The rise and rise of kaunjika chickens

It has been said time without number that the gap between the rich and the poor is so wide.

From 1997, when 57 percent of Malawians were living on less than $1.90 a day, the figure, according to the World Bank, rose to 70.1 percent in 2019.

These musings came to mind after watching a trending Times TV interview with socialite Dorothy Shonga and her mate, musician Zeze Kingston (real name Robert Ching’amba). In as much as the interview brought to light real interesting facts as the two love birds see this world, it provided real-time entertainment in these hard times when the buying power is so low, the economy tanking and crime rates rising by the day.

It can only take an exceptional woman like Cash Madam, a moniker Shonga said she no longer wants to be her tag, to reveal to the whole wide world that the Angel Gabriel appeared to her in a vision and He revealed to her that there was Zeze around the corner.

Well, if you thought that was not comic enough, there comes Shonga with the claim that K100 million is peanuts, since they spend about K500 000 in their home every week. Well, one can only blame deeply ingrained poverty to think someone can spend that much in a week, but that would also be a surprise to hear Zeze crying over four pieces of bread in a song. May be that must have just been a persona Zeze created, and not merely recreating his real life in art.

Needless to say that Shonga has been involved in controversy over the years and, currently, there is a case running where she is accused alongside former Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) chief executive officer Collins Magalasi and two Mera officials Patrick Maulidi and Bright Mbewe in an alleged procurement scandal.

So, it is the light entertainment that Shonga and Zeze brought about that ignited light-hearted thoughts on how the ghettos and gutters are finding means for survival.

It is an open secret that right now in the ghettos, the price of chickens has become so exorbitant that on a weekend the dwellers want to have some delicacy, they are resorting to mere chicken parts from the local market.

To have an idea, the price of a chicken is hovering around K7 000. If you don’t get the idea, just consider that the highest denomination is K5 000 so my chicken economics to be right and accurate, you need K2 000 more to get one chicken.

So, right now, when you go to the nearest market, you are more apt to get chicken ‘spare parts’.

Even most of the butcheries in town are selling chicken ‘spare parts’ for those willing to still get a feel of the chicken they would so much wish for.

So, as it is, the ghetto dwellers who would rather opt for the supermarket for packs of necks, gizzards, zipalapasiro, liver and even heads. Those who would go for the open market at Ndirande, Bangwe and Mbayani, the parts are ready made and you pick according to your needs. Of course, not forgetting your budget.

So, the tragedy with buying these ‘chicken spare parts’ is that you would find that the head of a chicken is being sold at Kawale, the drumsticks find a home in Area 25 while the chinyophiro is somewhere in a Chilinde pot.

There was a time these kinds of dealings were meant for bachelors who would not have the time to slaughter chickens and go through the agonies of plucking them, removing the bile and kufinya matumbo.

In fact, there at Kaliyeka, the women were cooking the chickens, matemba, mazira a boyilo, nkhwani wotendera and even luni for the bachelors to pick their choice and eat the delicacies with nsima in the comfort of their bachelors’ lair.

Not anymore. Today, it is no longer just bachelors who are jostling for chickens that have gone through this breaking. Like cars that go for breaking, the spare parts are found in every corner of town.

These are the simple indicators that our economy is really tanking. We don’t need rocket science to get to the root of it all.

Or else, should we just wait for the day President Lazarus Chakwera will return home from his meetings on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly where he is already receiving awards for championing gender and wooing some humanitarian organisations to rake in billions for cash transfer endeavours?

We will wait for as long as it takes. In the meantime, we continue surviving on kaunjika chickens, while watching television interviews via Facebook as the struggle between some two elephants results in the people watching proper propaganda. Anyway, we still can follow the exploits of Dorothy and Zeze, as we seek to understand what Zeze meant when he sided: Mu tiyi athiramo Milo!