Of losing land to foreign investors

One of the things I hear from Malawians and pontificating NGOs is the constant whining about how we have lost our land to foreigners and multinational companies of all shapes and sizes. Whether it is multinationals buying off land from long-time farming residents or the Asians and Azungus buying up prime real estate along the lakeshore, we, Malawians, seem generally pissed off at the prospect that land, left to us by our ancestors, is being taken up by these foreigners.

It seems to aggravate us that these people, who were most likely not born here, seem to have taken a stake in our birthright while we all watch in complete and utter astonishment, looking like fools witnessing an event of biblical proportions.

Despite the obvious racist and xenophobic undertones of these sentiments, as a Malawian, I understand the frustration. In some way, justified or otherwise, the sentiments are warranted.

But I had a challenge of assumptions one day as I left a plush hotel room that had an odd assortment of Made in China furniture, Made in Malawi tissue-paper and Made in America TV programmes. As I left my multinational room located in one of many Asian-owned resorts along the Shire, I noticed several Malawians busy on a new, but hideous, accommodation unit. No-one was idle. Everyone was doing something and getting busy under the watchful eye of a stout Asian.

As I witnessed this fairly simple and banal situation, a thought crossed my mind that was not so banal and simple. I found myself asking: Had the chiefs of this area not sold this land, what would we, Malawians, have done with it? Would we have invested the billions in the many structural monstrosities that spanned the river side?

Would we have created employment for others? Or would we have just left it for subsistence farming? Or better yet, would we have left it for some future major project that will always remain in the future—a major plan that remains just a good idea printed on cheap paper?

Judging by the fact that the land had been sold to these Malawians of foreign origin or plain foreigners, it is probably safe to assume we, Malawians, had no idea what to do with the land. So as much as we, I inclusive, can throw a fuss about how these foreigners are taking over our land in some perverted form of commercial neo-colonisation underpinned by the principles of free market economics, the fact remains that they are creating employment and creating value with our land that we ourselves have failed, or are failing, to create.

In the final analysis, it seems we are a nation of mere “Monday morning coaches”—constantly talking and dreaming, in technicolour, about what we would do if it were us; forgetting that what we say does not really matter when all is said and done, it is what we do after we say it. Anyway, do we ever remember the Monday Morning Coach on Monday afternoon?

So, maybe the conversation should change—maybe we should focus on ensuring that these foreigners do not give slavery wages to our brothers and sisters, maybe we should protect farmers from multinational exploitation and ensure farmers get paid the true value of land they are selling. Maybe we should find ways of levelling the playing field so that indigenous businesses get a fair chance against these larger foreign-owned companies. Or better yet, maybe we should educate ourselves in how we can better negotiate deals with these multinationals, with marketing budgets larger than our gross domestic product, that ensure mutual and long-lasting benefit to both parties.

Truth be told, unless we can replicate the same value created by these foreigners, then we might as well shut up and put up with them and continue booking accommodation in their hotels and resorts, eating their strange exotic foods, cease and desist our petulant whining until we actually deliver bolder ideas that rival those of these un-Malawian investors. Because at least they are doing more for our brothers and sisters than we are with our mere talk of neo-colonisation, patriotism and sovereignty.

Happy 50th Anniversary!

—The author likes to comment on social issues