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MALAWI-VOTE-POVERTY
In a poor Malawi village, hope rests on opposition leader
CHAKWERA, Malawi, May 19, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The tiny village of Chakwera is
typical of thousands of settlements across Malawi — life is tough, families
rely on subsistence farming, and food, education and work are all scarce.
But flags featuring the black rooster of the Malawi Congress Party hang in
the trees, a clue that this is the former home of a man who could be the next
president.
Opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera, 64, lived in the village, 40 kilometres
(25 miles) outside Lilongwe city, until he left secondary school.
Three generations of the family have lived there since the early 1950s, and
his relatives still populate the village.
Home to only about 50 people, it is situated at the end of a rough path
leading through a thick forest, and has no mains electricity, one water pump
and virtually no infrastructure.
It is the reality of life for many people in Malawi, which is ranked by
the World Bank as one of the poorest countries in the world.
Over half of Malawi’s population live below the poverty line, and just 11
percent have access to electricity.
“Malawi lacks many things — there are no businesses,” said Margaret Amos,
a thin and glassy-eyed 20-year-old wearing cloth wrapped around her waist, as
she walked away from a pump carrying a heavy bucket of water.
Amos dropped out of school as her parents could not afford the fees, before
marrying early and taking on domestic chores.
“If Doctor Chakwera wins, people will be able to start their own business,”
she said, loyal to the village’s prominent son.
– Village son –
A few brown-brick huts are scattered around a clearing where young men rest
under a tree in the midday sun. Pigs lie in the mud near the water pump, and
goats roam freely searching for small leaves to eat.
Four older women sit under a thatched shelter nearby, removing corn from
cobs harvested earlier that week.
In Tuesday’s election, Chakwera hopes to unseat President Peter Mutharika
after being narrowly defeated in the last election in 2014.
The result looks in the balance but Chakwera, a former senior pastor in
Malawi, can certainly count on the support of his home village.
Relatives see him as the country’s salvation from corruption, poverty and
lack of development.
“I have total confidence in my brother-in-law that he’s going to take over
the government,” Patricia Chakwera, Lazarus’s outspoken sister-in-law, told
AFP.
“He will serve all the people in the whole country, because that’s what he
was doing when he was a church pastor. He worked for everybody, and I’m sure
he will do the same once he is president.”
His older sister Polina Chakwera says he has not changed from the boy he
was growing up.
“He was always smart and always number one — he still is,” she said,
adding that he would conduct school lessons for fellow pupils.
Chakwera has campaigned on an anti-graft platform, and has been credited
with reviving the MCP, which ruled Malawi from 1964 to 1994 under Hastings
Banda’s one-party rule but has since been in opposition.
“It has been a great campaign across the country and our message has been
well received,” he told AFP at his final rally, predicting “nothing less than
victory — we are winning.”
BSS/AFP/RY/1610 hrs