We stand or fall on culture

In 2004, the Blantyre Joint Choir organised a unique performance known as the ‘Sing Malawian Gospel Concert’. A number of Malawian traditional dances were choreographed into the gospel music of the choir.

As we worked on the mganda dance, it became apparent that we needed to get some mabadza (improvised trumpets made from gourds). Nobody in Blantyre could make these for us, so we ended up having them made in Dowa, a district in which mganda is a popular dance.

It is not that the people in Blantyre genetically do not possess the ability to make mabadza and those in Dowa do. There is nothing genetic or biological about the ability to make mabadza. It is purely cultural. Boys in Dowa grow up to the beat of mganda. In those days, villages used to compete against each other in this dance. When I was a student at Robert Blake Secondary School in Dowa, we used to have scores of mganda teams showcasing skills at Dowa Community Centre Ground during Republic celebrations.

Making mabadza is a skill many Dowa boys internalise. They grow up with the skill and, over time, they master it.

A snap survey in our tertiary institutions would reveal that most of the students there are children of people that have themselves attained relatively high academic qualifications.

The children of such people grow up observing their parents make strides in life, having been aided by their education. They have immediate role models.

In rural Malawi, there is another important cultural factor at play—the family system. Children that grow up in patrilineal families have a good chance of bonding with their fathers and hence with the rest of the immediate family. As such, they are better guided in their academic pursuits than children that grow up in matrilineal families, where fathers have little attachment to their children.

I am more than convinced that in nearly all pursuits, we stand or fall on the prevalent culture. If we developed a manufacturing culture in Malawi, we would be manufacturing things that would awe the entire world. Even Malawians have the potential to launch amazing projects and products on the world scene. Nay, manufacturing is not the preserve of the white race. Like Ghanaian Apostle Kankanka, who manufactures cars and other highly innovative technological products, stated: “Nobody is useless on earth. The moment you begin to think that someone is useless, it is an indication that you are fixing square pegs in round holes.”

We just have not taken the time to develop a culture that promotes innovation. We have to diligently search within our culture to identify which of its aspects we need to promote and which ones we need to eliminate. We may indeed have to adopt some practices from other cultures and graft them into our own to make progress.

Reading and writing, for example, are not part of our culture, but they can propel us to unimaginable heights of development if we adopt them. I have stated elsewhere and will state here again that the goodness about culture is that it is not cast in stone. It is dynamic; it is fluid; it is malleable. In short, it can be altered. If development depended on race, we would be doomed because race cannot be changed. Thankfully, it is dependent on culture, which is changeable.

There are numerous aspects of our culture that we need to get rid of to achieve tangible development. As I conclude, I will highlight just one: having no sense of belonging in employment. Many Malawians have to be slave-driven to doing their work in employment. They just do not belong.

They will tell you a thousand reasons why they cannot do anything voluntarily for their employers. The employers will be portrayed as the devil and they as the saints. In Japan, it is not uncommon for employees to sing a ‘company anthem’ as they begin work every morning, as a sign of solidarity with their employers. This cannot happen in Malawi, or has not yet happened. n