Chitimba Farewell
20Nov13
Our last week together on the project has been almost perfect and very much the conditions we were hoping to have in order to move our work forward. Almost perfect, except for 2 reasons, the week was too short a period and our miscalculation about the effect of the heat in November on the shores of Lake Malawi. We have kept up our routine of 8h00 starts and 12h00 break for lunch and then back at it till 17h00. That makes an 8 or 9 hour day and leaves us quite tired. It's all intellectual work but nonetheless it wears you down and the evening is for discussing and sharing and hoping some more ideas will pop up.
As we left Mzuzu we passed by Mzuzu University known as Mzuni this time to interview Professor Kings Phiri in the History department who managed to survive the purge the University of Malawi of 1975-76 when almost all the senior lecturers and staff (mostly northerners) were picked up and detained one by one. So many had been taken away that he was certain his turn had come and was only spared because the backroom perpetrators inflicting this misery were themselves cut short in their nefarious scheme. He described as State Terrorism the way people lived in constant fear of arbitrary detention. It was a great interview and e offered advise and contacts of others we should get to see.
That led us up to the University of Livingstonia at the top of the high plateau overlooking the lake immediately above Chitimba, where we had another full and detailed account of life in detention by Augustin Msiska who was just about to become University Librarian at Chancellor College when he was detained. Even after his release, the regime would not allow his life to return to normal and after a period of enforced unemployment, he finally was allowed to leave the country and work at the University of Zambia (UNZA) where he remained mostly without his family for many years. Only much later near the end of the Banda regime was he able to return to pick up his library career which had been cut off many years before.
We survived the Gorodi road. To get to Livingstonia we had to negotiate the the 20 hairpin switchback turns that hug the slope of the escarpment and weave their way up 1000 metres in about 10 or 12 kilometres. It had never been a priority of government planning and so is in very rough shape. It was built by one of the determined Scottish missionaries and named the Gordon Road after him. The people harmonised his name and the road to sound like Gorodi. However, what struck both of us, having travelled the road in the sixties or seventies, was the deforestation. Then huge trees forested the whole mountain. They are virtually all gone to the charcoal makers and brick kilns and the devastation of the slopes, the erosion, the dried up streams have created an environmental disaster. There is literally no government presence at all to manage the delicate environment and the population pressure and need for fuel is denuding the hillsides and even cliff-faces of anything that burns.
Lukwe Camp is a wonderful respite. It is just on the edge of the plateau below the huge mission site. The cabins and resto-bar are perched right out over the precipice. The Belgian couple run it on a permaculture basis. Their trees have been left standing, and they have small ponds for fish raising and irrigating their gardens that supply all the food they serve. The steepest slopes are left in a purely natural state. It is a wonderful little oasis with amazing vistas of the whole eastern slope of the Nyika Plateau and the lakeshore.
Even in the sleepy, hot town of Chitimba, people bear the scars of Kamuzu's regime. Once our hosts knew our mission, it didn't take long to identify someone in the community who had suffered. James Mzembe was born 1924 and at 89 is moving with great difficulty. He had been a driver in Zambia for many years and like any expatriate he welcomed his home people whenever they passed through Kitwe on Zambia's Copperbelt. One of these was an ex-minister whose movements, even in exile, were closely monitored by the Malawian Special Branch who reported to to their headquarters in Malawi that James was a 'rebel sympathiser'. On a trip home to visit his family he was arrested at the border and savagely beaten and interrogated about his connections. He was delivered to the Central Region's infamous Dzeleka Detention Centre where he was allowed to recover and then released. He feared returning to Zambia where the Malawi security operatives were known to arrange disappearances, so he fled to Mozambique and later Tanzania and then eventually Zambia but not before he had lost his family and anything he possessed. When he finally came back to Malawi to retire, he was alone and found no-one left of his family here. Now he lives off the charity of old family friends and well-wishers.
The Chitimba Camp is a very productive workspace. It is a beautiful environment and our wonderful hosts Carmen and Eddy offered us whatever we needed to have a comfortable working space. We got a lot of correspondence done with possible publishers and collaborators. We continued our review of the chapters and their content and flow, and managed a couple of interviews as well. We were housed at the southern end of the camp away from the almost daily comings and goings of the overlanders.
Overlanders: The cycle of life at an overlander camp is quite
fascinating. These huge trucks are fitted for up to 30 passengers
with all the camping and cooking gear they need to be essentially
self-sufficient. They board in Capetown and travel over a period of a
month or so up to Nairobi or vice versa. I have always been critical
of the concept and called it Africa in a bubble or more correctly
tourists in a bubble passing through Africa. They are totally
self-contained and to a great degree self-preoccupied, so we had very
little relations with any of the first few groups that came through.
There was little to connect us. We are old, they are young. They
sleep in tents and we are relaxing in the wicker chairs on the porch
of our chalets away from the bar scene.
However, one evening our new neighbour in the room next door introduced himself. Lucas had abandoned the tent scene for a couple of nights and opted to sleep in a bed in a room with a shower. He had overheard our conversation about Malawi history and politics in the afternoon and wanted to learn more about our project. From Italy, he was an investment fund manager living the high stress life in London. Now in his early-mid 40s he had taken a long leave away from work and was rethinking his future. He had planned three months of three different overland tours, in Africa, Asia and Latin America. However, most impressive was his grasp of development economics and what was needed to turn around the situation in a country like Malawi. I have interacted with many people who wear the title of “Development Expert”, but few have ever offered the kind of perceptions and insights as this young man. In any case, we never really got to talk to him again because their trips are very structured and intense. He walked the 16 kilometres up the escarpment to Livingstonia University and back and by the time he got back he was wiped out and ready for bed. His truck and group left early the next morning on their way to the next experience.
Between the full moon over the lake and a few encounters and despite the oppressive November heat, we managed to be very productive. The chapters have taken shape, the stories are compelling and the interest of participants and supporters remains high. We are also highly motivated to get this book to press, although the work to accomplish over the next few months is daunting.
20Nov13
Our last week together on the project has been almost perfect and very much the conditions we were hoping to have in order to move our work forward. Almost perfect, except for 2 reasons, the week was too short a period and our miscalculation about the effect of the heat in November on the shores of Lake Malawi. We have kept up our routine of 8h00 starts and 12h00 break for lunch and then back at it till 17h00. That makes an 8 or 9 hour day and leaves us quite tired. It's all intellectual work but nonetheless it wears you down and the evening is for discussing and sharing and hoping some more ideas will pop up.
As we left Mzuzu we passed by Mzuzu University known as Mzuni this time to interview Professor Kings Phiri in the History department who managed to survive the purge the University of Malawi of 1975-76 when almost all the senior lecturers and staff (mostly northerners) were picked up and detained one by one. So many had been taken away that he was certain his turn had come and was only spared because the backroom perpetrators inflicting this misery were themselves cut short in their nefarious scheme. He described as State Terrorism the way people lived in constant fear of arbitrary detention. It was a great interview and e offered advise and contacts of others we should get to see.
That led us up to the University of Livingstonia at the top of the high plateau overlooking the lake immediately above Chitimba, where we had another full and detailed account of life in detention by Augustin Msiska who was just about to become University Librarian at Chancellor College when he was detained. Even after his release, the regime would not allow his life to return to normal and after a period of enforced unemployment, he finally was allowed to leave the country and work at the University of Zambia (UNZA) where he remained mostly without his family for many years. Only much later near the end of the Banda regime was he able to return to pick up his library career which had been cut off many years before.
We survived the Gorodi road. To get to Livingstonia we had to negotiate the the 20 hairpin switchback turns that hug the slope of the escarpment and weave their way up 1000 metres in about 10 or 12 kilometres. It had never been a priority of government planning and so is in very rough shape. It was built by one of the determined Scottish missionaries and named the Gordon Road after him. The people harmonised his name and the road to sound like Gorodi. However, what struck both of us, having travelled the road in the sixties or seventies, was the deforestation. Then huge trees forested the whole mountain. They are virtually all gone to the charcoal makers and brick kilns and the devastation of the slopes, the erosion, the dried up streams have created an environmental disaster. There is literally no government presence at all to manage the delicate environment and the population pressure and need for fuel is denuding the hillsides and even cliff-faces of anything that burns.
Lukwe Camp is a wonderful respite. It is just on the edge of the plateau below the huge mission site. The cabins and resto-bar are perched right out over the precipice. The Belgian couple run it on a permaculture basis. Their trees have been left standing, and they have small ponds for fish raising and irrigating their gardens that supply all the food they serve. The steepest slopes are left in a purely natural state. It is a wonderful little oasis with amazing vistas of the whole eastern slope of the Nyika Plateau and the lakeshore.
Even in the sleepy, hot town of Chitimba, people bear the scars of Kamuzu's regime. Once our hosts knew our mission, it didn't take long to identify someone in the community who had suffered. James Mzembe was born 1924 and at 89 is moving with great difficulty. He had been a driver in Zambia for many years and like any expatriate he welcomed his home people whenever they passed through Kitwe on Zambia's Copperbelt. One of these was an ex-minister whose movements, even in exile, were closely monitored by the Malawian Special Branch who reported to to their headquarters in Malawi that James was a 'rebel sympathiser'. On a trip home to visit his family he was arrested at the border and savagely beaten and interrogated about his connections. He was delivered to the Central Region's infamous Dzeleka Detention Centre where he was allowed to recover and then released. He feared returning to Zambia where the Malawi security operatives were known to arrange disappearances, so he fled to Mozambique and later Tanzania and then eventually Zambia but not before he had lost his family and anything he possessed. When he finally came back to Malawi to retire, he was alone and found no-one left of his family here. Now he lives off the charity of old family friends and well-wishers.
The Chitimba Camp is a very productive workspace. It is a beautiful environment and our wonderful hosts Carmen and Eddy offered us whatever we needed to have a comfortable working space. We got a lot of correspondence done with possible publishers and collaborators. We continued our review of the chapters and their content and flow, and managed a couple of interviews as well. We were housed at the southern end of the camp away from the almost daily comings and goings of the overlanders.
However, one evening our new neighbour in the room next door introduced himself. Lucas had abandoned the tent scene for a couple of nights and opted to sleep in a bed in a room with a shower. He had overheard our conversation about Malawi history and politics in the afternoon and wanted to learn more about our project. From Italy, he was an investment fund manager living the high stress life in London. Now in his early-mid 40s he had taken a long leave away from work and was rethinking his future. He had planned three months of three different overland tours, in Africa, Asia and Latin America. However, most impressive was his grasp of development economics and what was needed to turn around the situation in a country like Malawi. I have interacted with many people who wear the title of “Development Expert”, but few have ever offered the kind of perceptions and insights as this young man. In any case, we never really got to talk to him again because their trips are very structured and intense. He walked the 16 kilometres up the escarpment to Livingstonia University and back and by the time he got back he was wiped out and ready for bed. His truck and group left early the next morning on their way to the next experience.
Between the full moon over the lake and a few encounters and despite the oppressive November heat, we managed to be very productive. The chapters have taken shape, the stories are compelling and the interest of participants and supporters remains high. We are also highly motivated to get this book to press, although the work to accomplish over the next few months is daunting.
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