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.