IMPACT OF AIDS ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN MALAWI
By Sam Mchombo


Mid-August, 1999, the heads of state of the countries in the Southern Africa
Development Community (SADC) had a summit in Maputo, Mozambique. Held
against the backdrop of economic stagnation, unresolved conflicts in Angola,
internal strife in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) threatening to
engulf countries in East, Central, and Southern Africa in a regional war,
the theme of the conference could very easily have been subtitled with doom
and gloom in the region. The only celebratory note came by way of
congratulatory remarks extended to South Africa and Malawi, the former for
conducting post-apartheid elections in April, which paved the way for Thabo
Mbeki to take over from Nelson Mandela as president; the latter for holding
the first elections in June since the countrys reversion to multi-party
politics, returning the incumbent, Bakili Muluzi of the United Democratic
Front to the presidency. The United Democratic Front defeated the opposition
parties with a slim margin of about three hundred thousand votes, which the
opposition parties attributed to rigging and tried to contest the outcome.
The result stood, and Bakili Muluzi and the United Democtratic Front got a
second term in the era of multi-party politics in Malawi.

Ironically, the congratulatory remarks extended to Malawi were more
significant than the occasion may have made manifest. Because of its size
(Malawi is one of the smallest nations in Africa and the world), its lack of
economic muscle (Malawi is one of the poorest countires in the world), and
having conducted its recent elections weeks after those of South Africa
(Malawi is of no strategic importance), the impact of the political lessons
Malawi has offered to the world have gone largely unnoticed. A brief review
should help put matters in perspective.

Formerly a British protectorate called Nyasaland, Malawi got its
independence in 1964 and became a Republic in 1966. For nearly thirty years
of its post-independence history, Malawi was dominated by the autocratic
rule of the man who became its first Prime Minisister, then President, then
President-for-Life, in rather quick succession, the late Dr. Hastings Kamuzu
Banda. President Banda outlawed multi-party politics. His party, the Malawi
Congress Party, became the ruling and sole legal party in Malawi. He was the
Life President of the party and the country, head of government and state, a
situation that quickly made Malawi slide into a de facto one-man state.
President Banda brooked no opposition. Critics of his rule and policies,
real or, as in most instances, imagined, and there was no shortage of those,
had meted on them the harshest conditions of political detention or worse.
His domestic policies, which saw him acquire land and wealth at the expense
of the dispossessed masses, enforced capitalism at its most rapacious as
Tony Green, a British academic teaching at the University of Malawi in the
early 70s, aptly characterized it. Being practically the countrys business
conglomerate there was criticism of, and dissatisfaction with, his economic
policies. His foreign policy of maintaining diplomatic relations with
apartheid South Africa, a policy called contact and dialogue, when the rest
of the world tried to distance itself from that renegade regime, and,
further, cuddling up to the Portuguese when they were involved in armed
conflict with the nationalist forces in Mozambique and Angola, put him at
odds with the member states of the Organization of African Unity. That
Kamuzu Banda was a political maverick was accepted dogma in Africa. Of
course Kamuzu Banda also played the cold war card. He maintained a staunch
anti-communist policy, which endeared him to the member states of NATO,
especially Great Britain, as the former colonial power, and the United
States.

Bandas control over Malawi was so absolute, from the media through the
judiciary, the military, the legislative, to the executive branches of
government, police and domestic affairs to foreign affairs, etc., that it
was practically impossible to even imagine him dislodged from power. The
expectation was that he would only relinquish power upon his demise, after
which issues of transition would be dealt with. That prospect was made less
welcome by the fact that Kamuzu Banda altered the constitution to get sworn
in as president-for-life, with the added condition that during his tenure,
there would be no Vice-President, ensuring a power vacuum on his departure.
Under the autocratic rule of President Banda human rights violations
practically became an aspect of ordinary life, a fact noted in various
publications by Amnesty Imternational, Human Rights Watch, and other
organizations devoted to monitoring human rights abuses. Noam Chomsky and
Edward Herman in their 1979 publication, The Washington Connection and Third
World Fascism. The Political Economy of Human Rights noted, on the inside of
the top cover, that Malawi was one of the countries outside U.S. sphere of
influence that practice torture on an administrative basis. Africa Watchs
1990 publication called Where Silence Rules. The Suppression of Dissent in
Malawi provided more details about the human rights violations of the Banda
regime. Sam Mpasu, a former political detainee, offers rare insight, in
lucid prose, into the kafkasque politics of the Banda regime and the
realities of life in Malawis notorious detention camps. This is in his
nonfictional publication, Political Prisoner 3/75.

Malawis lack of a diversified economy, with an economy based entirely on
agriculture and natural resources has, through the years, translated into
having its able-bodied men participate in migrant labor, working for stints
in farms and mines in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zambia (especially during
the boom years of copper-mining). Kamuzu Banda himself walked to South
Africa, through Zimbabwe, during his youth, to work in the mines. In other
words, Malawi has, traditionally, had the image of an economic slum,
providing cheap labor to its neighbors. During the Kamuzu Banda era, the
exodus was supplemented by the migration of intellectuals who, for acquiring
critical minds and analytical skills, were assumed to be critical of the
regime. As their numbers began to swell the ranks of political detention
camps, those who could moved out and sought refuge in other countries.
Malawi has thus been a country which, by and large, has been sustained by
women, who also had their share of political incarceration. Kamuzu Banda
exploited the situation further, mobilizing the women into his personal
dance troupes and using their services for personal security.

The first lesson that Malawi has recently provided came by way of
dismantling the entrenched and apparently unshakable dictatorial regime of
Kamuzu Banda. In the early 90s there was sufficient grassrooots movement for
political reform and reinstatement of democratic practice, which caught the
regime unawares. With the support of the Catholic bishops and pressure from
the international aid donors, conveniently facilitated by the end of the
cold war, Kamuzu Bandas government found itself unable to stem the tide for
change. Bandas own advanced age, then in his late 80s or early 90s, and the
frailty of his health, made for reduction of his grip on the machinery of
government. In 1993 Banda conceded to put the issue of multi-party politics
to an internationally supervised referendum. A 67% vote for multi-partyism
brought Banda to his knees and in May 1994, soon after the South African
elections, Malawians went to the polls in the first free elections since
independence. Banda was handed his final defeat and the era of multi-party
politics, with Bakili Muluzi of the United Democratic Front as the
president, was ushered in. Malawis transition from one-party dictatorship to
democratic practice had, by and large, been achieved with, relatively,
minimal social unrest or military activity. It was, by and large, amazingly
peaceful, hence virtually unnoticeable and unremarkable. My contribution to
the 1998 volume, Democratizatization in Late Twentieth-Century Africa,
edited by Jean-Germain Gross, provides pertinent details about the
transition to democratic practice in Malawi.

The Muluzi government inherited a country in dire economic straits, in
political transition, and in need of definition of new economic directions.
It had to re-institute democratic principles, independence of the judiciary,
freedom of the press, restore respect for human rights and, most important,
needed to stimulate economic growth for the change to be meaningful. With
the international money lenders, such as the World Bank and the IMF applying
pressure to force privatization of industry, etc. Muluzi has had to preside
over increased de-nationalization of industry and commerce, to encourage
free enterprise and attract investment. It is in economic development that
Malawi is facing increased challenges.

The major challenge for economic progress in Malawi rests in increasing
scarcity of the very commodity Malawi has traditionally provided other
countries, viz., human resources. While previously this was a consequence of
migration, most recently the situation has been exacerbated by the impact of
AIDS. Under Kamuzu Banda, there was ample scope for looseness of morality,
fuelled in part by Bandas public appearances. On such occasions the women
were brought in from various parts of the country to dance for him, after
which they socialized for hours, immune to queries from spouses about late
arrival. This, compounded with pervasive relaxed attitudes towards
multiplicity of sexual partners, did little to curb the spread of sexually
transmitted diseases (STDs). Then, Bandas puritanism curtailed public
discussion of matters sexual, broadly construed. For instance, the song by
Marvin Gaye, titled Sexual Healing, could not be played on Malawi radio,
because of the title. The reticence to discuss sexual issues, occasionally
highlighted by unwitting censoring of medical books on obstetrics and
gynecology, translated into delayed acknowledgment of the level of AIDS
infestation and the candor requisite for promotion of AIDS awareness and
prevention. Late July 1994, barely two months after Bakili Muluzi took over
the government, it was announced on South African media that the President
of Malawi had said that 10% of the Malawi population was HIV positive or
AIDS infected. I was in Johannesburg, visiting academic institutions in
South Africa, and hosted by a long time friend, Southwood Ngoma, then a
diplomat attached to the Malawi Consulate in Johannesburg. Commenting on the
news, his wife expressed relief that the statistics were as indicated. My
remonstration that for a small country of limited resources, and with a
population of a little more than 10 million, 10% was unacceptably high was
met with the observation that previous estimates had put the numbers at as
high as around 33%, hence the downward revision was cause for a measure of
solace. True, if the statistics were indeed correct. It seemed to me that
the statistics were simply maintaining their image of being like
bikinis--revealing very interesting features while covering up crucial
details. The important statistics are gauged by the prevailing attitude in
Malawi. The SADC summit was held when I was in Lilongwe, hosted once again
by Southwood Ngoma, now back in Malawi. Visiting his office, I ran into a
friend, Paul Chikakula. He had been a student at the University of Malawi
late 70s to early 80s, during my tenure as an instructor there. Working for
the Dept. of Civil Aviation in the same building, he invited me into his
office. Inevitably, I got to talking about some of the friends who studied
with him, wondering where they were and what they were doing. He pointed out
to me that in Malawi, it is not wise to inquire into the whereabouts of
friends not seen for some time. Why? Because the inquiries depressingly led
to the discovery that they were no more. Further, for those friends who met
irregularly, it turned out that their meetings were primarily at funerals of
friends. The toll that AIDS has exacted on Malawi society has been very
high, with incalculable consequences on social structure and economic
progress.

Economically, the decimation of the most productive part of the population,
teachers, police, medical personnel, the civil service, etc., means that
even with favorable climate for investment, there is simply inadequate
work-force, deterring investment prospects because of apprehension
surrounding returns. Further, industrial productivity has been seriously
impacted by the regularity of funerals, now practically daily occurrences.
Then, there is the shift in demographics. Alex Mkandawire, a professor at
Bunda College of Agriculture in Lilongwe, currently a visiting scholar at
the University of California at Davis, indicated to me recently that in some
villages it is painfully noticeable that all there are are the very old and
the very young. This has had further consequences on the structure of
extended families and the responsibilities that this, traditionally, has
brought along. With an increase in orphaned children, the system finds
itself strained and more people are relinquishing their responsibilities,
opting out of caring for the orphaned nephews, nieces, etc.

The impact of AIDS has been such that Malawi, and many other countries in
the region, have to maintain a fast production of trained personnel to
replace the lost workforce, an impossible task even under the best of
circumstances. A concrete example should serve to higlight the plight.
President Bakili Muluzi has tried to fulfil his campaign promise of free
primary education. In 1997, during a family visit, I went to my old
elementary school called Chombo, run by the Anglican Church in Nkhotakota
area. Catering for up to 8th grade, the school lacked facilities, with
classes held in the open under trees, blackboards hanging on the trees, no
notepads or pencils for the students, or even chalk. The lack of habitable
buildings and stationery could, conceivably, be overcome. However, the major
problem for that school, repeated across the country, extends beyond the
lack of adequate facilities or stationery---there are no teachers. The
school thrived partly on retired teachers who had had to be re-drafted into
service. Restocking schools like that with trained teachers at a time when
AIDS continues to ravage the land is a bleak prospect. The situation
continues to plague all sectors of economic activity. The economic
stagnation is already having an impact on the peoples evaluation of
democracy. While recently the United Nations decided to couch discussion of
AIDS within the framework of security matters, for the southern Africa
region, the impact of AIDS is more immediately connected to straight
economic performance and the political consequences accruing from the lack
of economic development. For Malawi the real congratulations will come when
lessons it has provided about shifting from autocracy to democracy, and the
implementation of democratic reform, can be accompanied with positive
economic performance. To achieve this, AIDS education, awareness,
prevention, and cure, inevitably, constitute necessary conditions.