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 The red strip has swapped positions with the black strip and the rising red sun on top has been replaced by a full white sun in the middle of the flag.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.