Friends in Malawi

Friends in Malawi

It’s not unusual for friends in Malawi to ask for money, but this message from Francis was different. He sent it from a computer in a forestry office at Mulanje Mountain and it warned me this may be the last time I would hear from him because he was starving.

Thinking it a little melodramatic I emailed him back telling him to borrow some money for maize for him and his family and I would send a moneygram to the bank in the small town 10 miles away as soon as I could.

Francis used to be a porter accompanying people up Mulanje Massif, which includes the highest peak in Central Africa, Sapitwa, which means ‘don’t go there’ because of the spirits and their powerful magic. The water running off Mulanje is valued by healers across the region. Tourists, ex-pats and volunteers from Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), Peace Corps and their equivalent cared not for this, seeking the nature, greenness and escape from the frustrations of living in one of the world’s poorest and least developed countries.

VSO placed me in the government secondary school in Mulanje to teach science to boys and girls mainly from mud and thatch villages forced to learn in English, their second or third language. It is a measure of their determination and intelligence that some could look beyond their every day experience in a land with no television to atomic theory and Newtonian physics and grasp this alien view of the world.

Francis didn’t make it to secondary school, though he learned to read and write at a Distance Education Centre, where radio programmes are supplemented by heroic teachers in classes of over a hundred. We became friends through frequent trips up the mountain when I acted as tour guide to other volunteers. As a thank you to the porters, I organized the first Mulanje Mountain Race under the auspices of the ex-pat Mountain Club, which paid for prizes and a party. Ten years on the race is established as an annual event on the weekend closest to Mothers’ Day, a national holiday in July. Porters, club members and latterly national and international athletes race from Likhabula Forest Office up to Chambe hut, amongst the pine forests which provides employment to wood cutters and carriers, across the top of the valley and down the path on the other side, known as the ‘milk run’ from when milk was carried to ex-pats who retreated to the cool of Lichenya Plateau during the dry months in colonial times when Malawi was Nyasaland.

In that first race Francis was one of my marshals charged with signing the card of each entrant to prove they had taken no short cut. The race was won by Benson, the nightwatchman at the forest office with a time of about 2 hours and 30 minutes, just 30 seconds before a porter from the forest office around the mountain.

I saw Mulanje Mountain last week in the reports of the famine striking Malawi. People were scrambling for maize at an empty distribution centre. There was no mention of the role neo-liberal policies have played in reducing food security in Malawi. In 2002 the government agriculture development body ADMARC was sold under advice, or pressure, from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the government’s strategic maize reserve was sold. In the old model, ADMARC bought surpluses at time of plenty, giving farmers an income. 70% of the population are smallholder farmers. At time of shortage the stored produce was sold back. Under the new model, some is sold to neighbouring countries to earn foreign currency and the rest is hoarded so prices and profits increase if famine strikes. The last drought in 2002 was less severe than others experienced by Malawi, but more people starved to death. For a detailed analysis download the World Development Movement report Structural Damage.

When Francis thanked me for the money that had paid for food for his extended family for the month – the impact of the £ 40 I had sent – he told me 29 people, mostly children, had not been so lucky and had died in the past few weeks. The following month I sent twice as much and asked him to use it wisely to help people in his village. He bought 9 bags of maize, set aside 3 for his family for the month and distributed the rest to orphans dependent on grandparents. Malawi has one of the highest HIV infection rates in Africa leaving orphans, who are the most vulnerable when disaster strikes. His village has yet to see any outside help. The World Food Programme has arrived in the area, but is only able to help a small percentage in the villages it is able to visit.

To help provide more maize to his village, I am organising a jumble sale on eBay. Please visit. My historic and much prized Q magazine collection is up for sale for starters. Look out for some arts and crafts from Francis’s village in coming weeks.

£ 9 will buy a bag of maize or an adult goat able to give milk.

£ 2 will buy a mature chicken to lay eggs.

I am concerned about keeping my friend, his family and neighbours alive, but they are few in a country of many in need. If nothing in my sale grabs your attention, please consider sending a donation to UNICEF.

Next July is the 10th anniversary of the Mulanje Mountain Race and it has been a dream to find a way back to take part and visit the school where I taught and the hospital I maintained on a second VSO placement. Now money to send is the priority.

If the rains fall well and the harvest is plentiful, perhaps my trip will be possible to see how my friends in Malawi have coped through this difficult time.