During my
past four months in Malawi, I have developed a heart for the women here. The
women that I have met have taught me so much and have challenged my motives and
attitude towards life. It has also changed my view on leadership. I believe
that despite their social status and their poverty, the village women I have
met during my time here are both powerful and inspirational leaders.
This blog
has not been written to prove a point or promote women’s rights; it’s merely my
observations and my admiration of these ladies.
The way that
Malawian women have grasped the responsibility of leadership is both surprising
and inspiring, and this is true throughout the country: from the political
world to small village communities. Joyce Banda, currently Malawi’s president,
is the first female president of the country and the second female president of
Africa after Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Libya. Joyce Banda came to power on the 7th
of April, 2012 and she is described as “an educator and grassroots women’s
rights activist” and was the founder of the Joyce Banda Foundation, National
Association of Buisness Women (NABW), Young Women Leaders Network and the
Hunger Project.
“I sat down in 1989 and I made up my mind at that point
that I was going to spend the rest of my life assisting women and youth to gain
social and political empowerment through business and education. I convinced
myself economic empowerment of women was going to be key, especially in a
country like this where most women didn’t go to school.”
Joyce Banda
Having
visited many rural communities with AGREDS (Assemblies of God Relief and
Development Services) in the Salima District, I’ve noticed that having a female
village leader is not uncommon at all, in fact, I have met several women who
are leaders over around ten villages which are known here as GHS’ (Group
Village Headsman).
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| left: adult literacy teacher, right: GVH |
In this
blog, there are 5 different forms of leadership I want to focus on: Leadership
in
1) The Home
2) The Field
3) Aspiration
4) A Man’s World
5) Giving
The Home
There is something very beautiful about the mother-child relationship here in
Malawi, and surrounding African countries. Babies, and even toddlers, are
wrapped in traditional “chiteji” materials around the mothers back. The child
always has the comforting warmth and smell of its mother and the mother can
feel the weight of her child resting its tiny body against her. Where ever the
mother goes, whatever she does, the child is bobbing up and down on her back:
she could be in the shop, doing housework or working in the field. When
recently assisting villagers with sweeping around water points, a mother was
bent over so far forward, sweeping away, that her child looked like he might
slip out of the wrap. But, he was happy as ever and the mother confident that
her boy was safe as long as he was with her.
The
relationship between women and children are very different out here with women
passing babies from one to another like a swap shop. They do not fuss over
their children, or coo over them as we do in Britain, and they freely give them
independence. They set an example to their children by sitting silently and
patiently for village meetings to start (etc), and I tell you the truth and
only the truth: the babies never cry!
Another big
difference is how comfortable the women are with breastfeeding in public. At
every village meeting I attend there is a guarantee to see several mothers with
one breast out of their top ready for whenever their baby wants to feed. At
first this was strange, very strange, but at the same time, it’s lovely to see
that the women use what has naturally been given to them without shame. I’m not
suggesting women start doing this whilst walking the streets of Britain (this
could cause some commotion), but I do see it as something that is very
beautiful and unique to this culture.
Not only do
these women embrace the role as mother with diligence, they also embrace the
role of cook and cleaner of the home too. Malawi’s staple food is nsima and
many rural communities cook using traditional methods: over an open fire, and
this takes a long time. At a recent Fuel Efficient Stove training, two ladies
migrated backwards and forwards from making the clay stoves to cooking nsima in
a nearby shed so that everybody in the training would be fed by two o clock.
For hours they were busy preparing the food.
Housework of
course is another addition to the list. Around water points, women and young
girls will be filling huge buckets with water and then, with a great deal of
strength, lifting it onto their head to carry it back to their home to wash the
dishes and the family’s clothes.
“She rises while it is yet night and provides
food for her household and portions for her maidens. She considers a field and
buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong.”
(Proverbs 31:15-17 – The Good Wife)
The Worker
In early May, our
team of six helped out with harvesting maize. The first lady that we assisted
was a 93 year old widow who was still tending her acre of land. I was so
shocked at how a lady of her age could be so motivated, taking on so much
responsibility without male support. What an inspirational woman!
Another
story is of an 11 year old girl called Lonely Kabyela who farms with her family
before she attends school. Lonely would often miss days of school or arrive
late due to the workload. AGREDS have taught new a method of farming to village
members which Lonely has applied to her work. Not only is Lonely attending
school on time (due to time saving) but she is also teaching other students
through assisting with the school garden. In this year’s harvest, Lonely
expects two 50kg of maize from the plot. Let’s just remind ourselves, this girl
is only 11 years old!
Despite
juggling the household chores, the mother role and working long hours in the
field, the women I have met are so full of joy. It amazes me! Whilst planting
trees in early February the women would sing, clap and dance for every tree that
was planted. They knew that the work they were doing was beneficial to the
whole community, perhaps in protecting households from strong winds, or crops
from soil erosion, and they rejoiced in this.
Aspiration
Many girls in rural communities are unable to attend school due to reasons such
as excessive workload assisting parents with farming, early marriage or the
school fees. Unfortunately, this means that many women are illiterate.
AGREDS have
trained several teachers to teach grown women in ‘Adult Literacy’ classes. Upon
visiting one class of five women, I asked the ladies what their hopes for the
future were. Their answers were so encouraging, all of them certain that by the
end of the training they would be literate. One lady said she will teach her
children to read and write and another lady said she has dreams of reaching out
in business with selling her farmed goods.
Griceria
Mponda is one lady with a powerful story to tell after she joined a Village
Savings and Loans (VSL) group in her community. Buying shares throughout last
year meant that by the end of the year, Griceria had a huge share of MK 62,000
(around £89). In previous years she had only been able to buy 1 or 2 bags of
fertiliser but having invested wisely, she was able to buy 6 bags of
fertiliser. Her VSL group is still running this year and she has shared that
her desire is to employ someone to build a brick house for the family of six
and to also buy iron sheets for the roof. If she has money left over she also
wants to buy a mattress for her and her husband.
A Man’s World
I started this blog by telling you a bit about President Dr Joyce Banda and how
she made her way into the man’s world of politics. I have also mentioned how
this new surge of female empowerment has been embraced by women on community
level too. Several committees are formed in villages, whether that’s for
afforestation purposes (tending newly planted tress), water safety (ensuring
water points are kept clean) etc, and the male to female ratio is almost
guaranteed 50:50.
The
government have also come up with a new initiative for NGOs (Non-governmental
organisations) to encourage more women and young people in governance
positions. AGREDS are currently setting up a proposal to get involved with the
project which is very exciting news.
On Easter
Sunday the six of us attended an outdoor church celebration where the pastor
preached on Jesus’ resurrection. A surprising, but pretty cool section of the
sermon was when the pastor was emphasising that it was the women who brought the message of Christ’s resurrection and that
the men were foolish and didn’t believe them.
“Then the women remembered what Jesus had said. So they
rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what
had happened. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and
several other women who told the apostles what had happened. But the story
sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it.”
Luke 24:8-11
The
audience, both men and women, cheered and clapped enthusiastically at this and
there was so much joy.
Giving
There are many ways that these beautiful Malawian women give. The women humble
themselves and welcome people so gracefully. Upon visiting villagers, the women
bring out chairs for us to sit on so that we don’t have to sit on the dusty
ground as they do. If there are some spare seats, they will always give these
seats over to the men (unless they have a high leadership role such as ‘Chairperson’).
After aiding
the elderly with harvesting we were spoilt rotten with wonderful food that the
village women had been cooking: roasted ground nuts, roasted pumpkin and warm
banana cakes- they were delicious. We always feel guilty in taking because we
go to these villages with the intention to assist them, not to be served ourselves. But, out of loving generosity and
hospitality, they long to give. They even humble themselves to
wash our hands.
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a delicious lunch of nsima, rice and goat meat stew prepared for us
(not your standard ham buttie lunch but it was good!) |
What have these women taught me?
I believe that many
of us have a very distorted view of what a ‘leader’ looks like. To many,
leaders are seen as strong, powerful, often scary people who dictate and manipulate
people into their way of thinking. They seek peoples respect and feel they
deserve it too.
However, these women have taught me that this is not what leadership is. The
bible tells us
“the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and
the leader should be like the servant”
Luke 22:26
How strange
it is to think that the leader should be like a servant! But I have seen this
in these women. Their humility has touched my heart and reminded me that “your beauty should come from within .. and it is
very precious to God” (1 Peter 3:4) . Jesus demonstrated His love for
people through serving others: He was always welcoming strangers and sharing
food with them, and like these women washed our hands, Jesus washed the feet of
His disciples (John 13).
These women
have taught me the importance of fellowship and the importance of diligence and
joy in working.
“A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the
diligent makes rich”
Proverbs 10:4
These
women’s poverty is materialistic, but their hard work and perseverance makes
them rich. I will not forget these women; these village women who look so plain
and helpless to the outside world, but who are so powerful in their actions.
I do not
believe that powerful leadership is displayed through the ability to control
people, I believe that powerful leadership is demonstrated when people look up
to you and long to learn from an example you set. Powerful leadership should
motivate us to change for the better and I strongly believe that these women have given me that wake-up call: to grow
in my willingness to serve, my perseverance and joy at work, and to live in
hope when the world says it’s a hopeless case.
Written by Nia Templeman
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