Malawian Women: Unexpected, Powerful Leaders

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 7^th 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).

 

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.

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