Malawi – praag.org

The mortal danger of being white in Africa

A lucrative black market exists for the body parts of albinos, who are believed by some to possess magical powers that can bring good luck. But as police in Tanzania crack down on the grisly trade, activists in neighbouring Malawi say attacks have spiked.

Albinos are living in fear of being killed in Malawi, where their body parts are increasingly being sold for use in traditional rituals that promise to deliver wealth and power.

Three albinos – people born without pigmentation – have been killed and mutilated in the southern African country in the first two months of the year, the Association of Persons with Albinism in Malawi (APAM) reported.

There were two albino killings in all of 2014 and one in 2013.

One woman was found in January with her head, arms and legs cut off, the government said. Police are also searching for several individuals reported missing.

“We are hunted like animals,” said APAM president Boniface Massah, who campaigns for the rights of Malawi’s 10,000 albinos.

The body parts are often believed to be sold in neighbouring Tanzania, where more than 70 albinos have been killed since 2000.

Tanzanian authorities announced in January that they would crack down on the gruesome trade. They banned the activities of witch doctors who promise to bring clients good luck and fortune to prevent them from making ritual use of albino body parts.

While the practice is condemned by the overwhelming majority of traditional healers, a lucrative black market exists for the body parts said to possess magical powers.

A set of albino body parts – including hands and feet, genitals, ears, tongue and nose – sold for $75,000 in Dar es Salaam recently, according to Tanzanian police.

But after Tanzania began its efforts to curb the practice, activists say the criminals moved to Malawi.

“Those who are in the business of selling body parts of albinos … have established a market in Malawi, because it has become tougher to do business in Tanzania,” Massah said.

Police have not commented on the matter. Several people have been arrested in connection with the recent killings of albinos but they do not include any foreigners.

The spike in the number of slayings has scared many parents of albino children to such an extent that they have taken them out of school, the activist said.

“You are no longer sure you can trust even friends or relatives,” Massah added.

Albinos face threat in many African countries, ranging from Kenya and Burundi to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal.

The rights group Under The Same Sun (UTSS) lists 140 killings, as well as 219 mutilations and other attacks, against albinos in 25 African countries between 1998 and 2015.

The belief in the magical powers of albinos is based on the idea that the birth of a white child to black parents is a supernatural event.

Such a birth can be seen as a curse from the ancestors, and some east African ethnic groups – such as the Sukuma or the Maasai – traditionally killed albino children at birth, according to UTSS.

Among other African ethnic groups, however, albinos enjoy respect.

The Yoruba of Nigeria and Benin believe albinos are under the protection of the god Obatala, who is believed to have created them and to like the colour white.

Belief in magic is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa. Malawian newspapers, for instance, frequently run articles on villagers being accused of witchcraft. It is not uncommon to hear stories of politicians or businessmen having accumulated wealth and power through magical means.

Being an albino was difficult in Malawi even before the killings increased. “Being white in a society where the majority is black is not easy,” said Massah, 32, who recalls being called names at school.

Many children have worse experiences, with their fathers abandoning the family because they suspect their wives of cheating on them with a white man, he said.

There have been no known convictions in Malawi for murders or other attacks against albinos in the past four years, according to Massah. In Tanzania, only about 10 people were convicted since 2000, local media reported.

“I am a teacher. I am contributing to the development of Malawi like any other person,” said Emmanuel Mkwapatira, a 43-year-old albino who lives in the southern town of Balaka.

“Is this not enough evidence that people with albinism are also human?”

Source: timeslive

Malawi hits back at donors for withholding $150m in aid

A Malawian minister on Thursday criticised Western donors for withholding aid worth $150 million after the government exposed corruption, saying it could prompt other African leaders to stop fighting graft fearing they will lose funds.

“The government does not understand the decision taken by donors to withhold support because the (Malawi President) Joyce Banda administration has exposed fraud and corruption in the civil service,” Information Minister Brown Mpinganjira said at a ceremony to launch a community radio station for the main Protestant church in Malawi.

“Instead of people supporting the president for exposing corruption, they are busy withholding support. With this do you see some African leaders exposing corruption in their countries?” he asked.

His comments were the first official reaction to Western donors shutting down aid. Malawi depends on donors to bankroll up to 40 percent of its development budget.

Mpinganjira, a veteran politician and unsuccessful presidential candidate in 2004, said: “This could have been a time when all wellwishers could come forward and support President Banda since she had thrown a first stone.”

Donors under the Common Approach to Budgetary Support (CABS) have said they will not disburse pledged aid until February after an International Monetary Fund review. They have also warned that the next aid tranche depends on government efforts to fight the rampant corruption.

“We will not be able to resume support through government systems until we have a clear assurance, independently verified, that our resources are all being used for their intended purpose,” said Sara Sanyahumbi, a British diplomat who heads the donor grouping which includes European countries, the European Union and the World Bank.

Malawi has been rocked by widespread corruption, losing millions of funds to theft by mostly civil servants which the government blames on financial loopholes.

Donors have called on the poor nation to act swiftly on the plunder of public resources, known as Capital Hill Cashgate scandal.

Vice President Khumbo Kachali has said loopholes in the state’s payment system have seen state workers “siphoning huge sums of money using private companies with no contracts with government.” – AFP

‘We can’t think like Africans’

Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj has apologised for the Malawi comments made by President Jacob Zuma.

“I have received numerous calls from Malawians being angry and after long discussions, they come around and say, yes, let’s not make a mountain of a molehill,” Maharaj said on Wednesday.

“Let me apologise for that and withdraw it,” he said.

He was interviewed on Power FM where he tried to explain the context of the statements made by Zuma at the Gauteng ANC’s manifesto forum in Johannesburg on Monday night.

In a clip on the EyeWitness News website, Zuma is heard saying: “We can’t think like Africans, in Africa, generally. We are in Johannesburg, this is Johannesburg. It’s not some national road in Malawi.”

Maharaj said Zuma was speaking in the context of two points on the highways but these did not come out in reporting by the media.

“Firstly, he was saying we need to enforce the user-pay principle for the national highways because it is not correct that people in the remote parts of South Africa should do the petrol levy and pay for the roads used in Gauteng,” said Maharaj.

He said the road should not be seen as a local road in a local area but as part of the transport system at the heart of the country’s economy.

“If that system through neglect of infrastructure chokes, the South African economy chokes.”

He said the comments did not reflect how Zuma thought or acted in forums about Africa.

“Our records are clear in that we are the champions of trying to get Africa to see itself as one and enter the global stage on a basis of equality with the rest of the players of the world economy,” said Maharaj.

Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said Zuma must explain the blunder to Parliament.

She said the comments were unacceptable, and an insult to South Africans and to the people of Malawi.

“It is for this reason that I will today submit three urgent parliamentary questions to President Zuma enquiring whether he has followed due process and sent an official apology or clarified his comments to the High Commissioner of the Republic of Malawi; and whether he will retract and/or apologise for his unacceptable insults to both South Africans and the people of Malawi,” Mazibuko said in a statement.

She said lambasting people for “thinking like Africans” was an insult to every citizen on the continent, including all South Africans.

“It is now time for President Zuma to recognise that what he said was unacceptable, to stop the ineffective spin, and do what is expected of him: retract and apologise without delay,” she said. – Sapa

SANDF readies to fight M23

Hundreds of South African soldiers deployed to the volatile east of the Democratic Republic of Congo are likely to be involved in violent clashes with thousands of battle-hardened rebels.

The UN has given the M23 rebels 48 hours to demobilise and surrender their weapons. The deadline expires today and if the rebels fail to meet it the UN intervention force of which the South Africans are a part will move in to forcibly disarm them.

About 900 South African soldiers from the SANDF’s 6 Infantry Battalion are deployed in and around the town of Goma as part of the UN’s intervention brigade.

Tens of thousands of civilians are said to be fleeing from war-ravaged Goma in anticipation of the blood-letting likely to come.

The South African troops are trained to deploy into battle zones from helicopters.

The brigade was formed to engage and attack the M23 rebels terrorising the region, allegedly with the backing of the Rwandan government and military.

The brigade, which also has troops from Malawi and Tanzania, will from today attempt to disarm the M23 rebels, an action they say they will oppose.

There is growing concern that there will be a repeat of the killing of South African soldiers as in the Central African Republic earlier this year. Dozens of SANDF soldiers were wounded and 15 killed in clashes between South African paratroops and Seleka rebels in March.

SANDF spokesman Brigadier-General Xolani Mabanga said: “We have competent troops with the equipment necessary to carry out their tasks.”

But Mabanga admitted that not all the troops were in place.

“As to when this will happen it is difficult to say … It is a highly sensitive operation, not only involving us.”

Institute for Security Studies senior researcher Andre Roux said: “The [South Africans] underwent three months of combat-readiness training and two months of mission-readiness training, and are now training intensively for combat operations.

“Deployed with specialist weapons capabilities, such as heavy machine guns and armoured vehicles, the troops are a very capable fighting force that can defeat the rebels.” – timeslive.co.za

Malawians offered cash to arrest visiting Blair

Until recently, Tony Blair had never visited Malawi. Last summer there was a lot of international press coverage on the discovery of oil under Lake Malawi. Since then he’s developed an interest in the country’s “governance” and has visited twice in nine months.

He arrives in Malawi today, having successfully shoehorned a couple of staffers from his “Africa Governance Initiative” into high-level advisery roles with Joyce Banda’s government.

It’s anyone’s guess why Blair still believes he and his cronies are worth listening to. Presumably for the same reason he saw fit to rack up bills of £1m a year at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem while working as a “peace envoy”. (He’s obviously doing a terrific job and no doubt the Middle East will be at peace any time now). Egyptians know him as an astute analyst of international affairs — remember how he pointed out that Mubarak was “an immensely courageous and a force for good” in, ahem, February 2011?

One thing Blair is very good at is getting large amounts of cash out of governments (just ask Kazakhstan) by riding the global gravy train for all it’s worth. He’s also good at setting up mystifying financial structures so nobody knows where he’s channeling his money.

It will certainly be a boost for him to be photographed with Malawi’s president, Joyce Banda, who despite facing a vigorous opposition at home nonetheless has far greater credibility on the international scene than he does (just last year Desmond Tutu called for Blair to be tried for his crimes at the Hague).

Malawians should protest against Blair’s visit and show Banda that she shouldn’t welcome such a person to Malawi, still less take any advice from him. The man who led the disastrous New Labour project in the UK, as well as waging two catastrophic wars, can have nothing useful to tell Banda. Malawian readers will understand what I mean when I say that Tony Blair is a stupid man. He will have plenty to say about things like “strengthening capacity” but it seems that the only thing Blair has shown a consistent commitment to is exploiting his former office in order to accrue vast personal wealth.

It should be noted that anybody who attempts to arrest Tony Blair during his Malawian safari can receive approximately 1.1 million Kwacha (£2,150), thanks to the Arrest Blair campaign established by British journalist George Monbiot. Here’s a helpful guide to making a citizen’s arrest, and the rules about how to make sure you get the cash.

Malawians like to reflect on their history by observing that they are a peace-loving people. As Blair arrives in the country, they should tell him only one thing: Choka! – The Guardian

Malawi faces hunger

Nearly 10 percent of Malawi’s 13 million people face hunger due of low yields of the main staple maize, prolonged dry spells and flooding, a report said.

“The total number of people who will not be able to meet their annual food requirement during the 2013/14 consumption period is 1,461,940, representing 9.5 percent of national total population,” the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee said.

The grouping of several government departments, the United Nations, embassies and humanitarian agencies said those affected will need assistance for a period of between two to five months.

The shortages will affect poor households in 21 districts of the southern African country.

Food shortage in this impoverished southern African country is often caused by drought and economic difficulties as wellas backward farming practices.

One in two Malawians lives on less than a dollar a day.

Malawi had a good food security record in recent years after late president Bingu wa Mutharika implemented a subsidy programme giving poor villagers access to fertilisers and inputs. – Sapa

Critic of Malawian president jailed

An outspoken opponent of Malawi’s president who once served as his attorney general says the administration sent thugs to petrol bomb his law office – and the government critic ended up in jail.

Ralph Kasambara was arrested Monday, accused of kidnapping and torturing three men he told reporters confessed to his bodyguards that they had been sent after him by the government.

Information Minister Patricia Kaliati denies Kasambara’s accusations, and Kasambara denies the kidnapping and torture charges.

Concern that President Bingu wa Mutharika is intolerant of criticism and violating human rights has led to protests and strained relations between Malawi, among the world’s poorest countries, and its foreign donors. At least 19 people were killed by police when anti-government demonstrations last year degenerated into looting.

In the Kasambara case, court clerks who have been striking for higher pay for weeks suspended their strike to allow a bail hearing because lawyers have supported the clerks. On Tuesday, a magistrate ordered Kasambara released. Prison authorities balked at first, saying the order came too late in the day Tuesday. Kasambara was released Wednesday and greeted by hundreds of his supporters, colleagues and journalists outside a Blantyre jail.

Hours later, police arrested him again at his home, saying his bail procedure was flawed. Supporters again gathered at the jail, and police wielded batons to disperse them.

Kasambara’s arrest came days after weekly newspapers quoted him criticizing Mutharika.

“Malawians have options. They should ask the president to resign or they should impeach him. He wants to be a dictator,” Kasambara was quoted as telling The Weekend Nation.

Mutharika, a former World Bank official, was once heralded by economic analysts and was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2009 by voters who embraced his anti-corruption, anti-poverty pledges. But the country’s economy has struggled in the last year, and questions about Mutharika’s commitment to democracy and human rights became an issue.

Mutharika expelled a British diplomat who had described his as “becoming ever more autocratic and intolerant of criticism.” Former ruler Britain subsequently indefinitely suspended aid to Malawi, which later withdrew its expulsion order.

The European Union, Germany, Norway and the U.S. have also halted or suspended assistance to Malawi, raising governance questions.