Moya,
That season of the year is here again when we calendared to do some self-introspection and give you a report on the state of our estate, your Malawi, the estate in which you wholeheartedly invested your effort to build.
We dread this season because we, superstitious, still take seriously your threat that Sunday night at Black Box in Kabula that should we ever fail to report to you annually when you are gone ku mayiyi, as Tonga cosmology holds, you would emerge from yonder in the Nebula to wring our necks till we chocked unto death.
Moya,
As your uncle Che Vakara and his cousin, Chief Likoswe, used to drum into our rebellious selves, greetings must always come first. Unthu or uMunthu. A person, Che Vakara would go, is munthu because of how that person treats and approaches others and respects traditions, such as greetings and courtesy. Any person without these traits is a mere chilengiwa, chinthu, and not munthu. We choose to behave Unthu or uMunthu.
So, Moya, we send greetings from our earthly abode to you and John Chilembwe, Ngwazi Kamuzu Banda, kaNgwazi Bingu wa Mutharika, Tito Banda, Kaulanda Nkosi, Cheulekeni Mita, Grey Mang’anda, Ralph Tenthani, ada Nga Mtafu, Nomsa Mkandawire, Charles Mkula, Issac Malunga, Allan Phetembe, Chikondi Phikiso, and Biyeni Saulos Klaus Chilima. If you are fine, to quote Allan Namoko, ife kuno tikondwera.
Moya,
Malawi, your estate is going through hard times, most of them man-made. We say man-made because the persons that make the decisions are men; not women. Well, at least that is what appears on the surface. We don’t know what men and women say in their private spaces.
We thought we had enough problems already but the men that matter are not in control of the country. Period. Fuel problems are back. We have a respite now but that will last only up to election time. What happens thereafter only Jah Rastafari knows. The economy is in free fall. Maize sells at over K100 000 per bag of 50 kilogrammes, or K2 000 per kilogramme. That is the cost of raw maize. To mill it, more money is needed. Then water, and energy, and labour?
Fertiliser is fetching K150 000. Go ye into any shop and you see what we dread to say. To add rare salt to a fresh wound, sugar can’t be found, yet Nchalo, Dwangwa, and Salima estates are still there.
Moya, we still have the anti-corruption bureau, the courts, the police, and the messengers. But serious cases of corruption that started at the same time as the current administration have not moved even a millimetre. That they will be completed by September this year is as impossible as being alive after passing through the sun.
The Cashgate king, with his signature cheeks and haircut, was left to flee Malawi and nobody bothers to look for him. Free-man. Two years now, and counting.
Of course, Moya, there are small positive things that have happened. Yes, Moya. There are improvements in housing for the army and police, and road and rail networks, too. In addition, we have more traditional chiefs than before; more constituencies than before; more secondary schools and universities than before; more immaculate women and men than before; more babies than before, and more ways of getting married. You were not here when we started hearing of marriage by reputation. You see, Moya, we have made some progress.
Moya, demographers claim that your great estate now hosts over 21 million live souls; which is five times the number of Malawians in 1964 and 20 times the Nyasaland population recorded by the census of 1901. That we are indeed over 21 million in Malawi is something we do not believe. For whatever reason, the population is highly inflated.
Moya, we are gearing for the mother election on September 16 2025. Will go back to South, remaing in the Centre or by fluke go to the North? Moya Peter Arthur Mutharika (PAM) has changed his mind, after announcing in 2020 that he was retiring, and now believes he is the best choice for Malawi. It is clear from the Malawi Kongilesi Party (MKP) presidential candidate is Lazarus Chakwera, the President of Malawi.
The death of Saulos Chilima gave the opportunity to Dalitso Kabambe to move to UTM Party and his search for a house of comfort after being disappointed by the DPP and PAM. Enoch Chihana is firmly Aford. Atupele retired for retirement to rescue the UDF from itself. Joyce Banda says she will stand as well, for her People’s Party. Then there is Kondwani Nankhumwa of People’s Development Party, Peter Kuwani of Mbakuwaku Movement for Development, and Milward Tobias.
The new election law says to win an election a person must get a minimum of 50 percent plus 1 vote. Will anybody achieve that without coalescing with others? We doubt it.
But, Moya, that is the state of our estate 10 years on.
