The Future of a 'Progressive Realist' FCDO in the Age of Polycrisis

The Locarno Speech, delivered by Foreign Secretary David Lammy on 9^th January, lays out a bold new plan for British foreign policy in 2025 and beyond, taking what he repeatedly referred to as an approach of ‘progressive realism’. Progressive realism, Lammy explained, means “taking the world as it is not as we wish it to be. Advancing progressive ends by realist means.” Building on the history of Ernest Bevin’s shaping of the UK Foreign Office in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, Lammy echoed the message of the Attlee government manifesto in that time, borrowing from Attlee’s manifesto slogan “Let Us Face the Future Together”.

It was a pointed move to open the speech with this call back to the Attlee’s post-war government, the government remembered for navigating the decline of the British power on the world stage, whilst founding the NHS, facilitating the overhaul of the welfare system, and dramatically shifting Britain’s global status, both through the oversight of the beginning of the decolonisation agenda and supporting the US Marshall Plan to rebuild Western Europe in one of the first large-scale aid packages seen to operate similarly to modern humanitarian and development aid.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy delivering the Locarno Speech, 9th January 2025. Source: Gov.uk

Lammy was keen to highlight the similarities between current global geopolitics and the emerging Cold War in 1945, using the first half of the speech to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine extensively, doubling down on the need for increased defence spending and a strengthened NATO to protect Europe from further Russian aggression. One interesting acknowledgement was the need for the UK to situate itself in a more global position, collaborating with countries beyond the historic Western alliances framed by NATO, the EU, and AUKUS. In particular, Lammy highlighted the need to engage more effectively with countries in the Global South:

“And with the Global South, progressive realism means working together – no more lectures. Showing respect. … To shape 2035, we must offer a new vision of partnership, which approaches those countries as equals.”

To highlight how he intends to see the FCDO operate with partners in the Global South, Lammy highlighted the successes of recent trips to Indonesia and Nigeria. In Indonesia, FCDO officials met with Indonesian companies who were being supported by UK funding to “spearhead green innovations”. The visit to Nigeria saw the signing of a new UK-Nigeria Strategic Partnership, which the UK government claims will “cover the breadth of the UK-Nigeria areas of shared cooperation from growth and jobs to national security, tackling the climate and nature crisis to strengthening our people-to-people ties”. It is in this Nigerian example that Lammy sees a new model for engaging with partners in the Global South, focusing on economic growth and national security as core pillars of future UK overseas activity.

It is on the question of ‘national security’ where another new FCDO approach has been laid out:

“On irregular migration, the FCDO is critical to trying to solve this issue. A realistic strategy involves transactional, hard-headed diplomacy and to agree with partners smart interventions at every stage along the international people smuggling pathway so together we can strengthen borders, smash the gangs, and get those with no right to be here returned to their countries.”

This approach demonstrates a much tighter working relationship between FCDO and Home Office, and Lammy acknowledged the creation of a new ‘joint irregular migration unit’, established in collaboration with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. The joint irregular migration unit is backed by the Border Security Command, established in mid-2024, with a £150 million budget taken from funds previously earmarked for the Tories ludicrous Rwanda Plan. This symbolises the continued trend of foreign aid funding in the UK being used to support refugees and asylum seekers in the UK itself. In 2023, £4.3 billion of the UK’s aid budget was spent on UK shores, which accounted for greater expenditure than the £4.1 billion spent on development aid overseas. My immediate concern following the announcement of this closer working relationship between the Home and Foreign offices is that it will lead to a greater funding for law enforcement activities at the country’s borders aimed at “smashing the smuggling gangs” (as Lammy described the unit’s mandate), rather than on crisis prevention in asylum seeker’s countries of origin.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, co-lead of the new 'joint irregular migration unit'. By David Woolfall  https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86630471

Throughout this speech, Lammy highlighted the need for the UK to take a “progressive realist” approach to foreign policy, but doubling down law enforcement as the mechanism by which migration can be reduce demonstrates a wilful ignorance of reality. Increased law enforcement does not reduce migration numbers, but it does decrease circular migration (where people travel to another country for work and then return home on a seasonable basis, for example) and migrant deaths. And, as we have seen time and again with various forms of prohibition, making any given activity illegal, when there is a clear market for that activity, only serves to support gangs to profit from providing that service. Some people want to migrate to a different country, others are forced, but regardless of the reasons for choosing to leave, people will use the options that are available to them in order to move. Migration is a fundamental human activity. It has always happened, and it always will. With climate change and worsening conflict around the world, it will continue to increase.

A ’progressive realist’ approach to migration will acknowledge that our current and future reality is one in which people will be forced to move from their homes at an increasing rate, and that criminalising that activity will not slow the numbers of people desperate to move. A ‘progressive realist’ approach will accept that even if Labour are successful in reducing the numbers of small boat crossings in the coming months and years, this will be seen as a failure by the braying lunatics on the far right, who have seized the UK national discourse on migration in a chokehold. Labour cannot win political points by borrowing from the anti-immigration rhetoric of the right. Theresa May’s ‘hostile environment’ failed. Johnson and Sunak’s Rwanda plan failed catastrophically. And as soon as the Tories were out of power, they immediately began attacking Labour for being ‘soft’ on immigration.

Reducing ‘illegal immigration’ is simple. Reforming the legal schemes by which people can move between countries will help to streamline immigration processes, and enable both clearer control of the immigration system on the part of the host country, and simplify the process for people wanting to move. For asylum seekers, reducing the backlog of claims requires a clear, functional approach to assessing eligibility and delivering a positive or negative response. This can only be done if politicians are willing to allow the system to work as intended, and not meddle with nonsense, time-consuming programmes like the Rwanda policy. But again, this is the responsibility of the Home Office to effectively manage, not the FCDO.

The FCDO’s focus should be on the provision of humanitarian and development aid internationally where it is most needed, and on the partnership with foreign countries for mutual benefit, to support economic growth and sustainable development across the world. Today’s challenges are complex and global. Climate change does not acknowledge national borders, and so neither can its solutions. Conflict in Ukraine, the breadbasket of Europe, can exacerbate hunger in humanitarian contexts half a world away. Lammy is correct to acknowledge that the challenges faced by the Home and Foreign offices are interconnected, and that solutions will need to engage both the British public at home and the rest of the world abroad. But what we have seen in previous administrations, and what is being suggested in the focus on law enforcement to stop smuggling gangs, is that when politicians discuss the need to address the challenge of migration ‘holistically’, they nearly always mean transfer funds away from supporting people in their homes and instead further criminalising them when they do move.

UK Home Office, & GOV.UK. (November 28, 2024). Cumulative number of people detected arriving or heading to the United Kingdom in small boats per year from January 2018 to September 2024 [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved January 10, 2025, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1171253/small-boat-channel-crossings-in-the-uk/

People will always migrate, and we should welcome that. But if we truly want to reduce the number of people who are forcibly displaced by climate, poverty, or conflict, then we need to be honest that hardening borders does nothing to support this. I’ve written multiple times about the horrors that our governments inflict upon migrants, from reinforcing the uptake of deadly people-smuggling routes, failing to support asylum seekers in camps, or to integrate refugees into cities, all whilst the rhetoric and violence utilised against migrants of all stripes increases.

This approach to migration has failed. Attempts to close borders and to ‘protect’ the receiving countries that have been lucky enough to avoid climate catastrophe or conflict, so far, has failed. 

A ‘progressive realist’ approach to foreign and domestic policy would acknowledge this.

Lammy ended his speech with a positive call to action:

“We can be realists and optimists. We can seize the opportunities coming into view. And we can show the world what a more progressive 2035 can be like and deliver the promise of a decade of national renewal.”

But nothing in the discussion of policy around migration offers optimism. It promises continued criminalisation of migrants and punitive, legalistic responses that have failed both the migrants who have suffered at the hands of violent states, and citizens of host countries who have been offered no clear solution to our own challenges in the face of rising costs of living, an ascendant radical right, and increasing pessimism about the future.

This is a shame, because I believe Lammy demonstrated an understanding of what is necessary to build a more positive view of the future for everyone, migrants and host community members alike, earlier on in his discussion about the FCDO role in building partnerships with countries from the Global North and South alike, on equal footing and focused on addressing the needs of all humanity, prioritising those on the frontlines whilst building resilience in those communities that are feeling the secondary and tertiary impacts of displacement globally.

This concerns all of us, and David Lammy said it best when he acknowledged that “progressive realism means working together”.

That doesn’t mean restricting the borders even further, or punishing those who have fled their homes. People smugglers should be held to account, but stopping the current smuggling gangs will not stop people trying to make the same journeys. What might do that is working with communities on the frontlines of conflict and climate change where they are, learning from them about what they need to build a fulfilling life, and doing our best to support them to achieve that. This is as true for communities in Darfur, the Donbas, Yangon, and Gaza as it is for those here at home.

Today’s crises are international in nature, and their responses will need to be as well. The new foreign secretary appears to understand this, and the FCDO should be equipped to serve people wherever they are in whatever way it can. ‘Protecting British interests’ is not possible without this.

Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley. By Palácio do Planalto from Brasilia, Brasil - 10/06/2022 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=119162038

In his speech, David Lammy, praised Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley as a “pioneer” that the UK government would be proud to continue to partner with to “reform the global financial system”. Mottley has led the charge on climate financing to support the most vulnerable communities around the world, and has laid out a plan for Global North states to meet their responsibilities to people suffering in the era of climate crisis. If Mottley represents the kind of pioneer that Lammy’s FCDO wants to emulate, then he would do well to heed her warning regarding the need to protect the world’s most vulnerable:

“We have the means to invest in protecting the most vulnerable on our planet from a change in climate, but we choose not to. It is not because we do not have enough, it is because we do not have the will to distribute that which we have… Our world knows not what it is gambling with, and if we don’t control this fire, it will burn us all down.” [emphasis added].

Whether we like it or not, the FCDO’s mission to protect British national security and build prosperity is not possible without doing the vital humanitarian, developmental, and peacebuilding work, both at home and abroad, that our current age requires. That means putting the needs of those most at-risk first, and building strong communities that can adapt to the ever-changing state of the world where needed. I believe that David Lammy and his colleagues in the FCDO understand this, but if they want to succeed where previous governments have failed, a much braver perspective is required. The successes of Attlee's progressive reforms in the post-war period were achieved through a radical rethinking of how the levers of state could operate. What is arguably needed today is more radical still.

A ‘progressive realist’ approach will fail unless it grapples with these demands.

The Butterfly Foundation for Peace – Shifting Mindsets of Street Children in Blantyre

There are an estimated 15,000 children living on the streets in Malawi. They do so for a variety of reasons, such as poverty at home, family breakdown or the death of parents, and with poverty increasing across the country this number could rise in the coming years. Life on the streets impacts these children, and society more widely, in myriad ways. It is obviously very difficult on the children themselves, but also is sometimes seen as preferable to life in poverty-stricken villages with very limited opportunities to earn a living. As a recent Guardian report revealed, cities provide more opportunities to find food and money, but those opportunities are often risky and dangerous themselves, causing harm both to the children and to the wider community:

““Surviving as a masikini [street child] is not easy,” says a boy named Chisomo. “We mostly depend on handouts from kind people, and we can at times scavenge dumped food from restaurants or hotels.” He admits that many children end up in gangs, attacking people and property to survive. “We get the money we use for drugs and food,” he says.”

Muggings, violence, and drug use, are an unfortunate fact of life for street children in the cities of Malawi. With poverty increasing around the country, especially following the devastating impact of Cyclone Freddy in the southern region, street crime is also rising as desperate children look for ways to feed themselves on the streets. Of course, children living on the street also meet significant barriers to their own personal development. Many are out of school, and the longer children find themselves on the street the harder it can be to return to education.

This challenge was a foundational one for the founders of The Butterfly Foundation for Peace, an NGO with a mission “to improve the education, health, and social welfare of the children of Malawi”. Currently, The Butterfly Foundation operates in Blantyre, the economic capital in Malawi’s southern region, and the second largest city in the country. During my time in Blantyre for my PhD research, I was fortunate to be introduced to the founders of The Butterfly Foundation, Andrew Raphael and David Arond, in a chance meeting that would dramatically change my perception of what was possible in terms of supporting the children I saw asking for change around the town centre.

Andrew chatting with some of the street children in Blantyre over lunch. Credit: Butterfly Foundation for Peace.

Andrew, board member and director, explains on their website why he decided to work with David to set up the Butterfly Foundation:

“"I used to be one of the 'street children.' Growing up on the streets is hard: besides the daily struggle simply to survive, I was a victim of physical and emotional bullying.

"But I was so lucky to have been plucked from those circumstances by an incredibly loving family. They treated me as their own and enrolled me in a good school where I was able to advance my English language skills.

"Why did I choose to help set up Butterfly Foundation for Peace? To give hope to people who have literally lost hope…”

David, founder and CEO, met Andrew and was immediately impressed by his ability to speak to the street children, find out what they needed, and find ways to make it happen for them.  In fact, in our first meeting, David revealed how Andrew’s effectiveness at interacting with the other street children had resulted in an unexpected problem for the finances of the fledgeling NGO: “Andrew was too good at finding the street kids and engaging with them. I only had the money for about 20 kids for all this, and now we’re supporting 47 every day! Andrew is brilliant, and he works with the kids very well because they understand each other.”

I acknowledged that this must be a sign that the Butterfly Foundation must be doing something right, if so many of the children want to engage with the programme, but such a “good problem” to have is causing issues with funding for the project, which wants to grow further but is limited by its current financial situation. The fact that so many children are involved already also demonstrates the sheer level of need in Blantyre alone. Butterfly Foundation for Peace has only been active since December 2021, and yet it has achieved so much already.

Based in a small site in Blantyre’s Sunnyside neighbourhood, the Butterfly Foundation Centre boasts a space for children to come to before or after school every day, to eat a nutritious meal (for some, the only guaranteed meal they will have), and to engage in extracurricular activities to support their educational development. Teachers give them extra lessons in things they’re struggling with at school, and occasionally get them connected to other students from around the world through the classroom’s projector. In chatting to students from as far away as Canada and the UK, they can practice their English and learn more about other cultures far away. Through my links with The Kanji Project, I’m hoping to set up a call between the students at St Antony’s and those at Butterfly, but already the international group of trustees and supporters have enabled the Butterfly Foundation students to connect with others from around the world. They are looking to expand on this initiative, bringing in connections with schools in Colombia, China, and Israel, showcasing a school that teaches Jewish Israeli and Palestinian children together to highlight Butterfly's dedication to peace in its programming.

The wall of the classroom at the Butterfly Foundation's site in Sunnyside

One particularly interesting part of the programming of the Butterfly Foundation is its focus on mindfulness. Founder and CEO David is a mindfulness practitioner and Zen teacher. As he explained to me at the Centre, meditation has helped him in his own life, and he sees the power in teaching what he has learned to children who have already been through so much. Many street children have suffered trauma, including many of those who now come to Butterfly, and mindfulness and meditation is a step towards supporting resilience and recovery from the things they have dealt with. The Comprehensive Mindfulness Programme the Butterfly Foundation offers is based on four guiding principles and goals through which we seek to inspire children:

• Creativity
• Responsibility
• Critical Thinking
• Social Relationships

The program plans to address these goals specifically through teaching Music, Art, Drumming (local arts), Yoga, Meditation, Critical Thinking Exercises, and Social or Community Responsibility. All of this is focused on building the self-esteem of the young people in the programme, and showing them what they are capable of. Andrew himself acts as a model for children, who can see how he overcame the odds to fill his role as Director of the project.

I visited the centre with David on his first time returning since his arrival back in Malawi, and his enthusiasm for seeing the children engaging in the meditation practice was palpable.

“You can feel the difference in the kids meditation between then and now.” He said to me. “It’s like they really take it seriously now. These kids have gone through hell, you know, and some of our classes with them and the work we try to do to support them in their lives can be very stressful and triggering for them, so it’s great that they seem to be so much calmer now than before.”

Andrew, who has been managing the school since it opened, nodded his agreement. “I’ve had some of the kids tell me they meditate themselves in the morning now, before coming here, and others have taught their parents to meditate.”

David leads the children in meditation on his first day back at the school.

You can feel it when you visit the centre. The kids are not just happy and enjoying themselves, they’re not just getting a nice warm meal for lunchtime, or getting support in classes they may be struggling with. They’re growing more confident in themselves. I only got to visit the site once, and the programme has not been around for long, but its unique approach feels incredibly powerful. I was quite moved by my experience speaking with Andrew and David and seeing how they operate. I see a great value in their programming, which not only teaches skills and provides the basic necessities to children in great need, but also takes steps to build their emotional and social strength in a way I’ve not seen in other charity programmes I’ve interacted with in the past.

The Butterfly Foundation offers something new for the street children of Blantyre. Their goals are to reach more children, to run more programmes, to grow and help to reduce the number of children on the streets across the whole country. It is a difficult task that will require a huge amount of dedication and support from those of us who want to see a change in the lives of these kids. In my short time with Andrew and David, I have great faith in their ability to continue to impact more children in Blantyre and, hopefully, across Malawi, in the future.

In my research diary I kept in Malawi, I found this quote I had written down from David, which sums up his vision for the Butterfly Foundation for Peace:

“We want to help give these kids the skills to feel like they are valued in the world. Rebuild social connections with their families and with each other. Make them feel confident they can achieve what they want to. So many of the street kids you see develop drug problems or get into crime because they think that’s all they have. Andrew is evidence that that is not the case. It just takes the right support. We need to figure out what the right support looks like.”

Andrew, David, and I enjoying a drink in Blantyre. Just two of the amazingly inspirational people I was lucky enough to meet in my time in Malawi, and certainly two that are having the biggest impact with their work.

Figuring out what that support looks like is a difficult challenge. But meeting passionate people like Andrew and David has inspired me to try to think differently about how I can more effectively achieve social resilience in myself and in the projects I support. If you can, please do take the time to learn more about The Butterfly Foundation for Peace, and support them.

There are an estimated 2,000 street children in Blantyre alone. Reducing that number to zero is a monumental challenge, but it is one we should all be striving to achieve. Real change is needed to improve the family and housing situation for vulnerable young people in Malawi. Real structural change is needed to reduce the number of families in Malawi impacted by poverty. I spent my time in Malawi working with NGOs building shelters and houses for people impacted by disasters, and developing long-term livelihood and resilience-building projects for people recovering their lives in the aftermath of Cyclone Freddy. It is hard work, but real change is possible. I was constantly inspired by the people I met in Malawi working on making these changes across the country, but Andrew and David at the Butterfly Foundation approached these challenges with a uniquely powerful insight. They were making changes in the material realities of these children, but they were also helping to build their self-esteem and emotional understanding.

And, as mindfulness experts will tell you, real change comes from the inside.

“Street children” is a term used by journalists, NGOs, policymakers and others to describe those young people living on or taking to the streets in cities to attempt to earn a living, but it is also inherently problematic. Due to ease of understanding, I also use it here. For a detailed discussion of the term and its use, see Hendriks’ (2017) discussion on “Street Youth and Home” (p42 – 45) for more on this.

Andrew and David with the flag of Malawi. Credit: Butterfly Foundation for Peace.

If you can, please consider donating to The Butterfly Foundation for Peace to support their incredible work, or reach out to them to find out about other ways to get involved.

Remembering the Past in Blantyre: A Trip to the Museum of Malawi

Today I visited the Chichiri Museum in Blantyre, also known as the Museum of Malawi, which was first opened in 1957 at Mandala House, the early colonial era building that is now home to La Caverna, as discussed in my second blog in this series. In 1966, the museum was reopened in its new home by then first Prime Minister of Malawi Hastings Kamuzu Banda, in one of his earliest acts after Malawian independence in 1964. Banda’s silhouette looms large over Malawian history, and his role in shaping the country’s trajectory after independence deserves its own focus, but he also features in one of the first exhibits in Chichiri.

Besides a giant image of Banda sit two of the most important documents in Malawi’s post-independence history. First, dated 6^th July 1966 and signed in Blantyre, is the oath Banda signed as he became President of the newly announced Republic of Malawi. He had previously served as Prime Minister in the first cabinet following independence in 1964, but a power struggle between Banda and his colleagues resulted in a cabinet crisis in which Banda expelled his rivals from Parliament, and began to consolidate his power. The power grab was completed on his ascension to the Presidency on 6^th July 1966, and in the following years he tightened his grip further. The second document on the right of Banda’s image in the exhibit is the oath he signed exactly five years later, on 6^th July 1971, this time as “President for Life”.

The Hastings Kamuzu Banda exhibit, a giant of Malawian politics

Unlike many other dictatorial leaders in post-independence Africa, Banda would not live up to his new moniker. He served as President from 1966 until 1994, three years before his death in 1997. Many political experts point to the end of the Cold War as the beginning of the end for Banda’s rule. He had ruled on an expertly pitched anti-Communist agenda, which earned him the support of Western powers, as well as a close relationship with Apartheid-era South Africa. However, when the Soviet Union collapsed and Apartheid was finally ended, that international support dried up and he was left in a much-weakened position. In 1993, a national referendum revealed the people wanted an open democracy, and in 1994 he was voted out of power. His legacy continues, however, as his Malawi Congress Party remains a key player in national politics, and is home to current President Lazarus Chakwera.

But the Museum of Malawi offers a lot more than the Earthly tales of Hastings Banda and his political exploits. Next to this exhibit is an otherworldly display, the Machinga Meteorite. The Machinga Meteorite struck the southern province of Malawi on the morning of January 22^nd 1981, and to date is the largest meteorite recovered from Malawi. It has inspired art and science across the country since it first arrived, and one of the most popular fictional children’s books in Malawi is based on a schoolgirl who wants to learn about extra-terrestrial objects, and ends up trying to track down the stolen Machinga Meteorite.

The Machinga Meteorite

Beyond the main exhibition are a lot more historical artifacts tracing human history from the earliest travels of ‘homo erectus’ through to the modern day. The ancient pre-historic exhibits were particularly fascinating, as homo erectus, one of homo sapiens’ earliest predecessors, supposedly emerged in Africa approximately 2 million years ago. Some of the earliest evidence of homo erectus was discovered in northern Malawi, around the village of Karonga which sits along the shores of Lake Malawi, and this same area is also host to a large archaeological find from the stone age, approximately 700,000 years ago.

A large portion of the museum is also dedicated to the traditional tribal histories of Malawi, and the fascinating cultural rituals that have been practiced by the many different peoples that make up the Malawian populace. Of course, many of these groups came into direct contact with European explorers and settlers in the mid-19^th century, which changed the trajectory of the land permanently. David Livingstone’s journeys across southern Africa are captured in detail, with evidence of some of his earliest meetings with local people. Livingstone brought Christianity with him, and as this new religion spread many of the traditional beliefs and rituals were lost. Some remain today, and continue to shape Malawian culture, and the museum hosts historic reenactments to demonstrate these important practices. My guide around the museum showed me a video of members of the Gule Wamkulu ritual dance group, wearing artifacts from the museum as part of their display. You can watch another recreation of this dance here. He also demonstrated some of the traditional medicines used by different ritual healers in historic groups across the country. Many of these medicines were aimed at identifying witches and wizards, who could do harm to loved ones if not addressed. Medicines were mostly amulets or items of clothing that could be blessed or cursed by traditional doctors, to protect the wearer or harm the attacker.

The Gule Wamkulu traditional attire, just one of many cultural groups represented in the Malawian population.

David Livingstone's journeys through Southern Africa. On his route he encountered many different peoples and cultures, but his journey also sowed the seeds of the modern makeup of the region.

It is important to continue to shed light on these activities, as so many of them were lost in the colonial period and beyond. In urban Malawi today, many of these cultural traditions are no longer practiced. In rural areas some still persist, which can have extremely dangerous and negative consequences, for example in relation to the treatment of people with albinism in certain areas of Malawi. However, they also represent an important cultural and religious history that European colonialism tried to eradicate. Outside of the museum stands some impressive colonial-era technologies, such as the first heavy goods tractor and train engine that were transported to Malawi from the UK in 1906, to move goods from the port in Nsanje up to Blantyre and Lilongwe. Next to them was a “Europeans-only” bus that operated until the end of the colonial era, transporting white Europeans around the country in ways that locals could not take advantage of. This colonial legacy birthed modern Malawi and permanently changed the social and cultural relations of the people who call this country home. As a historical museum, Chichiri does its best to navigate the pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial stories of an ever-evolving populace. I am not the person to judge the level of its success in this regard, but I am grateful to have expanded my own understanding of a place I'm quickly growing to love, just one week after I have arrived.

The Museum of Malawi does a good job of capturing the complex and varied histories of the people of Malawi, despite its limited size and budget, and is a recommended visit for getting a better understanding of the way that modern Malawi came to be.

The "Nyasaland Transport" bus, which was reserved for Europeans only.

As I was leaving the museum an older man came up to me with a smile and asked where I was from. I told him I was from the UK, and I was studying at Loughborough University. He stopped me and said he had been to Leicester many years ago, and that he loved the UK. He asked about my reasons for coming here and I explained my research. We talked for a good ten minutes before he shook my hand and waved a goodbye.

“I’m sorry, my friend, but I have to go now. It is a pleasure to have you in my country, as I once was in yours. Welcome to Malawi, it is a complex place. Hopefully you have learned some more here today.”

I certainly did, but there is a lot more learning to be done.

More Than Skin-Deep: The Trials of Persons with Albinism in Malawi

Today was a hot day in Blantyre, and as I went out at lunch time to stretch my legs and explore, I felt the brunt of the near-equatorial sun beating down on me. Explaining to colleagues back in the UK on a Teams call about my adventures in the mid-day heat prompted one to refer to the phrase “only mad dogs and Englishmen”, something that I had not realised was a reference to an old comic poem about the English naivety in stepping out into the sun in faraway countries in the middle of the day with no protection, when those more knowledgeable stay inside.

Except I wasn’t the only one out and about. Blantyre, as ever, was bustling with market traders, motorbike taxis, and people sitting and chatting by the side of the road. We were all roasting under the glare of the midday sun. And it was among this chaos and energy that I saw two people emerge from a shopfront and step into the day, squinting against the light. One of them caught my eye immediately, because it was the first person I have seen with albinism since arriving in Malawi. If the heat was uncomfortable for me, for them it could be deadly.

Albinism is an inherited disorder characterised by little to no melanin production. As melanin is responsible for producing hair, eye, and skin pigmentation, people with albinism usually have pale skin, problems with their vision, and are particularly vulnerable to the sun. It is a condition that is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, and particularly common in East Africa. In Malawi, approximately 134,000 people have albinism, representing about 1 in every 130 people in the country.

A UN expert on albinism, who claimed that people with albinism in Malawi face 'extinction' in 2016 (Source: Getty Images)

People with albinism are particularly vulnerable to the sun’s rays because a lack of melanin means they have little to no protection from harmful ultraviolet radiation. One study conducted in southern Africa suggested that people with albinism were 1000 times more likely to develop skin cancer than the general African population. As climate change makes the hot months in Malawi even hotter, the risk of skin disease and cancer grows exponentially, according to the Association of Persons with Albinism in Malawi (APAM). According to APAM’s estimates, 2 people with albinism in Malawi have died of skin cancer every month since 2020, with APAM President Young Muhamba telling The Guardian earlier this year: “These prolonged hot periods have contributed to high cancer prevalence among persons with albinism in Malawi…The unavailability of sunscreen lotion and non-existence of early-stage cancer screening has posed a great challenge that has led to more than 52 persons with albinism dying since 2020”.

As a result of this worsening crisis, humanitarian organisations have rallied to provide sunscreen lotion where possible, but these efforts are not going far enough. APAM is calling for much more effective healthcare options in Malawi, as currently there is little to no treatment available for skin cancer in the country. As a result, some estimates suggest that skin cancer is responsible for 90% of deaths of people with albinism.

Young Muhamba, President of the Associations for Persons with Albinism Malawi (APAM). (Source: Malawi Voice). 

But even if these health concerns were addressed, the wider impacts of albinism continue to affect people across sub-Saharan Africa. Amnesty International reported that the livelihood and economic impact on people with albinism has further marginalised them from society, as they are less able to work during the daylight hours. The UN and others have called for immediate action and awareness raising for those engaged in humanitarian action on the needs of people with albinism, and global efforts to ensure inclusivity in humanitarian access are also pushing for greater understanding of the additional requirements for support.

However, the sun is not the only threat to people with albinism in Malawi, as many have also been victims of abhorrent acts of violence across the country. In 2019, the UN urged action to prevent further ‘atrocities’ against albino people in the run up to elections, but in 2022 Amnesty reported on another killing of a 3-year-old girl, the latest of many. These attacks are believed to be in relation to a belief amongst certain people in rural areas that the body parts of people with albinism bring good luck. In 2023, APAM’s Young Muhamba spoke to VOA about the 170 attacks against the community that have been recorded since 2014, along with the tampering of graves. In response to this violence, the UN and Malawi Government brought in The National Action Plan on Persons with Albinism to try to reduce their risk, but advocates say it is still falling short.

Despite the efforts of the Action Plan, discrimination against people with albinism marginalises them still further. Many children with albinism fear going to school, due to bullying and maltreatment from both teachers and students. UN programmes in rural areas of Salima, Dedza, and Mangochi Districts have had some success in increasing school attendance, but there remains a long way to go. Although the majority of “witchcraft” related attacks occur in rural areas, those with albinism living in cities are also not safe from violence, due to the supposed cross-national trade in body parts that traditional doctors across East Africa allegedly engage with for folk medicine development.

Lilongwe Albinism Awareness Day Promotional image, organised by APAM. (Source: Facebook)

Life is hard for people with albinism in East and Southern Africa, and it is being made more difficult by the dual threat of climate change and violent discriminatory attitudes. APAM and others are working closely with policymakers, media entities, and community leaders to decrease the risks that people with albinism face, and their work is vital to ensuring this extremely marginalised group are protected. Progress is slow, but there is progress.

Tomorrow in Lilongwe, APAM and Lilongwe City Council are marking the Day for Albinism Awareness with a celebration of the people living with albinism in their community. This year’s theme for the International Day for Albinism Awareness (usually celebrated on 13^th June) is “inclusion is strength”, designed to build on last year’s message “united in making our voice heard”.

Overstone Kondowe, taking charge as the first person with albinism to sit as an MP in Malawi. (Source: VOA news)

In 2021, Malawi elected its first albino lawmaker, in Overstone Kondowe, who is now an MP for Nkhotakota North East, is leading the charge to make the voice of people with albinism heard at the national level in Malawi. In one of his first public appearances as MP, in discussion about whether he would be able to improve inclusivity for people with albinism in social and political life, he was emphatic in his response: “I am ready to do that. And I have also demonstrated my ability to do so when I was acting outside the system. Now, that I am in the centre of the system, I am sure change is coming, not tomorrow, but today.”.

On the Day for Albinism Awareness, and every day, stand in solidarity with persons with albinism.

Remembering the Past in Blantyre: A Complex Colonial Figure

I wasn’t expecting to follow up my first blog post from Blantyre quite so soon, but I’ve had another day exploring the city and one of the places I visited revealed more about the colonial history of Blantyre, and its link to the Blantyre Mission. La Caverna is an art gallery, café, and archive of historical art and documents from Malawian history. It’s setting, the beautiful Mandala House perched just a short walk from the bustling city centre, was built in 1882 and is the oldest European building in Malawi. As that moniker may suggest, the history of the house itself is a complex one.

Just two years after the Blantyre Mission set up camp in the grounds of what is now St Michael and All Angels Church in 1876, the African Lakes Company began laying the groundwork for Mandala House. The African Lakes Company was set up with the expressed goal of working closely alongside the Presbyterian missionaries such as those on the Blantyre mission, to expand Scottish influence in business as well as in matters of religion across southern Africa. Today, Mandala House serves as a reminder of this colonial history, and as I wandered around the art exhibits and read one of my newly purchased books from its shop, I began to dive deeper into the tale of the Blantyre Mission, and its deep ties to British colonisation of Nyasaland, the name they gave to modern-day Malawi.

Mandala House, host of La Caverna and the Mandala Cafe

In an article for The Society of Malawi Journal, provocatively named “A Loathsome Little Brute”, Professor Kenneth Ross of Zomba Theological College reflects on one of the key figures of the Blantyre Mission, Alexander Hetherwick (the Reverend quoted in my previous article, identifying St Michael and All Angels as the first permanent church constructed in Sub-Saharan Africa). Hetherwick was a core component of the Blantyre Mission, spending 45 years in Malawi and receiving a CBE for his “services to empire” before returning to the UK in 1928. He was also the key driver of British expansion during the “Scramble for Africa”, due to his fear that the Blantyre Mission would fall under the rule of Portugal, which was expanding in neighbouring Mozambique. I was unaware of the extent to which lobbying from the Blantyre Mission forced the hand of a previously uninterested British government into taking control of Nyasaland. The UK government was more concerned with South Africa and Rhodesia, and did not want to take on additional responsibility for land that Prime Minister Lord Salisbury thought would result in “risking tremendous sacrifices for a very doubtful gain”.

Nevertheless, Hetherwick persisted. He was afraid that the Portuguese would take control of the area and that this would do immense damage to the Blantyre Mission’s capacity to convert local people to the Presbyterian church. When the African Lakes Company offered to take on governmental responsibility over Nyasaland, much like the East India Company had across the Indian Ocean before it, Hetherwick wrote a scathing attack on the company and called for the British government to step in instead. He also prevented Cecil Rhodes from expanding his British South Africa Company. As Professor Ross argues, British colonial rule over Nyasaland would have looked very different, and maybe not existed at all, without Hetherwick. He is arguably one the most important actors in the establishment of the imperial Protectorate on 14^th May 1891 (the same year the construction of St Michael and All Angels was completed).

What followed the establishment of the Protectorate was 73 years of British colonial rule. Although the colonial administration was capable of brutality and repression in order to maintain its power (as seen in the crushing of the Chilembwe Uprising of 1915), Britain was never too enthused about this particular colonial asset, which became known as “the imperial slum”. Today, Malawi remains one of the poorest countries in the world, and a large portion of the blame for that can be laid at the feet of the British policy to recruit Malawian men to send to the more lucrative mines of South Africa, which, as Hetherwick would later himself accuse, removed vital members of the workforce from Nyasaland and left the country dependant on its neighbours. The seizure of land by European settlers from native people also reshaped the future land use and ownership that can still be seen in Malawi today, which is something I will explore further in my thesis research. For example, the large colonial tea and tobacco estates that were created under British rule were transferred to Malawian elites at independence, and remain in the hands of the powerful.

Having been one the core people at the heart of encouraging British colonialism in the area, Hetherwick was a staunch and vehemently outspoken critic of British rule for the rest of his time in Blantyre. He was particularly shocked by the use of collective punishment of communities deemed to have stepped outside of the Administration’s boundaries, on one occasion in 1892 writing to the British government the following passage:

Hetherwick writing to his friend Archibald Scott in 1892

He was also largely supportive of the Chilembwe Uprising when it occurred in 1915, and when questioned by the colonial Commission of Inquiry after the rising affirmed his support for freedom of the natives to study religion in the ways they saw as best suited to themselves. He took the opportunity, when discussing with the Inquiry, to accuse the European powers of open racism and prejudice.

Alexander Hetherwick was a complicated man, who perhaps more than anyone else is responsible for the shaping of Malawi’s colonial history and Britain’s role in influencing the modern Malawian state. A driving force behind the push for colonialism during the scramble for Africa, he appeared far more concerned with the threat of other European powers in his little corner of Blantyre than of the self-determination of the people he claimed to be working for. He himself was full of the racism and prejudice he accused the "English Protectorate" of, and he too assumed that his own worldview was the correct one without self-reflection. When he got what he wanted, he was horrified by the abuses of power and the violent repression of colonialism in the land that he called his home for 45 years. This messy and sordid history is one that few white Europeans like myself are exposed to in any great detail in our schooling, and seeing it up close should remind us of its continued effects on global social and political relations today.

One particular exhibit in the archive at La Caverna that caught my intention was a notice from a 1895 newspaper. It was an amusing call to action, a reward offered by an unnamed British man of £100 to anyone who could tame a zebra for use as a “beast of burden”.

The notice from "A gentleman in England" on the virtues of introducing the zebra as a beast of burden... Why had nobody else though of that!?

Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel puts forward a theory in its description of how the modern world came to be, that one of the core reasons behind European colonial dominance in the early modern period came from the domestication of the horse, which prior to the combustion engine was the equivalent of a tank, a lorry, a motorbike, and any other tool to travel quickly or carry heavy loads you could imagine. This, he argues, was not due to a greater European intelligence, but rather due to the fact that the horse itself that was native to the steppes of central Asia was more easily domesticated than other similar animals in other parts of the world. Zebras are too feisty, too aggressive, and no one to this day has managed to domesticate them for use in a way that we use horses.

It's not a bad idea, if you see someone using a horse to carry their supplies for them and you happen to have a herd of wild zebras nearby, to try to domesticate them yourself. But what is interesting about this little notice is the arrogance with which a British man, several thousand miles away, can decide that in fact he has solved the issues facing Malawians in their homeland that he has likely never visited. That arrogance formed the basis of the colonial project, and it continues to shape the world today.

It is hard not see the parallels with the work of the international humanitarian sector, which talks a big game about “skills training” and “capacity development” in disaster- and conflict-affected areas around the world. Indeed, one of the activities I will be undertaking whilst here in Malawi is to run a QSAND training workshop with members of the Shelter Cluster. Now, this was a tool developed by professionals in the humanitarian and construction sector, which offers a useful framing for decision-making in reconstruction activities and will hopefully be able to add some benefits to ongoing activities in the Cyclone Freddy response and beyond. It is also true that this workshop will be run in collaboration with local NGO staff, who will help to shape the key areas of discussion in order to enable sharing across different organisations. This workshop will be more of a learning opportunity for me than the other way around, and the hope is that with what I learn from talking to those engaging in the projects I am able to improve what QSAND can offer. That’s how collaboration and sharing should work.

The sector has taken great stock of its own role in redefining the colonial context and in moving away from traditional paternalistic approaches to aid. However, there remains a "white saviour" complex in a lot of international humanitarian practice, which has not been appropriately addressed. This can lead to explicitly, violently harmful outcomes such as was seen in the Oxfam sexual exploitation scandal in Haiti or the horrific deaths of dozens of children in Uganda because of the missionary Renee Bach, who portrayed herself as a doctor despite having no medical experience. But it can also have less obvious impacts that influence the way international staff interact with their local counterparts. Critiques of "aidland" have led to increasing numbers of international organisations encouraging staff to work much more closely with local actors, and the localisation agenda has made modest steps towards addressing this. There is still a long way to go, but my experience with shelter professionals has shown me that people are aware of these issues, and are working to try to do better.

But as a sector, we need to make really sure that we’re not simply telling people to tame their zebras.

Tomorrow I will begin my fieldwork research in earnest. Until then, I will continue to think about how this remarkable history is playing out today for all of us, not just in Malawi but around the world, and how we can build on the foundations we have to get out of our siloes and work collaboratively. That is the only way to find solutions to the crises we face together.

Remembering the Past in Blantyre

This blog, hopefully the first of many from Malawi, is inspired by my first “Remembering the Past…” series from Sarajevo, which you can read the first instalment of here.

I’ve now been in Blantyre for just over 48 hours, and since this marks my first time in Malawi, I wasn’t at all sure what to expect. I’m here for my PhD research, looking into the ways in which humanitarian shelter response activities (particularly those in the post-Cyclone Freddy context) influence community resilience and social cohesion in affected populations. I have my first meeting with my NGO colleagues scheduled for next Thursday, so I have nearly a week to find my footing and get settled in the country before the fun really begins…

This morning, Sunday 10^th September, I decided to go and explore the city of Blantyre more closely. I’m quickly learning I will need to adjust my body clock – it seems most people are up and about around 6am with the sunrise, and at least where I am most people are back inside by sunset around 6pm. I managed to get up at 8 (not bad for a Sunday) and headed out to explore about 9.30. I had read about of the main tourist attractions in Blantyre, St Michael and All Angels Church, and I figured that, as it was a Sunday, this might be an interesting place to check out.

The impressive St Michael and All Angels Church

I have been struck since my arrival on the strength of the role that religion plays here in Blantyre. I shared my flight from Addis Ababa to Blantyre with a group of American missionaries who were on their way to rural Blantyre and Chikwawa, and there are a significant number of churches all over the city, of many different denominations; Protestant, Baptist, Anglican, Seventh Day Adventist, Orthodox. 79.8% of Malawians identify as Christian, with a further 14% practicing Islam, and 5% holding “traditional”, indigenous beliefs. Of all the churches I’ve walked past so far though, none are older than St Michael and All Angels. Built between 1888 and 1891, it was referred to by Scottish minister Reverend Alexander Hetherwick as “the first permanent Christian Church erected... between the Zambezi and the Nile.”. This, then, marks one of the earliest moments of Christian expansion into Sub-Saharan Africa, a key moment in colonial history that would shape Malawi, and Africa more broadly, up until today.

I arrived at the church after a long walk along one of the main roads in Blantyre, to the sound of a hymn being sung by the congregation as it echoed around the grounds. Only, the singing wasn’t coming from the church itself, but rather a nearby building I would later learn was referred to as “the annex”. I went up to the church proper, and found its doors locked. I decided instead to wander around the church yard, and stumbled upon a memorial plaque that was sat in front of a cairn (I didn’t know what a cairn was either… It’s a burial mound consisting of stacked rocks, a traditional marker which takes its name from Scottish Gaelic) that listed the names of all the places in Malawi that the first missionaries visited on their trip to Malawi. The plaque in front of it read “This plaque was unveiled on 24^th October 1976 by His Excellency The Life President Ngwazi Dr H. Kamuzu Banda to mark the Centenary of the Blantyre Mission.”

The cairn, first erected in 1936 to mark the place where "the pioneers of this mission first camped" on 23rd October 1876, looked over by the centenary plaque of Hastings Kamuzu Banda, who ruled Malawi from 1964 to 1994.

Almost exactly 147 years ago, then, the Blantyre Mission arrived and began the process which led to the construction of St Michael and All Angels, completed 15 years later. Led by Henry Henderson, whose name can still be seen on the Henry Henderson Institute, within the church grounds, and at the Henry Henderson School of Excellence further down the road, this Scottish expedition set off 3 years after the 1873 death of David Livingstone, the adventurer and missionary who had first identified the Shire Highlands of southern Malawi, as a suitable site to build a mission. His stated purpose was to “defeat the slave trade by means of Christianity, Commerce, and Civilisation.”. His long career as a missionary and adventurer made him a folk hero in Victorian-era Britain, and likely influenced Britons attitudes towards Africa more strongly than anyone who came before him. This would pave the way for the massive expansion of colonial rule, culminating in the Scramble for Africa, which would devastate communities and enforce European colonial rule across the continent.

The colonial impact of the Blantyre Mission can still be felt very strongly today in the grounds of St Michael and All Angels. Blantyre itself is named after Livingstone’s birthplace, a village on the outskirts of Glasgow, from where the Mission gave this city its name. As I wandered past the monument to the Scottish Martyrs of Blantyre , a giant clock tower that also houses the church bell and is listed with the names of Scottish missionaries who died in Malawi, from the 1876 beginnings of the Mission through to at least 1937 by my reading, I was approached by a security guard at the church, who I would spend the rest of my time there with.

The Martyrs of Blantyre Clock / Bell Tower

He introduced himself and asked me what I was doing here. I told him I was just looking around, and that the history of this church was fascinating. “Of course,” he said, “can I show you around the grounds? I have been a security guard for many years so I know all the history you should know!”. I agreed, and he immediately took me from the monument into the graveyard, a sprawling open field full with gravestones as far as the eye could see. Near the entrance was a paved section, with a series of around 24 brilliant white headstones.

“This is the memorial for the Martyrs of Blantyre, the missionaries who died here in Blantyre. We have lots of people come from all around the world, but especially Scotland, to see these graves.”

The graves of the “martyrs” were in significantly better condition than those that surrounded them, even those that were much more modern. I wondered how many foreigners came to visit these graves, and if that was a reason why they were kept in such a pristine state. I asked my guide.

“Oh, we have people come to visit these graves most days. I thought that might be why you were here.”

I told him that no, I was just here to look around and that I was actually here to do some research on the Cyclone Freddy response and humanitarian action in Blantyre and Chikwawa. He pointed back to St Michaels and All Angels and explained that the reason that the Sunday service was taking place in the annex was that the church had been flooded when Freddy hit, and that they were not sure if it was safe for a full congregation to enter due to water damage to fired-brick foundations of the 132-year-old building.

“We have to have services in the annex until the engineers say it is safe,” he explained, “but if you like I can let you in to see.”

Why not? We crossed back over the courtyard and met with some of the other security guards at their station. One of them had the key to the church, and agreed to let us in. As we stood in front of the extensive main entrance, the other guard went through a service entry and went to unlock the door from the inside. My guide nodded as we heard the clink of the lock. “Freddy was a massive disaster, we were all affected. All of the houses here were flooded, including mine. The engineers have checked the church but we are waiting for their results, none of our houses have been checked. Lots of people died. We must never forget. We don’t get disasters like that here in Malawi.”

Cyclone Freddy was a storm on a scale that had not previously been seen in Malawi’s southern region. Though storms and flooding do affect the area through most rainy seasons, Freddy was the most powerful and longest-lasting cyclone on record. It also reached further north than other storms like 2019’s Cyclone Idai or 2021’s Ana, causing devastation across the city of Blantyre. My guide explained that he had lived in Blantyre for 8 years, and that nothing came close to the ferocity of the floods that Freddy brought. The thought that this storm may have permanently rendered the oldest church in Malawi unusable for its services is a bleak one, and a reminder that disasters like this not only take lives but can erase cultural histories. I am writing this the day after the 6.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Morocco, killing thousands and destroying multiple sites of cultural and religious significance. 6 months on from Cyclone Freddy, and I still find myself passing reconstruction sites everywhere I go. Everyone I have spoken to so far since arriving has a story about Freddy, most of them are still not living in their homes, and instead have been forced to rent new houses whilst they rebuild their own from scratch, at their own costs. Long after these disasters have left the news cycle, they continue to cause devastation and heartache for the people who went through them.

We stepped inside, and the weight of the history of the room was immediately obvious. It is obviously a site of extreme importance for the devout congregation who worship there, but it is also a site that encapsulates the colonial history of the Mission. Adorning each of the walls are plaques dedicated to the founders of the Mission, to David Livingstone and Henry Henderson, and to Reverand David Clement Ruffelle Scott, another Scottish church missionary who was based in Blantyre from 1881 to 1894. He, my guide excitedly told me, was the architect who built St Michael and All Angels. With no architectural or construction experience, he designed and oversaw the construction entirely as an amateur.

A view from inside St Michael and All Angels

A very interesting fact that I would have preferred to have learned outside of the flood and storm damaged, nearly 150-year-old building.

We left the church and I thanked my guide for his tour. As we parted ways, I noticed another plaque that I had not yet read. Standing to attention before an expertly kept lawn, it overlooked 6 young trees. This one was marked 2016, for the 140-year anniversary of the Mission. The plaque read “These mibawa trees were planted by all heads of synod departments and staff marking environmental restoration as one way of fighting climate change”.

Mibawa trees are a protected indigenous tree in Malawi, known for their hardwood mahogany. The trees I saw, six years on from their planting, were still extremely young, spindly and shorter than me. They have a lot of growing to do. Mahogany trees are a long-term investment, taking up to 30 years to reach maturity. These young, fledgling mibawa trees had evidently survived the impact of Freddy, and will hopefully survive to adulthood and become a dominant feature of the otherwise lawn-covered gardens of the church.

Two of the mibawa trees, flanking the plaque that marks their planting in an effort to curb the impacts of climate change in Blantyre. A small, but meaningful act of environmental restoration.

Climate change is a threat that will define the immediate future of Blantyre. The same colonial structures that enabled the Blantyre Mission to set up where it did, to build St Michael and All Angels, and to dominate southern Africa for decades, are now contributing to the climate crisis that is currently impacting the lives of the members of this multi-generational congregation.

I am here in Malawi as a researcher, and as a member of the international humanitarian community that is engaging with local people to support their recovery from disasters like Freddy. The humanitarian system suffers from its own critique as a “continuation of the colonial system”, an argument that is strongly evidenced in the top-down approaches utilised by donors, UN agencies, and NGOs, and by the failure of the localisation agenda thus far.

These are issues that I’ve tried to grapple with back in my office in Loughborough and before that in London supporting humanitarian organisations through QSAND, but here they seem much more prescient, and immediately at the forefront of everything. I have only just arrived, and I have a lot of learning to do.

Ndakondwera kukudziwani*, Malawi. I look forward to learning more about your history, and your future.

*Pleased to meet you