Face to face with a mining company

Southern Africa is known for its mining industry, for better and worse. Gold, copper, uranium and a large number of valuable minerals and rear earth have contributed to economic growth in several countries in the region.  Being quite dependent on the world market prices, mining is at the same time keeping economies hostage to those variations.

Malawi has not yet developed its mining potential to a significant level.  Tobacco has been by far the main export earner, but the world trend is not in favour of this trade.  Mining is seen as one of the alternatives.  A satellite geological survey was carried out last year, and great potentials were heralded by the government.  Some investors are in place, and explorations are on-going in some places.  The relationship between local communities and mining companies are not always the best.  Local communities have high expectations, but they fail to see benefits coming their way when exploration machinery invade their territories.

NCA has together with a coalition of local partners engaged in extractive industries with the notion that extracting values from Mother Earth should give benefits to those who have possessed the land, those who should benefit from redistribution of revenue collected by the government, the investors… and Mother Earth through environmental concerns.

This week I participated in a face-to-face meeting with bosses of a mining company that is involved in exploration of rare earth in the south-eastern part of Malawi.  NCA invited representatives of the coalition and other civil society organisation, and government through the geological survey to an open dialogue with the company.  NCA had earlier commissioned a study in the communities affected by the activities of the mining company, and had engaged them in an interactive “village theatre” to highlight burning issues. The producers of the report joined us for the meeting.

Community members engaged in "village theatre"

The meeting, which was said to be the first of its kind, turned out to be extremely interesting and fruitful. In an open atmosphere we listened and contributed. The local communities had enumerated a wide range of problems and expectations related to the entry of the mining company. In spite of its comprehensive efforts to support projects that the community had requested, including  rehabilitation of schools, building bridge, drilling water the image of the company was still dubious.  

A "happy classroom" decorated by the mining company

A bridge built by the mining company

As the mining company was given the opportunity to share their side of the story, we quite clearly realized that we are faced with one main challenge:  COMMUNICATION.  As clarifications were offered across the table, it was clear that misinformation and misconception were obvious.  We further realized that inherent tensions and conflicts among and between local communities played out through the relationship and perceptions of the exploration activities that were taking place within their territories.

The joint conclusion was that such meetings should have taken place much earlier.  As we move forward with new dialogue meetings, the possibilities of developing better approaches for processes of interaction between communities and private sector that can result in “win-win” situations should be possible. Responsible extraction of natural resources can benefit all stakeholders. I was pleased that I as NCA representative could contribute to this face-to-face encounter.

Vulnerable children of Malawi

A recent survey that was published in today's Sunday paper put once more Malawi at the bottom of the scale of "most poor and most underdeveloped nation in the world".  Most reports from UN, World Bank and other reliable sources put Malawi towards the bottom of such lists, but not at the very bottom.  It seems the newspaper wanted to make a political point of putting the country at the very bottom.  What is very true is that vulnerable groups in Malawi are quite vulnerable, and perhaps the most vulnerable group is the children.  Today I will not go into lack of education or health services, but visit the challenge of sexual abuse of children and children trickling into the streets of urban centres.

Maxwell Matewere, a colleague and Director of the organisation Eye of the Child has just published the book "Betrayal of Trust" in which he describes aspects of sexual abuse of children in Malawi.  He describes some horrific cases that have been brought to the attention of his organisation, and that subsequently have been referred to the justice system through the courts.  Those who should be the protectors of children are most often the perpetrators.  Fathers, step-fathers, half-brothers, step-mothers... abuse children as young as three-four years.  Courts are hearing heart-braking stories of acts that should never have happened.  Children are quite resilient, but many young girls and women go through life with deep emotional and physical scars!

Why is this happening?  Maxwell lists a number of causes.  Poverty pushes mothers to offer their children for money, traditional beliefs include that sexual intercourse with virgins will give prosperity, divorce and remarriage create tensions, alcohol and drugs bring about domestic violence .... the list is longer.

Women Judges Association of Malawi is another partner of NCA, and they are aggressively fighting the ills of sexual abuse of children, and call for stiff punishment of the perpetrators.  Depending on the nature of the offence, sentences vary between 12 - 20 years imprisonment with hard labour. Police claims that stiff punishment has resulted in reduced number of cases, but they agree that this is not the solution to the problem.  This is a much broader social and cultural issue, for another blog entry...

What about the victims?  The children?  Local organisations, together with the local social care authorities are having projects to support the victims through counseling, offering transitional periods in institutions and assistance in re-integration into their families and communities.  Chisomo Children's Club is one such organisation that tries to stop abuses through preventive awareness work in local communities and through offering activities for the children through the Community Based Children's Clubs

Children are given food, opportunities for social interaction and play, and initial education through the Community Based Children's Clubs.

Those young boys and girls that have already ended up in the streets of the cities, either through forced trafficking or by following older youths, are offered temporary stay and life-skills training in the urban centres.   Chisomo Children's Club has a centre in the middle of Old Lilongwe.  Children and youth can stay for some weeks or months, going through sessions of life skills training, being offered basic vocational skills training and being assisted in attempting to return to their families and communities.  

Chisomo Children's Club uses many approaches to help children and youth to gain self-confidence, prepare for a life off the streets and return home.  Traditional dance and songs is one of them.

Rythm of Rain forest 2016

After a long spell of silence, I will take you back to a place I have described earlier:  Nthchisi Rain Forest and Ntchisi Forest Lodge.  This weekend Birgit and I and two friends experienced the "Rythm of Rain forest 2016", which was a music festival in the Ntchisi Rain forest.  A small group of around 25 people stayed at the lodge and "walked through" a number of concerts in different locations and different musical tradition.  Efforts are made to protect the rain forest, and this festival was another attempt to raise awareness of the pearl in the central part of Malawi. Musicians and the listeners were brought together into a dynamic group that enjoyed nature, good food, inspiring music and social encounters.

I will take you through the festival with some photos.  The evening concerts were conducted in candlelight, and my camera could not sort out the light conditions sufficiently to be able to share images from Friday evening "Afro Funk", in which traditional Malawian music was fused with funck-rock, and the Saturday evening which was a reggae set.

Saturday started with a guided tour in the Ntchisi Rain Forest by Eston, a dedicated retiree who devotes almost all his time to protect the rain forest. While we had a good walk, we were provided with rich variety of facts and stories about the forest and life inside and around the forest through history and today.

The afternoon was spent by the waterfall deep down in the rain forest.  Yount singer and song writer Jaco Jana, just returned from music studies in Trondheim in Norway, shared World Music.

At the Sunset Rock, Chavala Mangwenya and his student Patrick took us through Traditional Malawian Music as the sun was magically setting.

The festival ended Sunday morning with singer and song writer Neil Nayar with his combination of popular songs and Afro Country.

Malawi is not only about drought, corruption and poverty.  Malawi is about magical nature, culture and social awareness.