Why we will continue marching, protesting

We apologise to the people of Likoma and Chizumulu that due to security reasons, we are unable to travel to those beautiful islands.  But one day we will come and swim in part of Lake Niassa.

This week we are visiting Bwengu in uMzimba. Bwengu is the village home of Goodall Gondwe,  DPP president for the Northern Region and Minister of Finance and Economic Planning and other prominent Malawian families. But that is not why we are here.

We are here to see progress on the new power lines and substation being erected by the Malawi Government, through the Malawi Challenge Account and with funding from the US Government through the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

From what we hear, on completion and commissioning of the power infrastructure that is being constructed from Phombeya in Balaka through Ntcheu and Dedza to Lilongwe, from Chintheche in Nkhata Bay through Mzuzu to Bwengu and around the cities of Mzuzu, Lilongwe, Zomba, and Blantyre, Malawi will have enough power every day, all day and all night.

We will keep you informed.

Meanwhile, our indefatigable leader of delegation, Professor Abiti Joyce Befu, MG 66 and MEGA-1,  Nganga Maigwaigwa, PSC (RTD), I, the Mohashoi, Mukombe Alhajj Mufti Jean-Philippe LePoisson, SC (RTD) and the Most Paramount Native Authority Mzee Mandela  agree with President Professor Peter Arthur Mutharika, also fondly known as Apita, that  the federal republic of Malawi needs peace to grow and develop.

Indeed our farmers deserve peace. Our physicians deserve peace. Patients deserve peace. Our academics deserve peace. Our students deserve peace. Our pastors and Imams deserve peace. Our soldiers and police officers need some peace.  Investors need a lot of peace. Yes, even our politicians deserve a little peace.  What our federal president forgets is that peace can be a product of total popular suppression or good governance.

Those who care will remember that we, Malawians, lived peacefully for over 30 years from the year we got our independence from our British terrorists.  Our neighbours, Tanzanians, Zambians, Mozambicans, even Zimbabweans, called us docile fools, brainless idiots, political babies, farm pigs, and other unpalatable names.

Even as our brothers and sisters were jailed, sometimes over a simple issue like wearing dreadlocks, and, as some allege, thrown into our ever flowing animal farm to feed our national crocodile population, we kept the peace because we were peaceful.  We kept the peace even as our chickens, cattle, fish, and even nkhululu were snatched from us by some of the very people that today claim to represent us in Parliament. But, that version of peace was thrust unto our throats and pressured down into our psyches.

But one day, just one day, the people that were mandated to police  our peace got too peaceful and shot down some soldiers in Mzuzu over a Chibuku beer-hall brawl.  Then, the soldiers realised that Malawians needed genuine peace. That marked the end of the Malawi Young Pioneers although some say the act governing the organisation is yet to be repealed.

Then, you will remember, we became peaceful again until Bakili Muluzi decided to go against our agreed timelines. He wanted a third term. We didn’t want it. We breached the peace and marched. And march we did. And we shouted until the Third Term Bill was defeated in Parliament.

You will remember that we loved Bingu wa Mutharika. We loved him so much that we even marched and held vigils in support of his government. But he forgot who we are. He started terrorising us. He even used the State apparatuses of control to mow down protesters in Mzuzu. Then we protested again and again until ….. May his soul rest in peace.

Our federal President should remember that we are empowered and active citizens.  We will protest, with or without PAC. We will continue marching and protesting individually and collectively until this country has power all day and night; until opportunities are availed to all without regard to their district, tribe, region, race, and gender; until we are governed as people not farm animals; until politicians start listening and hearkening to our national wishes; until chiefs stop consciously endorsing maladministration and bad governance.