The Malawi National Anthem: Time for verse 2
O God bless our land of Malawi,
Keep it a land of peace.
Put down each and every enemy,
Hunger, disease, envy.
Join together all our hearts as one,
That we be free from fear.
Bless our leader, each and every one,
And Mother Malawi.
For 51 years, we have been asking the Almighty to keep Malawi a land of peace and He has been kind enough to give us peace, and that we can never take for granted. We have been asking for divine intervention to do away with hunger. The Almighty has been giving us more than adequate rains even resulting in floods.
It has been our inability that we have to question that in the midst of too much rains we are unable to harvest the rain water for irrigation, thus purely eradicating hunger. Until when can we keep on asking God for more rains when we are blessed with perennial rivers and Lake Malawi that we are unable to utilise to irrigate our crops. We have been winning wars against diseases, for instance, we have managed to fight a successful war against TB and we are doing well in the fight against HIV and Aids.
Other diseases such as measles have even almost been eradicated. We cannot ask God for more in that regard. If it is the issue of envy then certainly all we need to do is change our mindset. God has been blessing us with leaders and in general mother Malawi has been a blessed land.
But now we have done enough of verse one of the national anthem. It is time we show the attitude of gratitude. It is now time we started building on the peace that the Almighty has given us for the past five years. It is now time we leave envy behind and look at our potentials for success. There is no better time than now for Malawi to concentrate on verse two on the national anthem.
Our own Malawi, this land so fair,
Fertile and brave and free.
With its lakes, refreshing mountain air,
How greatly blest are we.
Hills and valleys, soil so rich and rare,
Give us a bounty free.
Wood and forest, plains so broad and fair,
All-beauteous Malawi.
We have wonderful fertile land and we can no longer be talking of hunger year in year out. Let us harness our irrigation knowledge, teach our people living on the banks of rivers to realise the wonderful water resource they have within their vicinity. It is time our people realize that the fertile land they have is more than adequate to provide their daily needs. Now we have to go ahead, bringing in mechanized farming and encouraging commercialization in agriculture.
Lake Malawi is one of the world’s freshest lakes in the world. What are we doing about it? It is a wonderful tourism spot that we have to be proud of. We cannot ask God for more. We have all what we need, we only lack the thinking to utilise what we have to significantly lead towards the improvement of mother Malawi. We have to be talking of airports and good hotels in Mangochi, Salima, Nkhotakota, Nkhata Bay and Karonga so that tourists connect to such destinations easily. The onus is on us to attract many investors in airports and international hotels in the said areas. Lake Malawi is a resource that many envy us for having yet little do we appreciate what we have.
The national anthem give praises of the wood and forests we have. Apparently it appears that we are not appreciating the beauty we have. We have gone on a damaging spree, thus laying bare Dzalanyama game reserve, threatening desertification in Mwanza, slashing down Chikangawa forest merciless, growing Mulanje Mountain bald-headed. It is time we manages our forests for the betterment of the economy and the people at large. We do not have to be taking for granted the privilege of the good oxygen we breathe as a result of our wonderful forests. Let people go into managing their own forests unlike depleting the conserved forests which are a national heritage.
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