Malawi - Protests, Riot Police and Tear Gas!

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Dear All

Greetings from Malawi!

Unfortunately I don’t have many photos to show at all on my trip so far, despite being my third day here. You may know, or possibly not as it’s not really reported on the international press so much, that yesterday was a planned day of anti-government protest in cities around Malawi, mainly Lilongwe (here), Blantyre and Mzuzu.

After arriving well on Tuesday afternoon, despite a 2-hour delay at Johannesburg Airport as we had to change planes due to a faulty fire-warning system (not good!), I touched down in Lilongwe around 3pm. Met by my hotel’s taxi driver, we cruised into town – a lovely little capital city, feeling more like a suburb of the States where I’m staying at the moment due to its wide, tree-lined streets, manicured lawns and large villas. Despite feeling ready and eager to go for a walk that day, I thought it probably best just to rest in my travel-weary state at the hotel – with its beautiful pool, lawns, restaurant and bar entertaining me the rest of the day.

All going well, till yesterday when upon getting ready to explore the city, the reception staff told me of what was going on that day – a few people had also warned me on the plane here, but I passed them off as rumours and possibly not likely to happen.
The government of Malawi has been spiraling downhill in its leadership and management of the country over the last four months. President Bingu wa Mutharika, who apparently has close relations with Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, has been taking more autocratic control of the country. This was criticized publicly by Fergus Cochrane-Dyet, the British Ambassador here, who was promptly expelled from the country. Since then, the UK has withdrawn all of its 500m pounds per year aid programme to the country, to which the people have responded with widespread criticism – mainly of the president and government, not of the UK thankfully. The result has been a huge foreign exchange problem, and fuel shortages which have led to 5-fold increases in petrol prices since the start of the problems. Yesterday was thus planned as a peaceful day of demonstration against the president and his government, the application for which to protest legally was refused, which was what led to the increases in violence and scale of protests throughout the day yesterday.

And I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of this in our news agencies back home, only finding out about it upon touching down here. Of course, if this was a Middle Eastern country, with natural resource deposits and a political situation closely tied with the West, then it would be making headline-news as is Syria and Libya at the moment. However, this is a small, insignificant state in Africa which has no impact whatsoever on our international relations, and thus appears to be largely ignored.

Thus, yesterday, after being warned about leaving the hotel, I met with a group of American medical students, here conducting an investigation on HIV and AIDS in Malawi. Three of the group were adamant about staying in the hotel, while one great guy, Doug, like me was unable to hide his curiosity about what was going on out there, and after much debate, we decided to take a tentative walk into the city centre.

We left most of our valuables in the hotel, and made the 10-minute walk into town heading for the Kiboko Hotel, a fine tourist establishment in the middle of town, with a great balcony overlooking the main street. Everything was quieter than normal, apparently as I found out only according to Doug, being my first day in the city. Although there was movement on the street, people were tense and quiet. All the shops were closed, and there was practically no traffic. Getting closer to the hotel, there was a market open selling its wares, some parked cars, and people milling around. Suddenly though, there was movement, and we ended up running to the hotel. Within 3 minutes, literally, the area had cleared out, people had run away, drivers had got into their cars and drove off, and the market stalls had packed up. It seemed though that this was some false alarm, as nothing amounted from it, though we were still thankful to have arrived in the hotel.
We spent most of the morning there, observing things from a safe distance and talking to a few people about what was going on. We were in one part of the Old Town – about a kilometer away, over the city bridge and around the bus station, was the main protest. They had planned to walk past the hotel and into the new town, where the government offices were located. Because the protest was “illegal”, the police were not letting them move, which was causing tensions to rise.

During our time up there, an angry group walked by on the street below, throwing large rocks – one saw us on the balcony and told us to “Go Home” – though it felt more like “take care, and be careful, you shouldn’t be here”, rather than an anti-western sentiment.
We also heard there were strong anti-Chinese sentiments in the crowd, who were shouting that they’d kill anyone of Chinese origin they came across. Despite being extremely chilling, this was also somewhat interesting as I wrote my MA Dissertation on Chinese Relations with Africa, and how that even more than the West, these guys are in it mainly for themselves – as with their huge developmental projects, they only employ imported Chinese nationals, use Chinese products and eat Chinese food, thus not really helping the people and remaining rather indifferent to them. Interesting to hear this current sentiment against them, and although not particularly neighbourly of me, thankful also the sentiment was not anti-white.

We decided to take a taxi back to the hotel after this, and chilled for the most part of the rest of the day. The population of expats and travelers in Lilongwe also seemed to do the same, as the hotel, pool and restaurant was packed to the gills with westerners, as it was the only food establishment open, including one family of Germans whose son was driving his visiting parents back to his house, when he came upon the protesters, tear gas and road blocks and had to do a prompt about-turn to get out – they also seemed quite shaken up.
After this, me and Doug went for another walk around dusk, and things really did seem to have calmed down. Everyone was saying that was the end of it, as in the end the protesters were actually allowed to march legally, and this dissipated the tension. Everyone said the next day would be back to normal, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

However, this morning over breakfast, I heard shouting in the streets not far off and shots being fired. Checking the twitter feed on a Malawian news website, and speaking with the hotel staff, it seems groups of renegades are rampaging somewhat around the city, and government “thugs” are “taking retribution” – I can’t confirm this as it’s only from the twitter feed, but it’s of course making me stay in the hotel again for most of the day. Doug and his group have gone to the countryside on a study project, so I doubt I’ll be making any forays out today.

I really am hoping that this situation will calm down, not only for the people of the country, but also, rather more selfishly, for my own travel-purposes. Apparently out of the main cities it’s life as normal, so I’m hoping tomorrow I’ll be able to take a bus out of the capital and down to the lake, where things are much more peaceful. If not, I also have a back-up plan of high-tailing it to the Zambian border somehow and continuing from there.
Whatever happens, I’m confident it’s all in God’s hands, so I’m not really too worried. To be honest, it’s a great experience being in a place like this at a time like this – it’s really putting the theory I acquired in my MA in International Relations into practice, and providing an interesting continuum in what I picked up in Tunisia and Syria earlier this year!

My final word is though, what poor luck! After Tunisia and Syria, one of my main reasons in coming here was to avoid anti-government protests and revolutions, Malawi being one of the most peaceable countries in the region which only once experienced something like this in the early 1990s. Rotten luck, or meant to be…?!

Will sign off for now. Apologies for the lack of photos, though I’m sure I’ll be forgiven there on that one.

Hope all are well - no worries about me, I’m fine :0)

Alex

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Photos

Smoke rising from the Old Town
The closest I got to the protests!

Korea Garden Lodge
My hotel, by the pool

Me and Chris Lottering, Heathrow
Work colleague from my school, by amazing coincidence on the same flight as me going home to Johannesburg for the summer, with newborn son LJ

Comments

[Donna]

Thanks
Thank you for such a detailed and frank account on what is going on out there in Malawi. My son is currently travelling out there and I've been desperate to hear what is going on as you so rightly state there is so little news over here in the UK, so a HUGE thanks from a very worried UK mum. I hope your trip continues to keep you safe.

[alex waring]

Hello
No worries, I hope your son is fine - I'm sure he will be as the sentiment is not anti-Western at all, and it all seems to have calmed down very much now anyway. Thanks for reading my blog :)

[KATHLEEN HARVEY]

Hi Alexander. Your mum told me about your blog and I finally got round to reading it. It certainly is interesting, and exciting. I'd be scared stiff. Glad you're not. Hope you continue to be safe. Best wishes Kathleen

[alex waring]

Thanks Kathleen - it's really not too scary at all, and seems a darn sight safer than the UK at the moment...! hope you are having a good summer break best wishes Alex