A TRIP IN LILONGWE

Wednesday 20 December, I travelled from Lilongwe’s residential Area 49 to town and then to the newly developing Area 38 and back on the same route. I was amazed at how the area around Bwaila Hospital, famously called Bottom has been occupied. I decided not to think about it as I knew practically, there was nothing I could do, so mute I went.

But I did not notice that just 10 metres from the hospital gate, Simso Oil has built a filling station.

After walking for about 10 minutes or so, I got into a taxi to area 38 (6 miles or Kumtaya however anybody decides to call it).

There were 5 of us in the taxi. As we made our way out of the filthy, unorganised and always dirty Lilongwe bus depot, the inner fight of whether to worry about Malawi or not started again. And as policy, I muted it again.

I giggled shortly afterwards when it turned out the people in the taxi were not prepared to stay quiet as I was.

A common sight in the bus depots in Malawi

In front was a man, seemingly in his 50s or 60s. I could see him adding up his money ready to buy something. Correct to my perception, he asked the driver to call a guy who was selling face towels. As we wiggled out at a snail’s pace, the guy came and the man in the taxi grabbed all his face towels and put them on his lap as he chose his preferred colour, I guess.

Then he paused.

“Ndine wa city, ndalanda”. (I am from the city assembly and I have confiscated these because you are vending in a place not designated for vending.)

Dejected and depressed, I could see the vendor start to stop as we slowly negotiated the heavy traffic.

The taxi was engulfed with awkwardness for a second.

“Hey, how much are these?”

“Two hundred and fifty Kwacha sir”, he answered.

The man in the taxi fished out the money he was arranging which turned out to be 200 Kwacha and he gave the vendor after holding his preferred face towel whilst explaining two things. The vendor went off without saying a word and I could feel the heartbeat on his behalf.

This served as the starting point of our conversation in the taxi. This is how the five of us contributed to the conversation.

An elderly woman whom I had sat together at the back said she did not understand the system. The vendor was being oppressed. The vendor according to her was just like anybody else trying to earn a living. She said that she did not see any reason for the government to be chasing them around on the basis of illegal vending.

“Look at the City Assembly” she said, “it collects millions of Kwacha’s every day, but does the condition of this place reflect that, where does that money go? Corruption everywhere”

Her other contribution was to point to us how she did not understand the system, again. She talked about Simso Oil which has built a filling station just outside a hospital gate. She wondered whether that was a designated place or the place had been legitimised through dubious means.

“By the way, did you know that some city assembly officials died after eating poisoned food that they had confiscated? And they did not report that!" She said.

Frustrated, she concluded; “Anyway this is Malawi. We shall continue praying and praying and this prayer has become a poem now. Let thy kingdom come, when?” asking herself questions which we did not answer she continued, “Let thy kingdom come, where? Let thy will be done, what will?”

Between the woman and me, sat a middle aged woman who had a young boy on her lap. She said nothing until she dropped off in Area 36.

In front of me was the driver. He said nothing until I wished him a good day as I dropped off at the 6 miles Puma filling station.

To his left was the man who had his own understanding of humour. He bemoaned the lack of enforcement on the part of city officials. He said that despite there being proper and known rules, it’s saddening that people still choose to do otherwise.

“For instance, the road reserve is 10 metres from the main road, but you see, people still build right at the margins of the road”.

Despite his wrong citation of the road reserve requirement, I understood his point.

I did not speak much during this conversation. All I said was that this mediocrity has somebody at the very top supporting it as nobody can simply wake up and decide to contravene the law right in the face of the people who are supposed to enforce it.

NB. Next week, I shall publish a follow up to this entry in which I will discuss my encounters on the return journey of this rather saddening day.