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

Choosing to Humanise in a Dehumanising World

At 12:17pm GMT on 13^th June 2023, Alarm Phone, an NGO dedicated to sounding the alarm of migrants in danger at sea, received a distress call from a boat called the Andriana. As is clearly stated on their website, Alarm Phone are not able to stage a rescue themselves, but will mobilise their community of volunteers and activists to sound the alarm when any boat gets into trouble in the Aegean or Mediterranean Seas, in efforts to encourage, or force, coastguards to do their jobs and come to the rescue. On this occasion, their efforts failed. The Andriana sunk, and up to 750 migrants and refugees, including over 100 children, lost their lives.

Greek authorities were quick to claim that they were not aware the Andriana was in trouble until it was too late, and that when they tried to offer to support the boat manoeuvred away from them. These claims were disputed by Alarm Phone, and a subsequent BBC investigation cast additional doubts over their validity. This would not be the first time Greek authorities have lied about their response to boats in distress in their waters. Just a few weeks earlier, in May of this year, video emerged showing illegal “pushbacks” off the coast of Greece, in which coastguards boats forcefully turned around approaching vessels, pushing them back out to sea. Activists and campaigners around the world called for independent investigations into this practice, but in Greece and across Europe these calls fell on deaf ears.

The Andriana, as photographed by the Hellenic Coastguard. Source: El Pais English

As a Professor at Athens University, interview by the Guardian, explained “The government’s stance [towards turning back migrants] may be hostile but it has also proven to be a major success.”. This interview was conducted just over a month before the Greek elections saw a sweeping series of victories for the far right, with conservative leader of the New Democracy party Kyriakos Mitsotakis winning re-election as President, but now sharing his Parliament with the far-right Spartans group, comprised of former neo-Nazi members of Golden Dawn. This rightward shift in Greek politics goes hand-in-hand with the inhumane treatment of migrants trying to reach Europe’s borders, and their fate will only worsen as the far right tightens its grip on Greek border policy.

This is not a new phenomenon. I wrote about the horrific conditions migrants were subjected to in Lesbos back in 2018, but since then, the Moria refugee camp has expanded and further deteriorated, other camps have emerged in Kos and other Greek islands, and an estimated 9,673 migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean (according to IOM, likely a severe underestimate). It is also not a phenomenon unique to Greece. Just one year after the brutal Melilla massacre, in which Spanish and Moroccan police killed at least 36 people trying to cross the border of Spain’s territory in north Africa, disastrous local election results for Spain’s incumbent Prime Minister have led to a snap election in July which many fear will return far-right leaders into power in the country. The UK government similarly refuses to dial down its anti-immigrant rhetoric and hostile policies, despite widespread condemnation from human rights groups and the United Nations. For those in the UK who want to protest these policies, the draconian Public Order Bill will aim to silence them as the authoritarian reach of the Conservative Party grows.

Governments across Europe are violently cracking down on migrants trying to reach their shores, and the sweep of far-right policies and parties suggests that, to at least a sizable portion of these countries populations, these are policies they approve of. And this pattern is playing out across the world in different contexts, as countries lock down their borders and push for exclusion of outsiders. At the US’ southern border, troops have been deployed to forcefully push back migrants and Trump’s border wall continues to cause mass ecological damage in the name of deterring entry. Dr Ronan Lee, a Doctoral Prize Fellow at Loughborough University London, lays out how the UN and Bangladeshi government have turned their back on the Rohingya refugees who fled ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, leaving many with little option but to return to a country now in the midst of a brutal civil war. In Malawi, refugees who have been living and working in host communities for decades in some cases are now being forced back into the Dzaleka refugee camp and refused the right to be able to leave, which UNHCR has claimed will lead to untold human suffering.

The sprawling Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi. Source: International Associate for Refugees

All over the world, the human rights of migrants are being systematically pulled out from under them. This is a global issue, and it is one that is likely to get significantly worse for those seeking asylum unless we do something about it now. As Michael Chessum put it in his excellent, grim, report on migrant rights in Europe, “‘Stop the Small Boats’ is a slogan with which many nominally progressive politicians are at pains to agree. But behind the slogan is a wider agenda – to soften public attitudes for a crime against humanity.”. All over the world, that crime against humanity is already taking place. And the hardening of government policies, supported by increasingly fervent populations, will accelerate the dehumanisation of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees globally.

A bleak future awaits for those who will be forced from their homes due to violence, climate change, poverty, or a simple desire for a better live. The number of those who need to flee is bound to rise. The Institute for Economics and Peace has estimated that by 2050 over 1.2 billion people could be displaced due to the climate crisis. Increasing authoritarianism in every corner of the globe would predict a rise in both inter- and intra-state violence in the coming years as well, leading to more displacement due to conflict. IFRC’s Cost of Doing Nothing report also estimates a doubling of the number of people displaced globally by 2050, with a humanitarian system that simply will buckle under that weight. The number of people trying to find safe haven in new countries is inevitably going to continue to rise over the next decade at least. It is indisputable fact that the nonsense “hostile environment” policies that countries are currently employing to attempt to persuade asylum seekers not to come do not work.

On top of that, there is ample evidence that refugees, climate migrants, and economic migrants of all stripes have a huge amount to offer communities and countries if they have access to viable, legal routes to travel to their preferred destination and live and work there. Refugees and migrants do not want “our help”. They want to get on with their own lives. They want us not to get in their way. The dangerous narrative spreading globally that those who cross borders are a burden on their new host society is fundamentally flawed, but it succeeds in scaring poor and disenfranchised groups so that increasingly authoritarian governments can tighten their grip on their own populations, whilst leaving those outside of their borders to die.

Graffiti found near a refugee camp in Lesbos. Source: Refugee Resilience Collective

We, every single one of us, has a choice that we need to make now.

We can give in to fear of those who we see as different to us, believe what we are being told about them, and leave them to die in their home countries, or on the routes to safer places, or in the ocean, or in filthy camps on our shores. Or we can challenge this narrative of hate and show solidarity to the other people who we share our home with. The threats that face us all in the 21^st century will affect every single one of us. We can let the threats of climate change and conflict divide us and turn us inward, or we can open our arms and acknowledge that we’re all in this together.

I am fortunate to be able to say that I have not been displaced, but that is a matter of luck. Millions of people around the world are not that lucky, and the luck of many more will run out in the coming years. As the people of Sudan, Ukraine, Myanmar, Syria, and many other countries around the world have discovered, life can be turned upside down overnight. They do not choose that path, but they are forced to walk it. One day, I might be forced to join them, and if I am, I hope I at least find a welcoming home to get to. And with that in mind, it is my responsibility to try to facilitate that welcome to those who need it now.

So what can we do?

•  Make your voice heard – As the far-right gains ground across Europe and much of the rest of the world, we can make sure we are politically engaged and willing to take the fight to those who would silence us. Join protests, write to your MPs, and vote against those who are pursuing these policies.
•  Be vocal – The media landscape across many host countries is increasingly anti-immigrant, and the far-right groups pushing this agenda are organised and active. We need to be louder than them. Advocate for those without a voice in any way you feel able to. These can be small steps, such as sharing positive refugee stories on social media, talking to family members about these issues, or at a larger scale communicating with local media outlets, or confronting the anti-immigrant protestors when they gather.
• Know the law – As the UK’s “Rwanda Plan” is again found to be unlawful by the Court of Appeal, we are already seeing Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman expressing their disappointment and intention to continue pushing for migrant and refugee policies that break international law. Refugees and migrants have rights, and those rights must be protected.
• Show solidarity and engage in mutual aid practices with others in need – The It Could Happen Here podcast showcases some examples of individuals engaging in mutual aid on the US’ southern border. You can see similar solidarity with refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean by keeping up-to-date with the work of the volunteers in Alarm Phone and organisations like Team Humanity in Lesbos.
• Volunteer or engage with refugee support organisations – Refugees that make it to their host destination will be in need of further help, maybe to learn the language or better understand the culture. There are many organisations working to help refugees settle into their new homes, and all of them need volunteers. In the UK, one route to supporting this process is through engaging with Community Sponsorship Schemes.
• Be an active bystander – If you see discrimination happening, find a way to intervene.  There are many ways to do so, and you do not have to put yourself in danger in order to avert harassment or show support where it is needed.
• Get involved in your local community – Work to welcome refugees and migrants requires a community, and strong communities are more welcoming and open to changing circumstances around them. Talk to family, friends, and neighbours about their fears and misgivings when it comes to refugees and migrants, try to understand their reasoning, and talk to them in ways that might reduce these fears or concerns.
• Don’t lose hope – Reading any of the news about these issues can sometimes make things feel hopeless, but they are far from it. Climate change and conflict are going to make a lot of people’s lives very difficult in the coming years, but these circumstances do not have to be entirely bad. Tough times can tear communities apart, but they can also bring people together and foster solidarity and support mechanisms that never existed before. Real solutions to the challenges we face can only come from a radical form of global solidarity, but that is entirely possible to achieve. It just requires us to start working towards it together, now.

You don’t have to take the weight of saving the world on your shoulders. You need to take small positive steps with the people around you, and we’ll save it together.