Troubling times in the warm heart of Africa

There is so much beauty in Africa in general and Malawi is no exception, but there are also trials and tribulations which make life difficult for those who live here and Malawi sadly, is no exception.

At this point in its history with shortages of food, fuel, foreign exchange and all the limitations that imposes of empty shelves, petrol queues, grounded airplanes and transport, the people seem to be facing another set of challenges which will impact both their present and their future. Perhaps most crucial is that a 50kg bag of maize flour, the staple food here, has risen from 3,400K to 4,200K!

One can only wish it were other and that those in power will find a way to resolve this situation as peacefully and effectively as possible.

Already there have been arrests and protests in response and murmurings of fear that the awful violence of a year ago when nineteen people died will be repeated. One hopes not but the 'old part of town' is not the best place to be at present and keeping a low profile in general seems wise.

We fly out to Australia in less than a week and have no idea what we will find on return. It seems to be the way of Africa that governments begin well and then deteriorate and that the best of intentions and the most noble of plans seem to founder in the swamps of reality by the second term. It would be easy to think, looking around, that there is something about Africa which makes it doomed to repeat, in varying form, the same dangerous chaos.

Zimbabwe may well stand as the best known example of such imploding chaos but South Africa is showing signs of heading in the same direction. Why? What is it about leaders on this continent which leads them to become, well, Kings? As one Malawian friend said the tradition of Kingship is a strong one and so is the tradition of 'old men' being seen as beyond words - between the two there comes a separation from the people and the power.

There is no doubt that African chiefs wield a great deal of power and there is also no doubt that this power is not always in the interests of the society as a whole. There is nothing about this system that cannot be found in the histories of all races and nations - it is just that the most developed have left such systems behind. Where they remain they remain as symbols and not as actual forces or powers at work in the society.

But those changes were wrought elsewhere by the people and the other thing which holds people back in Africa is the powerful belief in witchcraft and the sense of reverence for ancestors who will return to haunt, punish or even kill you if you challenge the traditions of old.

Just as India's caste system keeps that nation trapped and crippled in so many ways, so too does the African system of tribes and chiefs and kings keep these nations trapped and crippled. How do you throw off the shackles of the past in such a way that you keep the things of value and shed the rest? It probably cannot be done and so the more people hold to their traditional ways the more the traditional ways hold them.

Within the system of kingship, even if that 'kingship' be symbolic and not literal,  there is a veneration of the king which limits communication at frank, open and honest levels and within the tribal system of venerating old age you get the same effect and Africa's tragedy is that those who lead inevitably take on the mantle of 'kingship' even if metaphorically and not necessarily because they demand it or take it for themselves - the society at large confers and maintains this 'mantle.'

So too with the reverence for old age where the mere fact of the years means that someone will be seen as 'beyond' criticism, advice or often words and so the gap between the people and those who lead them grows.

It is not even about 'bad leadership' or necessarily any 'fault' of those who lead, it is just what the African system produces and will continue to produce until, like the Western world, such traditional practices are discarded and there is absolute separation of 'royalty' and the State and all leaders are held accountable not to the tribe but to the democratic system.

But at the end of the day the change must come from the people themselves and sitting here, watching from the sidelines, one can only wish they do so in co-operation with their government, their leaders and their constitution.

 People, protests, plans... and fears fuelled by the Pentecostals!

It hardly seems possible but queues around petrol stations have doubled if not more and they wind, in patient snaking around corners I did not know existed.

The word was that fuel supplies had improved. Perhaps not. Or perhaps people are preparing for protests next week which are said to be in the planning. There were a few empty shelves in the canned food section at the supermarket which may also indicate people are planning for possible protest outcomes.

But cream is back, which is a plus, and yogurt although this week there are no onions to be had for love or money except the salad onions the women sell on the side of the street. Onions in this case are onions! And there is a sugar shortage to add insult to injury. There has been little or no white sugar in the shops for weeks - brown sugar and yellow sugar - but not white and the story is that the supplies will be back to normal by next month, according at least to Illovo, Malawi's sugar company. Not that many people believe much that they are told.

On a brighter note the power has not gone off for two days which, given Eskom's history is somewhat odd. Well, it feels odd. We are such creatures of habit that we become accustomed to things, even the negatives, and then miss them when they disappear. Although we also have three full jerrycans of diesel for the generator so I am wondering if the Malawi spirits which like to 'mess with our heads' are just playing with us. The 'gods do play sport' and no-where more so than in Africa!

But apart from massive thunderstorms, bucketing rain, thunderous lightning and the attendant glory of the Wet, things are pretty quiet in Lilongwe. Quiet before the storm, or quiet with the storms, who can say.  We had a visitor this week who would have preferred more quiet and less storm, flying into Lilongwe on a very stormy day indeed and riding its torments to the landing strip, only to have the pilot thrust it airborne at the last minute because two other planes were also trying to land.

As fatalistic as one may be it is also comforting to know that the South African pilots are pretty skilled at making their way around and through the storms which litter the African sub-continent at this time of year.

Our white-faced friend had however, found it a scary ride. But then he lives in Johannesburg which is one of the most scary cities on the planet - in terms of crime - so all things are relative and you would not be in Africa if you were easily scared.

There are so many things to fear in a place like Africa it is a wiser course to choose to live life as it comes and to leave no place for fear in that equation.  More to the point, Africans themselves live in such fear that one has no right to add to it. In this world of witches and death there is too much fear already.

Photo: Crowd at a witchunt in Malawi.


It is one reason why I think it is a great pity that the Christian do-gooders who flock to this continent are of the evangelical kind. You could not pick a more fearful version of Christianity than those who approach it as Fundamentalists, and the Pentecostals are the most extreme of all.  It doesn't seem fair, that, given the fears which are part and parcel of life in Africa, the people should have another load dumped on their heads.In fact the Pentecostal version of Christianity is fuelling witchcraft excesses more than anyone else:

In their present form, beliefs in witchcraft are not "traditional" – changes since earlier times are obvious. Modern beliefs see the power of witchcraft as emanating from evil spirits that possess the witch and endow him or her with the power to harm.

This belief in possession by evil spirits has been promulgated in Africa by western missionaries of fundamentalist, particularly Pentecostal, Christian beliefs. It has enabled Africans to retain a modified version of their former beliefs in witchcraft, obtaining the approval and support of Satan-hunting Christians whose life is dedicated to the pursuit of evil. New churches, started by Africans with a self-proclaimed "divine mission", have sprung up everywhere.

These churches do not "control" witchcraft beliefs, although they encourage and profit from them. Nor is it true to say that it is only as witchcraft escapes from the control of the church that it becomes evil; witchcraft is evil from the beginning. Some people may feel protective of Christianity, but Christianity is at fault here.

The pastors of independent African churches may identify children as witches (for a fee) and are prepared to "cure" them (for a further fee) by exorcising the evil spirits. Such exorcisms are often violent; beating and the use of cold water to cleanse and purify the possessed being is common .......

http://explorer9360.xanga.com/759491248/fundamentalist-christianity-is-spreading-through-africa-making-things-worse/

There is no denying that witchcraft is a cruel and often murderous reality in Malawi but seeking to replace it with an equally cruel theological dogma seems to make things worse, not better. People take the vengeful and punitive nature of fundamentalist christianity and simply add it to the beliefs they have so that people now don't just have witches and demons to fear, they have God to fear and evangelical preachers who threaten them not just with suffering in this world but everlasting hell in the next!

I happen to think given the trials of life in Africa the people deserved something gentler, kinder, more compassionate than the raging rants of evangelists who train up the locals in their own image so that Africa too, has, like the United States, television programmes which preach terror and damnation to all who do not believe as they are told they must.

But preaching fear and retribution is perhaps what appeals to Africans; a foil to the fear and retribution inherent in their own ancient beliefs. And those who preach fear must also live with terrible fear and so how better to face it than to leave the safety of the First World and throw yourself into the fears of the Third, adding your fears to the boiling pot which is African belief.

The Catholics are here and the Anglicans, and I know they do some fear - all religions do - but nothing like the Evangelicals  or Pentecostals, whose very breath blows fear into Africa's dim and dusty corners. Poor Africa. Those who come to help actually do more harm than good and those who would claim to 'set Africans free' actually imprison them in another fear-fuelled religious mindset which just marries and mixes with more ancient, and equally unforgiving dogma.

Pondering the prevalance of fear in Africa makes things like protests, petrol and mere human plans pale into insignificance.

Millipedes, Muzungus and Mice.
 
We have had kitchen visitors of late, both harmless which is good and a change from the gigantic cockroaches which 'come out to play' when the lights go out.

A giant millipede made its way graciously and determinedly across the kitchen floor the other night, heading for the back door, which we opened to allow it exit. The perfect synchronisation of its numerous legs was truly something to behold.  I mean, 'who thought that up?'

The materialist scientists would say it was just random, it simply happened, and because it worked it was retained. But the perfection of it belies such simplistic explanations - watching those hundreds of legs in perfect motion was for me yet more evidence that this amazing world is not just intelligent it is designed.

Although there is plenty of chaos in Africa still! Clearly, at some level, chaos also works. I am not sure that people sitting in their cars for hours in petrol queues would agree with that. As Muzungus we have an edge because the company is allowed a certain amount of fuel and we can access enough to fill the car and keep our generator running from the depot. With three full jerrycans in the shed it is a nice feeling.

The other visitor was a mouse which has necessitated moving onions and potatoes up from the pantry floor onto a shelf. Chewed ends may make a meal for a mouse but I prefer my vegetables intact. I spotted our visitor dashing across the lounge room floor the other day and I am thinking we might be able to share space as long as he or she cannot reach the pantry shelves. No doubt there are enough crumbs to keep a small mouse going although Limited is pretty rigorous with the broom and mop.

Things have been fairly quiet in Lilongwe although there is word of demonstrations next week. Things have a way of simmering in such places and erupting unexpectedly. Then again, the people have plenty of issues to keep heat under the simmer spots.

As my mother would so often say, 'wishing doesn't change things' and I am sure, if it did, then Africa would be very different to what it is. The people themselves have wished for better things for millenia and everyone who comes, well, probably everyone who comes, can only wish for a better life for Africa.

Or perhaps such 'wishes' are countered by the power of witchcraft and the 'thoughts' or beliefs or wishes inherent in that complicated, convoluted and often cruel system. The power of belief in Africa is more than enough I am sure to counter the best of intentions and the most powerful of wishes.

But life goes on and the avocadoes on our huge tree grow equally huge and shine in full-bellied abundance with each new dressing of rain. The limes are also ripe and this year have not suffered from the fungus which destroyed much of last year's crop. Nothing has changed except this year the Wet season has been wetter so perhaps the more rain the less fungus although logic suggests quite the opposite.

The rains have been so abundant that it looks like a good maize crop will come in and the countryside is so green and lush it spreads like a flowing ocean in waves of grass and trees. Even the stumps of trees are now languidly shaking fresh fronds - resourceful life surging from the cruel cut and thrust of life on the African continent. But the branches and fronds will not last very long if the fuel crisis continues.

People must eat and that means people must cook and if there is no fuel to be purchased they will make their own by cutting down trees and shrubs to make charcoal.Survival will always be the prime motivator and just as it fuelled the rotating legs of our millipede visitor, so it fuels the life of Africa, no matter how or what anyone else may wish.

It is only when people have security that they will be supported in their bid to survive that they can take the time to indulge in other thoughts. Aesthetics and ethics are privileges of a more certain world.