‘Adult learning awakened me’

 At 54, Peter Davide backs the global push for life-long learning.

The farmer, from Kamtengo Village in Mchinji, dropped out in Standard One because his parents could not afford fees worth 50 tambala.

“I couldn’t read, write or count because I was born in a poor family where my most learned sibling reached Standard Six. As a result, I could neither follow business and agriculture tips nor tell whether I was making profits or losses,” he explains.

The second-born in a family of eight wanted to become a teacher, but became a hand-to-mouth farmer in the 1960s, three decades before Malawi embraced free primary education.

Eye-opener

Davide no longer gropes in the dark after completing adult literacy classes in his village.

He was among 36 men and women who received certificates at the end of classes which ran from 2019 to 2020. The inaugural class, from 2018 to 2019, had 48 adults.

Davide now sells soap, salt, matches and other basics to his neighbours.

He says candidly: “Some people misperceive learning as a children’s activity, but it is never too late to learn. Adult literacy and numeracy classes have taught me to record daily sales, take stock and get the arithmetic right.

“In the past, it was chaos. I couldn’t do business since I was afraid of giving buyers too much or too little change.”

“Tired of dipping his thumb in ink,” Davide recalls joining the classes, spanning two hours a day.

“If you have no education, people will make you press a fingerprint on papers you cannot read. I couldn’t even sign for payments for my crops because I was ashamed,” he declares.

His literacy and numeracy skills have fired the zeal to learn English to unlock “business and agricultural secrets written in the Queen’s language”.

“I am Peter Davide from Chimtengo Village. I can now make big decisions,” he brags, smiling with a sense of fulfilment.

Apart from daily sales, he records farm inputs, tonnes harvested and income from his farm enterprise.

“This year, my maize harvest filled eight oxcarts, a sharp increase from three in 2018. Now I know what I am doing. I no longer plant maize too close to each other because of using feet or naked eyes instead of recommended measures,” he quips.

The afternoon classes also help the farmer better understand modern farming methods extension workers promote. They include the use of manure and use of air-tight bags to protect his harvest, as recommended by the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi.

“Our yields were low because we didn’t know what to do and when. We used to prepare land after early rains instead of shortly after harvesting. We used to harvest less because we were planting late and our crops were prone to pests, diseases and dry spells,” he says.

Davide’s household no longer runs out of food by December. He now produces enough maize, beans and sorghum to eat, and for sale.

“The time once used to work for food in neighbours’ fields is now used to take care of my crops, business and family,” he says.

The adult literacy and numeracy classes contain basic tips on agriculture, nutrition, business management, HIV and Aids, water, sanitation, hygiene, culture, gender equality and other spheres of public life.

Back to front

Davide thanks instructor Goodwell Ofesi for giving him “a second chance”.

The tutor is excited that interested elders are using the lessons to lift themselves out of poverty and take part in public life.

“The classes help adults make better decisions about their lives and activities. No wonder, most of them are taking influential roles in their communities,” says Ofesi, who completed secondary school in 1998.

Davide is the chairperson of Nkhwazi Village Development Committee and a Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace group in Guillime Parish in the Archdiocese of Lilongwe.

The breadwinner for a household of five— who triumphed over illiteracy as did young David against the biblical Philistine Goliath— encourages two children in his care to keep learning and dream big.

He says: “I don’t want my children to face what I endured when I couldn’t read, write or count.

“Given another chance, I would return to school and let children laugh at me for learning with them what I should have learnt at their age.”

AYOBE