Kwathu ndi ku Malawi

Z anzibar . An island off the coast of mainland Tanzania only about a 30-minute plane ride or 2-hour ferry ride from Dar es Salaam (which is the largest city in eastern Africa). An island unlike any other place we’ve visited on the African continent before. It has a population of about 1.3 million people with Kiswahili the main language spoken. It's also semi-autonomous from the mainland. 

Kachirombo ka Edzi. The wee AIDS beast. The beast that came to Malawi as early as the late 1970s and started to take its toll and show its effects in the 1980s. An unknown beast popularly called “the slimming disease” or “kaliwondewonde” since those with it became noticeably very thin. A stigmatizing impact that persists in Malawian culture up to today- that thin means sick and overweight/obesity means healthy. A beast largely spread through heterosexual relationships opposite to many trends seen in the West. A beast that changed the fabric of societies and left many children without their biological parents.

W hat is Africa? W hat is Malawi?

I've never truly been comfortable with the diction of "gender equality." But in a world of catch phrase development terms, you tend to go with what you have. And it sounded reasonable enough. But recently I listened to a discussion on that reminded me of why I've never been 100% comfortable with the term. "Again I would argue feminism has nothing to do with what is between your legs. Feminism has everything to do with what is between your ears. It is a way of thinking, it is an ideology of intersectional gender justice. Not equality, justice. Equality has also a very slippery slope. What are we trying to be equal to? Men don't have such a great time in the world either right now. Sorry, but it's really true. Many men suffer under indignities that are extremely unfair. Patriarchy puts a huge burden on men in ways that I don't even think we have begun to unpack. So let's talk about it in a different way." This is an exert from a talk give...

In Malawi, Christmastime, December, normally means not snow nor cold but heat and sometimes humidity as the rainy season begins. But after 5 Christmases spent in Malawi, one starts to get use to it. So what did we do during this hot, humid rainy Christmas?