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The Warm Heart of Africa
"Sir, the natives are revolting!"
"You don't have to tell me, I can smell them from here!"
Unlike the lines from that old British classic comedy, Carry on Up the Khyber", (NB I may have that attributed to the wrong film, Alan, so apologies if I have) the natives of Malawi are neither belligerent or smelly! In fact, like the Zambians, they are incredibly friendly and curious people, willing to talk to you without asking or begging for something.
Considering it is the 8th poorest country in the World it is to their credit that they are so friendly, for once a soubriquet "the warm heart of Africa" is well justified. They also seem to have an obsession with cleanliness, judging by the number of them soaping themselves down on the shores of Lake Malawi, the feature that dominates this landlocked country.
Actually the first thing you notice about the country is the amount of people in it. After sparsely populated Zambia, Namibia and Botswana, it is a bit of a shock to see so many people on the roadsides, so many villages and towns so close together. (It is also a bit of a problem trying to find somewhere to take a comfort break; Angela's white bum must be a talking point throughout Southern Malawi by now!) As befits a country with a growing and serious over population problem, the thing that strikes you is that most of the people are actually young children, the elderly are few and far between.
Unlike the other countries mentioned above Malawi has few natural resources, and is predominantly agricultural. Despite nearly every square inch of land being cultivated (even roadside verges) Malawi can no longer feed itself and is now dependent on international aid. This helps explain why every other car on the road has an aid agency logo (all brand new £50,000 Toyota Landcruisers by the way) and why every other sign by the road describes an overseas funded project.
Aid ranges from HIV/Aids prevention, to road building, to hospital construction (courtesy of OPEC), school building and support for agricultural diversification (for example beekeeping funded by the European Union). The latter would appear critical (diversification rather than just beekeeping!) tobacco used to be the main cash crop of the country but has declined in value, tomatoes are for sale on every kilometre of roadside but will hardly make the country rich or provide the nutrition the people need.
David Livingstone arrived on the shore of Lake Malawi in 1859 (just as an aside he asked the locals what they called the lake and got the reply Nyasa, so named it Lake Nyasa. Unknown to him at the time, Nyasa meant Lake, so he managed to name it Lake Lake!)
Livingstone was understandably distracted at the time by the appalling slave trade that was carried out here by the Arabs with the connivance of various warring tribes. His journals describe scenes of carnage, of a lakeshore so thick with bloated bodies that it was necessary to clear them from the wheels of the paddle steamer before they could set off each morning.
Livingstone hoped that the combination of Christianity, Commerce and Colonialisation would end the slave trade and he was proved correct, though he did not live to see it. It also explains why churches are another obvious feature of the Malawi landscape; every village has 3 or 4 built in expensive brick, despite the poverty of the locals!
Rather like the aid agencies, the variety of churches represented in Malawi is staggering, from the original Scottish Presbyterian missionaries to 7th Day Adventists, Catholics, Jehovah's and numerous 'new age' Christian organisations. Surprisingly, given the slaving history, some 10% of the 16 million population is Moslem!
Anyway, Angela and I arrived in Malawi for slightly less prosaic reasons than Livingstone, we wanted a beach holiday and we were advised that Lake Malawi offered just that! Writing this with the accompanying noise of a 2 metre surf crashing on to a white sand beach, it is difficult to not believe you are by the sea. The only things missing are seaweed, salt and seagulls, (come to think of it I'm not missing them!)
A couple of hundred metres along the beach the simple wooden boats and dugout canoes of the local fishing fleet set sail every evening for the centre of the lake and their prize objective, large shoals of Kapenta, a sprat/sardine like fish that is the main source of protein for most Malawians. The canoes carry tilly (hurricane) lamps mounted on cross planks; they are lit to attract the fish. As the fleet leaves you understand why Lake Malawi is also known as the "Lake of Stars", it is stunning to see the lake full of twinkling lights receding in to the darkness.
Watching the fleet return at dawn, laden with Kapenta, must rate as our best 'cultural' experience since we came to Africa. Locals, carrying anything that could hold fish, flocked to the boats as they were hauled up the beach. The colour, the noise and palpable excitement was memorable but perhaps the smell will live in our memory the longest! Most of the Kapenta is dried on reed racks in the sun and unless your nose was cut off at birth you can pick up the smell 5 miles downwind!
The dried fish is distributed all over Malawi and when required, boiled up with tomatoes and onions as a welcome supplement to the staple diet of pap, (maize porridge).
Sleeping downwind of the Kapenta drying racks was the only negative of staying at the incredibly laid back Cool Runnings lodge and campsite on the beach at Senga Bay, Lake Malawi. Over dinner Sam, the British owner, and self confessed ex hippie, gave us an insight in to Malawi and it's problems, including the infamous Madonna baby adoption sage. It was a depressingly familiar African tale of abused and over worked women coping in a macho male dominated tribal society.
After 30 years here Sam has concluded that the aid agencies and the churches are merely bank rolling male promiscuity. Her efforts are directed at educating men to take responsibility for their children and to get sterilised when they have as many children as they can support (not many given the poverty!)
Sam describes how girls from the local village are given to uncles for sexual teaching when they reach puberty. Inevitably the outcome is STDs and often pregnancy. In a land where virginity is a pre-requisite for marriage these girls are sent away to aunts in other towns to have the baby, which then become 'orphans' when the girls return to marry.
In the meantime the masculinity of men is measured by the number of children they have, and not just with one wife. Families with 10 or more children are common, many men have 15 or more. Male impotency is such a taboo that men will give their wives to a friend or brother to get them pregnant.
As you drive around Malawi it is difficult not to argue with Sam's logic of going to the base of the problem, the men! Kids and 'orphanages' are as common as mango trees by the roadside, well meaning churches and aid agencies are effectively combating the natural checks and balances of disease and famine that would have managed the population in previous centuries.
The future does not look good, a recent proposal to limit Malawians to 4 children nearly brought the government down, the population growth is exponential, the country is already short of electricity, the lack of foreign currency earnings leads to petrol and diesel shortages, food other than that grown in the country is ridiculously expensive, I'm depressing myself!
Having mentioned my normally taboo subjects of sex, religion and politics I'd better skip the subject of football, which is just as well after England's less than amazing year!
On a lighter note we have a confession to make. My Dad and Angela's Mum will be shocked and embarrassed and our UK friends staggered, but, here goes, this is very difficult…we've started to use margarine instead of butter! I place the blame squarely on Ron and Monica, the Dutch couple who gave us their tub of Flora margarine before flying home to Holland from Zambia. The only other mitigating circumstance is that butter is imported from South Africa and costs over £4 a packet in Malawi.
Anyway, too much of a good thing is supposed to be bad for you so it is time to leave the palm fringed beaches and warm lake waters and set off to explore some of Malawi's national parks.
- comments
Dave Ralph, MARGERINE instead of butter!! I'm gutted - I've known you and Angela for nearly thirty years now but this takes the buscuit. I'm afraid I'm going to have to reassess the whole nature of our friendship. This may be that last that you hear from me....
Ralph & Angela Sorry to let you down Dave, I blame the heat.....