Zomba District People's Struggle for Potable Water

Zomba is supposed to be Malawi's first capital.

No. Zomba is Malawi's first capital.

There is Zomba City and Zomba District.

It is a historic place. A place of memories.

But people who live in Likangala and other areas along the Lake Chilwa Basin have no reason to smile.

Lake Chilwa, one of Malawi's lakes-- apart from lakes Malawi, Malombe, Kazuni and Chiuta-- has been drying up, thanks to climate change.

Cholera is an established disease. Between July and September 2012, for example, there were 160 registered cases of cholera in the district. The records are there at Zomba District Health Office.

In 2013, between November and December, there were 210 registered cases of cholera.

In 2014, between October and December, the registered cases were pegged at 300.

In 2015, between February and April, 120 cases were registered.

In 2016, 2017, there were no such cases because, according to Zomba `District Health Office, cholera cases increase every three years.

This year, there are fears that cholera could be back, especially because people have no access to tap water. All they know are boreholes, and open sources such as wells, rivers and swamps.

The pictures below attest to the fact that the struggle for potable water is real. Of course, some non-State actors have stepped in, introducing water dispensers at water points such as boreholes and wells.

Teachers' may soon be rich in bluff meals

Against poor infrastructure in schools: Msaka (second from left)
That Malawi's education sector faces a plethora of challenges is public knowledge.

Poor infrastructure. Demotivated teachers due to poor pay.

Teachers' anger arising out of the fact that the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has been 'refusing' to give teachers who have upgraded their fair dues.

There are many problems but none beats that of poor infrastructure.

Earlier this year, innocent learners at Natchengwa  Primary School in Zomba died after a wall of what was supposed to be a classroom collapsed on them.

It is a problem with a deep surface because the solutions cannot be found in the village but Capital Hill, the seat of the Malawi Government in Lilongwe.

Surprisingly, Education Minister Bright Msaka has said the government is preparing a circular; it is banning the posting of teachers to schools that have poor infrastructure.

This, to say the truth, cannot work. It cannot work because it is not the responsibility of school management to construct school blocks.

It is the duty of the ministry and everyone knows that the ministry has been failing in its duty. It, as Central Government, does not provide enough resources to Local Government and then blames the latter for failing to erect structures that meet standards.

It is hypocrisy of the highest level and teachers should not read much into Msaka's recent pronouncements.

The Central Government should provide enough resources first and enforce its new rule.

It is as simple as that.

Melania Trump's Footprint

It is something learners, who sat and shook the United States First Lady Melania Trump's hands, will take years to appreciate.

HOME AND DRY: Mrs Trump
Why? Most of the learners who were visited by Melania do not have access to television or radio sets and, so, do not know the value of the woman who sat among them.
Whatever the case, it is good that Madam Trump was here, to appreciate the work America is doing in the education sector, and whether resources are being put to good use.
Please come again.

TONGUE TIED: Malawi's vernacular languages sentenced to death!

The loss of some aspects of language may, from a point of view of those not well-versed in it, seem like the shape of nature itself.
In other words, corruption of a language or its death all together may be regarded as an extension of bush rule, which is premised on survival of the fittest.
However, for Botswana-based linguistics scholar Evance Fred Kapwepwe, any loss of aspects of language is bad for posterity, as “future generates may have nothing to cling on, in terms of language, and stand prone to shaking with every puff of air thrown at them in the name of foreign language.
“Whatever happens, language has to be preserved.  That is why I will forever feel sad that one of the bodies that critically analysed one of the languages in Malawi, namely Chichewa, closed shop. I am talking of Chichewa Board.
“Of course, I understand that, in the name of fairness, we needed to have bodies that look into aspects of all languages in Malawi— notably Chichewa, Ngoni, Tumbuka, Lhomwe, Nkhonde, Tumbuka, Sena, among others— the way tax-funded Malawi Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts news in languages such as Tumbuka, Lhomwe, Sena, among others. That is what we need,” he says.
In the absence of such a board, or boards, language gets sacrificed on the altar of modernity, so that it is common to hear an announcer on many radio stations in Malawi read “mauthenga”, instead of ‘uthenga’, celebrate ‘maufulu’, instead of ufulu, invite azimayi and azibambo to phone during a phone-in programme instead of extending an invitation to amayi and abambo, among others.
“That is true. The new generation is pronouncing words anyhow, sometimes using words that do not exist long enough that they become part of lexicon. If course, language is dynamic but that should not be at the expense of syntax,’ he says.

The issue of Chichewa Board, and like boards, has been debated including by Gregory Hankoni Kamwendo of the University of Zululand who, in an abstract, submits: “A language academy, known as the Chichewa Board, existed in Malawi from 1972 to 1995. Its three functions were: to compile a Chichewa dictionary; to produce a standard orthography of Chichewa; and to contribute to the general development of Chichewa.

The then President of Malawi, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, was very instrumental to the establishment and execution of the functions of the board. Following the defeat of Banda in the 1994 elections, the Board was dissolved and replaced by the Centre for Language Studies. This article is a critique of the Board and its successor. Whilst the Chichewa Board worked in the tradition of language academies (and served as the highest authority on Chichewa in Malawi), its successor (the Centre for Language Studies) is a research unit at the University of Malawi and does not carry a prescriptive tone.”

It could be this lack of “prescriptive tone” that is responsible for confusion lingering over Chichewa use.

Other tongues may be facing a similar predicament, notably Chichewa, although some traditional leaders, including Inkosi ya Makhosi Gomani and Senior Chief Kachindamoto, Inkosi ya Makhosi M’mbelwa have been making efforts to revive the language. 

Whatever the case, the truth is that there has always been a mother tongue; sometimes neglected and forgotten, sometimes remembered and preserved through orthographies.
Mother tongues were there when the colonialists made the long trip to Malawi. Mother tongue is not a language but a way of life.
No wonder, then, that organisations such as Malawi Pen have been promoting writing and reading in mother tongues. It is a way of linking literature to the people.

For example, Malawi Pen recently initiated a programme aimed at promoting reading and writing in disadvantaged schools. Three schools such as Chichiri Reformatory School at Chichiri Prison, Ntcheu Community Day Secondary School and Nkhamenya Girls’ Secondary School benefitted from the same.

WORRIED: Kishindo-- Picture by Richard Chirombo

Under the project, Namisu Women’s Reading Club was also included. Pen International website indicates that this was done “as we felt the move required specialised attention in the field of literature. Our support fits the group’s aims because the starting point for the reading club participants is the reading of literary materials before including other reading materials on HIV and AIDS, farming, environment, gender, climate change and health.”
It is common knowledge that groups such as Namisu Women’s Reading Club did not need literature materials published in English, hence the importance of mother tongue.
The sheer joy of communicating in mother tongue outweighs everything else.
No wonder that colonialists did everything to suppress the mother tongue, and made all attempts to treat their own language – the invading language—as a potentate, even if it was a language loaded with words from Latin, French, Portuguese, among other borrowed words. They simply could not tolerate languages such as mother tongues spoken by African natives.
Unfortunately, the gulf between the mother tongue and official tongue, which is often looked down upon, stays unabridged.
From time to time, steps have been taken to suppress the mother tongue, in the rush to the so-called civilisation.
But the ceiling of respect for mother languages such as Chichewa, Tumbuka, Tonga, Lhomwe, Sena, Yao, among others, dropped so low in 2014 that mother tongues were booted out as media of instruction in schools. It is official. Malawians are an English-speaking people.
Those who value mother tongues emerged from the year 2014 to face a falling sun. Their beloved mother tongue was still there, yes; but had been declared unofficial in a country where the speakers are called natives.
It is clear, looking at such developments, that the country’s education system is full of the scars of colonialism and imperialism.
The issue of mother tongue is, of course, haunted by another battle— the battle for supremacy among mother tongues. But that is another story.
Professor Pascal Kishindo, University of Malawi language and linguistics lecturer, observes in a paper titled ‘ Language and the Law in Malawi: A Case for the Use of Indigenous Languages in the Legal System’ that the use of looking down on mother tongues by embracing, for example, English, is as old as the soil we step on.
He cites the use of English in the legal system.

The abstract reads: “In Malawi's legal system, English is used as the language of legal proceedings and records. In cases where the plaintiffs/defendants do not speak English interpreters are provided. However, there are two factors which militate against this state of affairs. First, Malawi is a highly non-literate country with an estimated non-literacy rate of 48 percent. Second, English is not the vehicle of communication for the majority of the Malawian population.”

The paper therefore argues that the legal system should make use of indigenous languages; “not only will this facilitate communication but also eliminate the need for court interpreters. It will also give the feuding parties the confidence that they are not being misrepresented. Since communication is only successful when the receiver can interpret the information the source has put in the message, there is need, therefore, to render the law into the languages(s) that is/are familiar to the receiver. This will save citizens from being poorly defended, misjudged and unjustly condemned.”

Kishindo is not the only one to bemoan the fact that indigenous languages seem to be neglected in the country, as Themba Moyo, in an article titled ‘Language loss and language decay of Malawi's indigenous languages’ puts it crudely that Malawi is reeling from the problem of language decay.

The article indicates that, with the exception of Chichewa, almost all of Malawi's indigenous languages face imminent “decay”.

“The languages facing loss and decay have been suppressed, neglected and not developed, particularly since Malawi attained her independence in 1964. This is a crucial matter in issues of national unity, group identity, language choice and community culture, all of which impact considerably on nationhood, state democracy, equality in language use and in the general development of a country,” Moyo observes.

He argues that the neglect of such languages is evident in printed materials.

“This article contends that, in effect, the rest of Malawi's indigenous languages are facing considerable loss and decay with regard to their development. This is particularly in print, where none of them appear as instructional languages in early education, mass communication or in literary publications such as in novels, short stories, poems, plays, etc,”

Moyo then calls for “equitable recognition of linguistic diversity and development of all languages” to act as “a unifying force for the overall development of the country's national life”. 

LEARNING IN VAIN?: Learners like these at Namikasi Secondary School in Blantyre can only learn local languages for knowledge sake; nothing else 
However, in a move that can best be described as a blow to indigenous languages, the Education Act passed in Parliament in November 2013, which former president Joyce Banda assented to in 2014, means government’s policy is that the English language is the only medium of instruction in education institutions.
The Act in question introduces the [English as a medium of instruction] policy as follows: 78. Language of instruction. (1) The language of instruction in schools and colleges shall be English. (2) Without prejudice to the generality of Sub-section (1) The minister may, by notice published in the Gazette, prescribe the language of instruction in schools.”
Malawi Pen president, Alfred Msadala, is bemused with the development.
He, however, observes that the bill was passed when election fever gripped Malawians in 2014, a development that culminated in the bill escaping close scrutiny.
“As it is, Malawi is an English-speaking country. Actually, I was surprised to learn from the Commonwealth Secretariat that Malawi no longer recognises mother tongues,” Msadala says.
So, local languages may exist but are not recognised in the books that matter. It is the final nail on local languages’ coffin.

Permaculture: the panacea to climate change

Agriculture is a world of contradictions. Certainty, uncertainty, balances, imbalances, progression, retrogression have been part of agriculture for ages, rendering it ‘acceptable’ to embrace years of bumper yields along with those of scanty.
This variation in conditions has, in effect, made it natural to refer to materials used in plant and animal production as ‘variables’.
However, this shadow of positives and negatives, enthuses Peter Mazingaliwa- Acting National Coordinator for Malawi/US Exchange Alumni Association (Museaa) - offers room for improvement.
“We can, through science, devise means aimed at changing the status quo. Through science, we can sustain the positives while taming the negatives,” says Mazingaliwa.

PUTTING KNOWLEDGE TO USE: Learners at Namikasi Secondary School
To do this, the world needs such ingredients as favourable policies, unfazed
commitment, continuous research, and responsive communities.
“One of the means to achieve food sustainability, for example, is to promote
permanent agriculture, or permaculture,” says Mazingaliwa.
The term ‘permaculture’ is itself a challenge to agriculture- an area
long-associated with the eternal flux of opposites- because it introduces new approaches to natural systems.
For one, it is premised on the idea that, through paradigm shifts in agricultural systems’ theory and holistic organic ecology, a world balance and, therefore, stability can be achieved.
This is why Museaa, as a platform for Malawians who have learned life’s lessons from the USA, has strengthened the technical;-know-how of communities to address livelihood issues that hinge on agriculture.
“One of the issues is that of climate change. Climate change is contributing towards global food
insecurity. The good news is that permaculture can be used to address climate change issues,” says Mazingaliwa.
Museaa has- with US$23,900 (about K3.8m) funding from the US State Department, Alumni Affairs Division- been running a climate change programme that tools permaculture as a panacea for climate change.
Through it, people have come to understand the concept of climate change, its causes and effects, and human activities that gives it fertile ground. These include deforestation, urbanization and desertification.
Agriculture extension workers, field supervisors, smallholder farmers’, secondary schools’ permaculture clubs have all become part of the stepping stones to food sustainability. It is all because permaculture is an enemy to overdependence on rain-fed agriculture and befriends only water-harvesting methods. Mixed cropping is preferred over mono-cropping, along with the utilization of local materials such as organic manure.
“However, real stability depends on young people, who are better-placed to absorb new
knowledge and change their world.
“For your information, Malawi has not yet attained food security, despite pronunciations to that effect, and this is because we depend on rain-fed agriculture and one type of crop, maize. We are, therefore, more vulnerable to climate change,” he said.
He, however, urges Malawi to continue being part of international community efforts on climate change. Mazingaliwa notes that, so far, Malawi has been a keen participant at international meetings, a process that started some 17 years ago and reached a climax in November 2009- when world leaders met for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climatic Change. In December 2011, leaders met again in South Africa, and the International Conventional Centre in Durban became the focus of world attention on climate change.
Climate change refers to conditions characterized by persistent shifts in the general patterns of the elements of weather. These shifts may be observed as clear trends for some of the elements including temperatures, but may also become random or unpredictable. A good example is that of the onset of rains.
Unpredictable rainfall patterns have spurred Namikasi Secondary School students in Blantyre into action. Students are now planting fruit trees where once bare land lay exposed to the sun and rain water.
“We want to help reduce the impact of climate change. In fact, the best way to encourage people to tame climate change is by encouraging the planting of fruit trees because, apart from anchoring the soil, and absorbing toxic air, people will be able to eat the fruits and boost their immune system,” says Kennedy Lowa, patron of the Permaculture club at Namikasi.  
However, Mugove Walter Nyika- one of local climate change experts, and senior official at the local NGO Rescope- notes that climate change is as old as the planet earth itself, but says current climatic changes are uniquely different from anything that has been experienced before.
“In the past, climate changes were associated with natural cycles such as sunspot activity. The sunspot activity is a change that takes place in the chemical activities on the surface of the sun, which determines the amount of energy that the sun sends outwards to us.
“(But) other climatic changes in the past have been less predictable. These include changes caused by the impact of meteorites smashing onto the earth, or the impact of massive volcanic eruptions, both of which sent clouds of dust into the atmosphere which blocked part of the sun’s rays,” says Nyika.
 Meteorites are large pieces of rock that are moving in space and which, at times, may collide with the planets. In the past, this blockage of the sun’s rays by dust clouds led to drastic drops in global temperatures.
Nyika is afraid: “Previous climatic changes had a large-scale impact on life. Some changes led to the extinction of some forms of life such as the dinosaurs. Some changes led to the cooling of the planet, resulting in large ice sheets covering the surface of the earth.”
He notes, however, that current changes in climate are due, mainly, to human activities’ impact on the earth. For example, the industrial revolution, fuelled by such fossil fuels as coal and oil, has propelled climate change for ages. Other activities, like deforestation and chemical farming, have also accelerated climatic changes.
But it is the later activities that have started to feature prominently locally. This could be attributed to recent findings by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that, while the main source of global food remains the soil, the climate that influenced rainfall patterns has really changed- the sort of change that honours no human boundaries.
WMO indicates, for instance, that the year 2010 was the warmest on record. It also says that the years between 2000 and 2010 have registered the warmest period in time since records began. Among others, communities from across the globe are experiencing unusual weather patterns and more frequent incidents of extreme weather events.
“All these will impact on agriculture productivity,” he says.
That is where permaculture, as one form of climate smart agriculture, comes in. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, climate smart agriculture entails activities that increase productivity, resilience, removes greenhouse gas emissions, and enhances national food security and development goals.
Among other approaches, this is achieved by revolutionizing the management of soil, water, landscapes, technologies, and genetic resources to ensure higher productivity and resilience, while reducing the greenhouse footprint, according to Bunda College of Agriculture
Environment and Development expert, Dr. David Mkwambisi. Mkwambisi openly hopes for a balanced world that will reduce the trade-off between productivity (output) and emissions per unit of agricultural product.
“Global experts on environment and development have realised that agriculture can be a critical tool to solve problems associated with climate change and weather variability in many countries,” says Dr. Mkwambisi.
What is clear, in the end, is the fact that climate change has sired a son called hope: the hope that, while climatic patterns may change, at least agricultural productivity cannot!