Mankhokwe...

They say they are protesting elections. They say the anger being witnessed in the streets is over a mismanagement of elections. Maybe yes, it is about elections. Perhaps, no, this is not about elections. In the summer of 2017, the Southern region almost went up in flames. Young men mostly started barricading roads, stoning cars and properties, demanding payments from road users. A few people ended up killed in the hands of that ravenous mob. Reason? They said that they were protesting bloodsuckers. They claimed that their communities were being terrorised by bloodsuckers. And, as a revenge, they were targeting anyone strange in those communities. However, those who attempted to understand that wave of violence beyond what was presented doubted the narrative. The violence was mostly in peri-urban areas. Places where there had been no report of bloodsucking. What was worse? These protestors could be bought off: if you had money, pay them, then they would let you use the...

We are living in perilous times. The streets are no longer safe. The paths are leading into jungles where forests of irrationality connive with beasts of fanaticism. The only sane thing that we are witnessing, today, is shouting. We, Malawians, are voting next year and, again, the chaos of politics is upon us. We are political people, of course, but in years or months and days preceding the election, our affinity to politics becomes huge. And, with it, reason escapes. There have been a few issues so far on the table that have called us to posit and defend our political fortresses. I, being human and Malawian, have failed to hold the peace I had told myself I will hold in the run-up to these elections. It was an accident, trust me, my commenting on the politics. I had told myself that this year and the election coming after it, I should keep quiet. I had learnt, from 2014, that nobody gets moved by the comments on social media. That, if anything, social media just ruins benefici...