What Happens When You Do the Right Thing

The last week here has impressed upon me that Malawi has serious problems. It's kind of easy to forget when you're white and have just had a good meal of nsima and beef, but the country is definitely in trouble. Not only is food scarce, but education is in shambles here in Malawi, so people often have never been told very basic things about sanitation, getting the right nutrition, etc. It's a cycle, the government doesn't have money from any major industries, since the industries can't get skilled workers since the education system is terrible because the government doesn't have the money to fund it. Capitalism is great and all, but only if you have something to offer the world market or people actually care about you. Usually the latter is a result of the former, and truth be told, Malawi doesn't have many resources to offer.




One of the primary problems that World Relief is addressing here is that a lot of people don't know how to make money. Even base level business principles don't register here. We went to a village called Napita the other day to see one of the church's chicken farming projects. We walked back into the church, past the pastor's office and opened the door across the hall. About two dozen chickens greeted us with frantic clucks. The office was a chicken pen! After speaking to the leader of the ministry team he told us he was selling the eggs they lay for about the same price as it costs to feed them. The price of chicken feed had gone up recently and he hadn't adjusted the prices accordingly. It's this kind of thing that World Relief is helping to correct. It seems fairly obvious but it takes work to get people into a business mindset instead of a subsistence labor. The situation is strange. All the explanation I've gotten as to why people don't know how to raise their own individual economies let alone the national one is as follows: "Education is bad and Malawians are lazy." This talk was obviously flippant, but it contributes to an overall stereotype that I have sensed hovering around the Malawian people. It reflects questions that need to be answered. Why is education in bad shape here? Why aren't Malawians doing more business?

I really felt like there was more to it than just 'laziness' so I started talking to people about Malawian history. When the British set up their colonies, each one had a characteristic goal in contributing to the British Empire. Rhodesia was for farming and South Africa for mining. It turns out that Nyasaland (as Malawi was called back then) was basically a source of cheap labor for the farms and mines set up in present day Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The people were actually taken from their villages to work for subsistence wages on the tobacco and tea plantations throughout the colonial expanse. It was basically indentured servitude, slavery by another name.

It is important to note that the surrounding countries of Zambia, South Africa and Zimbabwe (until recently) have been the envy of Malawians as far as development goes. These other countries have more educational emphasis and it's easier for their citizens to attend schools and universities, or so I've been told. Though no one has said this to me outright, it can't be a coincidence that Malawi is known for its lack of education while having this history. The first rule of maintaining a cheap labor force is not to educate that labor force, to prevent them from seeing just how screwed they really are. When the British left, all the workers on the tobacco plantations in Malawi just wanted to go back to their homes like any other freed slave would. However, it actually would have been better for the economy to keep the farms running at British standards, instead the workers were allowed to go home. There it is: The British colonized and formed the land they settled on into a governmental system that did serious injustice to the people and actually required that injustice to continue to support itself. If Malawi could've kept the farms running they could've started generating money for education and get Malawians trained in how to deal with this new world they'd been dumped into. But it all hinged on keeping the laborers in place.

Sound like anyplace we know? Yep, the good old USA. Remember all those years where slavery was kept in place to support the economy? We're doing okay now because we didn't quit unjust labor practices right away. It took a hundred years and a war to do that. Malawi is what happens when you listen to your heart and set the prisoners free. You're left with a system that requires continued exploitation to produce goods in a world that requires that you produce to be taken seriously. I personally think the Malawians have less to answer for than the British, but I'll go with the program for now. I'm still hanging on to my theory.

When I mentioned this to one of my World Relief colleagues, she kind of said "huh" as if it hadn't occurred to her. Maybe I'm wrong. For the Malawians, their country is their problem, not anyone else's, which is actually a good thing since they are taking it upon themselves to solve the problem through agencies like World Relief. As of now, however, I believe Malawi is a country that has been dealt a great deal of unseen injustice, forced into systems that value profit and payment instead of love, mercy and humanity. Malawi is far from lazy. Farming is tougher work than I have ever done (see my post 'Wild Wild East' for further extrapolation). Furthermore, It actually has a rich history of humanitarian work, contributing to its status as the "Warm Heart of Africa". Refugees from other war-torn countries have been allowed to settle in Malawi and have not been turned away. Malawi knows how to give; it's the taking that is more of a problem. I believe that God will remember the deeds of his Malawian children, and that they are among the richest citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.