Green beans and flowers from Kenya, who benefits from Africa’s agricultural exports?

Green beans and flowers from Kenya, who benefits from Africa’s agricultural exports? A look at rural agriculture in Africa.

Last night I went to a debate in a committee room deep in the Houses of Parliament hosted by the Royal African Society jointly with the London International Development Centre. Richard Dowden, director of the RAS, moderated discussions with a panel including Christie Peacock (former CEO of FARM-Africa, now chair of Sidai Africa Ltd), Mark Thomas (Director of Food Retail Industry Challenge Fund DFID and manager of rural development at Nathan Associates) and Karima Ola (managing director of the African Development Corporation).

The debate focused on some issues that I see as key in Africa’s sustainable development. The big question was framed as ‘who benefits from Kenya’s exports of green beans and flowers to the UK?’ which throws up some interesting ideas about Africa’s export industry. Lots of people have argued that Africa needs to stop focusing on exports, and strengthen its own internal, domestic situation before looking to trade with the world market. Without wanting to identify too strongly with neoliberal ideas of times gone by, I think that the strengthening of exports and trade between Africa and the world can ONLY be a good thing – it can and does lead to growth. Countries like Zambia are pretty switched on at the moment and getting their balance right. Likewise, Ghana is arguably doing very well also. It’s hard to comment on all the successes though given my limited knowledge of every African country’s agricultural industry….

So, we’re looking at agricultural exports from Sub Saharan Africa to other countries (note that this can mean exports within the continent – something that should be very strongly encouraged in light of current Horn of Africa crisis), the potential problems with standards such as fairtrade, and the positive potential that there is for African agriculture.

The facts (with some help from the RAS)

Africa’s main agriculture export products are well known; tea, cotton, tobacco, cocoa and flowers. Cotton production in the region has multiplied by five since the early 1970s; about 95% of the regions cotton is exported. Kenyan horticulture exports have grown at over 6% a year for the past 30 years reaching 13.6% of export revenues in 2003.

However, mono cropping is potentially dangerous for economies and makes Africa vulnerable. 8 countries in Africa incurred 65% of the $300 million loss in potential revenue in all of sub-Saharan Africa in 2001 due to the poor cotton prices. Diversification is recognised by many leading agronomists as the key to a successful agricultural industry, particularly in Africa where instability of weather, prices and technology put crops at higher risk of failing than in European agriculture where these factors are slightly more stable/manageable. This is significant for both large scale commercial farms as well as the smallholder farmers that make up the back bone of African agriculture. SIMPLY PUT, if farmer X is growing only maize on his 0.25ha plot, and there is poor rain fall, he will get a very low yield on his crop or it will fail altogether. However, if farmer X was growing a combination of maize along with a sturdier crop such as chillies, then at the end of the growing season he would not be quite as bad off.

African agricultural production is struggling, and a key question that I am interested on getting answers to is how do we increase productivity in African agriculture? It’s well known that most farmers in Africa farm for subsistence and on very small plots (between .25 and 3ha). Africa produces less food per capita now than in 1960 (interesting correlation here with the rise of development and aid flows to the region?) About 16% of Africa’s soils are classed as ‘low nutrient’ compared with Asia’s 4% (poor soil quality is a common but not impassable problem), yields generally are lower than the rest of the world and similarly fertilizer input is substantially lower but hectare than the global standard.  (9kg in Africa vs 100kg in Asia and 206kg in industrialised countries).

But the story isn’t entirely negative! Agriculture in Africa is buzzing with potential at the moment, and it’s important to bring this to the fore in the debate on aid and development (which I find immensely frustrating in its continuous bashing and bitching and lack of constructive suggestions of how to improve things). Of the fastest growing agricultural economies 17 are in sub Saharan Africa (thanks in large part to exports of cash crops like tea, coffee, cashews etc). 60% of the arable land available in the world is in Africa. Long gone are the days of stereotypes of Africa consisting of cracked earth in Ethiopia, Africa is a rich and diverse place with some amazing land that is more fertile than you could imagine. Anecdotally, I remember the most delicious and biggest carrots I have ever eaten, coming from Molo in South Eastern Kenya, where the soil is rich in nutrients and the idea of ‘organic’ is laughable when both the quality and quantity of produce is so exceptional!

SO what of this debate, on exports in agriculture? I see them as being vital for several reasons:

1.       Exports such as green beans typically come from larger commercial farms which have the ability to provide better job security to farmers than subsistence farming, and they also have the ability to connect growers to markets (big issue which I’m very interested in having worked for a commercial farm in Malawi doing precisely that). In that sense, the money we spend on green beans in Kenya is doing more for ‘development’ in Kenya than donating to some WFP sponsored agricultural programme, because it is directly supporting agricultural industry in Africa.

2.       Markets like China are increasingly feeling the pressure to find new sources of food to import (given the poor quantity of arable land in China and the growing population, China is having to look overseas for its food). Brazil and other countries in the America’s are not always going to be able to provide the quantity and quality of food, and this is one big part of why China has invested so heavily in Africa. So from the perspective of the Chinese, African agricultural exports are definitely a good thing.

Problems with fairtrade

Christie Peacock brought up an increasingly controversial problem; that farmers are increasingly dissatisfied with ‘Fairtrade’ and its standards. One tea factory in Kenya, we were told, was refused fairtrade status since its drinking water tap was not correctly labelled as drinking water despite all workers knowing that that was its purpose. I have been aware of this for some time, and was surprised that so many people were shocked to hear this. Fairtrade is not the be-all-and-end-all, in addition to the difficult and rigorous standards that they set, there is also the problem with Fairtrade’s main ethos – how much of the extra cost is being passed down the supply chain to the farmer? Isnt this the whole point of fairtrade, I can remember being told about the break up of profits in a regular banana vs a fairtrade one back in Fairtrade’s heyday, but now retailers are increasingly absorbing more of the increased charge on fairtrade goods, whilst the farmer is advertised as receiving a better price for his crop. Fairtrade is a great principle, but these problems question how accountable fairtrade is and if there standards are perhaps too rigorous and unflexible.

Duncan Green says “Ethiopian women sorting through the coffee beans will have to work for 8 years to earn what I get from Oxfam in one day”. Interesting point, but what about like for like costs? Producing a pound of cotton in Burkino Faso costs 21 cents compared to 73 cents in the US itself. The value of the fairtrade market in the UK reached £493 millioin in 2007, a staggering sum of money.

Of course there is also the issue of subsidies, and though I don’t want to spend too long writing about it here, it is a question that comes up time and time again; why do we in the West expect Africa’s agricultural markets to be liberalised and unprotected, when we have such strong systems of subsidies in place in the EU and the US? One counter argument offered by Mark Thomas last night was that we give our politicians a mandate to decide to implement subsidies in our country, and that it’s up to African governments to do the same.

Let’s also think about the distortions in infrastructure that are geared more to the export market in African agriculture (e.g. great asphalt connecting unilever tea farm to markets vs the bumpy mud and rock road linking smallholders to their trading centre), perhaps this can be utilised and highlighted as being a great tool for development. The Chinese again have invested (rightly or wrongly) a lot into developing Africa’s infrastructure and filled a vacuum left by Western donors who became more interested in softer development issues in the last 20 years).

What next?

I would like to see the redevelopment of Government Marketing Boards in African agriculture; they were mostly done away with after independence which is a shame since they provided great opportunity and potential. Extension services and marketing boards are key in the successful development of an agricultural industry.

I would also like to see a stronger promotion of ‘zero tillage’ to smallholder farmers, that they need not work so hard on getting the land perfect in order to gain a good yield. It is integral to the future success of agriculture in Africa to transfer knowledge on zero tillage to the many smallholder farmers throughout sub Saharan Africa – this is a particular role that commercial farms can fulfil in providing systems that better the value chain..

Again, anecdotally, I can draw on my experience working for a commercial farm in Malawi. The company promoted crop diversification; they grow chillies as well as maize, soya, groundnuts and some livestock like poultry and lambs. The company exports chillies internationally as well as supporting domestic consumption by stocking local supermarket s with vegetables and poultry. It is not a huge operation, but is indicative of many small commercial farming operations throughout southern and eastern Africa – the potential is there and tremendous results can be achieved using these commercial farms to connect growers to markets. The company I was working with worked extensively on training smallholder farmers and connecting an ever growing community of outgrowers (we would provide the training and extension services to farmers and also provide the secure market to buy their crop and sell it at a good price, this served the business interests’ as there wasn’t the capacity to grow everything ourselves). Commercial farms can also support subsistence agriculture in Africa by working to provide better storage solutions (wasted and spoiled crops is a big problem in many communities). Some donors like USAID and DFID have been working with commercial farms on storage solutions and developing ‘credit’ or ‘voucher’ style schemes.

Coming back to the idea of exports to countries within Africa, I’m very interested in this area and the idea of bringing manufacturing and processing into Africa rather than the model that has existed thus far of shipping primary commodities from Africa to the East/West to be processed and then shipped somewhere else. Plumpynut is the biggest example, the peanut paste RUTF that is used in treating clinical malnutrition – the peanuts are largely grown in Africa and exported to France where they are manufactured into the paste, then shipped back to Africa to support the WFP and UN’s malnutrition programmes…. Why not cut down costs and boost a local economy by exporting the peanuts within Africa and setting up a processing plant? (Check out AfriNut and Valid Nutrition, as I left Malawi this argument of mine was/is being put into practice).

These issues aren’t without problems though, and certainly the company I worked for enjoyed its fair share of difficulties. Smaller commercial farms are the world over known as having to work very hard compared to the money they make, this is no different in Africa and the difficulty to turn over a decent profit potentially impacts the level of assistance commercial farms can provide to smallholder farmers. This is where donors need to step in and bridge the gap between what we all say that commercial farms can do and what they are actually doing on the ground. Don’t underestimate the difficulties of working in an environment that is not stable – the fuel crisis in Malawi for example has crippled many businesses and limits your ability to export…this in turn puts off importers abroad as they want to be buying produce from a more stable source and quite often they will look to the East. I’m not sure what the solution here is short of suggesting improved political stability in Africa (hmmmm!)

So basically, with better investment and renewed interest in strengthening extension services and marketing boards, African agricultural exports could go up and benefit everybody – the farmers as well as the consumers, at the same time boosting productivity in Africa and potentially helping economic growth on a sustainable and longer term trajectory than previous methods employed…

In the broader argument of connecting farmers to markets, the debate concluded by arguing that buying beans from Kenya et al is a good thing.

If you are interested in this topic I strongly recommend you get a book by a chap called Stephen Carr, ‘surprised by laughter’, I met him several times in Malawi and he is incredibly clued up on agriculture in Africa after a long spanning career working throughout the continent…

I’m quite sure I’ve missed out a lot here, but hopefully these musings are in some way indicative of the need to put agriculture firmly back on the agenda for development (properly, not just rhetorically) and the relevance of African agricultural exports in a broader global debate on climate change and food sourcing (much criticism in the UK recently on the fuel used to get beans from Kenya to UK etc although it has been proven that more fuel is used to grow roses in Dutch green houses and freight them to UK than for the flowers to be grown naturally in Kenya and flown over… so.. there!)

Is there room at the table for the private sector?

Today I wanted to write a bit about other actors in development. I should caviat this with my belief that NGOs do some great work; in short term relief (humanitarian assistance) where they can often mobilise quickly and get funds/resources to places that need them and also in longer term development interventions. This in itself deserves an entire blog, as I also feel that the development community has a tendency to spend too much time bitching and whining, and not enough time to sit back and say 'hey, look, a paradigm/project that is actually working, let's celebrate that'.

You can't avoid though, the growing dissatisfaction in the aid + development community, with the way that some NGOs and donors operate - often inefficiently, corruptly, and ignorantly. So it has become pretty fashionable in development discourse to start talking about 'philanthrocapitalism', Faith Based Organisations, Diaspora groups and so on. Big donors are moving towards working more with these kinds of actors in the hope that they might bring something substantial to the table that others have not.  Be it DfID  investing in dairy farms being set up in Malawi to the rise and rise of the Gates Foundation et al, we cannot escape from the fact that there are other players in the system who have something to say.

Private sector interventions

I was involved with a private farming enterprise in Malawi for 3 years, it was a small scale but grassroots and hands on example of the private sector actively seeking to improve the lives of the people they employ and the surrounding communities. This, to me, is the way forward in terms of private sector development interventions; small scale industries that offer improved livelihoods through employment alone but with the potential to work with communities, communities that are familiar with the 'company' etc. Higher profile examples include companies like Unilever, who have for example built schools and housing in Kericho, so that their employees can send their children to a local school. Exagris, the company I was involved with, has far less resources and access to funds to be in a position to provide this level of infrastructure (indeed this is the case for a lot of small scale industries working in developing countries).

Exagris' development work could be roughly divided into two; the social side of development and more agricultural based development activities. On 9 different farms, throughout Malawi, youth groups were set up, feeding programme's established (but later phased out and soon to be reformed into community resource centres), family planning and HIV/AIDS workshops established through local partners and Community Based Organisations. On the agri side of things, the firm worked with smallholder farmers and an increasingly large community of outgrowers, training farmers to grow better, depend less on inputs like fertiliser, and of course the company provided communities with a 'secure' market - a place for farmers to sell their crop and receive a fair price (prices determined according to local standards, not inflated or deflated prices). The work was slow, progress was slow, and results were not always tangible and positive. But hey, welcome to the real world of development. It made any real achievement so much more rewarding, knowing that it was a long term positive development for communities (that rarely had anything to do with the 3/4 European staff and everything to do with the leadership and drive from community leaders).

Of course, we experienced all the usual frustrations (and then some) particularly as some NGOs still haven't cottoned on to the fact that working with the private sector has huge potential, but we kept on and knew that we were on to a winning formula. I hope the company continues in its successes, and that donors will further recognise the role that the PS has to play.

In a classroom last week, I spent a heated hour defending the private sector, amidst wild accusations and criticisms of the PS talking only about how corrupt it all is, big bad evil companies, they exploit, they are only driven by a need to make profit. Yes yes yes... but what is beyond that? NGOs are subject to the exact same criticisms and arguably don't want to reach their goal of 'emancipation' or 'total sustainable development' as we'll all be out of a job, but somehow on the private sector these accusations seem so much worse...

It's easy to generalise; they're not all the same (just like NGOs aren't all the same, neither wholly good nor wholly irrelevant) and when done properly, the private sector has a lot to bring to the table of development, in conjunction with states and other non state actors. People who work in the private sector can be driven by a motivation to do good and help people just as much as people in the public sector, come on, who really buys all this realist/neoclassical bullsh*t? IBM, Exxon Mobil, BP, Pampers, GSK, Unilever. Massive corporations, massive revenues, big commitments to CSR type policies and sustainability.

The anti - corporation argument is old and no longer relevant in a predominantly capitalist driven global community, one in which the NGO sector (one that is meant to offer an alternative to government) is FAILING to provide results on any level with regard to long term, sustainable development.

Essentially, what I'm saying is that I understand the need to critique and hold people and organisations accountable to their actions. This is a vital role that the online community, through the advent of twitter and blogging etc, is excellently placed to do. My problem is that people appear to spend far too much time complaining and talking about how awful development can be, and yet there are actually so many good stories out there. Perhaps I am missing the point, what do you think? I am but just another speck in the ocean of aid bloggers, but I am determined to remain optimistic; optimistic that the private sector can and WILL help the project of development without being solely focused on self-interest, optimistic that most of the people working in most organisations started out like any of us - with a genuine desire and passion to 'do good' and optimistic that one day we will find answers to the great problems of development that don't involve huge dependency on aid flows from North to South and the iron fist of the West banging on about liberal democracy.

But hey, what do I know, seriously - I find it pretty overwhelming that even with the variety of experience that I do have - I still feel like I  know nothing about this industry. The more I learn the less things make sense, and the harder I find it to comment.... go figure.

What's wrong with volunteers?

It might seem completely contradictory that I am about to lay into volunteers, given that I a) spend a lot of time being one and b) lead trips of young adults to Malawi. But volunteerism has just exploded in the last few years, and whilst on one level it infuriates me having to listen to people explain how they've built a classroom in a really remote and rural village school in Tanzania, it also has some very serious implications for development.

We need to pay attention to it, because 'volunteering' can be as much of a hindrance as a help to development efforts. We also need to address the growing number of young people seeking to volunteer abroad, and try and harness their enthusiasm into positive energy; doing something that does more than bring them back home buzzing about their new found love for Africa.

True, civil society relies on volunteers and in our home context - in the West - volunteering can and is a fantastic way for charities to reach out to people and do great work. Those volunteers however, tend to be long term older professionals (think care givers, social workers etc). The kind of volunteering that I am critical of though, is of the 'i'm 16 years old, I can change the world and I am GOING to Africa'. True, we all have to start somewhere, and in many cases these volunteering experiences are a springboard to a hopefully more enlightened career in various sectors. (And it's great that young people give a damn). True also that there are some fabulous organisations out there that have years of experience on the ground in the country they work in; organisations that recognise the needs of both projects and volunteers and who place people accordingly with thought and consideration. Say what you will about VSO but they are (or have been) one such organisation.

Different Types of Volunteering

1. Short term tangible volunteering.

Volunteers that go from their home country (in the West somewhere) to a developing country (in the South somewhere) to work on a specific project such as building toilets, classrooms, painting. Sometimes they raise the money to pay for the project, sometimes they just pay for their own expenses.

Why is this detrimental to development? Well, what happens when the volunteer has left? You would think it is widely understood that teaching a man to fish is a better, more sustainable investment than giving him one. But organisations continue to operate along the one fish line! Why does a volunteer need to go and build a school when local communities and labour can be used (and even trained), not only creating a sense of ownership for the local community but also providing a job for someone.

Construction/tangible projects are also problematic because all too often clinics/schools etc will be built with large injections of cash from NGO, but with no set up or training for local people to manage and continue the running of such facilities. I have seen several clinics in remote Mozambique and Malawi that are shiny new thanks to the hard work of pioneering volunteers.... gathering dust because they didn't bother to build relations with anyone on the ground and leave the project in their hands.

Many people have written much more coherently on this than I, but the point is fairly obvious I think...

Can it work? Yes! If the community is on board with the project (actively involved not just 'consenting') then there is less risk of projects occurring and then being left with no support. If teams fund the project, this can arguable be good too as a source of funding for core needs.

2. Short term intangible volunteering.

Short term volunteers going away to say, teach English in a primary school in Tanzania, or solve the HIV/AIDs cultural impasse in Malawi through football (yes it really does exist....http://tackleafrica.org/what-we-do/uganda/hivaids-awareness-football-coaching-2007/ GREAT example....)

Often detrimental when constant change occurs and young kids are exposed to volunteers who aren't committed to improving the child's welfare. Lack of consistency does nothing to build trust. Time is wasted continually briefing new volunteers rather than retaining existing volunteers for longer thus maximising their impact. As with the construction argument, why teach kids English? If you are a qualified teacher or you have your TEFL (i.e. a tangible and useful skill to offer other than just an A level in English literature....), for goodness sake go and work with a parent teacher association, or teacher group and HELP THEM in their own English skills, lesson planning etc. Your impact will be sustained once you have left, operating this way. It infuriates me that more of these kinds of placements don't exist with the big volunteering schemes.

Can it work? Yes; when done through a smaller organisation that has local knowledge and solid relationships, it can often serve as encouragement to local communities who often feel forgotten about. I know this because I have asked plenty of farmers/youth workers/village chiefs who I have taken volunteers to. It also works when people go off the beaten track and search for volunteering opportunities in schools for example that aren't supported by a massive i-to-i style organisation. I did this with an old link school in Kenya. It doesn't always work out but you have a better chance of having an impact and building relationships because chances are, if you're willing to go off the beaten track you're probably the kind of person interested in genuinely helping without the frills and hand holding that other organisation's provide...

3. Long term skill sharing volunteering

Bloody brilliant. I have no bad experience of these types of volunteers bar the occasional peace corps fruit loop that slips through the net. The simple concept of someone with a developed career, and a tangible set of skills, taking them to a context where it is beneficial to share these skills and educate. Typically taken up by nurses, doctors, teachers, physiotherapists and so on. I have a lot of respect for people willing to give up their time to train local people in difficult professions in difficult contexts, and not get paid for it.

4. and many combinations of the above....

What future for volunteering?

The passion is clearly there; so many people feel deeply convicted to help put an end to global poverty and limit human suffering in its many forms. Which is great and deserves recognition in a world with plenty of people who are more preoccupied with typically 'rich' problems. Where it all falls apart is that efforts to coordinate and channel this passion into something productive, are not good enough. Perhaps there needs to be a coordinated effort to guide and advise young adults in how to effectively volunteer, helping them to avoid volunteer tourism....

Volunteering in your home context? Great. Reflects so much better on your commitment to your own community and helping out on your back yard. Volunteering to build something someone else could do in half the time, for less money and with a longer lasting sense of ownership and care? Not so great.

As with much of aid and development, too much focus is disproportionately placed on accountability, and funding. At the end of the day, there aren't THAT many people who are interested in going to India with an organisation to simply 'learn' about development, soak up the culture with great humility and become enlightened as to how they might individually be equipped to make a difference in the future. What people really want is to play with cute children (it's hard to resist!) and come back knowing that they can tick off the 'build a school for poor kids in Africa' box on their CV. You pay your £2000, and you get in return a very tangible end product without ever looking back. And the result? A continued cycle of dependence on aid in those countries receiving volunteers, whilst organisations continue to send cart after cart of volunteers encouraging them in their bid to rescue people that neither need or want to be rescued.

comment and let me know what you think.... am I being fair? Or am I being unreasonably critical of volunteerism?

Leaving Malawi....

Dear friends,

 

I am sadly/not sadly, returning to the UK in September. I'm done with Malawi just yet though, so there are a few more tourist visa stamps to be had in my passport from the wonderful chaps at immigration... 

 

There is still so much need here, and it’s easy to forget that Malawi is one of the ten poorest countries in the world, with over one million orphans. AIDS, Malaria and other diseases continue to cripple many communities, despite sweeping interventions from some of the larger aid agencies. Many of the 13 million people living here still exist on less than $1 a day. NGOs come and go, leaving little motivation for people to help themselves because everything is handed out and done without consulting and involving local communities. To make matters worse, the political situation here worsens daily and the relations between the Brit and Malawi governments is growing increasingly sour. Tax is going up on almost everything, quotas have been extortionately increased for fines the police need to collect from motorists, visa restrictions grow tighter, the fuel crisis continues to cripple the country and the blackouts/power shortages are bordering on ridiculous. Who would have thought a few weeks ago, that Malawi would erupt into political turmoil for 2 days? Peaceful protests led to violent riots, looting and vicious targeted attacks.

 

BUT! We’ve had a lot of successes and positive progress in our community development work so far. We are improving the quality of life for a lot of people here in Malawi, living around the farm estates. That much is true. From the feeding programmes, to the disability clinic we’re setting up, to the adult literacy circles and the work we do with smallholder farmers building capacity and improving their access to markets (and many more activities); we have undoubtedly improved rural livelihoods and our 60 year leases on the farms prove that we’re in it for the long haul unlike many other aid agencies and NGOs. But the harsh realities of being a business and the need to earn money come first before the priorities of community development. There are some awesome and incredibly inspiring people/organisations who are making such a difference in people’s lives here (*cough* the Mollers *cough*!) so the picture is definitely not one of doom and gloom.

 

I find the future is uncertain, and it’s hard to know where God is taking us sometimes, and why. But I have had such a great time pretending that i’m not a tall blonde white-y, and that I am in fact Malawian... There have been up’s and down’s, but on the whole, I have absolutely loved every minute of my time here and I leave knowing that I have made some life long (and unfortunately, soon to be, long distance) friends. Africa is a beautiful, special, frustrating, random, awe inspiring place, and you have to live that through your own eyes to truly understand what that means and feels like. For now, here are a few final photos of the work i’ve been doing and the amazing people I get to work with every day....

 

These are workers at our Mchinji farm; the young boys carry fumigating packs and the women bring their children to work as they work on de-seeding the maize cobs. We want to set up creche’s on some of the farms so that the children can be looked after in a more healthy/safe environment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

for me, very special pictures, of the children who attend the Mangochi farm’s feeding programme. Florence and I have become good friends and it’s been wonderful getting to know each of the children. Mangochi is a very poor area in Malawi and as such the children are visibly more malnourished than their peers in other districts. Though not without fault, it’s great to have a feeding programme in place which is reaching out to these young kids, battling to improve their nutritional status.

 

 

 

Gandali Primary School, where we have set up a link school in the UK. The classrooms are being renovated with cement, and our team of volunteers will help to paint the walls with whitewash and blackboard paint. The teachers are inspiring in their commitment to improving the quality of education for their students, and not being a party to the usual handouts. They provide their own bricks and sand using local labour and get the students to contribute towards some of these costs. I’ve been blessed to build up such a good relationship with them, and it was touching on the last few visits when students remembered my name and when miraculously I could understand conversations in broken chichewa!!

Of course, it hasn’t all been long days in the office and hard days on the road... what brilliant adventures i’ve had with such good friends! (hahaha sorry Kat, couldn’t resist, love you!)

 

 

Prayer points: please pray for our team of volunteers coming from the UK TODAY! Please pray for courage, humility and grace for all of us, that we might be able to make a positive impact in the work that we do and the people we work with. Please also pray for God’s provision, that we would have enough fuel to get to where we need and so on.

 

So onwards we go.... thank you for your kind words of support and prayer, and I hope you have found some of my mutterings interesting.... I hope to write to you all again living in another exotic paradise somewhere in the world, but until then...

 

tionana mawa

 

Love and blessings

 

Hannah

Rumours are just so good at instilling fear into people....

This information courtesty of Sam Kawale, a business owner in Lilongwe, determined to set the record straight about damage caused. There's a definite balance to be had but the situation in Malawi is not life or death OR generally riotous. The city is once again largely peaceful, and shops are beginning to open again today.

Here is what Sam had to say on Lilongwe Chat - an online messageboard we use here... like I said previously, photos speak for themselves, and some awful things have taken place in this otherwise peaceful and stable country in the last 2 days. But likewise, people enjoy exaggerating facts and claiming things as true that definitely are not.

Sam Kawale	View profile	More options Jul 21, 4:07 pm

After spending the last two hours back and forth in Lilongwe, the situation
has not changed for the worse as THERE IS STILL A LOT OF CALM.
Chilinde, Nchesi, Biwi are all very calm. A lot of people are home and
businesses still closed. Nchesi street (where they sell coffins and
window/door frames) is also very calm and vendors are open for business.
Across the bridge on this side it is still very, very calm. Nothing has been
broken as earlier reported by some people. Only Peoples shop in Kawale is
the only one I saw burnt down to the ground. I have attached pictures of
some of the buildings that were said to have been damaged (I was using a
phone camera so the pix might be poor).
Let me repeat: Chipiku, Game, Shoprite have not been damaged, and so is our
shop, JDS COMPUTER CENTRE and PRINTER SYSTEMs near Chipiku, its ok (so you
can come and buy computers or have them repaired anytime, or come and have
your t-shirts screen printed or embroidered. We will serve you).
As for fuel, NO PETRO STATION OPEN. Don't bother going around.
As for groceries, sorry, you will have to live on left overs tonight J, no
grocery shops open, so are all take away places (mostly because their
workers cant come to work as there is no public transport).
More update will follow if I hear anything contrary, but for now, stay away
from area 25 and Likuni. I hear tension is still high.
There is a higher level of Malawi Army presence in all the streets. This has
helped quite a bit, and I hear they are now going to Area 25 and Likuni to
bring calm there.
Thanks for reading this and let me know if you have any more questions or
concerns
In HIS service Together
Sam Kawale
JDS Investments/E-3 International
P.O. Box 2129
Lilongwe
+265-888-308-798
+265-999-600-345
If your vision does not scare you, then the Lord is not in it.

deserted Lilongwe bridge.jpg 52K View Download

Deserted Mosque area.jpg 45K View Download

deserted National Bank.jpg 46K View Download

Chilinde, just before traffic lights.jpg 81K View Download

Chipiku stores intact.jpg 58K View Download

deserted Game stores.jpg 55K View Download

Deserted Indian Town.jpg 53K View Download

IMG00039.jpg 54K View Download

JDS Computer Center intact.jpg 45K View Download

road to main bus terminal.jpg 57K View Download

Vendors in Nchesi out for business.jpg 53K View Download

Wulian, Chinese shop not damaged.jpg 57K View Download

There are still problems in Area 25 and Likuni areas of town but to reiterate - these are not the safest parts of town at the BEST of times, so it's wise to avoid these parts at all costs. As for the rest of town, there is a strong army presence and they are doing what they can to keep the peace. Shops are opening and life is returning to normal.

The violence here throws up much broader discussion on governance and democracy in this country, and for the first time ever in Malawian history, we have made the international news and social media networks are a hive of activity with people who have otherwise not taken an interest in this country, now talking about what is going on. I'm glad things are returning to normal, though with more extreme protests planned again for 17th/20th August, things are far from over.

In other news, the nyasatimes website is now back up and running and the radio stations are once again broadcasting. The government tried it's best to censor the newspapers and radios by taking them offline/ off air, but what a fail! The sheer volume of twitter coverage highlights the pressure we have all put on different organisations leading to much more widespread international media coverage of the protests here.

Hannah

Day 2

Day 2 and we were hoping for a peaceful day back at work.

We arrive to the office this morning, which is in the centre of Lilongwe, to looters running away through the bush opposite. We shortly hear reports from colleagues and friends that violence and trouble continued long into the night in certain districts like Biwi, Kawale and Mchesi. Reports that the Metro and Chipiku were being looted were confirmed true, and moments later we could hear noise from Chipiku (which is behind our office) as well as teargas being fired into the crowd. The gunshots that followed were all we needed to decide to close the office for the day (10am) and head home. Leaving the office was nerve wracking as it was unclear where the mob would move to and our offices are in the middle of town, but once we were on our way things were fine. Lilongwe is very quiet, but some shops like the mighty foodworths continued to stay open and they reported no violence or trouble at all.







Here's what the BBC have to say on the matter:

President Bingu wa Mutharika said the protesters were "working for Satan".

"Each time we have a problem, is it a solution to go to the streets and demonstrate? I don't think so. Those of you who have started this, I know you," he said, in a state of the nation address.

Correspondents say lorry-loads of soldiers and riot police are patrolling Lilongwe's city centre, clearing barricades that protesters had set up.

The city centre is deserted with shops closed while there are reports of looting in neighbouring townships, correspondents say. "

However, their report is somewhat watered down. We have seen the lorry loads of soldiers racing up and down streets with our own eyes, and though the city centre is now a ghost town it was a different story earlier this morning. Though reports can often be under or over exaggerated, I find it's quite hard to deny or exaggerate photographic evidence... here are the latest from friends/twitterati. As you can see, most people wanted to protest peacefully and many were happy to be able to exercise their freedom of speech. However some of the photos below are quite graphic, and show how easy it is for these situations to deteriorate rapidly from peaceful protests into violent, malicious acts of hatred.

We are hoping for a peaceful day tomorrow; there has been a much heavier armed military presence on the ground today and with any luck those who had their scores to settle have done so now. History has been made in this country - nothing like this has taken place for well over 45 years, so enough is enough - stop torching cars and looting in the name of 'protesting for democracy'.

It has to be said, this situation is really only bad in the centre of cities in Malawi. On the outskirts of Lilongwe, and in much of the country, the same peaceful, quiet and slow way of life continues to plod on much like it always has and much like it will do for years to come. I hope no one cancels trips here or rethinks a visit. Just like in Kenya, in the elections a few years back, the violence and problems are internal and domestic - and not aimed at tourists or expats. You just have to be sensible at avoiding the dangerous areas. This just occurs to me, as I realise family and friends read this blog.... my passion to show what is going on comes from loving this country and loving the people that are wanting to fight for better democracy and governance....it is not intended as scare mongering. Most of these photos have been taken in already slightly dodgy areas of town, and though not unaffected, we are all safe and not overly worried (and that's saying something, coming from the world's worst worrywort...)

We'll see what mawa brings...

Hannah

so what's been going on?

It's finally made the international news http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14217148 and people are noticing what has been going on here in Malawi.

After being boxed in all day we grew restless and decided to see for ourselves what was going on in town. We drove through an alarmingly deserted city centre; shops are shut, very few cars on the roads and even more extraordinarily there aren't many people on the streets. It felt a bit like driving through a ghost town in a Western movie....

We caught up with some friends to hear their experiences, and they had actually cycled through the worst affected areas earlier on and not been affected. The violence has been coming mostly from thugs (from both sides) targetted at one another.

We eventually ran into the march, which may seem intimidating but despite the heavily armed guards and the mob mentality, it was relatively peaceful. It's been quite a day, but putting the blog to bed just now...

Hannah.

latest pictures from Malawi

Demonstrators in Malawi:



Protestors in Lilongwe:



Someone has torched a DPP vehicle:


peaceful protestors.... dressed in red:

latest pictures from Malawi

This is a fire that has been burning near Mchesi, Lilongwe area. Details unclear but the photo says it all.



Photos of protestors in Blantyre.

Thoughts on Malawi's day of protests

As I write this, up and down the country, thousands of Malawian's are protesting for their right to democracy. In Blantyre, Zomba, Mzuzu and Lilongwe, there are reports coming out of disturbances and violent reactions by the DPP (the ruling political party) to otherwise peaceful protests.

The protests here have really highlighted the power of social media and networking; there are no news sites reporting what is going on and there is very little information on the web about this. The pictures I have included in this post are taken from friends/peers on twitter and facebook - people who are in the thick of the protests using their android phones to take and upload live pictures of the situation.

We have kept clear of the office, but amidst a fuel crisis, we tried to investigate the possibility of getting fuel this morning at 8am but were told in no uncertain terms by friends, that our cars would likely be torched if we went into town.

The protests today have been planned for some time, with social media playing a huge part in mobilising people and forming a 'red army'. The president recently introduced a 2million Kwacha fee to allow people to protest, and then yesterday he decided to ban the protest completely, meaning the police were authorised to use any means to clear the streets of people. This has led to the use of tear gas and violence this morning.

Yesterday in Blantyre, the DPP sent out some of their youth cadets out in pick up trucks armed with beer and pangas....they are the people in the blue trucks here in this picture, taken by a friend of mine in Blantyre.





Car have been torched in Mzuzu....



'it's bloody horrific, massive riots, the DPP building is on fire, teargas has been used, but police outnumbered and have now left streets, looting occurring and we are locked in our buildings very scared' this is a text sent just now from an expat friend in Mzuzu.



The Malawi red army on the streets of Blantyre.

The violence is coming from the friction between the police and DPP thugs (who have been told in no uncertain terms to control the protests) and the 'red army' - who are trying to protest peacefully and stand up for their right to protest in the name of democracy. There are reports that the police have now given up in Blantyre and Mzuzu as they are just too outnumbered. This can only be a good thing, to allow people to protest peacefully and let the march run its course.

All this whilst the President is giving a speech/lecture on many things....

'let me define human rights as including freedom of conversation, worship, speech, economic pursuit' which would explain why many people in this country are scared to talk badly of the government, and why thankfully people have finally had enough and have taken to the streets to exercise their freedom of speech and their right to protest (something the government clearly disagrees with, how else can we explain the DPP thugs with pangas?)

news article (only one I can find) found here: http://www.zodiakmalawi.com/zbs%20malawi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1118:the-only-july-20-2011&catid=42:banner-stories&Itemid=102

Fresh reports of looting in town, and some buildings have been set on fire in city centre. Offices are being vacated (many underestimated the severity of the protests here) and the roads are ghostly quiet.

That's it for now, when I have more pictures and information I will post again...

Hannah.