Reminiscences on "my Malawi holiday"

SHELDON G. WEEKS
Correspondent | Friday July 2, 2010 00:00

We only had one heavy downpour when we were in Malawi, at the Dedza Pottery along the Mozambique border, an hour south of Lilongwe-we'd just started out on a walk and could see it coming, so turned back. Malawi is not called the 'Warm Heart of Africa' for no reason at all. It is a very beautiful and diverse country. This was my fifth trip to Malawi over 45 years. They have been scattered at different times from 1965 and 1991, to 2002 and 2005, to now. It was Gudrun's first visit. But I'd never been to Lake Malawi; only in the south at Zomba-the  old colonial, tree lined capitol; and Blantyre. The Lake was our main destination this time as we planned to stop at four different places heading south along the way. Malawi's flowing rivers, high mountain plateau, lush greenness and many lakes make it a destination of contrast to Botswana.

We had only a few minor problems. One was the conservative Government of President Bingu wa Mutharika reinstating Kamuzu Day as a national holiday on the 14th of May (Life President Hastings Banda's birthday). 

Banda's dictatorial regime, between1964 and 1994 worked to keep Malawi backwards. There are Kamuzu streets everywhere, the international airport is still named after him; it was rumoured older people say that things were better off under Banda. Kamuzu Academy near Kasungu is still open-Banda used to spend more on it than on the University of Malawi, and would not allow a citizen to teach there. In the Life President's day he also spent more on the Young Pioneers than on formal education-so that has changed. People would refer quietly in close conversation to the past horrors at the Mikuyu Prison in Zomba-now  a museum, where many detainees were held and died, and of people being fed to crocodiles and thrown into sink holes. The prison was immortalized in the writing of Jack Mapanje.

In many ways the country is still back in the 1960s, but the population has gone from three million to 14-million now and is predicted to double again to 28-million by 2025. This accentuates the difficulties of meeting the needs of a rapidly growing population, as for every step forward the country seems to be going two steps backwards. It is rated by the United Nations as one of the poorest countries in the world. On UNESCO Education for All statistics for Africa it ranks at the bottom. On various UNDP indices it is also near the bottom.

The poverty in Malawi is both visible and overwhelming. The continued signs of misrule disturbing. One which we met at three different times was the Presidential motorcade, with many military type vehicles and even more police on motorcycles. As under Banda, the roads are closed when the president goes by. Has Malawi really progressed-maybe when fertilizer subsidies were re-instated after the long drought of 2002 (which was denied at the time by President Muluzi-and then labelled his 'folly')?

It was quite pleasant as we worked our way down the water filled eastern Rift Valley from Nkhotakota to Monkey Bay. We drove around 1,600 kilometres through different parts of Malawi from Kasungu in the west to Nkhotakota in the east, and south on the M5 to the twin cities of Limbe and Blantyre and then north on the M1 to Lilongwe and beyond. The cost of fuel was nearly twice that in Botswana. Perhaps as a consequence, except in towns, there was very little vehicle traffic on the main roads (both the M1 and M5, except in cities). Instead one is struck by all the people walking; walking long distances, and the thousands of bicycles everywhere, being used to carry both people and goods. The bicycle is still missing from most roads in Botswana.

The poverty is visual in the rural areas, both in the extensive roadside markets (the current President has decreed that the informal sector be banished from the major cities of Malawi) and the low ratio of tin roofs in villages (perhaps less than one out of a hundred houses or more). It is estimated that only two percent of the people have electricity-and even that is not continuously supplied. 

Though Malawi is credited with making progress on all fronts: in agriculture, health, education and other social services, the base they were starting from is so low that anything may look like progress when you have been down so long. The village school we visited had 135 or more students to a classroom, but progress was reflected in each classroom having three teachers instead of one, as I found in 1965, 1991 and 2002, when I visited classes with up to 250 students.

Because of Kamuzu day being re-instated the banks were closed Friday the 14th of May, which required us driving 180 km round-trip from Cape Maclear to get cash-the nation's prime tourist resort, both there and at Monkey Bay, so far has no banks or ATM-this may soon change.

We stopped at two places near Nkhotakota. The first an old colonial structure built integrating parts of old Lake Malawi steamers named 'Stima'. It has been renovated and run as a lodge for five years by 'Zeke' from South Africa. He doesn't advertise, but is happy with the interest promoted in his place by 'word-of mouth' so he is renewing his permits for another five years. He finds Malawi peaceful after the violence and multiple hi-jackings he has experienced in South Africa. His 'Stima' sits facing the lake near where the old pier used to be. The steamer now circles the lake on a fixed schedule arriving at Nkhotakota on its journey north to Likoma Island at midnight on Saturday and returning at 5:30 pm on Tuesdays, with the next stop being Monkey Bay. Passengers and cargo embarking are taken ashore in long boats while the Ilala ferry anchors offshore. Zeke is there to greet them.

Nkhotakota is an old slaving centre in the 19th Century and now a major training centre for the Presbyterian Church. David Livingstone first visited there in 1861, but the All Saints Church was not built there until 1894. The tree he camped under in 1861 is preserved. A new Bishop was being inaugurated while we were there. We stayed two nights at Nkhotakota Pottery, about 30 km south of the township. The pottery runs a school to teach people how to used clay, throw, turn object on a wheel, prepare for a kiln, glaze and market their creations. It was the first of a number of community-based projects that we stayed at.

Nkhotakota Pottery has one of the longest and cleanest beaches we found in our sojourn along the southwestern shores of the lake. Medical personnel and their families even swim there, so it must be free of one of the scourges of Malawi-bilharzia or schistosoma haematobum. Other beaches we visited had villagers living adjacent.

This certainly is a serious problem at Cape Maclear, the tourist Mecca of Malawi, billed as the Goa of Africa, or a 'legendary backpackers hangout'. At a new non-profit community-empowerment resort, Tuckaway, with reed rooms for two over the water (practically only a bed in them) for P350 a night, the young female trainee-manager was honest and direct in saying get checked in two months to see if you have the parasite, and if so, then get treated (just swallow an easy allopathic pill). Tuckaway has a project working with one thousand Cape Maclear orphans.

At Cape Maclear we met the human parasites that prey on visitors, the touts, with their offers, deceits, tall tales and outright lies. It is easy to succumb to them because one is inside Lake Malawi National Park and visitors' expectations are high-the desire to see the amazing variety of colourful, small Cichlid fishes, and to feast on bream, catfish (Kampango) or the best eating Chambo (a indigenous type of Tilapia). Markets hundred of kilometres inland from the lake are full of Usipa, a small fish like a sardine, that has been sundried or smoked and people love to mix in sauces. 

We preferred Senga Point east of Salima. Here too the resorts are lined up along the beach, and are of varying standard, cost, cleanliness and quality. We stayed at 'Cool Runnings', a small postage stamp of a place with a house with three rooms, place for tents on a lawn and a small cluster of rooms for backpackers. It has the reputation of having the best food on the lake, but oddly, the places that have earned this label rarely serve Nzima (Pap). The owner moved to Senga Point about nine years ago after her husband was murdered in South Africa. She is heavily committed to a number of community development projects in the area.

A Canadian Catholic Priest, Fr Claude Boucher, has done amazing things at Mua over the last 34 years (in the centre of the country east of Dedza). He has, with others, developed the KuNgoni Centre for Culture and Art, a cultural centre, supporting carvers (with photographs and names honouring around a hundred of them), establishing a three-room museum, a number of art galleries and the Kafukufuku Research Centre on the peoples, languages and cultures of Malawi. They also have fine guesthouses on a high bank edge above the KuNgoni River. Very impressive. Their slogan is 'When water falls sand becomes crystal'. The traditional patterns are part of the buildings  using different fired coloured bricks and tiles, and a variety of carved items in buildings from toilet and curtain roll holders, to masks and doors. Murals are painted on walls. The Chamare Museum has three buildings, all impressively well planned. Photographs are not permitted in two of them, because the secrets of societies must be respected and not revealed. Outstanding is the collection of over 200 Gule Wamkulu masks (or the 'Great Dance'. These are still used today as part of funerals and male initiations and other ceremonies.

The mission was first established there nearly eleven decades ago and today has schools, hospitals, clinics, and an orphanage.

At Zomba we made a quick return visit to Chancellor College of the University of Malawi. Though there are some new buildings, we were told that enrolments are up from 2,500 to only 3,000 students in the past decade. I donated my two books of last year to the Library at the Centre for Educational Research and Training (CERT) where I was to be the foundation professor in 1991-but because of my record of journalism, the decision of the University Council was over-turned by the life-President who did not allow any foreign journalists to live in Malawi.

Other minor problems: I never got a cylinder for our small camping gas stove-but could have used it in a number of places where there was no power and no other source to heat water! When this happened we ate raw! The national cell phone systems are unreliable and often deny the existence of the person you are trying to call. The landlines are also not to be depended on. Internet appeared to be down more than up, but in the last year dongles have been made available for internet access by the cell phone companies-I tried one, but it would not work, because it required Java 1.5 and I only had Java 1.4. This presented a catch-22 as I was blocked from down loading Java 1.5. Only made use of the internet once in the three weeks, at Mangochi in a new facility for only a few minutes to send two new book reviews to Mmegi, one of the Malawi book 'The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind' (we bought in Johannesburg-books are not easily available in Malawi, and if there are very pricey). We can recommend it to all. But then we were in Malawi for a holiday, and that we had.