,” etc etc.

It may be true that Lucius was originally sentenced for what the judge felt was a breach of the law, but it is not enough to stop at that and close the story. What he broke was a very poorly conceptualized, intellectually vacuous law, one that did not even need to be there in the first place. And most of us know many other Malawians who have broken this law and have never been brought to book. It is also true that he was singled out for punishment by the leadership, because of his role in pushing the impeachment issue. This was a case of a loophole being used to create another loophole. Are these really the kinds of laws we want intelligent, successful Malawians to be held by? Is this really the kind of Malawi we want to build?

I perfectly understand that the proposal I’m making here is idealistic, and would take a very long time, and a lot of resources, to be fully realized. But the future we will be building is worth every drop of sweat, worth every tambala we can invest. In the meantime, it would be important for the MEC to articulate its reasoning and explain the significance of its decision, so Malawians can begin debating the topic. It would also be important for MEC to liaise with other organs of government and civil society in Malawi to begin cataloguing the debate, and embark on a process to map out strategies to ensure that their decision does not lead to undesirable consequences. Ultimately, we will be laying a good foundation for the future of the country by balancing our policies between global practicalities and the dynamism of local access to knowledge and information. The University of Malawi’s Center for Language Studies has pioneered the research and deliberation needed to lay this foundation, and the knowledge thus far produced needs to be made as widely available to many Malawians as possible, in languages they understand and use.

The pivotal importance of the language issue in politics, education and development makes it imperative that we argue from an informed, well-researched position. As such, those interested might wish to consult proceedings from the series of National Language Symposium meetings, organized by the Center for Language Studies at the University of Malawi. The most recent proceedings appear in _Implementing Multilingual Education_, from the 2003 symposium. Next week is the aforementioned 2006 annual symposium, and I encourage everyone who can attend to please do so.

Other selected suggested readings include:

1. Brock-Utne, B. & Hopson, R.K., Eds. (2005) _Languages of Instruction for African Emancipation: Focus on Postcolonial Contexts and Considerations_, Mkuki na Nyota Publishers and Center for Advanced Studies of African Societies (CASAS)

2. Mkandawire, T. (Ed., 2005) _African Intellectuals: Rethinking Politics, Language, Gender and Development_ UNISA Press, CODESRIA & Zed Books (in particular read B. S. Chumbow's chapter The language question and national development in Africa, pp. 165-192)

3. wa Thiong'o, N. (1986) _Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature_, Curry & Heinemann.

Redefining ‘development’ in Malawi: beyond the pessimism

For Malawians who haven’t been in Malawi for sometime, the one question they never fail to ask someone who has just returned from the motherland is: So, how is Malawi? Being such a vague, general question, it takes some probing to get at the heart of the query: Is Malawi developing? Ten or so years ago I would have interpreted ‘development’ in a specific way: the sprouting of new, big and tall buildings, and new tarmac roads, in Malawi’s cities, towns and rural areas. In the last six or so years I have come to think of ‘development’ in different ways, to the extent that I have had problems defining it for my own purposes. A big part of that has to do with what I was reading in graduate school, in courses varying from literary theory to historiography to educational theory to epistemology, all of them gripped by what today seems more of a passing fad than a new paradigm. It is what Tiyambe Zeleza calls ‘the posts,’ propelled by what Thandika Mkandawire has called a surfeit of Western opulence, or some such term. But this should be another story for another day. Today I want to dwell on how I have retained the definition of ‘development’ as progress, as the erection of big, tall buildings, roads and other infrastructure in urban and rural Malawi (and for that matter, Africa as well). I say ‘retained’ because I have added new categories in the definition.

Development, as it is defined in general terms, is a source of both hope and frustration for many Malawians. When I landed in Blantyre on Tuesday October 31, I spent the next morning checking my email at MalawiNet’s wireless Internet café (the wireless part didn’t seem to be working, yet). At MK60 for every 15 minutes (roughly US$0.45), it was quite inexpensive, at least for anybody who uses email as part of their regular routine. Later in the day I went to new Ryalls Hotel to board the afternoon Coachline bus to Lilongwe. The Coachline is Malawi’s top-of-the-line public transportation system between the three major cities, expensive as it is elitist. You have to be affluent in order to afford the Coachline on your own. Having never been a well-to-do Malawian, I have never been on the Coachline bus. Not even after this attempt.

I turned up at the hotel on time, and found that the regular bus that goes as the Coachline, a beautifully modeled, classily built and glitzly gliding bus that does not stop anywhere between Malawi’s major cities, had been replaced by an ordinary bus for that day. This was not even the Express bus, next in line after the Coach and also supremely comfortable. Rather, this was the third-tier type of bus, very noisy, poorly lit, and very hot on a hot November day. We were told that the 5-fleet Coachline, termed the Paradiso, was unavailable. One had been involved in an accident; one was in Lilongwe, one was in South Africa, and another one was in Zambia, under hire by the Malawi government. They refunded part of the fair, amidst groans about the degenerating standards of the bus company, and of things in general in Malawi, according to a few people I overheard. We arrived in Lilongwe four hours later, and I was taken to Riverside Hotel, next to Lingadzi Inn. Riverside is a new hotel built just months ago. It is exquisite in its white paint, beautifully designed, quiet, and magnificent. The receptionist couldn’t find my name on the list of booked guests for that day, so I ended up at a motel in Likuni. By the end of the following day the management of Riverside Hotel had faxed the administration officer of the project I was in Malawi for, apologizing for the inconvenience. They even offered an explanation, and added the latest news that they had just finished the construction of 36 new rooms, which would be ready soon. They ended the letter by saying there was room for me for that night, Room number 1.

I spent a couple of evenings in Lilongwe, driving out to surrounding rural districts during the day and returning to the city in the evening. What I saw on those few evenings fits the definition of ‘development’ used by most Malawians, including those living outside Malawi. I was curious to find out exactly who was responsible for most these transformations, and was told of Malawian Indian business magnets. Riverside Hotel is one example, as is Cresta Hotel, inside the sprawling, magnificent complex known as Crossroads, that houses shops, offices, pizzerias, laundromats, etc. (For fear of digressing, I will put aside my views about the importance of Third world consciousness and solidarity for another day)

For those who haven’t been to Malawi in the last ten or so years, the number of huge, sprawling, expensive shopping malls is something to write home about. The number of top class hotels and lodges spread all over the city is uncountable. Several of them offer free wireless Internet, despite quoting their rates in US Dollars, upwards of $90 a night. Driving out of Lilongwe during the morning and evening rush hours now takes twice the time it used to ten years ago, due to traffic jams. Many of the cars you see are spanking new latest models. The controversial Kamuzu Mausoleum is a site to behold, regardless of one’s disapproval over the use of so much money to honor a leader who victimized, murdered and exiled thousands of Malawians. It is quite ironical that it has now become quite common in Malawi today to hear people reminisce of the good old days, when there was food security, negligible crime rates, a good educational system, and a stable economy. I have written elsewhere about how I resent this whitewashing of Malawi’s dark past, and how dangerous I find this type of amnesia and nostalgia. But I should also mention that there does exist in Malawi more complicated views of Kamuzu’s reign, which do highlight both the atrocities as well as the successes of his policies and philosophies. Be on the lookout for one such forthcoming work, Reverend Stewart Lane’s Malawi memoirs, titled Peculiar Honours, to be published by Dr. John Lwanda’s publishing house, Dudu Nsomba.

In Blantyre I was only able to drive through the city on one afternoon. The same type of ‘development’ taking place in Lilongwe is also taking place in Blantyre, with lots of huge, beautiful buildings taking shape all over town. They include shopping malls, mega churches, residential houses, media institutions, educational institutions, and many others.

In Zomba, the university town I grew up in and know better than any other Malawian town or city, the general view is that there is very little of this type of ‘development’. The central business area is pretty much the same as it has been for the last ten years. There have been a few innovations, but not to the same extent as Lilongwe or Blantyre. The Zomba Central Hospital, formerly Zomba General Hospital, now has a wall entirely surrounding it. St. Charles Lwanga parish, my parish, is also putting up a wall around it. There have bee a few hotels and lodges, but only a handful. The one area Zomba is experiencing the same type of ‘development’ as the major cities is the construction of residential houses on the outskirts of the town. In Malawi, as in most countries around the world, building or owning your own home in the major towns and cities is considered, and rightly so, the most important investment one can make. The building industry has thus experienced an astounding boom, and will likely continue to. There are new, huge, gorgeous homes built and continuing to be built in the Sadzi/Three Miles area, Mpondabwino, the exclusive Old Naisi, Mangansanja and Mulunguzi areas, and the areas surrounding town, including St. Mary’s and Ndola, to a lesser extent. At Jokala, some ten or so miles outside Zomba municipality, a rural project is constructing a public library and a conference hall, away from the nearest urban center. Sports stadia, market squares, bus depots, roads and other infrastructure have sprang up in several districts, including Balaka and Dedza, among others.

If all of this does qualify to be defined as ‘development,’ there is also something I find to be quite curious and peculiar in the way some Malawians perceive their country. Whenever I have asked the question about ‘development’ in Malawi, the responses have been muted at best, and negative at worst. I have been told things such as: “Malawi is the same as you left it. Nothing has changed.” I do not recall reading anything about all these ‘developments’ either on the Malawi listservs, or in the online papers. Perhaps I haven’t been reading carefully enough. For as long as I can remember there has been an unmistakable air of pessimism and negativity amongst many Malawians, both inside and outside Malawi. Some of it stems from the notion that Malawians view themselves as “less-than” other Africans, to paraphrase the columnist Bayana Chunga in the Sunday Times of October 15, 2006. In some cases this inferiority complex is spoken in terms of Africa and the Black race in general.

During this current stay in Malawi, I’m finding myself having to discuss this complex almost on a daily basis, especially with educated, elite Malawians. Some of them are educationists, working on educational policy, training trainers of teacher professional development, and lecturers in our teacher training colleges. Most of these views are exactly the same as those one encounters, on a daily basis, on the Malawi Internet listservs and in the daily and weekly newspapers. However it must also be said that compared to 2004, when the presidency changed hands, the number of people who feel optimistic about the country’s leadership and the economic policies it is espousing is growing.

The encouraging thing about all this is that through their self-criticism and self-negation, Malawians can be said to be exhibiting high expectations for themselves, though in a converse manner. You have to turn the criticism around in order to observe the high expectations about ‘development’. In retaining the definition of development as held by the majority of Malawians, I am also aware of how narrow, insufficient, and perhaps even retrograde that definition can become. By this I mean that it is a definition based more on a scale that measures our ability to ‘copy,’ than to innovate and create new ideas, trends and products. This is a very important distinction to make. The definition of ‘development’ as buildings and infrastructure does capture the hopes and aspirations of many Malawians, but its narrowness and insufficiency comes from its inability to encourage the reconciliation of our endogenous institutions, traditions and cultures with our desire for change. Built into all our institutions of governance and social organization, ‘development’ is seen more as what we learn from other countries, especially the white societies of the global North, than what we ourselves and our fellow blacks and global Southerners create.

Our response to the question “Is Malawi developing” therefore needs to be broadened into those efforts taking place in our villages and rural centers, to include the collective and communal resource that Reverend Stewart Lane calls “social wealth.” We see this wealth every time there’s an occasion that brings Malawians together, to celebrate a wedding, to send off the departed, to elect new representatives, to build a new school, church or conference hall. In Dowa, gulewamkulu has been mobilized to support educational efforts. Whereas you would see gule chasing pupils away from school, it now escorts them to school. The conflict between tradition and modernization has existed largely due to the condescending, demeaning attitudes exhibited by educated Malawians over those considered ‘uneducated’ or ‘illiterate.’ A redefinition of ‘development’ also has to consider the changing attitudes of educated Malawians over our traditions, cultures and self-identity as a nation.

Some of what passes for development is really meant to benefit the elites and the powerful, perpetuating the gap between the rich and the poor. This is where a redefinition of the term becomes even more important.

So Yes, Malawi is developing, however you define development. And she needs your support, optimism and encouragement, in addition to your criticism, pessimism and condemnation.