Global Voices » Malawi

Malawi: Moving Windmills: The William Kamkwamba Story

Ndesanjo Macha — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 13:11:59 +0000

Moving Windmills is a documentary that tells the true story of William Kamkwamba, a young innovator from Malawi, Africa who taught himself to generate electricity by building a windmill from found materials and scrap parts.

2011: The Worst Year in Malawi’s History?

Victor Kaonga — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:58:46 +0000

When the year 2011 began, everyone hoped for better amidst fuel, foreign exchange and political challenges in Malawi. This led some Malawians to choose chigubu (a jerry can for fuel) as the most popular item in 2011.

At the beginning of the year most Malawians did not expect that the fuel lines would be even longer at the end of the year. This has reflected the growing economic challenges in the country subsequently affecting people across the country.

The temperature in the political sphere became even hotter as the year progressed with campaign for the 2014 presidential election already set amidst a growing rift between the president and his vice president.

Several bad laws such as the Injunctions Bill, which restrains Malawians from getting temporary reprieve from courts against the government, were introduced much to the dislike of many Malawians.

Police versus academic freedom. Source: Joseph Banda's Academic Freedom in Malawi Facebook page.

Media practitioners became even more resolved to write and publish despite growing intimidation by ruling party functionaries. Some journalists decided to simply withdraw or demonstrate self-censorship.

Malawi's diplomatic relationship with its major donors, including Britain, hit a low point with the expulsion of the British Ambassador to Malawi.

The battle for academic freedom grew stronger and the intelligentsia finally won the battle when the Chancellor swallowed his pride.

The country's human rights record got worse with 21 people dead in July following anti-government protests, which were the first of their kind in democratic Malawi and resulted in the highest known number ever killed by security forces in Malawi.

As 2011 came to a close, few had reason to celebrate the festive season in style. Some have offered prayers for Malawi hoping for better in 2012. Others look back with pain, relieved it has gone.

Bloggers across the world have keenly followed the events in Malawi. Some decided to avoid posting about the problems but many had the courage to blog on Malawi.

Glad 2011 is going

Vincent Kumwenda stated:

Very bad decisions were made in the year like the expulsion of the British Ambassador, the bad laws which were passed by our honorable members of parliament. Malawi could have done better without these decisions and our governance and socio economic problems could have been averted.

While on Zachimalawi, journalist Richard Chirombo posted President Mutharika’s picture with a prayer:

As we prepare to enter the New Year, our prayer should be: ‘God, as you bless other nations, do not forget us. Do not forget Malawi”- Malawi's President, Ngwazi President Bingu wa Mutharika.

Fuel crisis

Boniface Dulani advised the government to discuss ways of solving the long-standing fuel crisis. In a blog post titled ‘zones zimatha nkukambirana‘ (Discussing issues can sort out the crisis), he suggested that Malawi should address the underlying concerns that led to problematic relationships with donor countries:

Going to the World Bank and the IMF with the sob-story that Malawi is hurting without addressing the concerns that led to the suspension of the Extended Credit Facility, ECF, in the first place is just wishful thinking. Merely meeting donors and asking them to resume aid when we have taken zero steps in addressing the concerns that led to the suspension of aid in the first place reflects myopia of the highest order.
Let us act and address the challenges and concerns that got us into the current situation. We can then have something to discuss. Until then, Mr Gondwe and your likes, you are increasingly being revealed to be the jokers that you are.

As the year was getting to a close, Ndagha was surprised that he could easily fill up the tank. He took this as a Christmas gift:

Today on my way from a Christmas church service, I saw a short fuel line at gas station within my residential location. I could not believe that there was petrol and the line was that short. I quickly dropped my family members home and rushed to the gas station. Anxiously on the fuel line, I kept wondering how much they were to allow me to purchase.

As my turn came, I told the attendant to fill the tank. I had just decided to borrow the money if I was to fill up, I could not believe he accepted and filled it. I paid and drove off. This was the shortest gas filling opportunity at a gas station in more than four months! Of course the shortest but expensive are those fuel vendors.

Academic freedom

As reported earlier, the fight for academic freedom was one of the major areas for low points for the Mutharika administration in 2011. While majority were not happy with his conduct during the crisis, he nevertheless had support from some including Malawi Broadcasting Corporation Director General Bright Malopa, whose position is no surprise.

Malopa, wanting to play good boy to the powers that appointed him, played down the academic freedom fight in his article titled ‘Disappointed with the conduct of Chanco staff Union‘:

It seems straight here that the current regime is tolerant therefore pausing no threat to academic freedom and democracy at large. The essence of the current regime it seems has always been a belief in human nature as distinct from abstract ideology. And the essence of human nature is adaptability, flexibility, ingenuity. I have no reason to doubt that the current adminstration’s policies throughout the last seven years have been designed to give these virtues room to grow. Now People have all the freedom they wanted on planet earth. The only trouble though is that they don’t know what to do with it.

Other netizens had own views most of which were contrary to Malopa’s view.

Human rights

Right from February, civil society wanted to lead demonstrations against growing economic and social problems in the country. The protests were banned while some of their civil society leaders were silenced. As the year progressed, Malawians could not remain silent. Possibly inspired by the protests elsewhere in the world, July 20 was set.

Even though the government tried to stop them, the justice system smiled on Malawians. The security forces handled this badly leading to deaths of about 21 people and over 300 injured following city-wide demonstrations in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu, Zomba and Karonga.

Journalist Kondwani Munthali chronicled the events as they happened in Malawi’s capital city, Lilongwe on July 20. In a personal post titled ‘Malawi Violence: July 20: What I witnessed‘, Munthali gave account of the events of the day:

'United for Peaceful Resistance Against Bad Economic and Democratic Governance'. Image courtesy of 'DEMO YA TIYENI TONSE PA 20 JULY' Facebook page.

10.14 We arrive at Zodiak station and the offices are disserted, with Emmanuel Chibwana we start off to Lumbadzi where the riots are intense. We are warned 1km away from the trading not to proceed. We Abandon the vehicle and walk to the riot zone. A body is lying on the streets and PTC and other shops are on fire.

Eye witnesses say the man was a builder who had gone to watch the riots.
Police stop us from taking photos.

11.30 We get a call from a Circulation officer that another man has just been shot in Chilinde. I trace the man he was with my childhood friend Suzgo Kwelepeta and they were talking of business when a Policeman shot him on the mouth. He died instantly.

12.00 We return through Area 25, where we meet a Red Cross vehicle carrying a semi conscious man allegedly shot by Police. Everyone tells us of stories of tear gas being thrown at people’s houses.

Many feared for this day and it has since been a bad reference point for the Mutharika regime. Broadcast stations were ordered to stop covering the events live. It was tense.

Was the freedom of expression and the right to information assured? Following what happened, some journalists decided to take a low profile for fear of reprisals following threats from the ruling party sympathizers. What remains to be known is whether this trend will continue in 2012.

Bad laws

For reasons best known to the DPP-led government and its legislators, several bills were enacted into law in 2011. This led the Public Affairs Committee to describe the year as the worst in governance. Thankfully, the government has moved in to review bad laws. The zero-deficit budget was introduced last year, debated heavily and eventually passed. This was possibly the first time that most Malawians heard about the Zero Deficit Budget.

As Malawians enter 2012 it remains uncertain as to when the fuel, forex, economy, human rights, political and energy problems will be overcome. Certainly the majority would want this be a passing phase for a better Malawi in 2012.

Malawi: Actor's Arrest Reminiscent of Past Dictatorship's Censorship Laws

Steve Sharra — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:44:28 +0000

Malawi police on Sunday afternoon December 18, 2011, stormed a stage on which a play was being performed, and led the play's main actor away into a waiting police van.

According to posts on Facebook, where the news first broke and reactions came in fast and furious, the play is titled “Semo” produced by Lions Theatre. The lead actor in the play is Thlupego Kaluli Mgawa Chisiza, son of Malawi's best known playwright and actor, the late Du Chisiza Jr. The play was being performed at Nanzikambe Amphitheatre in the commercial capital, Blantyre.

First to break the news was Brian Banda, Malawi's leading radio host who works at Capital FM Radio. He was in the audience when the arrest happened and he posted pictures on his Facebook page. Banda's status update, a little after 3.05 pm Malawi time, read [the content is currently only available to friends]:

Actor Thlupego Kaluli Mgawa Chisiza being led away for questioning. Photo courtesy of Brian Banda.

Police have just stopped a play ‘Semo' by Lions Theatre at Nanzikambe Amp Theatre.

Reactions flowed in immediately with people wanting to know the police's motive. Banda responded:

The play is reported to be too critical of Mutharika regime.

He later added:

We are all here. Nobody is moving.

For most people commenting on Facebook the scene was reminiscent of the one-party dictatorship when “president for life” Dr. Hasting Kamuzu Banda ruled Malawi for 30 years, from 1964 to 1994. The one-party era was characterized by heavy-handed censorship through a government agency known as the Censorship Board.

The end of one-party rule in 1994 brought democratic changes, and the Censorship Board no longer played its public censorship role. However despite Malawian activists questioning the presence of the board in post-1994 Malawi, censorship laws have remained, and the board continued existing, albeit in a low profile. It was renamed the Malawi Classification Board, but Chisiza's arrest and charging shows the law governing the board remains stuck in pre-1994 Malawi.

Commenting on Brian Banda's update, Joseph Nkhoma wrote:

Fast descending into a police state. Tiziopanso kutchula dzina la munthu. [Should we go back to being afraid to even mention somebody's name?] Wasn't 30years enough for this?

Another comment, on a separate thread, also alluded to the dictatorship era [the content is currently only available to friends]:

I heard of more or less similar stories from my late father, but i never thought I could live in similar times. Was his vote in 1993 and 1994 a waste? I am hurting bro.

Some went even further and alluded to the colonial era when Malawi was under British rule:

Bola welesnkey anali wobwera [At least Wellensky was a foreigner]

That reference was to Raphael Roy Wellensky, the last colonial Prime Minister for the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The federation was fiercely hated and opposed by Africans, who fought it and won independence as modern day countries of Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Another netizen wondered why arrest an actor when a play is authored by a playwright, but online newspaper Nyasatimes reported that Chisiza co-authored the play together with Robert Chasowa, a University of Malawi Polytechnic student activist who was found murdered on campus on the morning of September 24, 2011.

Blogger Ananiya Alick Ponje commented, also on facebook [the content is currently only available to friends], about the paranoia that seemed to be gripping the Malawi government:

By now, we all know what an insecure and pessimistic regime is like: it has to arrest anyone who rebukes it

More reaction appeared on a Facebook group known as Malawi at 50: Towards a New Crop of Malawian Leaders [Malawi at 50 is a closed group]. On Malawi at 50 the first update on the arrest appeared at 7.40pm Malawi time, from Taweni Gondwe Xaba. She wrote:

Playwright and actor Thlupego Kaluli Mgawa Chisiza being led away by Malawi Police for questioning on the “subversive” substance of the creative material in his new play. I'd call it a great opening run;-) Free publicity provided by Malawi Police.

Later Xaba alluded to her fears about what happened to a young Malawian political activist when the police questioned him, a reference to University of Malawi Polytechnic student Robert Chasowa who was murdered after getting involved with police intelligence gathering. Xaba wrote:

I understand he was frogmarched off stage by police 11 minutes into the performance. I'll post the rest of the pics just now. He appears unperturbed by the whole thing but I am worried guys. The last time these people questioned some youth he ended up “committing suicide.” I also recall a recent Nation newspaper interview with him which mentioned that some of the content or lines in the play were contributed by Robert Chasowa who was also into drama and acting etc. I have no idea if these issues are linked.

A Malawian human rights lawyer, Habiba Osman, who created the group Malawi at 50 responded:

I am not surprised that they'd do such thing..it pisses me off that the Police are the ones perpetrating such acts when in fact they know that they will never win this battle..and that others who are limiting this constitutional right will leave office and this right will remain with us..

A subsequent post from Habiba Osman suggested action, making references to another court case on Monday for five human rights activists who were arrested on October 14 for staging a protest in the Malawi capital Lilongwe:

Taweni, I need more information..we need to mobilise fast..we are in court tomorrow. So hopefully, we can address others too.

While the reaction was quickest on Facebook, online newspaper Nyasatimes published the story on their website on Sunday evening. On Monday the print media also carried the story. As of Monday evening Brian Banda reported on his Facebook page about Chisiza's charge and release on bail:

Thlupego Chisiza fined K5000. He has paid and he is free now.

Facebook page Towards Malawi Elections 2014 also posted on Monday evening and stated what Police charged Chisiza with:

Chisiza convicted and asked 2 pay K5,000.00 or face 2months for staging a play without permit

Other comments on Facebook have pointed out how Chisiza's arrest is now backfiring and giving free publicity for the play “Semo,” its main actor Thlupego Chisiza and the drama group Lions Theatre (until this incident on Sunday afternoon, I had never heard of the play, the actor nor the group). On Monday night Dannie Grant Phiri posted on his facebook page:

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the police and the censorhip board because without their actions some of us would've been blissfully unaware that Thlupego Chisiza had produced a play that has powers that be very very uncomfortable.

Now we're seriously looking for the script.

His friends reacted to his observations. Peter Namphande said:

I used 2 pay less attention to plays, but now my interest has been rekindled. I have 2 watch this one!

Taweni Gondwe Xaba wrote:

one young man has shaken Bingu and his cronies in a way opposition has failed to do!

The pen is indeed mightier than the sword, noted Taweni Gondwe Xaba:

the pen is mightier than the sword… proven true yet again!! i love what is unfolding;-)

Thlupego Chisiza was on Monday found guilty of staging a play without a permit from Censorship Board and was fined K5,000 (approx. US$30) or in default six months imprisonment with hard labour. He paid the fine.

After his release, Chisiza asked his Facebook friends:

Now that am out WHAT NEXT?

According to Nyasa Times reporter, Semo is a Moses-like leader who saved a historic nation from oppression. The play is set in the increasingly undemocratic Republic of Kwacha which is plagued by learned advisors who praise an increasingly oppressive king to safeguard their positions.

Malawi: The President Talks Better in English Than Chichewa

Ndesanjo Macha — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:40:51 +0000

Gregory Gondwe argues the Malawian president talk better in English than Chichewa, a Bantu language widely spoken in Malawi: “Whether it is a piece of fortune or a curse it is not for me to say. I believe there is evidence that two of our three Executive Heads that have presided over the country had experienced or experience problems to communicate in proper vernacular Chichewa.”

Malawi: Meet Global Voices Author Steve Sharra

Linda Annan — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:22:29 +0000

Linda Annan talks to Malawian Global Voices Author Steve Sharra. Sharra is a blogger, freelance journalist, lecturer and educational editor. He blogs at Afrika Aphukira. He has published poetry and fiction, radio plays (Malawi Broadcasting Corporation) and a radio short story (BBC); and authored a children's book, Fleeing the War, which won the 1995 British Council Write a Story competition. In 1997 he became Honorary Fellow of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa (USA), after Prof. Emeritus Steve Chimombo (1983), and the late Edison Mpina (1984) and in 1998 he was writer-in-residence at the University of Iowa (USA).

In this interview, Steve Sharra talks about the Malawian social media space, his professional background and his interest in education, teaching and writing.

Linda Annan (LA): Can you briefly tell us about yourself?

Steve Sharra (SS): I was born in a place called Bawi, in Ntcheu district, Malawi. At the time my father was attending a police training college, so my mother went to live with her parents. My grandfather, a reverend, was teaching at Bawi Primary School. We moved to Zomba Police Camp when I was about a year old. That’s where I grew up. Zomba was the capital of Malawi going back to the colonial days in the 1890s, until 1975 when Malawi’s first president, Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, moved it to Lilongwe. I attended Police Primary School, St Stanislaus Prep School, Nankhunda Seminary, and Police Secondary School. After secondary school I went to Lilongwe Teachers’ College, from 1990 to 1993, where I qualified as a primary school teacher. In 1994 I left teaching at became an editorial assistant of educational materials at Malawi’s national curriculum centre, the Malawi Institute of Education. In 1998 I went to graduate school, first the University of Iowa, and later Michigan State University, both in the United States. At Iowa I studied English Education, while at Michigan State I studied Teacher Education, and wrote my dissertation on curriculum aspects of peace studies in education. My doctoral thesis argued for the adoption of a concept in the school curriculum which I termed uMunthu-peace, a type of social justice based on African definitions of being human, and our interdependence as human beings. I returned to Malawi in May 2010, after spending three years as a visiting assistant professor of peace and justice studies in the Department of Philosophy at Michigan State.

Malawian blogger and Global Voices Author Steve Sharra. Photo courtesy of Noelin Zawazawa.

LA: What’s the meaning of your blog name Afrika Aphukira? Is there a particular reason why you chose that name?

SS: Literally “Afrika Aphukira” translates as “Africa will be reborn.” I chose that Chichewa name for my blog as my way of expressing optimism for Africa; optimism for an African Renaissance.

LA: What is the state of Malawian blogosphere?

SS: I think the Malawi blogosphere, in the narrower sense of just blogs, is lagging behind the larger Malawi social media sphere. I wonder if that’s exclusive to Malawi alone. On a number of times a Malawian blogger has broken big impact news, for example Boniface Dulani who was the first person to write about the University of Malawi academic freedom struggle just hours after it broke. That was February 12th, 2011, when the Malawi Police Inspector General, Peter Mukhito, summoned a university lecturer, Dr. Blessings Chinsinga, to question him about a lecture in which he had used the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt as an example to illustrate a point. More recently, Mabvuto Jobani has been blogging breaking news about police involvement in the murder of University of Malawi Polytechnic student, Robert Chasowa, on September 24th. Otherwise, it’s facebook mostly, and twitter to a lesser extent, that’s the most thriving form of new media in Malawi.

Steve Sharra dancing at a wedding. Photo courtesy of Mpatso Chabwera.

LA: You seem to be a big advocate of Malawi. Besides the fact that you’re Malawian, what else could be the reason?

SS: That’s an interesting question, Linda. We have a Chichewa proverb that says “Nankununkha saadzimva.” It means something like one doesn’t detect one’s own smell. But I think my conspicuous advocating for Malawi comes from a particular personal history and identity politics. A number of my early classes in graduate school, 1998-1999, required us to do serious intellectual self-reflection. Once I started looking back to where I was coming from, I started noticing a number of very peculiar aspects of what it meant to be a Malawian and an African. I had never had occasion to do so when I lived in Malawi. I guess leaving your country and going outside your continent seems to do that to a number of us. That’s when being of Malawian and African identity started taking on a big significance. It made me very conscious and sensitive to any suggestions of identity deficiency and racial denigration. I think it was tied to being a black person, and an African. That’s when I also began reading Pan-Africanist theory, so it all started coming together. I have come to see it as part of my responsibility, as a Malawian, a black person, and an African, to promote and advocate for a more complex understanding of Africa. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza calls it the imperative of every African intellectual. I see much of what ails Africa today as originating in the image that has been constructed for the continent in the 500 years that Europe has enjoyed global supremacy.

LA: Why do you choose to approach your musings from an “African epistemological perspective” as your blog suggests?

SS: Somewhere along my studies, I read about ways of knowing, knowledge systems that mediate the process of producing knowledge. It dawned on me that what was categorized as school knowledge was a product of a particular way of knowing, a European epistemology. Much knowledge is human knowledge, but Europe has developed a way of producing and consuming knowledge that privileges European heritage and civilisation. This would not be a problem, were it not for the manner in which that privileging process undermines and denigrates other societies’ ways of knowing. In my doctoral research I read Malawian philosophers such as Harvey Sindima, Augustine Musopole, and Gerard Chigona, who have worked on uMunthu as an African epistemology, and political scientists such as Richard Tambulasi and Happy Kayuni who have argued for uMunthu as an African political ideology. I learned from these scholars that what ails Africa is a direct consequence of being at the receiving end of Eurocentric epistemology. In order to address that problem, I think we need to learn African epistemologies, so as to understand the world from an African perspective. It’s what Mahmood Mamdani calls “dealing with the global from the perspective of the local.” Right now we are doing it the other way round, and Africa is suffering terrible consequences. But things are looking up now, I think. I see more and more people realising why Africa must develop self-confidence and deal with Europe, America and Asia from the vantage point of Africa. But it will take a lot of intellectual effort and political will; a radical change in the leadership.

LA: Tell me about “Fleeing the War.” I know it was a children’s book but what was it about and what inspired it?

SS: Fleeing the War was a children’s story I wrote in 1995. It is about a group of Malawian adolescents who are hunting along the Malawi-Mocambique border, which is where their village is located. They are surprised to meet two little children, a boy and a girl, who are apparently lost. They have been fleeing from Mocambique’s civil war. They set off in the night, with their parents, but soon they get lost. The parents go one way, and the children go another. The Malawian children take the Mocambican children home, and make them comfortable. After six months of searching, the children’s parents make their way to the Malawian village, and find their long lost children. The story was inspired by true events. There was civil war in Mocambique between 1976 and 1991. A million Mocambicans fled into Malawi and settled down. Many of them spoke Chichewa already, a common language along the border between the two countries. Many of them returned after the war, but many also stayed behind and became Malawian citizens. The first school where I taught in Ntcheu district served as a rationing centre. UNHCR officials came and delivered supplies to the refugees. They came from far, and on their way to the rationing centre they would sit down to rest under a huge tree next to my uncle’s grocery store in the village. I would sit down and talk with them about their experiences. I crafted the story from those encounters.

LA: You are involved with the Malawi Teacher Professional Development Support (MTPDS) project aren’t you? What is it and how did you get involved?

SS: It is a project of the Malawi Government, through its Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. We are establishing a teacher professional development system for primary school teachers, most of whom have no such opportunity once they graduate from teachers’ college. I got involved through my participation in a prior, related project.

Steve Sharra at work. Photo courtesy of Speaker Nkhonjera.

LA: Why the interest in education and teaching? Why not something else?

SS: The teaching came rather by accident. I failed to make it to the University of Malawi, the only university operating in Malawi at the time. About 36,000 students sat the secondary school leaving certificate examination in those days, but there were 700 spaces in the University. My father suggested teaching. I was away vacationing in my my father’s home village when the government advertised for a teacher training programme. He mailed me the advert, and I applied. I realized I had a passion for teaching. It gave my life meaning. I particularly enjoyed being in control of the process of learning new things, and helping children learn. Since then, I look at the world through the eyes of a teacher.

LA: It’s obvious that you’re drawn to academia. Why is that?

SS: I was initially drawn to creative writing; that was my first intellectual calling. One of the earliest lessons I learned, in secondary school, was that literature provided powerful ways of making sense of complex realities. I learned this from Malawian poets Jack Mapanje, Anthony Nazombe, Garton Kamchedzera, Frank Chipasula and Steve Chimombo, among others, and their influence rubbed off on me. They all wrote poetry, but being literary scholars, their writings, both the poetry and the scholarship, opened a window through which I saw Malawi quite differently. Particularly, it was the political oppression, social injustice and inequality that made me realize that a better Malawi was possible. All of this happened as I transitioned from being a secondary school student to being a student-teacher. I became a teacher, and together with the passion for writing, academia became a compelling interest.

LA: What do you do now as a profession and where are you currently based?

SS: I am a teacher educator and educational researcher. I’m based in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital.

LA: If you had an empty schedule one Saturday, what would Steve Sharra be doing?

SS: Ha ha. Saturdays don’t come empty anymore, as they used to. I would probably be reading some really good fiction, or creative non-fiction, which I haven’t done in years. Or I would be playing chess with my kids.

LA: Did you get accepted into the Shuttleworth Fellowship? What did you wish to accomplish with that?

SS: I was very disappointed when I didn’t get accepted for the 2011 Shuttleworth Fellowship. It’s such a unique fellowship where somebody asks you to describe what you think is wrong with the world, or at least in your society, and then gives you as much money as you require to go about addressing that problem. I was hoping to design a project whose sole aim would be teacher empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa, through global dialogue with teachers elsewhere, and through teacher-led intellectual production. I still hope to get funding to do this one day.

Malawi: Women in Prison

Ndesanjo Macha — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:14:40 +0000

Sonya Donnelly writes about the plight of Malawian women in prison: “Prison is often a very expensive way of making vulnerable women’s life situations much worse. Once a woman is incarcerated miles from her home, sometimes for months or years without the case progressing, she may lose her home, her relationships and her children in the process.”

Malawi: Malawi in Photos

Ndesanjo Macha — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 10:43:09 +0000

I Love Malawi is a blog that showcases photos from Malawi: ” If you have some interesting photos about Malawi, send us an email and we will post them on this blog. The photos will be rightly attributed to you in the blog!”

Malawi: New Blog for Free and Open Source Software

Ndesanjo Macha — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 10:38:30 +0000

The Blantyre Free and Open Source Software Users Group has a new blog: “Welcome to the blog of Blantyre Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Users group. Blantyre Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Users Group is a grouping of individuals that use free and open source software but are based in Blantyre, southern Malawi.”

Malawi: A Growing City and its Pay-to-Cross Footbridges

Steve Sharra — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:41:04 +0000

As the world's population reaches 7 billion at the end of October, one sign that Lilongwe, Malawi's capital, is growing rapidly are the numbers of people that flock to the city's markets. Two of such markets are on opposite sides of the Lilongwe River in this city of just over 1 million. One market sells vegetables and farm produce, the other clothing.

Four years ago, going from one market to the other meant taking a circuitous path along the riverbank, crossing the Lilongwe Bridge, and then walking back on the other side. Today, there are bridges connecting the two markets, but they are not conventional bridges. They have been constructed by hand using locally-sourced wood.

A hand-made bridge connecting two markets across the Lilongwe river. By Steve Sharra (CC-BY)

The bridge pictured on the right was constructed by a team of seven young men, and it now provides them with a livelihood. They take turns manning the bridge, from as early as 6am to as late as 7pm when darkness falls and the markets close.

The proceeds of the day's bridge-crossing go into the pocket of whoever is on shift. From his earnings, Samuel Mbewe told me he had opened a grocery store.

Their constructors collect tolls, currently at K10.00 (US$0.06) per person crossing.

A local solution to joblessness and urbanization

On Sunday October 2, 2011, I found Samuel Mbewe and Kayen Kayanka, standing guard at their bridge. In the three years that they have owned the bridge they have never counted how many people cross the bridge per day. But Samuel told me their earnings range from MK9,000 (US$54) on a slow day, to MK25,000 (US$150) on a good day.

At MK10 person, that's between 900 and 2,500 people crossing the bridge every day. But it's only an estimate, since he says some people pay only K5, while others don't pay anything at all, such as friends and colleagues.

At work on a Lilongwe river bridge, Samuel Mbewe and Kayen Kayanka with friend. By Steve Sharra (CC-BY)

The bridges are not for the lightheaded, or someone with vertigo. First timers take slow steps, while experienced crossers walk as if they were in Air Jordan basketball sneakers.

A Swiss blogger, Janique Racine, wrote in 2007 about being frightened to death upon crossing a swaying bridge. She said:

Of course you don’t want to look down but you have to because your foot might get stuck in the empty spaces!

There are other hazards as well. The Lilongwe River overflows during the rainy season. The bridges get damaged in the floods, but they are rebuilt once the rainy season is over. In January this year a man drowned trying to cross.

In July this year, the young men (there are no women thus far) organized themselves into a “bridges union”. They agreed each bridge should contribute K200 (US$1.20) per day to a shared pool. That translates into MK803,000 (US$4,808) per year. The aim of the union is to support members in times of death or bereavement. I asked about future investment plans with the savings, but they had none, as yet.

Malawi: Death of a Student Activist and a Campaign of Terror

Steve Sharra — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:20:46 +0000

Early on the morning of Saturday September 24, 2011, a University of Malawi Polytechnic student was found lying stiff on a paved surface, next to a pool of blood, on the university campus. His name was Robert Chasowa, and he was dead. Early whispers suggested suicide, including a question posted on an unlisted google forum for Malawian journalists:

Is it true a male student has committed suicide by throwing themselves off from an upper floor?

Chasowa was said to have had a cut on the back of his head, and not everyone was buying the suicide suggestion. In the evening of that Saturday the police announced they were going to issue a statement. It came late afternoon the following day, Sunday, September 25. In the statement, National Police Headquarters spokesperson, Mr Willie Mwaluka, announced what he said were postmortem results from Malawi's leading pathologist, Dr. Charles Dzamalala. Based on the postmortem results, and a note the deceased was said to have left for his parents, Mr Mwaluka announced that Robert Chasowa had apparently committed suicide.

Malawian student activist Robert Chasowa. Image source: RIP Robert Chasowa Facebook page.

Chasowa was buried on Monday September 26, two days after his death, but then on and offline, the questions were only beginning: Why were the police in such a rush to conclude that Chasowa had committed suicide? Why was there a cut at the back of his head? Where was campus security when all this happened? What was going on with Malawi?

Chasowa's death came after a spate of arson attacks on two vehicles belonging to a radio station claimed by the president to be hostile to the government, and more arson cases involving houses and offices of human rights activists. In September three markets in the cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe suffered extensive fire damage, also suspected to be arson. Another activist, Lawrence Bisika, was reportedly beaten up in a bar in the city of Zomba on September 21st by people believed to be using a vehicle from Ministry of Lands. There have been death threats to journalists, columnists and individuals seen as critics of the government. The Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) announced on the same day Chasowa was buried it was going to open an investigation into the death of the student activist.

On Saturday, October 1, a weekend paper, Malawi News, published on its front page a story in which Dr. Dzamalala denied ever releasing to the police a postmortem report on Chasowa's death. He said he had indeed performed a postmortem on Chasowa, but had not yet released the results as some tests were yet to be concluded. Another story in the paper said Dr Dzamalala had been surprised by the number of police officers who were present during the postmortem, and by the several police visits to his house later, asking him for the postmortem report. On Tuesday, October 4, Dr. Dzamalala was interviewed on Capital Radio Malawi's Straightalk programme, and announced that the results of the postmortem would be out the following day. On Wednesday October 5th both Malawi's dailies The Nation and The Daily Times carried banner headlines on their front pages, quoting the postmortem report, proclaiming that Robert Chasowa had not committed suicide; he had been murdered.

On Thursday, September 29, blogger Bright Mhango Baghaya published on his blog an article titled “The document that killed Chasowa“. Baghaya prefaced the article with a statement saying he was publishing the article, verbatim, and did not intent to infringe anybody's copyright, creating the impression that the article had been authored by Robert Chasowa:

Black Moses is answering sedition charges because of this here publication, Robert Chasowa was being sought and killed [my verdict] because of this here document. I have just taken the whole bit, verbatim… I do not intend to infringe any copyrights. its strictly journalistic. This is the sixth edition, it came out on Monday, Moses was arrested on Tuesday, Robert was killed on Saturday.

Chasowa's mum bids farewell. Image courtesy of malawivoice.com

Written in point format, the document lists 12 questions, asking President wa Mutharika to explain various aspects of governance, including allegations of corruption and foreign bank accounts where Malawi's wealth is allegedly being siphoned off to:

1. We need an explanation- why the presidential jet was impounded in America
2. Mr. President-explain to us why should the Secretary for Treasury extort K16 Million from investors on behalf of DPP and you, your Excellency?
11. Mr President-why should Paladin Africa a company which is mining uranium at Kayerekera be banking U$100,000 every month to your personal account in Australia-when Malawi is experiencing a cute shortage of forex

On Wednesday October 5th blogger Mabvuto Jobani published on his blog an article, reporting that two police officers had visited the blogger, saying they knew who killed Chasowa. They asked for anonymity, telling Jobani:

But we definitely know the guys who killed him…there are the same guys who torched Rafiq Hajat’s offices in Blantyre and Rev Sembereka’s house in Balaka but the trouble is that we cant arrest them because they are being protected.

News of the suspicious death was spreading like wildfire and was being hotly debated on social networking websites, discussion forums and in the comments' sections of online newspapers. On Thursday October 6 Jobani posted an article announcing that the European Union was going to issue a statement on Robert Chasowa's death. The statement appeared on Friday, October 7.

On Thursday, October 6, President wa Mutharika was a special guest on the BBC's current events programme Africa Have Your Say, in which Malawians were expected to call in to ask the president questions. Chasowa's death was the subject of the very first question. The president responded by saying he had instituted a commission of inquiry to look into the political violence being reported. Much of the hour-long programme went with the host, Alex Jakana, and the president discussing the president's new book The African Dream: From Poverty to Prosperity. There were very few questions from callers, and very little probing of the security atmosphere in the country.

On Saturday, October 8, Malawi's two weekend papers, Weekend Nation and Malawi News both carried investigative reports that probed deep into Chasowa's death. The revelations have been nothing short of a bombshell. Accounts by both papers quote people involved in student groups that Chasowa belonged to, and top police officers who worked with Chasowa, describing events leading to his death. Chasowa is reported to have worked with the police and politicians to try and stop demonstrations that civil society organizations had planned for Wednesday, August 17, following the expiry of a deadline given to President wa Mutharika to address concerns delivered to him in a petition on July 20. That was the day when the first demonstrations took place in Malawi's major cities and 20 civilians were killed.

The published reports say Chasowa and his colleagues were given money and equipment to carry out operations aimed at stopping the August 17 demonstrations. They were promised K10 million (aprox. US$60,000) upon successful completion of the operation. The demonstrations were postponed to September 21, later changed to a mass stayaway, but the police refused to pay the K10 million, claiming the postponement was not a result of the students' work. The reports say Chasowa persistently called the senior police officers and senior politicians in the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and threatened to reveal government secrets if the money was not paid.

Online newspapers and blogs have gone even further, giving blow by blow accounts of the events leading up to Chasowa's death, including phone numbers of the Inspector General of Police, the President's brother and current Minister of Foreign Affairs, and others involved in dealings with the students:

Chasowa lost very little blood (not more than a litre) showing that he was not killed by a fall, loss of blood and most importantly that the blood came out via rigor mortis (if the heart was still pumping, there would be a lake of blood) this shows that he was dead before he bled.

Chasowas had dust on his knees, showing that he had knelt….what this the time he was being forced to write the suicide notes?

Chasowa was found lying face down, but the face had no dents to show that he had fallen, his shoulders and all parts of his body had no fracture to show that he had fallen.

The revelations continue to cause shock and dismay across and beyond Malawi, as expressed on discussion forums and social networking sites. One tweep asked:

Its alleged Robert #Chasowa kept a diary - Is it true? Who has it? Whats in it? #malawi

Meanwhile, the print edition of The Nation of Wednesday October 12 carries two new developments. It quotes John Kapito, chairperson of the MHRC as asking the Inspector General of Police, Peter Mukhito, to go on holiday so as to enable the MHRC's inquest into the death of Chasowa. The paper also carries a story on deaths threats being made through phone calls to Phillip Pemba, the reporter who wrote the Weekend Nation story that mentioned names of the Inspector General and Southern Region Commissioner of Police Rodney Jose as having met and funded Chasowa and his colleagues.

A new blog called DPP Stormtrooopers is asking Malawians to reveal names of ruling party DPP “thugs” involved in “political thuggery” by submitting names and details of attacks. The blog's description reads:

Violent political thuggery in Malawi is growing. Let us expose the vile cowards who do this. Submit the name and address of any DPP thug you know.

The blog promises to do two things:

i) List the culprits responsible for cowardly attacks on our brothers and sisters who are trying their best to serve the country constructively and take us forward. These cowards live in our very own communities!! Lets know them, keep an eye on them, pressure them, and protect our activists from them. From there, justice will find its own path.

ii) Record any attacks on dissidents and activists.

Its just a small start, but we have to do something and stand up for each other. We are many, have smart people among us so lets find ways ways to make it impossible for these clowns to move freely and kill people with impunity in our communities.

Malawi: Of Terror and Political Crisis

Ndesanjo Macha — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:15:33 +0000

The Zeleza Post shares two articles discussing terror and political crisis in Malawi. One of the articles is written by Robert Chasowa, the murdered student, which many in Malawi believe led to his tragic death: “The nation is shellshocked at the depths of the bankrupt regime's political depravity and the naked terror it is prepared to unleash on this lovely, small and poor nation that overthrew a thirty-year postcolonial dictatorship only seventeen years ago.”

Malawi: Who Murdered Robert Chasowa?

Ndesanjo Macha — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:49:40 +0000

Mabvuto Jobani says that Malawian police know the people who were involved in the death of Robert Chasowa - a fourth year engineering student at the university of Malawi: “Two Blantyre police officers who asked for anonymity told me that so far two theories have emerged as to why he was murdered.”

Mozambique: Sant'Egidio Community Fights Back Against HIV/AIDS

Lova Rakotomalala — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:58:28 +0000

Lack of access to care for HIV positive people has been well documented on the African continent. Many initiatives strive to show that things could improve with collective effort, and among them is the Drug Resource Enhancement against AIDS and Malnutrition (DREAM) program.

DREAM was created in 2002 by the Sant'Egidio Community in Mozambique, and takes a comprehensive approach to fighting HIV/AIDS. Cristina Cannelli, leader of the Guinea DREAM program, explains the special relationship [it] with the African continent, especially Mozambique:

"Free care here". Image by Sant'Egidio photo service.

La Comunità di Sant'Egidio è profondamente legata all'Africa, anche perchè la Comunità stessa è una realtà africana. Esistono Comunità di Sant'Egidio in 26 paesi del continente con più di 20.000 membri africani. Un legame particolare con il Mozambico, dove nel 1992 fu firmata la pace che pose termine ad una terribile guerra civile grazie alla mediazione della Comunità, condusse a scegliere il Mozambico qualeprimo paese in cui lanciare il programma DREAM.

The Sant'Egidio community is deeply linked to Africa, in part because the community itself is anchored on the continent. The community is present in 26 African nations and has more than 20,000 members. A special relationship exists with Mozambique because in 1992, the Sant’Egidio community contributed to the peace treaty agreement that ended the civil war. That's why Mozambique was the first choice for implementing the DREAM program.

Today DREAM is present in Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Guinea (Conakry), Guinea (Bissau), Nigeria, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon. The basic philosophy of the program is:

… DREAM has been created to achieve excellence: excellence in treatment and diagnostics, in computerization. DREAM demands that western standards be adopted in Africa too; the programme routinely uses viral load assessment, and has introduced Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART)

A DREAM success

The sheer numbers of the DREAM activity throughout the continent are impressive: 150,000 people have been treated of which 25,000 were aged 15 years or younger, 65,000 patients have benefited from anti-retroviral therapy of which 6,000 were children. DREAM also successfully interrupted vertical mother-to-child HIV transmission for 14,000 births from HIV positive mothers.

Since the beginning of the program more than 1,000,000 people have benefited from the DREAM program via health education, water filtration, food supplies, mosquito nets, prevention programmes on television, radio and the workplace. In total, the DREAM centers have performed 1,300,000 medical consultations, 276,000 viral load tests and 540,000 CD4 tests.

Celebrating the good health of the children at the mother-to-child HIV transmission prevention centers. Image courtesy of the Sant'Egidio community.

For such a large organisation to run properly in so many countries with many different spoken languages, qualified personnel is a must, which is why the community has organized 18 workshops throughout the continent for 4,000 health professionals. Mobile teams travel to reach the most isolated patients.

In order to engage the local institutions, DREAM states that:

Some of these structures are operational thanks to collaboration and agreements reached with local health centres that have replicated the programme.

However, patients also are actively contributing by committing to actively fight the HIV pandemic by becoming volunteers:

In each and every DREAM centre, medical and paramedical personnel are flanked by local men and women who have decided to commit themselves to working for patients who come to our centres. They decided to do so when their own lives were remarkably transformed after they came in contact with our services.
There are relatively large groups of such people and they constitute an indispensable resource for the success of the programme. Most, but not all, of them are sick. They are our “campaigners”.

Global Voices Podcast 3: Ripple Effects of the Arab Uprisings

Jamillah Knowles — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 17:24:57 +0000

Hello World!

In this edition of the Global Voices Podcast you can hear about the ripple effect of the Arab uprisings, find out what it is to be a digital mentor, and talk through some of the ideas that make up a good code of ethics.

First, a reminder of what happened earlier this year. Tunisia saw a revolution and Egyptian protesters overthrew their dictatorship too.

Global Voices Podcast 3: Ripple Effects of the Arab Uprisings by globalvoices

Sounds from Egypt

One of our authors, Maria Grabowski was in Cairo recently to get a perspective on how people are feeling after months of upheaval. Maria recorded the moving testimony of one protester in Egypt, and she also visited a protest outside the Syrian embassy where people showed support for the protest movement in Syria.

It’s one example of how protest movements cross borders. But how far does does the effect of this movement spread. As this year sees the Arab Spring, has the rest of the continent seen an African Spring?

Africa Rising?

Ndesanjo Macha is our editor for Sub Saharan Africa, he’s from Tanzania and based in Zambia. We talked about how the North African protests may have inspired protests and opposition in Sub-Saharan Africa countries.

Though the themes differ, the resistance appears to have been an inspiration in other parts of the African continent. I spoke with one of our authors, Steve Sharra from Malawi. Though Malawi is not seeing upheaval in the same way, there are repercussions that show a strong connection to the events of the Arab Spring.

Exploring communications in Africa as a theme in the podcast this month, it was apparent that the penetration of digital tools and online access in African countries has grown, but that there is still a lot of work to do.

But there’s good news too!

Global Voices Mentors

Ten of our seasoned Global Voices bloggers and 11 activists are working together virtually as part of a new initiative developed by Global Voices and Activista, the youth network of the international development organization, ActionAid.

I caught up with one of our mentors, Nwachukwu Ebunike in Nigeria who is working with a young Nigerian activist and blogger David Habba. According to Nwachukwu, mentoring is not just about setting a good example and sharing technical skills, it is also about ensuring that the next generation surpasses us in excellence online, and in taking personal inspiration from younger voices.

A code of ethics for citizen journalists

Now, as citizen journalism grows and becomes ever more sophisticated, is it neccesary for authors to abide by a code of ethics? Afef Abrougui is a Global Voices author from Tunisia, and she brought a set of ethics into discussion on our internal mailing list recently. Rezwan is our South Asia Editor, based in Bangladesh. He matched some of Afef's points with a link to a code of ethics from a bloggers group in Nepal.

I asked them both to join me in a discussion about ethical codes online and if they are required or even possible on a global scale.

Thanks for listening!

That’s all for this edition of the Global Voices podcast, but we’ll be back with more for you to listen to soon. Please feel free to leave us a comment or suggestion for next time.

Music credits

In the podcast you can hear lots of lovely Creative Commons music. If you want to find out more about these artists here are the links for you.

Thanks to Orb Gettarr for the atmospheric Return of the Atlanteans Lemurian Candidate, to Mark Cotton for his Spiritualized Homage, to Superbus feat. NS for Fujjad! Most of the music was found via OpSound.Org, The Free Music Archive or direct from the artists. Thanks also to all of the wonderful voice over performances and clips that help to glue the podcast together.

Thumbnail image is of protesters in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt. Flickr: Jonathan Rashad (CC BY 2.0).

Malawi: Confusion and Uncertainty Over August 17 Vigil

Steve Sharra — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:14:08 +0000

With hours to go before August 17, 2011, the day set aside for follow-up nation-wide demonstrations in Malawi, a cloud of uncertainty hovers over the country. Two different teams of organizers have given contradicting statements about the day, one team announcing a postponement, another team indicating they are going ahead. Online reactions range from relief to frustration, confusion to defiance.

The organizers of the 20 July demonstrations had given President Bingu wa Mutharika a deadline by which to answer their petition, after which they would take to the streets again. On Sunday, President wa Mutharika addressed the nation, discussing some of the issues raised in the petition.

The organizers met on the same day and announced that they had resolved to go ahead with the demonstrations because the president had not fully addressed the issues. On Tuesday morning, the organizers decided to postpone the demonstrations citing two reasons: there was a court injunction against the demonstrations and the UN Secretary General had sent emissaries to help mediate the situation.

Protest advertisement. Photo source: Rafiq Hajat Facebook page.

By noon, a lunch hour news bulletin from Zodiak Broadcasting Station was quoting a Blantyre-based organizer, Rafiq Hajat, as contradicting the announcement of the postponement. Hajat was said to have indicated that Blantyre-based civil society organizations were in a meeting, and would make their own decision as to whether to proceed with the vigil or postpone it.

The president has spent the past two weeks talking to street vendors in the major cities of Lilongwe, Blantyre and Mzuzu, pleading with them not to participate in the August 17 demonstrations. There were reports on Tuesday morning that the police were snatching copies of one of the dailies, carrying the news of MHRC report.

Fred Bvalani mentioned this in a tweet, quoting a post from Facebook:

I understand the police are going around Blantyre confiscating the ‘Nation' newspaper via @daniso

On my timeline, the first suggestion that the vigil had been postponed appeared on the discussion forum Nyasanet at 8.44am Malawi time. It said:

Netters The rumour in town is that the vigil has been cancelled. Will update as soon as I get any more substantive updates.

It took 20 minutes for somebody to respond, not hiding their irritation:

Please come on the forum with concrete positions that rumours. I find this not only disturbing but morally wrong. Thanks

The original poster came back with a two-sentence response:

The reasons being given is that the police can not handle the demos because of their incapacitation in terms of handling riots. They say they will be tempted to use live bullets in the event that people go berserk

It became apparent that the postponement was not a rumour anymore when someone posted on Malawi Talk, another discussion forum, and reported that Zodiak Broadcasting Station were airing a live press conference from the Lilongwe organisers. One of the organizers posted an announcement on their Facebook wall, pleading with the public for their understanding:

Painfully, it is indeed true that we have POSTPONED - Not CANCELLED, the 17th and 18th August Virgil. full statement within the next 2 Hours. Your understanding will highly be appreciated at this time. Pepani fellow Malawians- we had to make a decision having weighed all situations- Pepani, we plead for your acceptance- It would have been worse and unstoppable!!! Pepani!!

The reaction on Facebook and Twitter was fast and furious. Someone asked one of the organizers on their Facebook wall:

tell us the truth Mr Hajat whats on the ground????????????

That question elicited a few responses which did not hide the frustrations, making allusions to whether the civil society leaders had sold out:

it shows that money has worked in tha elders pockets

That same person later added:

i cant wait they just fooled us ,,,,not us but themselves,,,ope we will hav forex 2moro

More reactions came on the same wall:

AM DISAPOINTED WTH U…
i read ur articles daily and thot u wre a genius!!
am speakng to u as part v e civil society…o rather a branch of corupt greedy selfish political men!

Another one added:

We thot cso were on our side. Nw w r hearing alot of stories on hw u hav bin gvn money 2 call off the demos!

Some frustrations were as a result of an aborted holiday:

we already declared holiday tomorow what should we do now

Other netizens didn't think much about the selling out suggestion. It would not be that easy for government to pay off the organizers, observed one netizen:

Even thou am disappointed with the cancellation but i still have a some trust and faith in CSO group. Lets see if the dialogue works and if it doesn't no one should blame the CSO for not trying of not going into talks. I think this can be the last strategy which Govt can use. I don't think they have given any money, they are not that weak. If it was one that would have been possible but a group i doubt. Am still behind you and people don't lose trust on the CSO group

A more reflective response came from a women's rights activist and attorney, Seodi,who wrote:

Im a little bit sad and a little bit relieved about cancelled demos. But Im also a little wiser; lives were lost on 20th July. Having just come back from Liberia, I took time to discuss with colleagues there about their war which started with demos. Many told me it wasnt worth it and that the best way to hold leaders accountable is through the ballot. I salute the civil society leadership for such bravery. Heros to many; foes to a few. It doesnt matter. The truth shall set us all free.

Another Malawian, Daniso, wondered why there were no alternative means of demonstrating being suggested:

If the vigil has been postponed (even before the injunction has been granted), can't we be doing something in the interim? Why can't we at specified times of each day be honking our horns, blowing our vuvuzelas and whistles, banking our pots and pans, ringing our church bells and otherwise making noise until the fruits of dialogue start bearing fruit?

On Twitter, a few Malawians were monitoring the live radio press conference, and tweeting it live. Austin Madinga quoted Undule Mwakasungura, one of the organizers:

#Malawi protests postponed to give a chance to dialogue facilitated by the UN who are in country currently, meeting Govt at 11am - Undule

Fred Bvalani confirmed:

17 August Vigil Postponed. …Live press briefing airing now on Zodiak.

Twitter reactions expressed similar frustrations as those on Facebook. Madalitso Mvula tweeted:

People in Mzimba wil go on with the demo, not vigil. Injunction, or no injunction. #redarmy angered in the North.

The person who had broken the news of the postponement on Nyasatimes came back in the afternoon to report that Blantyre-based civil society leaders had announced they would go ahead with the vigil:

Blantyre CSOs say tomorrow's vigil is still on because they were not consulted on the postponement. I believe we are going to hear a lot from these CSOs. Guess there is something fishy in all this.

Face of Malawi made an observation as to why the demonstrations were likely to go on, come Wednesday:

One thing press/media people forget is that the average Malawian has no internet, tv or radio. In his mind #17august is a go. #Malawi

As of now, it appears the news of the postponement has not done much to calm people's anxieties. It remains unclear what Wednesday August 17 will bring. Earlier on Tuesday, President Bingu wa Mutharika and religious leaders attended a National Day of Prayer. The sermon, delivered by Bishop Joseph Zuza attracted a lot of attention and reaction onFacebook and in online newspapers.

UPDATE: Tuesday August 16, 2011 - Evening news bulletins are now announcing that both groups of organizers have agreed on a postponement.