Turning a violent page

Nineteen-year-old John Chilambe had barely made himself comfortable at the middle of hardcore criminals when a messy inmate ordered him to come after him.

He obliged. Under the watchful stares of over 60 inmates, he was taken from one nyapala [cell prefects] after the other for introductions.

After introducing himself to all the nyapalas, the guide ordered John to follow him to the edge of the cell.

And like a lamb prepared for slaughter, he followed.

“Now, you’ll shout out your name, age, the crime you committed and the length of the sentence [the court has meted on you],” said the guide while dexterously tucking a cigarrette in his lips.

John could not believe. It was as if he were watching a movie.

To the eagerly waiting ears, he announced: “…I’m 19 years old. I come from Traditional Authority Juma in Mulanje. The court has sentenced me to 12 months imprisonment with hard labour for causing bodily harm.”

John paused for a moment to appreciate the reactions from the inmates.

His instinct told him that he was far from satisfying the curiosity of the inmates. They wanted to know the crime that earned him a year-long stay at Mulanje Prison.

A week preceding his conviction, John and other members of the youth wing of a local political party were celebrating the victory of their candidate in the primary elections.

As the celebration climaxed, they asked their candidate for some money to buy alcohol.

They thought the festivities would be incomplete without alcohol. The candidate obliged. There, they guzzled the local distil and smoked hemp.

Next morning he found himself inside the cells of Mulanje Police Station.

At the court, the downcast boy said that in their intoxicated state, they picked a fight with losing candidate.

“In the course of the fight, I grabbed a knife, which was within my reach and mercilessly attacked members of the other camp. I didn’t know things will turn out this way. Please, forgive me magistrate,” pleaded John.

He is but just an example of countless young people who have broken the law in their attempt to secure support for their preferred politicians.

The 2008 Housing and Population Census found that the youth constitute an estimated 52 percent of the population with only nine percent having secondary or tertiary education.

This puts the youth at a greater risk of manipulation by politicians who are well resourced.

The National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust regional civic education officer for South, Christopher Naphiyo, observed that since the reintroduction of multiparty democracy, young people have invariably played a role in perpetrating acts of violence, especially during electoral processes.

But Naphiyo was quick to blame politicians for manipulating and mobilising young people to violently realise and further their own political objectives.

He also noted that exclusion and lack of opportunities among young people have, in many cases, led to disillusionment and their participation in violence.

“Unemployment, insufficient educational opportunities, poor governance and social marginalisation can lead to the deep disaffection of youth in society, thereby increasing the likelihood of their resorting to anti-social activity and engagement in violence,” he said.

Youth development and empowerment ranks sixth among the seven strategic areas of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP).

In its manifesto, MCP says, if given the mandate on May 20, its government will encourage private sector involvement in the provision of vocational training, apprenticeships and work-based learning.

“The MCP will revise technical and vocational training curricula to reflect the changing need of various communities and provide appropriate technology to take the challenges into the 21st century,” says the manifesto.

United Democratic Front (UDF) identified lack of relevant qualifications among the youth as the major hindrance to youth participation in productive economic activities.

The party says only 14 percent of the youth in Malawi are able to secure ‘white- collar jobs’ out of the 130 000 young people that enter job market every year.

“The formal sector is unable to create at a rate sufficient to absorb all these entrants, notes the manifesto. Over 70 percent of young men and women aged between 15 and 29 are employed in the informal sector with very little opportunities for skills renewal and bargaining. An estimated 80 percent of secondary school leavers return to their villagers every year as they can neither find jobs nor employ themselves,” says UDF, stressing this highlights acute human resource wastage.

As a solution, the party promises that if voted into office, it will devise a number of strategies to harness innovation, enhancing productivity and create youth employment opportunities.

Among others, UDF says it will introduce an internship programme across all government departments to bridge the study-work divide and equip recent graduates with valuable professional knowledge and skills.

The governing People’s Party (PP) says it will explore the possibilities of establishing public private-partnerships in implementing the National Youth Service Programme whose target will be to create 18 000 new jobs per year.

The manifesto also proposes the establishment of a Youth Training Centre in all the major cities to train at least 1 000 young people yearly in farming, animal husbandry and assorted technical skills.

“The PP government will focus on five sets of specific interventions: a) general and pragmatic youth initiatives; b) institutional and structural reforms; c) vocational and technical training; d) National Internship Programme; and e) National Youth Service Programme,” promises the party.

On its part, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) believes it is abnormal that Malawi should be producing employees from schools compared to entrepreneurs.

As such, the party promises a focus on skills training for self-employment, preventive health services and provision of recreational facilities to empower the youth gain financial independence, if voted into office. Naphiyo feared that manifestos alone cannot address the problems that put young people at risk of political abuse.

“We’ve had very appetising manifestos since the onset of multiparty democracy. But they rarely translate into action,” he noted.

This notwithstanding, the RCEO said his organisation is working with community-based organisations (CBOs) and youth clubs [spread across the country] to sensitise youths to the need to desist from serving as tools for chaos.

John admitted ever being approached by a youth club in his area, but could not appreciate the relevance of the messages the club was disseminating until the time he was being locked up.

“I really regret it. And what’s worse is that the candidate that mobilised us to perpetrate violence distanced himself from the violence we perpetrated,” he explained.