It is over, finally

The British-Malawi ordeal.

Flossie Gomile-Chidyaonga is home (in Malawi), finally.

She boarded the Flight of Shame in Britain, and arrived in Malawi Tuesday this week.

Hers were footsteps troding in the opposite direction of expelled British High Commissioner to Malawi, Fergus Cochrane-Dyet. The two personalities to have walked the path of shame the past one week.

To be a persona non grata is to be lifeless among the living. And this, the two have been.

Gomile-Chidyaonga left Britain quietly, though; while Fergus Cochrane-Dyet gave a last kick at Kamuzu International Airport on Friday. In the company of his wife and three children, he felt sad for Malawi.

The ex-British envoy to Malawi- how strange to be called ex- today, when last week he was His Excellency- said Malawi was getting back to autocratic rule.
He said he had been travelled the length and breadth of the country- from Chitipa to Nsanje, Nkhotakota to Mchinji- and heard people complain that the political situation was getting worse in Malawi, just after some 17 years of democracy.

Democracy came, in Malawi, and came at a cost. Over 30 years over autocratic rule has made Malawians suspicious of their leaders. And alert.

So, Fergus Cochrane-Dyet said Malawians- the majority he had spoken to- were worried about the sudden turn of events, and how President Bingu wa Mutharika is becoming a dictator.

Fergus Cochrane-Dyet was clearly sad and concerned.

In his heart, it pained him so badly. His sentiments were an expression of love and concern, and sounded more Malawian than Lake Malawi.

But Gomile-Chidyaonga left Heathrow Airport in London quietly.

And arrived home, on the wings of that Kenyan Airways flight, equally hush.

The sign of a woman in shock!

Shocked with who: President Bingu wa Mutharika or the United Kingdom?

That is the question Gomile-Chidyaonga will one day have to answer.

Gomile-Chidyaonga has, however, promised that she will speak To Zachimalawi after seven days.

Till then, it's: it has happened. And fast.