Speech by Rwandan President Gen. Paul Kagame

Speech by Rwandan President Gen. Paul Kagame

Officials of our Country

Members of the Diplomatic Corps

I greet you all and thank you for being here with us during this event.

I especially thank everybody working in the judiciary which is responsible for the justice in Rwanda.

We are here for two reasons:

The first is to witness the swearing-in ceremony of Hon Mukakarangwa Clothilde, Madam Ombudsman, Cyanzayire Aloysia, and the Army Chief of Staff, Land Forces, Maj Gen Frank Kamanzi. I take this opportunity to welcome them and wish them the best in their new appointments.

We are also here to launch the 2012-2013 Judicial Year. This is an opportunity to present to Rwandans the new plans for the judicial year. The two ceremonies, though different, are complementary. The swearing-in of some officials linked to the justice sector and the new judicial year both aim to give Rwandans confidence in their country.

The Office of the Ombudsman like other judicial institutions exists to protect Rwandans. These institutions defend the freedom of the people, which cannot be possible without security in our country.

Ladies and Gentlemen;

Let me get back to the launch of the new judicial year.

There is no doubt that the Judiciary in Rwanda has greatly improved. Many Rwandans have trust in their Judiciary and so does the international community. The international community has recognised this progress and this is why there is now good collaboration in transferring cases to be tried in Rwanda. Any other excuse not to transfer cases here can be interpreted in another way, but not because our judiciary doesn’t have the capacity. Cases which have not yet been transferred are a result of external hindrances and political reasons that we cannot solve. So, we leave that to the international community.

What is in our power is to continue to find strategies to strengthen our judiciary and transparency in the judicial sector. We need to do this by fighting all corruption and misuse of public funds. Just as we demand quality service delivery from other public officials, so do we of the judiciary. I call upon Rwandans to seek their services and play their role in supporting these institutions so that all problems can be solved. History has taught us that we need to continue building our capacity for home-grown solutions to the problems of our country.

Although our judiciary has generally improved significantly, we still have challenges that we cannot control – those originating from the external justice. All our efforts have not stopped some foreign jurisdictions from misinterpreting us, especially when it comes to building our countries and our continent. In fact, this applies to developing countries in general.

As far as Africa is concerned or Rwanda in particular, it’s not possible to tell whether what is applied is justice or politics – you cannot easily see the dividing line.

International justice, just like so many other things we have seen in the recent past, is used to define and determine how Africans should live their lives.

In English there is the saying about a carrot and a stick. Sometimes they give you a carrot but then later this carrot becomes a stick which they use to beat you up.

When international justice is applied to us, there is no carrot and stick. There is only stick; a political stick which they use to lead Africans in the direction of their choosing. One day they use international justice to lead you where they want but another day they use aid.

They call it international justice, but there are no clear guidelines. This international justice is not used where there is injustice. Instead, they use it for their political interests.

Let me start with our neighbours in D.R. Congo. This region used to be called Congo-Belge-and-Ruanda-Urundi is if it was one country, remember. Some people still think it is still the same – it is not. The Rwanda of today is totally different from the Rwanda of Ruanda-Urundi-and-Congo-Belge.

Those who caused the current problems in Congo know themselves. They caused these problems in the past centuries. Now, strangely, they want Rwanda to be accountable for the existence of Rwandaphones in Congo. Those who took Rwandophones to the Congo should be the ones accountable for these problems. These Rwandaphones are persecuted every day. Yet the people who give us lessons about human rights keep quiet and condone what goes on. And they turn around and blame Rwanda for the problems of the Congo. They should bear responsibility for the problems.

he law of the jungle says: ‘You break it, you own it.’ But for them, it’s the other way round: ‘I will break it and make you own it.’ We are not going to own it. Even with these threats every day, threats of aid cuts, threats of whatever list you have, you are just dead wrong. We Rwandans are better off standing up to this boorish attitude. The attitude of the bullies must be challenged. That is what some of us live for. We are better off that way. We know that if we don’t, we will be terribly worse off.

Rwandans – if you don’t stand up for your dignity, you accept to be beaten with that stick I talked about earlier. When you accept to be bullied, you are worse off than rejecting abuse and fighting it. When you fight, you can live your own way, and get along with what you have. This is where our interest lies; not kneeling down for people who in the end will persecute us. When I see what Rwanda has gone through in the recent past, I look for the real justification for it and can’t find it. I hope some of you can find the reason for it and let us know so that we can get out of this. Rwandans need to question why the whole world keeps mentioning Rwanda when they are talking about problems in the D.R. Congo.

The other day I heard on the radio people saying: “You know, if Kagame stood up and said he is condemning this group, the donors could unfreeze the aid.” Really?

So, is that what they want? Kagame to denounce so and so, so that they can release the aid that Rwandans deserve? If I am to do it, I would first denounce those that caused the M23 to exist in first place. I would denounce the government that does not respect or work for its own citizens. I would denounce the international community that seems blind to what is happening, before I denounce anybody else.

To me, M23, the Government of Congo, the international community, are all ideologically bankrupt because they cannot properly define a simple problem that they see. They keep running in circles. For over a decade, they’ve been running around and keep blaming Rwanda for the problems of the Congo. Why don’t they have courage to blame themselves and take part of the responsibility before anybody else will take the responsibility? What is this blackmail about?

Aid? There is no country in this world that receives aid and accounts for it better than Rwanda. There is none. So, I am not sure if these people who give us aid want us to develop. They give us aid and expect us to remain beggars. They give you aid so that you forever glorify them and depend on them. They keep using it as a tool of control and management.

Our new Rwanda must be different. And I will not stop telling my fellow brothers and sisters, Africans, to just wake up and know that wherever this happens, some of them invited it and are not ready to stand up to the challenge. They must get up and be ready to stand up to this challenge. They are better off that way and there is no alternative. Africans must refuse to be treated as nobodies.

These powerful countries create a court for Africans and call it “international”, when it is only for Africans. And it’s not necessarily for those who have done wrong. It’s for those who have disobeyed. They pretend and tell us that they are going to punish people who are involved in the recruitment of child soldiers but they don’t pursue those who kill children. There are people who kill, who rape, who do everything but these powerful countries just keep quiet about them. Is that how Africans should be? Is it what they want them to be?

So, it becomes a tool of control, of management. If you are killing your own people, if every day you are inciting people to kill other people, these powers will not show up. They will be quiet because, after all, to them there are some people who deserve to be killed. That’s what we are seeing across in the Congo.

Some of you, members of this house, you probably will have visited those refugees as many others I know have. You follow what goes on in the Congo.

One part, actually the main part, where crimes are committed in broad daylight, that’s none of their business. It’s ok because people who are being killed, who are being raped, maybe deserve it. And then they turn to the other part and say everything wrong that has happened in the Congo now has to have people who should be responsible – the so-called M23. People who are raped and killed in Kinshasa, M23 is blamed and Rwanda must condemn it. People killed in Kindu, in Uvira, wherever, M23 is responsible and Rwanda must condemn it. People who raped young girls who are in those refugee camps, it’s M23. Even now in the territory that is occupied by representatives of that international community…..

It even goes to Geneva, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights who says: “These are the worst criminals in that territory. They are raping……”Well, there is a bigger territory where worse things are happening. If that was happening, it does not cover up what is happening even in the hands of government, does not substitute for what needs to be done about crimes.

So, if I am to condemn; if you ask me to condemn people or to blame them for anything, I know where to start. I can’t be like these people. This law of the Jungle, this persecution of people even at the international level is just unbecoming. It is unbecoming and they start mixing things that are completely unrelated. They say: “Freeze, freeze aid to Rwanda, suspend…” What is the connection? This injustice does not make us compliant, it make us defiant. I am not one of those who would be made to comply by means of injustice done to my people, to my country. I am one of those who will be openly defiant. On being defiant, count me on that.

You can have your day, you can cause suffering to my people. On that one, they are very good. You can have your day. But to make Rwandans compliant because of that or on that basis will be very, very difficult. I know I am speaking for Rwandans. I know I am speaking for Africans, many of who will not stand and say it. If I am wrong and mistaken; if I am not speaking on behalf of you Rwandans; if I am not speaking on behalf of Africans and you are not of the same view as me, ask me to step down and I will not hesitate to do so right away.

If at all you think I am not adequately representing Rwanda’s interests, you should let me know and I will step aside immediately. This injustice cannot and should not be tolerated. And these people who created injustices here and who have created injustices for this region and for our neighbours cannot stand there and give me lectures about anything. They cannot. They are free to go and do anything they want. I know they are capable of doing wrong things… On that one they are very good, so they are free.

We are doing our best. We are trying our best to take this country forward, to unite our people, to give them a decent living like those people have. But they think we don’t deserve it. They think we don’t deserve the same development, the same value as they have. Why would anybody accept that?

Why should you Rwandans ever accept it? Why? The only crime we have committed is to be trying our best to be decently making progress. That’s a crime! Let me tell you: No, it cannot happen. It should not happen. It should not be allowed. It should not be accepted. Let us continue to do what we can do. Those insults thrown upon us every day, you ignore them. Don’t even accept to put these unhappy faces on because they will think they have got where they wanted you. Just let us continue doing our best and let us not accept to be provoked. Let us remain balanced. Let us keep mastering our art of getting the most out of the very little we have in our hands. Let us also try and continue to be decent people. Some of these insults and injustices, everything, happen because of mainly two reasons.

One reason is that some Africans also continue to make horrible mistakes and of course that makes for a good excuse for people to come in and make it worse for you, not any better.

The other reason is our weaknesses in terms of institutions and our own lack of integrity. We fail to focus on how to deal with our problems ourselves or at least to take the lead in resolving our problems. So they go through that. Those are cracks through which they will come in and cause you worse problems.

All these pretexts come about because some people in Africa make mistakes that they shouldn’t make. People who don’t govern their people and represent their interests in the way they should and end up attracting attention and give people loopholes and excuses to come and mess them up. They will use that to say: “you see, this is how Africans are…”

There is also the failure to create institutions, because of the mistakes I mentioned, and end up attracting these people who come with the excuses of helping to solve our problems. Fellow Rwandans, you should not accept to be victims. Never put yourself in a vulnerable position because no one will get you out.

Of course, there are good people out there who understand how things should be but sometimes we find ourselves getting caught in the cross-fire of political wars. Sometimes you find that people who don’t understand things are the ones wielding power and we end up bearing the brunt of their frustrations. Never mind that some of the frustrations may even be as a result of personal problems. Rwanda ends up being trodden on like that.

Honestly, some of these things are done to us because people can just do it; they don’t have to have justification, no. First of all they are the law unto themselves. They consider themselves as the law and what they say or want is what should be done. They even influence international justice institutions to do their bidding and this is where international justice ends up being politicised. There is no respect for justice. When you don’t respect the law, why do you expect others to do so?

Look at the issue of aid. There have been many agreements on aid, signed in different places; there is Busan, Cotonou; the Abuja treaty, Lagos….. What else? We are not short of places and agreements signed for aid disbursement. But if you ever were deceived that the other party respects you or the agreements, then you are mistaken. They have not even the courtesy to tell you. You just hear on radio that they’ve cut aid or read it in newspapers. No courtesy because they owe you nothing. May be that’s right. They really don’t owe us anything after all, do they?

But why would you deceive people and say we have an agreement and this is how we are going to conduct business, and the other party disowns the agreement as and when they want? They don’t even have to have a good reason, they don’t. That shows how much contempt these people have for us. This shows how much contempt and arrogance they regard us all with. If there was an understanding that they owe us nothing, I would endorse that 100% because it’s true. The problem is that they say they are assisting us but there is lack of consistence.

We are told that they are pursuing their interests but you are left wondering sometimes how we have stood in the way to stop them from pursuing their interests. It is difficult to understand what they really want. We have never questioned or stopped anyone from taking Congo’s wealth because it’s not even our business. However, you will hear the same people turn around and accuse Rwanda of progressing because of Congo’s wealth. How can this happen if the wealth cannot make the Congolese who own the wealth progress? What is saddening is that even the Congolese themselves will join the chorus about Rwanda progressing because of their wealth. Why won’t they use their wealth to develop their country? How can wealth benefit others and not those who possess it?

The only external wealth that I acknowledge to have helped Rwanda progress is the aid that is given to us and taken away as those who give it wish. We are always courteous enough to register our appreciations to those who assist us. However, there are those who give you assistance and want to control and follow you up to show you how you should use the assistance. What culture is this? I think this is too much contempt and arrogance. This cannot happen in a society that values its culture.

People who have power, and have a lot of it for that matter, should also be wise. They should wisely exercise that power. After all if you have power, why not exercise it deligently, in a wise way? Why do you have power and go tramping on people who are powerless? When the powerful get angry, it’s not justified. But many times the powerless have a lot of justifications to be angry.

The powerful, please don’t abuse your power. It is not appropriate in any culture for the powerful to use excessive power on the weak, the poor and powerless. This only happens in a world without a culture and values. But the weak, the poor, the powerless have a different potential that they should use correctly to get out of this kind of position we find ourselves in every time. There is another kind of power that we have and should use. The power of being right. The power of being correct. The power of refusing injustice. So, you will keep hearing from me on this. That is why you hired me, Rwandans. I would be happy that some of you or all of you should be thinking about how we continue with this attitude of according ourselves dignity.

Even after me, we should have somebody who continues on the same path. In fact, this should be the qualification for the one who will step in my position. It should be that and nothing else: to fight for Rwandans so as to have what they deserve and that is no less than dignity. Agaciro – the dignity that we have. Only people who can continue to give that dignity to Rwanda are the people who should lead Abanyarwanda!

Remembering Kamuzu: The old flag in modern days

When Malawi’s independence from Britain was announced on July 6 1964, the British flag, known as the Union Jack, was pulled down and that of the new nation was raised.

Malawi’s original flag was a black, red and green colour composition with the rising sun imposed on the black strip. The black strip symbolised the colour of the people of Africa; the red symbolised the blood African sons and daughters lost fighting for independence; the green symbolised the generally green environment of Africa while the rising sun symbolised hope for Malawians.

Malawi’s founding President, Ngwazi Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, defended the colour composition of that flag based on the symbolism of its composition. Nevertheless, that colour composition was changed two years ago.

While the colours have been maintained, composition has changed. The red strip has swapped positions with the black strip and the rising red sun on top has been replaced by a full white sun in the middle of the flag.

I don’t know whether proponents of the flag modification, as they called it, have changed the meaning of the colour of the strips. I can only confirm that they said the full sun symbolised the complete development the country has attained which, as they claimed, tentatively, made the rising sun useless.

As someone who has been to a number of areas across the country – that is urban, semi urban, semi rural and rural – I will live to maintain that this country is far from one being called developed and that the colour composition of the old flag is still relevant.

In this piece, I will not argue why I see the reasons advanced when the flag was being modified as all but fallacies. Several people have already torn apart these flimsy reasons advanced to change our beautiful flag.

However, my argument will not concentrate on all the four highly symbolic components of the old flag ether. Instead, I will place my concentration on the red strip – the blood sons and daughters of Africa shed as they fought for liberty – and the rising red sun, the coming of hope for Malawians.

Before I lay down my arguments, let me state that I will not say the red strip symbolises the blood black Africans lost fighting for their independence. Instead, I will say the blood Malawians are losing fighting for their better Malawi.

One would ask, have Malawians lost blood of the same magnitude as that Africans lost generally? My answer will be that whether that blood is of the same volume or not, blood is blood and never changes its name because one bit is a drop and the other a full pail.

Malawians have lost blood for their country at every level of their country’s development, that is during the pre-independence era, post-independence era, one-party era and multiparty era with focus on two regimes, namely that of Bakili Muluzi and Bingu wa Mutharika (may his soul rest in peace).

We have lost sons and daughters of this country at all these levels and their list would be endless. However, for brevity I will mention a few. The likes of Orton Chirwa, Mukwapatira Mhango, Kalonga Stambuli, Evison Matafale, Epiphania Bonjesi, Robert Chasowa and the July 20 2011 victims come to mind.

Several of these have already been discussed before. That leaves me with only a few to discuss.

Evison Matafale was killed in police custody following his arrest allegedly for authoring revolutionary messages. A revolution does come about anyhow and shall only happen when things are not well and someone wants the situation changed.

Malawians were facing a host of problems the time Matafale purportedly authored these revolutionary messages. Hunger was one of them, the major one. He wanted things to change and he wanted a better Malawi for her people.

Epiphania Bonjesi was shot in cold blood as scores of Malawians protested the results of an election. Though she died an innocent soul as she wasn’t taking part in the demonstrations, Bonjesi’s blood was spilt for a good cause. People wanted reality to prevail and her blood was not sacrificed in vain. Somebody got something from what happened.

Like Matafale, Moses Chasowa wrote on the ills he saw in the country. He wanted things to change because he wanted a better Malawi for his brothers and sisters. The result of such an attempt was his cruel killing.

Then, during the July 20/21 demonstrations, Malawians voiced their concern at the deteriorating state of a number of sectors in their country. They wanted their country to change for the better. Unfortunately, the police used their heavy hand and several Malawians shed blood.

This shows that the blood of Malawians has been shed at all levels and this sequence would not rule out such blood being lost in future. We are living in a country where things easily turn sour after starting very well.

All the cases highlighted above point to the second line of argument that is the rising sun on the flag. All those that died had hope that things would one day get better which is why they rose against the system and ended up shedding blood. Can this outdo the symbolism that is in the rising sun?

That aside, we Malawians are living a hopeful life – symbolised in the rising sun – because we believe that as we progress in our life, we will overcome the various problems that confront us at different levels of this life. That has been the hope and it will never die.

After independence from colonialism, who ever fathomed that those who fought for independence would one day rise against each other leading to the cabinet crisis of 1964? And after the adoption of a one-party system of government, who ever thought that Malawians would long for a multiparty system of government one day?

Further, while deep into the multiparty system of government, who ever thought that brutal killings would be a way of preventing the concerned from expressing their views? And who ever thought that we would be confronted by segregation, nepotism, cronyism, corrupt practices etc? Have we ever lost hope of overcoming at being confronted by any of these?

The old flag was designed to mirror a post-colonialism period. And as long as we are in the post-colonialism era its relevance and symbolism shall remain. We are going to face problems that will lead to shedding blood or not and our hope of overcoming those problems shall be sustained.

Replacing the green of Usisya

BY KAREN MSISKA

Once upon a time, there was green in the beautiful hills around Usisya in Nkhata Bay north. But rarely is that green seen nowadays, very much so even during the rainy season.

In fact, only those hills far enough from people’s homes are still green with trees, all of them indigenous. And brown is the colour that dominates the inhabited areas which are dotted with huge mango trees.

The cone shaped Mphande Hill, standing uncharacteristically on the edge of Lake Malawi but surrounded by flatland extending on the other sides, is an icon of how man’s activities led to the depletion of vegetation in this beautiful land.

Not a long time ago, the area’s rank and file say, the hill was beautifully dressed in natural trees. But as the area’s population swelled, trees started paving way albeit the hill hosts no house.

“We are told people cut down the trees for various domestic uses,” says Tonderai Manoto, Executive Director of Temwa, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working in a number of thematic lines in the area.

“Others started cultivating in the hill, completely taking out the possibility of tree re-growth there. And now they walk long distances into the hills far away from their homes to fetch firewood and other ecosystem benefits like mushrooms.”

What happened in Mphande hill is what happened in the other areas that were not habited or cultivated. And the result has been the brown that dominates most of the areas there.

According to Temwa, there are about 30,000 people from 89 villages in the area. And these are the people that absorb the calamities spat by this treeless area.

Firewood is scarce. Worse still, rains are suddenly becoming irregular leading to low harvests from the maize crop which people there have adopted, thanks to the input subsidy programme.

Previously, these people grew cassava which the current low rainfall would suffice. But they switched crops after learning that the area’s soils were fertile enough to give bumper maize harvests.

“We want to take Usisya back to the good old days by replenishing the forests. We want to dress Mphande Hill with trees and we have particularly talked about the hill with the communities,” added Manoto.

The tree planting exercises fall under the agriculture and forestry thematic line. Selected members of the community were handed skills on effective management of tree nurseries. And most of them are now raising their own woodlots.

Tovia Chirwa, Temwa Project Officer (Forestry), said on a broader spectrum, the organisation initiated the planting of 2,638 tree seedlings in Mphande Hill last year. Unfortunately, a tree by tree count indicated that only 72 survived.

She said people continued to cultivate in the hill and they wantonly set fires that damaged the young trees. The development has forced Temwa to change its approach, according to Manoto.

“They are not stopped from cultivating their crops in the hill. However, we encourage that while they do that they should contribute something by planting some trees in areas they haven’t cultivated,” he added.

“We are also engaging the communities to look after the trees by preparing firebreaks around the woodlots. We are also engaging on part time those who showed interest in planting trees and we will pay for the time they spend tendering the trees.”

Manoto added that communities were further targeted for their use of shifting cultivation in which trees are felled from vast pieces of land just for seasonal agricultural activities.

He said people are so complacent thinking that they have plenty of trees to fell when they see natural trees in the hills especially on the western side of the area.

“We are encouraging every household to plant trees and own these woodlots because they can only get what they are missing now from such woodlots,” he said.

Chirwa added that under the community engagement in the re-greening exercise, the organisation is setting up community nurseries from which respective communities get tree seedlings for planting.

She said the organisations set up 10 community nurseries this planting season adding that each nursery had 20,000 seedlings. This means 200,000 trees were up for planting not only in Mphande Hill but also in surrounding areas.

“We are providing seedlings that individuals can intercrop with their maize under the agroforestry component because they enrich the soil and provide shade to crops or those that they can just plant on their own in woodlots,” she said.

From the training support for farmers to community nurseries and woodlots to paying interested individuals to take care of the planted trees, Temwa looks to have worked an effective trick as regards replacing the green of Usisya. But looking at what has happened before, one would be forgiven if they chose to wait and see how this would work.

A toilet that makes human excreta touchable

A day would start the same way for the people of Senior Group Village Head (SGVH) Chikuzankhu, in an area stuck between two hills extending from deep inside Nyika National Park near Bolero in Rumphi.

One of them would feel like relieving themselves. So they either go into the bush or a pit latrine dug just near the house.

If it were in the bush, they would go there, turn and face the direction they came from before doing the job. They would, afterwards, walk straight to where they came from, never looking back. The pattern was the same if it were the pit latrine. There was no looking at what they left behind.

Such is the case in most societies. So often every day, we visit imaginary toilets in bush or the most decent water closets within our houses. But rarely do we cast the eye on that stuff once it is dropped.

The people of SGVH Chikuzankhu, however, are gradually drifting from that group. These days, they not only look at their excreta but also heavily dilute the despicableness with which society associates touching human excreta.

“We have realised that that is the best manure one would ever think of. It is a combination of both the basal and top dressing,” said SGVH Chikuzankhu at Mkama in the area recently.

“Those of us who have used manure from human excreta have noticed how that manure even beats a combination of 23:21:0+4S and Urea. The faeces are Nitrogen and the urine is Urea. But we get that combination at no cost at all that is why I say it beats that combination.”

As a cultural custodian himself, Chikuzankhu never fathomed that the despicableness with which he associated touching his own excreta would one day go away and that easily. That day and the ease came soon enough for him.

Through their routine exercise, some people working under the Kulera Biodiversity and Water and Development Alliance (Wada) Project approached people from his village one day.

They brought two types of manure. One of them was that from human excreta harvested from a toilet promoted under the Community Water and Sanitation Programme (C-Wasp), funded through a partnership between United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation.

They were asked which of the two types of manure we would comfortably touch with their bare hands. They all pointed at that of human excreta. At that point they had not known that it was human excreta.

“They explained the process of making that manure to us. They told us the entire trick was in the ecological sanitation (eco-san) toilet which never wastes what is dropped into it,” said Chikuzankhu.

Obedi Mkandawire, Rumphi Zone Manager for Total Land Care (TLC), other implementing partners for the Kulera/Wada Project, says the eco-san toilet has two components. Each component, he says, is usually one metre deep and a square measuring 0.8m

Each component is covered with a sun plate and one of them is used at a time. When it is full, the opening on the sun plate is covered and the other component is opened for use.

“Every time someone uses that toilet, they throw in a handful each of ashes and soil. The ashes kill the germs and the smell and the soil takes away the being human excreta,” said Mkandawire.

“The manure is usually ready for use after six or eight months. At this point the manure looks like dark fertile soil which is why people say it is the one they would easily touch than that from cattle dung, for example.”

Chikuzankhu says the manure from the eco-san toilets has boosted yields in the fields whose owners cannot afford the basal and top dressing fertilisers, saying once applied, the manure shows signs that it can keep supplying the nutrients for over two years without replenishing with another lot.

He said the response to the use of the manure is currently low. However, he said the combination of its performance and how it looks is fast attracting a number of villagers in the area.

The project targets 225,000 individuals in communities within a 10 kilometre band surrounding Nyika National Park, Vwaza and Nkhotakota Game Reserves and Ntchisi and Mkuwazi Forest Reserve.

Using interventions like conservation agriculture, village savings and loans and small-scale livestock production, the project seeks to improve livelihoods of target communities around the reserves so they don’t encroach and rely on the natural resources in the protected areas.

While all the initiatives under the project seek to change people’s attitude towards their surrounding environments, it is the performance of eco-san toilets under the Wada component that has borne the most interesting fruits.

The people of SGVH Chikuzankhu have changed their attitude and can now touch their own excreta. But that is not the only miraculous performance from the eco-san toilets.

“It is the cleanest system of disposing of wastes,” says Mkandawire.

Aiding girl education

Where desks are a barrier

 

For Gift Mkandawire and Rose Kaunda, their participation in class should never be the same again. These St Mary’s Girls Primary School pupils in Karonga should now be able to do what they previously could not do.

Every school day, just like the many other pupils at their school, these girls spread themselves on the floor each time they entered a classroom in readiness for classes. And they remained like that until that day’s class session ended.

However, unlike their boy classmates, the girls struggled to participate in tackling questions their teacher would throw at the class in the course of a lesson. It is not that this withdrawal was a result of dullness.

While the boys would just spring up within seconds and attempt what the teacher asked, the girls would spend some more time to do so.

If the teacher pointed at one of them, she would sweep her dress tight to her body before fully standing up. Then she would attempt the question. And whether she gives a correct answer or not, she would also hold her dress tight to her body before gradually resuming her seat.

“It is a huge task for girls who sit on the floor to stand up and attempt a question posed in class in the course of a lesson,” says Joseph Nyondo, Desk Officer at the Karonga District Education Manager’s (Dem) office.

“They always have to do this so that they do not expose themselves to male class mates and teachers. And because of the nature of doing this so often, most of the girls have chosen not to participate in class exercises that would require them to stand. They sometimes feel shy.”

Nyondo says the development affects the girls’ quest to achieve their dreams as they lack opportunities to test their confidence in public. He adds that such cases would continue unless unavailability of desks in schools in the district is addressed.

If this unavailability of desks were a piece of cake for primary schools in each of the country’s districts to share, those in Karonga would certainly celebrate the most as they would get the biggest share.

Nyondo says the problem is so huge in the district that the population of desks goes into that of pupils 12 times. This means that if all pupils were to sit on desks, 12 pupils would cram one desk. Nyondo said there are about 159 primary schools in the district.

Unfortunately, each desk accommodates just two to three pupils. This means that for every desk allocated to a school, nine or 10 pupils will not feel it. And, unfortunately, it is the girl child that is pinched the most each time such a situation occurs.

The situation is evenly spread across the district such that there are schools that have existed for years without desks. One such school is Mubisi primary school which is so mired in such problems that the first consignment of desks since its inauguration in 1968 was a donation in December last year.

But while the situation remains for pupils in some schools in the district, those at St Mary’s Girls and Karonga CCAP Primary Schools should be singing a reasonably different story.

This change in fortunes for the girl children in the two schools is all because of the desks Standard Bank donated recently.

The donation was the coming to realisation of a promise made some time ago. Managing Director Charles Mudiwa promised when the bank inaugurated its Karonga branch in February last year that it would contribute K1million towards a school.

Communities were tasked to identify the beneficiary school, and they identified St Mary’s Girls and Karonga CCAP Primary Schools.

“Basic education, particularly for the girl child, and maternal health are quite so dear to Standard Bank that we will try our best and render our assistance in those areas,” says the bank’s Head of Corporate Banking Issa Edward.

“We reckon that it is one of the ways we would like to move Malawi forward. As a bank, we are operating in a society and not a vacuum. It is in this society that customers and future employees for the bank live and will come from.”

Edward said overall, the bank has dedicated one percent of its after tax annual profit towards social responsibility drives. He, however, said while the bank has a number of areas to spend this allocation on, the girl child education and maternal health are priorities.

He added that the donation of the desks was one of the bank’s contributions to girl child education. But it is not the only one. He said Mulunguzi secondary school benefitted through the renovation of some girls hostels.

The bank has also spent K14million to paint Chintheche rural hospital in Nkhata Bay and stock it with two brand new oxygen concentrators, a computer, a refrigerator and additional beds and mattresses. It also set up a telephone system at the refurbished facility besides installing two electric cooking pots.

But while the gesture at Chintheche has no direct benefit to the girl child, that of desks has. Gift and Rose will now stand without difficulties and attempt the questions. This should allow them to test their confidence in public and evenly participate in class.

Setting communities on course for self-reliance

Not a long time ago, Matilda Gondwe did not fathom of where to get quick cash. Her only stable source of income was tobacco but that income came after almost a year of toiling.

Today, Gondwe, who is treasurer of the Takondwa Dairy Club of Rumphi, sings a different song. She is able to make quick cash through the sale of milk from the dairy cows her group tames.

This change of fortunes is not something Gondwe and seven other members of the group worked easily.

“In 2008, we heard that officials from Find Your Feet were going from village to village through chiefs looking for people who would come up with projects that they would assist with funding,” said Gondwe.

“We wrote a proposal for dairy cattle farming. We were interviewed and later taught a number of issues regarding dairy cattle farming including construction of the kraal and preparation of feed.”

They contributed money towards the building and roofing of the kraal. Find Your Feet gave them three dairy cows and a bull in 2010. The cows were of different ages so the milk production is sustained over a longer period of time.

The group was also taught how to detect when a cow is on heat so they could easily move into its pen the bull which stays in a different pen, just like the rest of the cows, for mating.

They once did it and the oldest cow gave birth to a female calf. This is the cow that they started milking. They sold the milk and shared part of the money they realised.

“The cattle are ours and the only requirement for us is to pay three cows to the Village Development Committee (VDC). These cows will later be passed on to another group,” added Gondwe.

She said the milk they got from the first cow earned them K18,000 a month. She added that they used part of the money to supplement the cattle’s feed and shared the remainder.

While the Takondwa Club got cattle, other groups got goats and pigs, among others. However, the operation of the scheme is the same.

The livestock pass on programme is one of a number of thematic lines along which Find Your Feet provided funding with the view of helping group members to establish themselves on the way to self reliance.

These activities fell under the Rumphi Food Security Programme which Find Your Feet implemented with a K280 million joint funding from the European Union (EU) which contributed 90 percent and Development Fund (DF).

Find Your Feet Projects Manager Chimwemwe Soko said several groups drawn from Chiweta, Mhuju, Bolero and Katowo Agricultural Extension Planning Areas (EPAs) were also supported to establish themselves in agroforestry and a number of modern agricultural practices.

“These people’s lives are determined by a diverse range of issues which is why we did not just focus on one thematic area,” said Soko.

“For instance, there are people who grow tobacco and processing tobacco requires a lot of timber. So we went into afforestation as well because without that a number of areas would be left barren which would not be good for agriculture generally.”

Joyce Kumwenda, who coordinates agroforestry projects in the Chikwawa-Jandang’ombe Zone in the district, said since 2008 people have planted a number of fertility replenishing trees in her area.

She said over 3,000 trees have also been planted on areas that were deforested because of the tobacco industry.

Soko added that through a concept branded lead farmer, in which an individual farmer is taught modern farming techniques and later teaches others, a number of farmers have boosted their crop yields regardless of the devastating effects of climate change.

He said over the period of four years, Find Your Feet has trained 200 lead farmers who in turn have trained 11,000 follow up farmers. The follow up farmers are also training scores of others each.

“The idea is to achieve a multiplier effect and the learning process is easy because the farmers learn through observing what their colleagues are able to do. They actually do what they see,” added Soko.

This diversified approach involved livestock feed production as well. And the Chirambo Community Based Organisation (CBO) is a success story in the area.

The group, which helps mitigate the effects of HIV and Aids on orphaned children, widows and widowers, got support for the livestock feed making project. It also runs a maize mill at Chirambo Trading Centre.

Communities around the CBO contributed sand and bricks toward the building of the two facilities. Find Your Feet funded the rest.

“The Food Security Project saw the establishment of a number of livestock clubs, among others, and without the production of livestock feed anywhere around this area, members had to travel long distances to get the feed,” said Principal Group Village Head Kawazamawe.

“But now we are producing that feed right here which means we are keeping the money here and at the same time we are attracting another lot from other areas because people from other areas come to buy feed from here as well.”

He said part of the money generated from the maize mill and feed funds operations of the CBO. The rest is used to run operations for the two. So, be it through cattle or goats, people in the catchment area have discovered their feet in these hard economic times, thanks to Find Your Feet.

Agonies of an isolated primary school

*One qualified teacher for eight classes

For as long as it is a school day, hoping from one class room to another is an everyday task for one Danny Kayinga.

He is not the District Inspector of Schools (DIS) whom, as a pupil, you used to see surprise teachers in classes or catch them pants down chatting during working hours in those days.

Kayinga is a head teacher at Mubisi primary school located about 60 kilometres north-west of Songwe border post in Karonga.

Yet his hoping from one class to another has nothing to do with the luxury many a head teacher, with so many teachers at their schools, have. It is not a question of spending time to supervise teachers because the head teacher is not allocated any.

Kayinga is the only qualified teacher at this school, which sits near the edge of Songwe River and at 15 kilometres from Ngana, the furthest you can go by road from Songwe border post on this stretch.

Access to the school from this point is by a footpath. Anyone who wants to get there has to walk from Ngana. No wonder, it is the people of Mubisi who regularly come to Ngana for activities though meant for their school.

Lone soldier

Being the only qualified teacher at the school – which started operating in 1968 – Kayinga forfeits the luxury most head teachers have. He does the teaching. Unfortunately, he does that to as many as 280 pupils spread over eight classes.

“On the ground there are four of us. One is still training under the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) programme and the community engaged two volunteers to assist with teaching,” says Kayinga.

“But such teachers are not fully recognised which is why I say I am the only teacher here. This is why I have to jump from one class to another to ensure that at least pupils learn something.”

Shortage of teachers in the country is an unfortunate fixture. The 2009 Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) says each qualified teacher is assigned 90 pupils (1:90) in most parts of the country.

Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MoEST) officials say this ratio is unacceptable and the ministry is fighting to bring it down. At 1:280, Mubisi’s situation is more agonising, more so considering that the recommended ratio for rural areas is 1:40.

While Mubisi primary school staggers with just Kayinga, every year the MoEST trains 3,700 primary school teachers under conventional programmes and 4,000 others under the ODL.

Misfiring policy

“These teachers are posted anywhere across the country after graduating from the Teachers Training Colleges (TTCs). We are told teachers are posted to Mubisi primary school but they do not stay long there,” said MoEST spokesperson Lindiwe Chide.

“Maybe the nature of that place is what scares these teachers.”

If ever what MoEST suggests is what really forces teachers out of schools in rural settings like Mubisi, such action is done against a policy designed to ensure that they stay there.

Those selected for teacher training sign an agreement before they are fully enrolled in the TTCs binding them to teach in rural areas for a minimum of five years. Thus, with thousands of teachers graduating every year, Mubisi should not have been starving.

Executive Director for Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) Benedicto Kondowe says the situation at Mubisi primary school throws spanners in any effort to achieve quality education.

“Definitely, efforts to achieve quality education are under serious threat at this school. And I should suspect that with just one teacher, this school is the worst performing in the district,” said Kondowe.

“Education is not just about access. It is also about achievement. But education cannot be achieved in cases where one qualified teacher mans a full primary school. Definitely, pupils are not taught as per requirement.”

No success

True to Kondowe’s fears, Kayinga talks about a pupil who was selected to Mzuzu Government Secondary School from there in 1991 as the only beacon of success at the school.

He says latest generations of pupils see standard eight as the limit. Though eager to learn, he says, the pupils do not see anywhere else to go after standard eight.

“The nearest community day secondary school (CDSS) where some of these pupils could be selected to is Iponga. But that is 45 kilometres from Mubisi which means most of those selected there would be travelling more than 90km daily,” he says.

“Most pupils walk more than 10km from their homes to the school, some of them with stools on their heads because there is nothing to sit on at the school. It has had no desks since inception in 1968.”

The shortage of teachers and long distance from homes and to the next secondary school still do not complete Mubisi primary school’s list of problems. Once at the school, pupils are juggled between learning under trees and learning shifts.

Kayinga says the school has six classrooms instead of eight. He says the remaining classes learn under trees during the dry season. When it rains the pupils are split into two with one group learning in the morning and the other in the afternoon.

“Are we living to reality when it comes to quality education?” asks Kondowe.

“We need to move away from political rhetoric and start acting with realism. It is important to prioritise such schools when posting teachers.”

From Nkhata Bay to Usisya by boat

If adventures on a sunny Saturday morning were to be considered then a trip to Usisya from Nkhata Bay by boat should be sitting somewhere on top of everything one would think about.

For starters, Usisya is located slightly on the north-eastern side of Mzuzu. It is the largest flatland along the lake between Mlowe in Rumphi and Nkhata bay boma.

UT (Usisya Town), as fondly called by those from the area, is bordered by the lake on the east, an escarpment on the west and hilly terrains on the north and south.

One can get there by road from Mzuzu, by helicopter as the aerodrome is almost nonexistent or by lake. The journey by road is one of the most hair-raising encounters one would fathom.

But it is the journey to there from Nkhata Bay that is the most captivating and adventurous in nature. Its fun will be magnified if the lake pities you and remains peaceful.

Everything starts with you wading for a few steps before you get onto a boat which usually waits a few metres from land. Operators say the way boats are designed makes them hard to pull over to land.

Boats are heavier and go a little deeper into the water. As such, they hit the base of the shallow side of the lake even when water is knee high.

So once you are on board, you really have to hold your nerve because the engine will not roll right away. The boat is paddled a little deeper into the lake to ensure that once lowered, the propeller does not run on the base.

During paddling the boat usually sways from one end to another. That is what should leave you holding onto the leg of someone next to you or virtually lying on the floor of the boat.

But you should walk from one spot to another once the engine is on. You may only fail to do so if you are riding a boat for the first time. And that should really be a bad experience and you should be lucky if you aren’t vomiting.

We started our journey as early as 6.30am and we were to be on the lake for the next four hours.

It was one of the many times I have travelled by lake but the first to sail on this stretch. Earlier experiences were either by Ilala or Mtendere and were often between Chilumba and Usisya.

If you are roaring here for the first time you should be stunned by a village near Thoto. Being watched from the lake, this village occurs like a nucleus comprising houses roofed with iron sheets.

Those familiar with the place say most of the sons of this village are either in Tanzania or South Africa and they show the benefits of being there by building such houses for their parents.

This village is possibly better than towns. While you are likely to see some houses without satellite dishes in towns and cities, each house in this village has a minimum of two dishes.

Apparently, hoping from one house to another to watch television is viewed as a sign of lacking here.

As the journey matures, by which time you should have slept and woken up, memories of this village fade too easily. It’s not that the village is less memorable. It’s because of the grandeur of what you see next.

The hills on your west are so intertwined that it will require from you a reasonable degree of patience to see which hill is which. And in a few cases, gaps extend between hills, starting from the lake and disappearing into a range of hills.

And instead of just meeting the waters of the lake, these hills draw themselves in the water with captivating unison that you start wondering whether you are sailing on the lake or on the other side of the hills.

The picturesque is just too magnificent. You would forgive one who exposes their shock and start asking whether they are treading on territory outside the warm heart of Africa.

Unfortunately, by the time you are able to take a breath after the end of this episode, you are handed over to another. This latest is Mphande Hill. It is uncharacteristically positioned in the middle of the flatland and the lake.

It is such a marvellous sight even if viewed from any direction. And it is not an orphan. There are tiny rocky islands just nearby. Building a resort on any of these would be an idea seen as one hatched in a heavenly slumber.

By this time you should be docking. Unfortunately, this will not be before you are caught up in on-the-lake trade that is fish business.

You can just beckon and they will come in large numbers. Unfortunately, assured of ready customers ashore they don’t sell cheaply. But you can easily beat them if you let one to bargain and buy for the rest of you.

Welcome to Usisya Town!

When ending poverty outweighs sustaining environment

Lizinet Josiah, 28, knows that her village is no longer getting the rainfall it used to get not so long ago. Her measurement of changes in the rainfall pattern is the volume of water in a river that roars near that village.

In yesteryears, she says, the Diamphwi River was impassable in February. The water in the river only receded to the point of people walking across around September.

Yet for the previous few years, the people of her Beni Village in Traditional Authority (TA) Masula in Lilongwe have no longer waited for September to walk across this river. They can do it in February and did it in February of 2012.

Although she dropped out of school in Standard four, Josiah is able to connect this diminishing rainfall pattern to the depletion of the village’s giant, the Dzalanyama forest reserve.

Scientists say forests assist in the rainmaking process called evapo-transpiration, a combination of evaporation from land and transpiration from vegetative cover including trees.

And for long, this forest had attracted rains to Josiah’s village. But that is not the case now that the forest is not longer there.

Hundreds of, mainly, men from around the forest have been descending on it, camping deep inside it, felling trees for charcoal burning. Josiah reckons that there are no culprits worse than those from her village.

Blame it on poverty

She also knows that sustaining the forest would bring back the reliable rainfall. But she chooses to stun you.

“As long as the charcoal alleviates our poverty and gives us something with which to buy food, the forest can go,” she says.

“It’s all because of poverty. We want to have food but we don’t have money to buy the food or fertilisers to boost our food yields. We get something from the charcoal from the forest. We buy food and top up what we get under the farm income subsidy programme. What we get is little and this season was worse.”

Every day, bicycles loaded with charcoal zigzag their way out of Dzalanyama forest to Mitundu where it is traded to middlemen. These middlemen later take it into the centre of Lilongwe where they sell it to final consumer.

Beating the system

Those burning the charcoal are so sought by forestry officers from the Department of Forestry. As such, they have to be artful dodgers to get to the middlemen.

Pilato Elefanti is among those who make a living out of selling firewood collected from the forest. He says every day an average of 400 bags of charcoal trek from the forest to the middlemen.

“Each bag fetches between K1,300 and K1,400 at the middlemen,” he said.

Elefanti says he is not involved in the charcoal business himself. He forms a group of people that get out of the forest will towers of dry wood on their bicycle carriers to Mitundu where they also sell to middlemen.

Each of them pays K300 a day to get a pass from the forestry officers into the forest. They are rarely monitored because of shortage of staff. So they may deliberately fell trees to collect dry wood the other day.

“I don’t collect the wood every day. But there are people who get out of the forest with bags of charcoal every day,” he says.

That is how the forest is drifting towards extinction. Unfortunately, it is those that perpetrate this extinction that are feeling the pinch.

Vicious cycle

Village Head (VH) Beni says rains have been inadequate and irregular since signs of the forest’s depletion started showing vividly over six years ago. And people there have not been harvesting enough.

“People are still planting because the kind of rains with which we plant our crops started coming very late. Before that, it was only showers,” said Beni in an interview in February.

This change in the rainfall pattern because of the depletion of Dzalanyama forest is also threatening water supply to the whole of Lilongwe and the cost of that water.

The forest is a source of rivers supplying the Kamuzu Dam which supplies Lilongwe.

District Forestry Officer (DFO) for Lilongwe Jipate Munyenyembe says a depleted Dzalanyama will raise the cost of water because more would be spent on treating the water.

“The absence of trees in catchment areas leads to sedimentation of rivers. And it is very expensive to restore the quality of water from rivers that are filled with sediment,” says Munyenyembe.

“Because the cost of treatment rises, the cost of that water also rises.”

He says halting the depletion of the forest has always been a problem due to lack of manpower and inaccessible roads.

This, he says, has given the villagers an opportunity to camp in the forest, fell trees and burn the charcoal. Only joint efforts between the Forestry Department and the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) or the police have flushed out the encroachers.

Hoping against hope

Munyenyembe says his department is currently dressing the depleted Dzalanyama and other areas in the district with 11 million trees.

People of Beni Village have also been given tree seedlings for them to plant. In fact, they have planted some. However, if you ask him, the answer you get from VH Beni tells you that Dzalanyama will keep going and protection of the young trees once mature is not guaranteed.

“The people want money to buy food and fertilisers and there are no other sources of money for this,” he says. “The poverty is what is driving them into charcoal burning.”