Thinking . . . (shouldn’t do that, it hurts)
Posted By Sika on November 8, 2007
I just got back to Zomba from Dedza, where I was for 2 weeks for reconnect. Reconnect is also called In-Service Training (IST) and is the training we do after having been at site for 3 months (unless you’re me, and then you do it after a month and a half). The first week was just our group, but the second week everybody brought a Malawian counterpart (except me, because I’m just a rebel that way.)
One of the things we did was go to the Mua Mission, which strives to be a place to preserve the cultural heritage of the Ngoni, Yao, and Chewa tribes and to further artistic creativity among Malawians. It is one of those unfortunate things that the person who decided this was necessary is not Malawian but a Canadian priest. He has the utmost respect for the culture—it’s just that he can never be Malawian, even with his fluency in Chichewa and his many years of living here as a part of the community.
He said a couple of things that particularly resonated with me. He said that one of the reasons that Malawians are losing their culture (besides that until a very few years ago nobody really believed that their culture could/would be lost) is that they feel “we have to imitate the west in order to be somebody.” He talked a lot about the trade off between Malawian culture and western culture. Malawian culture is collective and people who strive for individuality are pounded down. If you make money you have to support your whole extended family. If you don’t you may not be buried by your family/village, and in extreme cases you may be accused of witchcraft. Father Boucher said that witchcraft accusations have gone up immensely recently as people have strived to be more western and individualized.
But the Father also talked about the problems of western culture. He said something I hadn’t thought of before—the obsession that westerners have with their pets is a sign of a sick society: we aren’t making and/or maintaining our relationships with friends and family, which leads us to develop these intense relationships with our animals to meet the needs that are not met by the people in our lives. At first I thought that idea was outright ridiculous, but as I think about it more I think it just might apply.
It’s not that one system is better – both have significant flaws and significant merits. Malawians can’t become western (part of me thinks I should end the sentence there, full stop) without losing something the value of which they haven’t worked out yet. They’re going to have to work out together how much room to give to the individual and how much to give to the group. The Father said that he hoped Malawians would at least in some ways choose “to strengthen the ‘to be’ at the expense of the ‘to have’”. Because there is value in knowing that your neighbours will watch out for you like family just because you live next door. And to have the man who took you in for a month, when you come to visit, run down the road yelling “Mwana anga! Mwana anga!” (“My child/kid/daughter”). And to know that he’d slaughter a chicken for you and if you can’t stay long enough for that he’ll cook an egg for you to show that there’s jenda in the house and cut down a branch from the masuko (custard apple) tree just because you can’t go away empty handed.
One definition of home is, when you go there, they have to take you in. By that definition, Malawi is home to the whole world. All you have to do is make any effort to belong, and they’ll take you in.
That is really interesting. I find it fascinating to hear how other places in the world deal with identity, both personal and communal. The pet issue does ring true. I see more and more people here carrying their tiny dogs everywhere.
I find it fascinating, as well. It’s really hard to come here and deal with these issues because we’re not here to fix everything, but we’re also not here to do nothing. And I know that some people in my group definitely see a more western life as the key to success for Malawians.
I have a more complicated view: I find many things about the culture here to be valuable, but at the same time I have never felt more Western or been so glad to be Western in my life.