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.
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 .......
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.
1 comment:
These same issues are issues I too have a problem with. I also have to be reticent in what I say considering i live here and on a farm owned by a Pentecostal church. Enough said.
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