Beyond Sugar and Fertiliser: Rethinking Malawi’s National Dream

Muwado Ad by Muwado - Africa's Storytelling Platform

For this country to change, to rise, and to benefit everyone, we Malawians must first sit down and ask ourselves an honest question: what do we really want? Not what we lack, but what we want. What kind of country do we want Malawi to be? In fact, the real question should be this: what kind of nation do we want to build, not what are we short of?

I feel that we Malawians lower our own standards, and politicians simply take advantage of that.

When we are asked, “What do you want?” we respond: cheaper fertiliser, fuel to be available, cheap maize, markets for our produce. Is that all? Do our dreams as a nation end with fertiliser, maize, fuel, and electricity? Is that all we can demand from politicians, from our leaders?

That is why they give us exactly what we ask for while hiding the real wealth. We remain beggars, dependent on government. They bring in fuel, but it is expensive, and once fuel is expensive everything else goes up. Transport costs rise, tomatoes become expensive, maize becomes expensive, mangoes become expensive, everything rises. But didn’t they give us what we asked for? Fuel. We say we want more jobs, but without demanding better wages. Haven’t they given us what we asked for?

Our national dreams are simply too small. Perhaps we should start at an individual level: What kind of country do I want? What kind of country do I want my children to live in? Maybe then we would begin to confront bigger issues, the root causes.

Maybe instead of demanding cheap goods, we would demand a country that offers equal opportunity to everyone: men and women, all ethnic groups, all regions. Then we would start talking about policies, not grocery items. Maybe then it would pain us as a nation to hear a leader say people from a certain region should stop receiving fertiliser so they can grow soya instead. Maybe we would recognise such statements as divisive, as an attack on our national dream. Maybe we would begin to get truly angry about corruption, nepotism, impunity, and the like.

Because right now, our demonstrations, our dreams, and our demands end with supermarket items, sugar, Neema, cooking oil, fertiliser, and so on.

Our dreams must go beyond that. They must reach issues of mining, economic governance, our relations with other countries, and the lives of rural people, especially in agriculture, health, and other critical sectors.

So what do we want as a nation? What kind of country do we want Malawi to be? The conversation must not end with sugar.

Written by

Shadreck Chikoti

Follow

Did this story move you? Every gift goes directly to Shadreck Chikoti — writers on Muwado earn from reader appreciation, not algorithms. Even $1 makes a difference.

Gift Once Gift Monthly