Quit Malawi!

I began reading Gandhi’s biography by his grandson about three weeks ago. Gandhi, by Rajmohan Gandhi. Since the first business training I conducted at Camp Sky two months ago, I have been preaching the importance of small business. Looking around Malawi one sees vast stretches of beautiful, fertile land where practically anything can grow bountifully. Yet perusing shop shelves one sees only import goods. Malawi is crowded with products from predominantly South Africa, India and China. In addition, all major businesses in Malawi are owned by Indians, and increasingly the Chinese.

The first part of my lectures always highlight this fact: when you buy something, look at the label and understand that money is leaving Malawi. Each time you buy a t-shirt or even a soda, that money goes to make a foreign country richer instead of Malawi.

Malawians have two misconceptions. First that goods made elsewhere are of higher quality than anything made in Malawi. Secondly, they have grown to believe that the Indians and Chinese are inherently smarter or better at business. Both tragic falsehoods that I pursue to eradicate in the course of lecture by example. The most straight forward example being the community income scenario by tracking a loaf of bread and having students explain the flow of money.

Beyond the simple issue of misconceptions, it goes beyond to a matter of national pride, and personal pride. This beautiful, bountiful country; virtually anything can be produced here. Yet the major outputs are maize, tobacco, and minor staples like cassava, sugar, and cotton. The maize is eaten, but produced using harmful fertilizers and hybrid seeds, all from Monsanto and other foreign corporations. Tobacco is bought at an astonishingly low price by major foreign tobacco companies, robbing the rural farmers, exported, processed into cigarettes, imported back and sold in Malawi. There is no reason these products can’t be manufactured in Malawi and no reason all businesses can’t be run by Malawians. The Indians and Chinese spotted opportunities that Malawians weren’t taking advantage of and profited. Unattended treasure will be taken.

Perhaps it was decades of colonial submission, generations of stifled growth with a British boot at the throat, and being told you are inferior, dumber because of what you believe and the color of your skin. Between the missionaries, traders and government officials Malawi didn’t stand a chance.

The nail in the coffin is the geographic placement of Malawi as a land locked country, with virtually no port access to goods. Today it still struggles under the duties and demands of Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia. Plagued by constant fuel shortages and expensive goods, coupled with inflation, donor funding, and the snowball effect of the aforementioned matters, it’s akin to digging your own grave. A slow, torturous, fatal labor.

So how to unravel this situation? First fold is trying to inject national pride, and cultural pride, into students. Stop being passive, accepting what people say, stop accepting circumstances and believe in your own abilities. Reading Gandhi I was elated by the parallels between the Malawian struggle and Gandhi’s. Be it his fight in South Africa or India, the ideas of non-cooperation, Quit India, and especially the ideas of rejecting foreign cloth, strikes at the heart of the problem.

What the British Empire had accomplished almost a century ago has been emulated by a more subtle and silver-tongued capitalistic empire, under the auspices of globalization. British Reds replaced by the pinstriped uniforms of capital troops. Corporations are the new Empire and the fight for Malawi’s freedom, for personal freedom, is rooted in the ideals of non-cooperation. Quit India is in many ways the ideal template for a Quit Malawi movement. Between Monsanto, Coca Cola and Unilever, these three corporations control virtually every good in Malawi, from maize to water. A David versus Goliath battle, Malawi would have to non-violently cast a stone to be released from the clutches of these giants.

Gandhi adhered passionately with his life to the principle of the chakra. Many ridiculed such a simple idea. How can one fight the Empire with the simple task of spinning their own cloth? And later, how can one fight the Empire with salt? Yet he did. Gandhi was ahead of his time, he developed the art of non-violent warfare, developed the foundations of fighting empires, be it the British or Monsanto. Gandhi understood that the heart of the beast was fueled by money. Without money empires and corporations alike would shrivel and fade away. Ceasing cloth imports not only made Indian citizens more independent, but also reinvigorated an ancient part of the culture and economically withheld the wealth of the nation, at least parts pertaining to cloth, in India.

This is the same principle I try to instill in students, kids and adults alike. Malawi has grown accustomed and dependent on foreign goods, coupled with the effects of foreign aid. There is absolutely no reason these goods cannot be made in Malawi. Malawians are the most resourceful people I have met in my life, able to make the most out of the little they have. In my short time here, I too am learning this art form from the masters. Malawians are also smart, hard-working and incredibly skilled at not only agriculture but also understanding what is available locally and finding practical applications. Nothing goes to waste.

However, change is slow. It took Gandhi an entire lifetime to free the Indian mind, which still hasn’t been wholly achieved. Africa has had a much worse colonial experience than India, and the psyche in Malawi could take decades more to change, but it is happening. While the adults are too old to entertain new ideas, one sees it in students. Ideas of national pride, of taking back their country, experimenting new ideas, making goods locally, making their nation wealthier. Youthful exuberance is in their eyes, with a twinkling of fiery rebellion and fighting for a cause. Students understand these principles and, like the chakra, there is a basic solution to Malawi’s dilemma. One that not only liberates its economy, but also empowers the people and reignites a beautiful culture that is rapidly deteriorating under Western and corporate influence.

Clay pots were an essential part of life in Malawi. The process of making earthen pots was taught by parents to children and the craft was then passed down through generations. Some pots that remain are still beautiful and functioning. These pots when filled with water act as a sort of refrigerator. Today, you no longer find these pots with rare exceptions in the market. Upon further investigation you learn that very few people still know how to make them anymore. In the course of a few generations the craft practically vanished in my region and new generations opted to fully invest in tobacco and learn the ways of Western culture rather than learn “useless” pot making. Most of the earthen pots now in Malawi often come from Tanzania. An unfortunate shift in culture considering these pots sell for a premium in souvenir shops and even home decoration chains in the U.S. An art form lost to foreign tobacco, which has by now almost robbed the farmers barren. Most people finally understand this and regret not learning the skills of their forefathers, the knowledge of eras of survival, like earthen pots.

In light of this, there is hope on many fronts. I have poured all of my hopes not in students but the women’s group we formed with ten women in the community. I taught them basic business concepts and then discussed their ideas for small industries. We settled on two initial projects: oil pressing and jam making. Both were slow to gain momentum, but during the past two weeks were in full swing. I loaned the group money to purchase six tins of ground nuts, with the condition that they pay for two additional tins, and also purchased sugar, 200 ml bottles and fruit for jam. Concurrently, I taught basic accounting concepts to track their cash flow. So far I have been impressed with the initiative of the group, considering that women do so much here that for them to sacrifice time and money for these experimental projects is a major contribution. While I was away, the women shelled and prepped the nuts, which we so far only pressed a liter. This will be divided in to 30 ml sachets after processing and sold at Mkw. 20 each.

More interesting than oil is the jam project. The first day we made tomato jam for taste trials it was enormously popular among all tasters. The second jam day we sold out all seven bottles of tomato jam within the hour. The third jam day we made mango jam, our most delicious product yet, which sold at a premium to tomato, was again very successful. The women were excited and I am ecstatic for them. Jam, unlike oil, sells at a much higher margin because it is marketable in the boma, thus reaching a much larger audience of demand. Simple acts of adding value have produced numerous positive outcomes. Next week I will carry a few bottles to sell in Lilongwe and Mzuzu to get word out, as well as print labels and seek out facilities to refine the taste and increase the jam’s shelf-life. The important result of this, however, is that the women are happy and confident at the promising prospect of this new venture and I pray that is its growth is constant and sustainable. I don’t think I could bear to see the collapse of their hopes.

The community has been catching on to the women’s activities. With the sale and success of jam, suddenly everyone wants to jump on the band wagon. Crowd mentality is common, but hopefully the ideas and principles of the group come across: building confidence and national pride. Ideas can spread like bush fires if lit in the right places. Like a line of dominoes, only the first need be pushed and the rest left to forces out of your control. I steadfastly believe there is nothing Malawians can’t produce in Malawi that they currently massively consume from other countries. I also believe it can be done economically at a lower cost, unburdened by transport and tariffs. And most importantly I believe that small industry, like the chakra, is the key to Malawi gaining its financial independence and reigniting its national pride.