Prisca Lazalo, a Form Two student at Khombwe Secondary School in Traditional Authority (T/A) Kuntaja in Blantyre is keen on education, against all odds.
When her parents became so ill for over two years, that they could no longer afford to pay for her school fees, she was on the verge of dropping out of school. Even when her sister-in-law Florence Loti took her into her care, she still could not afford the fees from her mandasi business.
Two options lay before Prisca if she dropped out of school. The first was to find a domestic job, in Chilomoni Township, which is past the Michiru Mountain from her village. The other was to get married, like some of her friends.
“I could not do that. I have a future. You see, when most of the girls here get initiated, they don’t want to go to school. Mostly, they are told to leave their parents’ house and stay in a gowelo where they bring in boys for sex, freely,” says Prisca, who is still pursuing her education after sourcing sponsorship from the Girls Empowerment Network (Genet).
Another 16-year-old Form Two student at the school, Matilda Makwinja, asserts a gowelo is a single-roomed house parents build for their children to sleep in when they come of age. It is also called a mphala for boys, which is like a boys’ quarter in other settings.
“Mostly, the parents don’t want the initiates to know when they are enjoying conjugal rights. Sometimes, a gowelo can accommodate initiated girls from different families. It is difficult for parents to monitor if their children are studying, let alone, sleeping in the gowelo,” says Makwinja.
Fifty-six-year-old Windi Kamwetsa, a teacher at Khombwe, says the gowelo trend has not spared his family, where his sisters’ children dropped out of school after getting pregnant with boys they slept with in magowelo.
“My sisters had children in magowelo, but they all ended up pregnant and in marriages. I believe early marriages have nothing to do with poverty, but our culture. Some parents marry off their children because they believe it is payback time since their husbands would supply them some of their needs. It’s all wrong,” says the father of six.
While students at Khombwe are grappling with magowelo issues, at Nayizi Primary School in the populous Bangwe/Namiyango Township in Blantyre, a different story unfolds. Here, the issue of ‘gangsters’ rears an ugly head.
A Standard 8 learner at the school, Khalid Divala, 15, says the gangsters are typical ghetto groups of young boys. When a member of one of the groups is attacked, his mates go and avenge. He cites 4PF (Four Pocket Fool) and 30 BG (30 Blood Gang) as some of the crews that used to terrorise learners at the school.
“They fight so badly, sometimes they use knives. Sometimes, gang members stalk school-going girls. If the girls say no to their sexual advances, they are attacked. At some point, they were even storming the school and hiding in the toilets to attack learners and steal their shoes, bags and even boxers,” says Divala.
Sanderson Kadzuwa, one of the community-policing members in the area, says they have been fighting ‘gangsters’ that used to terrorise schools.
“They could go as far as interrupting classes if they had quarrels with learners or teachers at the school. Mostly, the gangs are formed outside the school. But for five months since we started a crackdown on them, the war is being worn,” he says.
South West Education Division school health and nutrition, HIV and Aids coordinator Sarah Mussa agrees magowelo and gangsters are some of the contributing factors to school drop outs in the division. She says compounded by poverty and cultural beliefs, magowelo lead to early pregnancies and child marriages.
“Mostly poverty has a role. The other reason is the lack of interest by some parents in their children’s education. These are the ones that construct gowelos for their children. And then, culturally, some parents force their children to get married so that they, too, can have grandchildren,” said Mussa.
According to her, gangs in primary schools like Nayizi are popular in urban areas.
“Mostly, these children copy from films, not knowing that what happens in the movies is far from the reality on the ground. It is hard,” says Mussa.
According to Genet project officer Loveness Kadaudau, with support from the Egmont Trust, the organisation is carrying out community engagement to ease gang and magowelo pressures. She says the engagements are carried out at Misesa, Mzamba and Nayizi primary schools in Blantyre and the district’s Khombwe and Mzamba community day secondary schools.
“Our survey showed that a lot of girls were dropping out of school due to child marriages following teenage pregnancies. The problem of gangsters has also been affecting some schools, especially in urban areas,” says Kadaudau.
According to her, the community engagements include teachers, learners, parents, chiefs and even the police.
With the establishment of a She-Dreams and He-Dreams club by the organisation at the school, 18-year-old Form 2 student at Khombwe, James Maziya says they now work to encourage to keep girls in school.
“Magowelo is a bad phenomenon. Some parents don’t see a problem with that. Otherwise, we share with the girls how to continue with their education and not be carried away with this trend,” says Maziya.
Elita Chingala, from Mulima Village in T/A Kuntaja, who is chair for the Parents and Teachers Association at Khombwe says, traditionally, magowelo were built to keep away children from their bedrooms. This, especially, happens after girls and boys go through initiation ceremonies.
She says when some girls go through initiation, they become arrogant to their parents. She recalls about one girl in the village who used to sneak out of her parents’ house to spend time with boys at a friend’s gowelo. When the parents rebuked her, she responded: “Why do you want to keep me from doing what you do every night in your bedroom?”
Observes Chingala: “Genet has sensitised us how bad this practice is, and how far it is in perpetrating early pregnancies and child marriages. Since everyone in the village was doing it, we did not realise that it was wrong.”
With six chiefs under him, group village head Mulima of T/A Kuntaja in Blantyre, where Khombwe school is located, says they are working out by-laws against magowelo.
“After sensetisation meetings, with the assistance of the T/A, we are working out by-laws against magowelo. Sometimes children think after initiation their parents cannot tell them anything,” says the village head.
Flora Ndalama, a mother of two children who learns at Nayizi, says after engagements with Genet, there have been improvements on the issue of gangsters at the school.
“Some children in gangs used to come to the school to terrorise other learners. As parents, we have learnt how to control our children and as a community and beef up security at the school with the police and school authorities,” she observes.
Nayizi Primary School head teacher Catherine Chiutsi says the issue of gangters has been dealt with a ‘guard-your-mate’ approach. She adds that they encourage each learner to report any ‘gang’ members to teachers and teachers are encouraged that they must listen.
“Most of the groups were not from within the school but they were formed outside. They could come and terrorise us but with this intervention, we now work with the police and chiefs when gangs are noted. In fact, once a gang member is found, we give them transfer letters to go elsewhere,” she says.
