Malawi

The new Ethiopian Millennium and its great significance to our country is all a part of this exciting period of the African Renaissance. The 8th Ordinary Summit of AU Heads of State bolstered this fact when it unanimously declared that Ethiopia’s new third millennium also be marked as an African celebration. This is a great honor bestowed upon Ethiopia by our African brothers and sisters and our nation is grateful for being given this distinction. This gratitude was palpable on the eve of the Ethiopian New Year, where at the Great Millennium Hall, A.U. Chairperson Prof.Alpha Omar Konare’s rousing speech drew the entire nations applause and displayed the immense pride Ethiopians hold in their place in the African family.
Capital, in an effort to support the nation- wide preparations for the new Millennium and in order to better link Ethiopia’s celebration with Africa, has been profiling one A.U. member state in each of the last 29 issues. We are pleased to state that the Africa 2000 series has received wide acclaim and is meeting its target of providing our readership with valuable information about out continent’s nations. We thank all of you who participated in the Africa 2000 Readership Survey and others who have sent us suggestions, comments and yes, criticism, as we embark on our 30th guest country – The Republic of Malawi. Keep in touch!

Land of water

Lake Malawi – formerly Lake Nyasa – has a surface area of 28,875 sq.km, making it the 10th largest body of fresh water in the world and 3rd in Africa after lakes Victoria and Tanganyika – both located in the same region. To give some reference to the vastness of Lake Malawi, it is 5000 sq.kms larger than our sisterly neighbor Djibouti! The entire nation of Malawi is enclosed within The Great Rift Valley system which begins in southern Africa stretches north through East Africa, beneath the Red Sea and up to the southern heights of Syria. Although Lake Malawi is the most prominent geographic feature of Malawi and impacts on nearly every Malawian, the nation is also richily endowed with numerous swift rivers which give it tremendous hydro power potential. Malawi is also blessed with fertile and well watered soils which under the surface hold deposits of high value minerals such as bauxite and even uranium.
Malawi is a typical African country as it is an ethnically diverse nation and with over 46% of its population below age 15, is among the youngest countries in the world. Malawi is, like Ethiopia, overwhelming agrarian but only more so with up to 90% of its labor force engaged in agriculture and less than 10% in other sectors such as services and industry.
At just over 16% of its population residing in cities, Malawi is among the least urbanized countries in its region.
Unlike most African capitals, Malawi’s Lilongwe is not the largest city as Blantyre, a metropolis of over 2,000,000, is the heart beat of Malawi.
History is a fickle thing and the old adage of it being written by the victor still holds true. It is therefore only prudent to inform our readers that the information we compile for Africa 2000 will reflect more the Eurocentric view of our continent rather than a true African perspective. The only reason why we have to resort to referring to non –African sources is because we Africans do not catalog and disseminate our own past, preferring for some white man to research us and then teach our children about who they are! we urge African scholars to engage themselves in writing more about their nations’ and liberate us from the colonization of Eurocentric information systems.
Malawi was formerly called Nyasaland by the British who named it after the lake when they colonized the area in 1891. The nation became independent in 1964 and a republic in 1966. Malawi adapted the era’s standard of one party, indefinite rule under President Hastings Kamuzu Banda who ruled for three decades. In 1994 democracy was brought in and Bakili Mulzi was elected. He was succeeded by one time resident of Addis Ababa and this writer’s personal acquaintance, Bingu Wa – Mutharika, on May 20, 2004. An attempt by his political opponents to have him impeached was squashed by Malawi’s Constitutional Court in 2004, since which President Mutharika has emerged as a skillful politician and a deft hand at the helm of the nations economy.
May we be allowed to send a special personal message of congratulations to H.E. President Bingu-wa Mutharika, Mrs Mutharika, their children; the charming Tapiwa and dear friend Madaliso, my intellectual fencing partner, on becoming the First Family of the Republic of Malawi.

Tesfu Telahoun
Editor

Bingu wa Mutharika (born February 24, 1934) is a Malawi economist, politician, and the current President of Malawi. He took office on May 24, 2004, after winning a disputed presidential election.
Born Brightson Webster Ryson Thom in Thyolo, about 30km from Malawi’s commercial capital, Blantyre, he reverted to the family name of Mutharika and adopted the first name of Bingu during the 1960s when pan-Africanism was sweeping across the continent.
He later added the prefix ‘wa’ between his names to disguise his identity from Hastings Banda’s state security, who were hunting down his opponents around the world, even though he was not a political opponent of Dr Banda.
Mutharika was the son of a primary school headmaster. He was educated at the University of Delhi, India, where he gained a master’s degree in economics. He later obtained a PhD in development economics from unaccredited Pacific Western University, in Los Angeles, California.
After serving in the Malawi civil service and also for a period in the government of Zambia, Mutharika joined the United Nations in 1978, where he eventually became Director for Trade and Development Finance for Africa. In 1991 he was appointed secretary-general of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), a regional body of 20 countries.

Facts and Figures

Location-Southeast Africa, Zambia on west, Mozambique on South and East, Tanzania on North.
Area-118,480 sq km
Topography-Malawi spans 900 kms north to south along Lake Malawi which mostly belongs to Malawi. The length of the nation features high plateaus and mountains of the Rift Valley system.
Population-13,283,000
Distribution-17 % urban
Ethnic Make-up-Chewa, Nyanja, Tumbuka, Yao, Lomwe, Sena, Tonga, Ngoni, Ngonde
Languages-Chichewa, English (both official), several other indigenous languages
Religions-Protestant 39%, Roman Catholic 25%, Indigenous beliefs 21%, Muslim 15%,
Capital City-Lilongwe, pop- 676,000
Other Urban Centers-Blantyre, pop – 2,000,000
Government Type-Republic
Head of State and Government-President Bingu Wa Mutharika, since 2004
Currency-Kwacha (mkw) 139= $ 1 US
Gross Domestic Product-$ 7.5 bln
Per Capita GDP-$ 600
Economy-Tobacco, tea, sugarcane, cotton, limestone, hydropower, uranium, coal
Electricity Production-1.3 bln kwh
Literacy-65%
Life Expectancy-42.8 male, 41.9 female
AIDS Rate-4.1 %
Airports-6
Railroads-800 kms
Vehicles-800,000 units
Telephones-102,700 lines
Radios-476 per 1000 people
TV sets-3 per 1000.
Daily Newspaper Circulation-2.4 per 1000
Internet – 47,000 users

Facts and figures are the latest available at time of publication and may not necessarily be the most accurate.

Can you feel the Dance?

By Kirubel Tadesse

Some people like swimming, others run and still others take weekend trips. You name it, people will be doing something on a regular basis, but, in Ethiopia that does not hold when it comes to dancing. Most people have never danced or have only danced once or twice at weddings, graduations or other ceremonies. In Addis, the number of clubs people go to is increasing but the dance floors are usually filled with circles of friends who laugh and talk, but not dance. Few do but you may wish they didn’t as they can be really bad dancers.
In Addis, a few dance training centers are now emerging; one such acclaimed trainer, Behailu Demissie, says that he can transform any ‘stiff dancer’ in to a smooth salsa master if he or she has the interest and dedication.
Behailu has been teaching Salsa, Meringue, Lambda, Bachata, Cha-cha and other dances in Addis for three years. He mastered the steps years back when a Russian dancer lost one presenter in her National Theater show and sought his help. He said, “I told her then that I can’t dance Latino, but she insisted that I can get it in three weeks. That was eight years ago, after that I took several other trainings and finally started giving trainings to others. “Behailu now owns ‘B Latino Dance Training Center’ which gives trainings at Alem Gym, Dream Club and the US Embassy. He recently graduated two hundred students at Lime Tree Café and Restaurant with certificates. The students took the opportunity to show off their Salsa moves to their friends and families.
Salsa is danced with a partner and “since most of my students are girls, I sometimes call my friends to join me for the trainings,” says Behailu.
Behailu shared one of his experiences while training a girl whose boyfriend was coming to watch. “She came and paid one month’s fee. There was a class that day and she started right away. When we started dancing, I was dancing with her, but the boyfriend was too uncomfortable to see her dancing like that and asked her to stop. I invited him to take the class with her but he refused. Finally, he got upset and started yelling and the girl left. Lambda or Salsa dances involve close contacts with your partner as you may see it on TV. That makes sometimes people uncomfortable, but it’s just a dance. You can learn the moves and teach your partner or can take the class together. I actually started a new class for couples who are getting married recently so that they can dance at their wedding, it is really fun to dance in addition to its keeping you in good physical shape as any other exercise.”
If a three month class can turn one to enjoy the rest of the dancing opportunities in life, it is not a bad idea at all to try and teach yourself to dance. More than seventy percent of Behailu’s students are girls which mostly seek male partners to dance with. What has happened to our Habesha men, he asks?