July 20th 2011 . . . and beyond

When I first arrived in Malawi, I had a meeting with the head of Canadian aid here. He said “If anything goes down in Malawi when you are here, which is highly unlikely, I will make sure you get on a plane and out of here. I will be waving at you from the tarmac because Malawi is my home, and I won’t be going anywhere.”

Well, that “highly unlikely” event became more and more likely over the last couple of months (as I’ve indicated in earlier posts) until tensions finally exploaded on Wednesday. Malawians have had enough. Planned peaceful demonstrations that were planned for Wednesday July 20th to protest persistent fuel shortages, the rising cost of living, forex shortages, repressive media laws, expanded taxation, poor water and electricity supplies were banned by President Bingu wa Mutharika on Tuesday evening angering civil society leaders and protestors. Thousands poured onto the streets on Wednesday protesting despite the injunction. On Wednesday as the President made his xenophobic address to the nation, while saying “we have peace,” the streets were awash in red, protesters clashed with police, destroyed property, set afire cars, police buildings and looted stores. As of now, 18 deaths have been reported, but I am sure that the numbers are much higher. The early hours of Thursday morning seemed peaceful, but riots broke out again in areas around Lilongwe. The army was deployed in Lilongwe, and authorities were authorized to use live ammunition (which they had already been using on Wednesday). The President made another speech to the nation, requesting a ‘dialogue’ – saying that these protests were accomplishing nothing – there is still no fuel, there is still no forex. Obviously. But this was the Malawian people saying ‘We have had enough. We will not be silent any longer.’ President Bingu wa Mutharika decided to end his speech saying in reference to the protesters; “I hope God will help us, as these people are busy working for Satan.” Today, mass funerals for seven of the protesters who were killed in Mzuzu has been blocked by the government.

The last two days I’ve spent at my house, watching the news roll in over facebook, internet sites, blackberry and television. There was an amazing amount of information being passed through various social networks which allowed us to be informed on what was going on around the city and the country. However, several Malawian radio stations that were reporting live on the protests were banned off the air blamed for ‘inciting violence.’ Others just played music like nothing was going on. Nyasa Times was blocked online. I was surprised that the telephone networks did not get shut down to prevent people from organizing and communicating. The days leading up to the protest – MTL internet blocked facebook and a Zodiak vehicle (one of the media outlets) was ambushed outside a friends house and smashed by men in black masks; very likely undercover scare tactics.

For more information on the protests, photos and news about what’s going on in Malawi: www.faceofmalawi.com

I will continue to update my blog with information. Today is quiet in Lilongwe and I was able to move around freely. A lot of shops are still closed. There were a few army convoys patrolling around. Each police vehicle I saw moving around town had some sort of damage to it – mostly smashed windscreens and windows. I’ve been hearing plenty of stories from Malawian friends who were out for the protests and the goings on in their home areas. I will relay some of these stories in later posts.

I applaud the Malawian people for their courage.