On July 6, we celebrated 61 years of independence from British colonial rule. It was on a day like this when that small European super power finally decided to handover the affairs of running this country to natives, who had been fighting them for quite some time. The euphoria of independence back in the 60s was like a wildfire spreading across the African continent and the soon-to-be-liberated people were full of hope for the future. However, things never turned out as they expected. The question still remains; what is wrong with the postcolony?
For Malawi and a few other countries across the continent, the problem has mostly been the misunderstanding and mishandling of independence by the few ruling elites. This has led to tragic consequences and it is an emergency that demands serious and drastic attention. On independence, Malawi was like that teenager who wants to be free from the control of their parents without realising the cost of freedom. The teenager is a slave to the whims of their adolescent body and thinks that divorcing themselves from the rule of parents will afford them the liberty to indulge as they please. They forget that life has to be paid for – rentals, food, clothes. This is the same way Malawi jumped into the pool of independence; duped by the glitter of blue waters.
Because our leaders were not prepared for the responsibilities that came with independence, we ended up struggling to address basic things and forge possible sustainable trajectories for the future. One thing we realised was that our new countries were under-resourced to pick up from where the colonisers had left off. The individuals who took over power themselves also realised that they did not have enough resources to fit in the big shoes of their predecessors. And what was to be the solution for this? Plunder. Theft of the meagre resources they found in government coffers, left behind by the colonial powers. And this theft is passed down generations of political leaders like a bad gene.
Until today, Malawi and other African nations are still failing to live up to the spirit of independence. We have found ourselves in countries where corruption is endemic and governance is approached from the position of violence. Upon realising that politicians have given them a raw deal, the masses rise to demand what is rightfully theirs, but they are met with violence at every level. We may recall how the first regime silenced dissent in this country. We all know about the brutal one-party system that ruled with an iron fist, silencing people who wanted the best for this country. Such violence continues and we often witness it in thugs wielding machetes in broad daylight to stop Malawians from expressing their disappointment with failed systems. 61 years later, this country is still being misgoverned using violence.
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Perhaps our biggest tragedy is that more than six decades after the official end of British colonial rule, Malawi is still dependent on foreign nations for survival. While we only had the British before 1964, we have now added new masters to the list–China, the United States, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, Israel, and anyone else who flashes money before our grinning faces. This is simply because our leaders have failed to run this country as an independent State. They do not seem to know the first thing about the independence they proclaim and celebrate every sixth of July. For them, it is a roadshow–a circus that gives them the illusion of power while they rob the citizenry of dignity before those who are still colonising us.
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Sixty-one years is a long time to sit here and pretend that everything is in order. What sixty-one years means is that somebody was “born free”, lived in this country, worked and has now retired from active service. What story about independence would that person tell when they have wasted their whole life in poverty? It was about time we had honest conversations about the true state of this nation. We are not where we expected to be and the future does not even look promising. The celebration of our independence on July 6 has become meaningless because, in essence, there is nothing to celebrate. Too much time has been wasted to trivia. Way too much it is tragic.
