Malawi will this Saturday, July 6 2024, celebrate its 60th independence anniversary. How time flies!
Malawi will commemorate the day under the theme ‘United in Resilience: Moving Forward Together’. The theme calls upon Malawians to stand together at this moment, when the nation is grappling with myriad challenges.
As per tradition, the celebrations are preceded by a national day of prayers on July 5, typical of a God-fearing nation. Yes, we are.
The theme is quite befitting considering myriad challenges that Malawi has gone through over the past four years. These include the Covid pandemic, which affected the country from 2020, claiming over 3,000 lives.
Then, in March 2023, Tropical Cyclone Freddy devastated the country, destroying property and claiming over 1,000 lives.
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Malawi will be observing 60 years of independence barely days after observing 21 days of national mourning of departed vice president Dr Saulos Chilima, former first lady Patricia Shanil Dzimbiri and seven others who perished in a plane crash on June 10 2024.
The country is also mourning celebrated musician Lucius Banda, who died in South Africa on June 30. He went to the Rainbow Nation to seek medical treatment. Malawi is also mourning seasoned media practitioner and actor Hope Chisanu, who died in the United States of America on June 2 2024. Malawi has lost these and many other prominent personalities within a short time. May their souls rest in eternal Peace.
What is needed, therefore, is resilience. According to the American Psychological Association, “Resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioural flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands”.
Essentially, a resilient nation is the one where people are able to maintain control of their situation and think of new ways of tackling challenges. As the country observes the 60th anniversary of independence, we need to ask ourselves tough questions. There are a number of lessons and issues we must reflect on.
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Indeed, Malawians have to be united in resilience. Let us have shared values and goals. Being aware of our common set of values could help in bringing unity as well as fostering a sense of national identity. This calls for mindset change.
Fortunately, the Malawi 2063 vision has placed mindset change as Enabler Number One. Under this enabler, engagement of visionary and transformative leadership, patriotism, religious values, integrity, hard work, self-reliance and positivity have been singled out as catalysts for mindset transformation. Probably one of the interesting declarations is this part, which reads:
“……As Malawians, we denounce our hitherto attitude of dependency on donors and handouts, materialism and self-accumulation through corrupt practices. We will instead embrace and commit to self-discipline, self-initiative and self-dependency.” [MWW2063,Page 24] . Are we walking the talk?
Indeed, Malawians must be united in resilience. This calls for leadership which can inspire and mobilise citizens to work together towards a common goal through meaningful citizen engagement and smooth flow of information. The Malawi Government, under the leadership of President Lazarus Chakwera, has to be commended for enacting the Access to Information Act (ATIA) four years ago. Government could proactively use the ATIA to enhance citizen engagement.
May unity prevail as we celebrate 60 years of independence. Together we can.
