Friday, 26 December 2008

Ecological challenges in Blantyre

PRESERVATION OF CATCHMENT AREA OR TOWN HOUSES? AN ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS IN BLANTYRE, MALAWI BY M. J. Mvula

I came to Blantyre in search for jobs in 1973. The first Township I lived was Ndirande and Ndirande flats provided the social services we needed then. Just across Ndirande flats was a thick forest which stretched all the way from Blantyre Water Board to Makhetha. Ndirande Mountain was then rich with flora and fauna and a green cover could be seen covering the mountain.

I have watched Ndirande mountain defencelessly being attacked by the exploitative micro and macro entrepreneurs in their pursuit of individual and corporate profit without any inclination to ecological balance. This planet earth where we live now is comprised of a network of interrelationships among organisms and the environment. There is a cause and effect on any action that we take individually and corporately.

Ndirande mountain forest is gone and so is the nice cool breeze and the biodiversity that found its habitat in the forest. I never saw the rocks that I now see when I glance Ndirande mountain. The weather in Blantyre is never as it was around the 1970s. The water supply services provided by Blantyre Water Board no longer meet the demands of the city dwellers.

Human beings are very dependent on the other eco-systems for their well-being. Yet, what we have observed in the past and the scourge continues is that human beings continue to sacrifice at the altars of corporate profit any sensibility to ecological balance. I have always thought that it is honorable to remedy past mistakes and that we should limit our present destructive actions. Lo and behold, that is not the case. The catchment area in Blantyre under the custody of Blantyre Water Board is now (2008) up for grabs. Mankind who has multiplied himself beyond explanation and no one can question him for that action wants to build houses which are in high demand. The building of town houses appeals so much to the custodians of this catchment area and not the ecological damage. What we need is a responsible stewardship to the God-given resources.

Sometimes we frantically exert our energies and focus on symptoms and not the causes of challenges that we face. The reality is that the size of the earth is not changing but human beings are producing themselves at an alarming rate. Look at the way houses are being built bellow both Ndirande and Soche hills? I can hear whispers that it is a divine rule that mankind multiplies and fills the earth. This thinking is both archaic and dangerous biblical interpretation. When God gave the command to multiply and fill the earth, he did not endorse irresponsible multiplication. There was ecological balance at the time this command was given which is not the case now. We are confronted with the realities of globalization. Blantyre has become a city not only for Malawians but for all who have found Malawi to be a good Country to live in. These are people who are diverse even in their religions. The resources that were then adequate no longer meet the demands of the present city residence.

God did not create human beings only. He created other life forms that equally have rights for existence. Anthropocentric decisions that have no regard to other life forms present a big challenge to the existence of other life forms. Malawi needs to focus on issues of population growth that seem to surpass the resources we have culminating in urban pressures. We have already destroyed the Chimwankhunda Dam catchment area and God have mercy, let us reserve and preserve the Ndirande catchment area.

Saturday, 24 May 2008

Contemporary Mission Essays

‘Despite the collapse of the European empires, colonialism has never really gone away.’ An evaluation of practices today that still betray ‘colonial’ attitudes by M. J. Mvula.

Introduction.

Once upon a time, there were empires that were so powerful. They crossed the seas and conquered many lands. They composed a song about their victories:

Land of hope and glory

Mother of the free …

Wider still and wider

Shall thy bounds be set …

God who made thee mighty

Make thee mightier yet.

(Land of Hope and Glory, 2007).

Empires created colonies that were under their control and with the passing of time, disappeared. Did colonialism go with the demise of empires? What legacies did they leave behind? This essay will look at colonialism and critically assess whether its vestiges are still with us. We will then examine whether there are practices today that still betray ‘colonial’ attitudes? Firstly, let us define colonialism.

Definition of colonialism.

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary 1973, defines the verb to colonize as to settle in a Country. A colonist is therefore one who settles in a new Country other than his own. Different scholars have come with different definitions of the term. Tim Allen and Alan Thomas define it as “the political control of peoples and territories by foreign states, whether accompanied by significant permanent settlement (settler colonies) or not.” (Tim Alen and Alan Thomas 2000, 242). Although some of the people indicate that colonialism was not a profitable venture and had a Christianizing and civilizing motif; the majority of scholars agree that it expropriated wealth from the colonies by controlling the local production in such a way that they became major producers and exporters of their raw materials and consumers and importers of their finished products. In that way, an economic formula of siphoning out wealth through the capitalistic practice of controlling the demand and supply of goods in the market was put in place. (Ankie Hoogvelt 1997, 17; Ania Loomba 1998, 2 - 3; John McLeod 2000, 7; J. C. Young 2001, 51;). Let us try to define in short what capitalism is to give us more clarity on colonialism.

The Shorter O.E.D. defines capitalism as the condition of possessing capital or using it for production. In essence, a capitalist looks for resources, the major ones being land and labor. On one hand, there are owners of money and on the other, there are owners of labor. The owner of the money comes up with a means of producing goods and services as his means of making life. A capitalist aims at using capital and labor to make profit. To do this, there are several ways. He can create monopoly of property and access of means of production. In that way, he wards off others from competing with him. He can utilize cheap labor or even make you to be cheap in the process to make profit. The driving force behind capitalism is profit. Colonialism and capitalism are bedfellows and strive together.

Has colonialism ended?

This is a many-sided question. Amilcar Cabral sets the stage when she says: “national liberation takes place when, and only when, national productive forces are completely free of all kinds of foreign domination. …” (Amilcar Cabral 1994, 56). Loomba mentions that if one looks at imperialism as meaning a political system where there is centralized governance, the granting of independence could mean the end of empire and colonialism. But if it includes the manipulation of the market forces through capitalistic theories, the granting of independence does not end colonial practices. (Loomba 1998, 6). Young, Vijay Mishra and Bob Hodge sheds more light to the debate when they say we should understand postcolonial to mean coming after; colonial and imperial in the sense of being under the subjection of another state. When we consider economic and political dominance of the ex-colonizers, imperialism still exists. (J. C. Young 2001, 44; Mishra and Bob Hodge 1994, 276 ). McLeod further argues that “while colonialism is virtually over today, imperialism continues apace as Western nations such as America are still engaged in imperial acts, securing wealth and power through the continuing economic exploitation of other nations.” (McLeod, 8). Some even look at the land issue in Zimbabwe as a neocolonial issue between Britain and its former colony. It is under this understanding that most scholars agree that colonialism has instead evolved to neocolonialism and postcolonialism. The writings of Nkrumah, Loomba, McLeod, Young, Yew, and Inglebay attest to this view which is affirmed by many postcolonial discourses. (Kwame Nkrumah 1965; Loomba 1998, 6; McLeod 2000, 8, 39; Robert J. C. Young 2001, 45; Leong Yew 2002; Inglebay 2006, 7). Colonialism is a metamorphosis which takes new manifestations. Therefore, what we gained at independence was partial independence. There still remains the economic independence that colonies need to earn. I use the word earn because colonies have to work hard to get it.

Let us look at what we experience in our daily lives that makes us say that colonialism exists in some ways. We will look at our Political, social, economic and spiritual life with special reference to Africa.

Political life: Most of African states are politically unstable. This has its origin in the way how Africa was partitioned in 1884 by colonies that met in Berlin and sliced the continent to each other. The partitioning disrespected the tribal affinities (removing the cohesive cultural bond), kingdom boundaries and lacked equity in sharing access to the seas with other nations having no access to it creating tensions. (A. Adu Boahen 1987, 96). McLeod points to the absurdity of it by reminding us that when you separate tribes and give power to the other; tribal war erupts hence the two military coups in Nigeria in 1966, the Biafra civil war from 1967 – 1970 and two further military coups in 1975 and 1976. (Mc Leod, 113).

The political system imposed on Africa removed the tribal system of leadership under the chief and replaced it with the colonial system of governance. This left the continent politically and socially fragmented.

In addition to that, when the nations got independence, power moved to an elitist class which was neither colonial nor national in its representation. Hoogvelt describes them this way: “European colonial rule had involved selective co-option and careful nurturing of a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern … a class of persons Indian in blood and color but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and intellect,” (Hoogvelt, 32) who in a way did not represent the multitudes. (McLeod 108 -109). We now have a bourgeoisie class – the national elites, who dominate over the lower classes – the subalterns. Women continue to be marginalized in many African Countries. The structures of colonialism were only transferred to Africans.

On a global scale, we have the first, second and third worlds. (Robert J. C. Young 2003, 16-17). There is a gulf (river) between the rich and the poor as seen in the film “The Motor Cycle Diaries.” In Africa, the gap between the rich and the poor is very wide. Slums separate the African poor and rich; with inequalities in social services.

Social life: The colonial system of governance centred its economic activities in cities. This resulted in people migrating to the cities seeking for employment. The economic imbalance resulted in some becoming economic migrants as they searched for a better place to live. Others crossed borders to other countries seeking greener pastures. We now have migrant communities in the major cities of the world. Some of the people were routed out of their homeland as slaves and rooted in foreign lands. They live a life of two worlds.

… Captured from their homeland and separated from their tribes and families they were enslaved in a new world … The African Diaspora is the story of how Africans, though scattered dispersed, managed to retain their traditions and reform their identities in a new world. (African Diaspora).

The resultant effect is hybridity which was seen as a disgrace in colonial days but as an improved breed in the postcolonial days. (Ankie Hoogvelt, 170). We now have migrant populations all over; needed in their services but not accorded equal rights. Related to this is the identity crisis. Waterman in reviewing Mazrui’s book captures these lines: “… the paradox of humiliation … the humiliation of slavery, colonization, and discrimination makes Africans natives the most exploited people in history.” (Laurel Waterman 2002). The cumulative experiences leave a dent on Africa’s identity and development of a healthy balance of their personhood is needed.

Effects on economy: In colonial days, some vast pieces of land were taken by foreign merchants to be their estates resulting into revolt for land later. (Robert Young 2003, 45-46). In the case of minerals: all the mines were owned by foreign companies – a way of expropriating the colony’s wealth. (Hoogvelt, 30; Benita Parry 2002, 67). Land has become a problem now as these private owned land can not be transferred to people for either food production or any other use. The issue of land is an explosive and divisive one in Zimbabwe; kept at bay in South Africa. Many in Mathale valley in Nairobi and Makhetha in Ndirande in Blantyre are landless.

The economy as a whole was stage managed by colonizers to their advantages. At the heart of colonialism was the subjugation of people as Young and McLeod put it (Young 2001, 15; McLeod, 17) and managing lands as one would do with his personal estate. (Hoogvelt 1997, 15). Their economies were structured to serve the colonizing nation; colonies were reduced to satellite depots for the production of raw materials of the colonizers. (Tunde Obadina 2000). This is one of the reasons for the perpetual poverty and dependency syndrome in Africa. “Unlike the umbilical cord between a mother and a baby, the link between the developed metropolis and the peripheral country paradoxically transfers the nourishment from the weaker to the stronger!” (Peter Townsend and David Gordon 2002, 211).

The creation of I. M. F and World Bank led to countries getting loans that they were unable to repay due to poor economic performance and unfavorable inflationary rates that led to more debt accumulation. (John Prendergast 1996, 28-29). The scenario is such that the colony was strategically left in a state of paralysis economically even after gaining independence leaving the colonies to depend on their colonizers. Once yoked in this way; the colonizer decided what to produce, where to sell, what price to charge and who to relate with. We now have big multinational co-operations throwing small enterprises out of business. We are almost colonies of these multinational co-operations. They have no boundaries for their products. (Benjamin R. Barber 1995, 23).

Regarding topography, beautiful rain forests have been decimated by lumbering. The plundering continues as reports of modern machines being used for cutting timber in the Congo forest are making news. “The largely unregulated use of this energy sources resulted in the annihilation of countless animal and plant species as well as the toxification of entire regions.” (Young 2003, 33). Africa needs salvation even of its flora and fauna.

Effect on spiritual life: We now have a church that is very dependent on the west. Although the numerical growth of the church in Africa and Asia surpasses that of Europe; financially, the church depends on west. The west finds itself theologizing for the other nations – a legacy of dependence left by colonialism.

Was colonialism a curse or a blessing?

People look at it differently. Most apologists say; look at what colonialism has done. In Africa, they point to the literacy levels and say that the schools and colleges reduced the illiteracy levels. This education was a big asset to Africa. Andrew Porter reminds us of this:

One of the most important feature of missionaries’ work lay in their contribution of education through school and colleges. Christianity … was a religion dependent on literacy which alone made it possible for converts or others to read and study the Bible; literacy in turn, was dependent upon instruction … (Andrew Porter 2004, 317).

Education, they further say, produced nationalists like Jomo Kenyatta, Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda, Nelson Mandela, Kamuzu Banda and Leopold Senghor who brought changes to their nations. Colonialism had a civilizing motif, the apologists argue. It brought light to a dark continent infested with malaria and lots of epidemics. Africa was a continent of diseases and death but look now at the medical services available. Africans were killing each other with their beliefs in witchcraft and colonialism ended all these pernicious beliefs and practices. Slave trade with the tribal wars was put to an end too. They further remind us that Africans were backward; practicing shifting cultivation but colonialism introduced a more advanced system of agriculture and brought new crops some of them being cash crops. The rail and road systems improved the transportation of goods and mobility of people. Colonialism brought development and as a result, Africa received a new and better political organization, better system of governance and with nations. To crown it all, they say, it brought Christianity which is growing very fast in the continent. They admit that mistakes were made in the process but quickly retreat to say it is human to err and that the overall effect of colonialism was profitable to Africa. Africa is in a state of economic and social chaos today because it did not take advantage of the development, industrialization and scientific explorations introduced in the colonial days. In fact, they summarize; the bad governance we see now indicates that colonialism left Africa prematurely. (Obadina; Boahen, 94 – 112).

Critics and bashers of colonialism dismiss all this as a total sham. They maintain that whatever the case may be, colonialism denied people their right of expression, self determination and self destiny. The whole of civilizing motif is a total lie as if the colonies had no light within themselves. As industrialization and scientific advances were being made, Africa’s destiny and self expression were held captive by colonizers as Boahen points out:

The seventy year colonial era was one of the most dynamic and scientific periods in world history. It was the period, for instance, that witnessed Europe’s entry into the age of the motor vehicle, of the airplane, and finally of nuclear power. Had African states been in control of their own destinies – as say, Japan was, or as South Africa became after 1910 – there is no reason why, judging from the very healthy and promising trends … they could not also have followed the Japanese model. (Boahen, 99).

Whatever colonialism did to the colonies, the colonies gave a greater sacrifice. There is, to my estimation, no greater evil than that of denying someone his self existence and expression. It helps one to grow even by making mistakes. Obadina stated that: “Colonialism was a dictatorial regime that denied peoples’ right of self determination. It brought death, pain and humiliation to millions of its victims.” (Obadina 2005). Africa was denied that right.

Critical assessment.

The colonizing agents were not in the mood of learning from their colonies. In the case of Africa; they came to replace everything the African was doing. The African traditions were looked as inherently evil, their traditional dances condemned. When Africans became Christians, they had to change names to English names after baptism – a practice which other churches hold up to now. All these are deplorable acts.

However; colonialism has gone and I would like to draw our attention to other practices that are equally very harmful to Africa. These are the failures of the nationalists to transform the economies after gaining independence. Most of the postcolonial leaders hide their mismanagement of the political and economic processes under the pretext of colonialism. After over thirty years of self government, I find it extremely hard and in my opinion, unjustifiable to continue blaming colonialism for the failures of the nations. Ghana was the first African Country to gain Independence on 6 March 1957. By then, only three countries were independent: Egypt, Liberia and Ethiopia. Today, almost all countries except Libya, Eritrea and Somalia have multiparty democracy. Are people enjoying the freedoms they fought for? No, for many countries. The following are some of the challenges:

Lack of patriotism: The colonial leaders passed on the mantle of leadership to some nationals who to a certain extent betrayed their nations. Some of these leaders had no political ideology to follow. They maintained the same colonial structures and repeated mistakes the colonialists made. Moreover, they further divided the countries on tribal lines. Loomba observed that even after independence, not all enjoyed the fruits of independence. Women, the civil service and the laborers never fully enjoyed this cake of freedom. “… Colonialism can be duplicated from within.” (Loomba 1998, 11-12). What we see in Africa is that after independence, the nationalists usurped so much power that you could not question them. In Malawi, there was a cabinet crisis soon after independence and all who opposed Kamuzu were branded rebels and fled the country and others died in exile. Kamuzu later became the Life President, only to be voted out of power by the wind of plural politics in 1994. Bakili Muluzi became the first president in a multi-party dispensation. After ten years of Presidency, he hand picked Mutharika to be the President who later ditched his party because Muluzi wanted to control the state by remote control and Mutharika formed his own party which had no parliamentarians. This led to a political war between the party in Government and the opposition ending in Muluzi wanting to contest again the Presidency. Kwame Nkrumah was also the Life President of Ghana who was dethroned by a coup. A lot of politicians in Africa have problems leaving the office of the president once voted in. This is either because of fear of reprisal of their mismanagement, insecurity because of blood in their hands and lack of respect for others to lead. McLeod observes that independence:

is not just about handing land back to its dispossessed peoples, returning power to those who were once ruled by the empire. It is also a process of overturning the dominant ways of seeing the world, and representing reality in ways which do not replicate colonialist values … So, freedom from colonialism comes not just from the signing of declarations of independence and the lowering and raising of flags. (McLeod, 22).

Independence must be followed by industrious innovation to develop. Oginga Odinga is quoted to have said:

When we hang out the national flag for uhuru meetings and rallies we don’t want the cries of wapi uhuru (where is uhuru) to drown the cheers. Our independence struggle was not meant to enrich a minority. It was cast off the yoke of colonialism and poverty. (Ali A. Mazrui, 2005).

Oginga’s book “Not yet Uhuru”, tells it all. The majority of the people in Africa did not know the contents of the Lancaster agreements due to literacy levels but those educated elites knew what they were signing for. The rural masses were used as human capital, a resource to oust colonialism and they benefited nothing from colonialism. However, as Tunde Obadina observes: “its elites bloomed as a result of it. They were given a ladder to climb the global pyramid. African millionaires, who today live on the upper layers of the pyramid with bank accounts in western capitals, certainly owe their fortune to colonialism.” (Tunde Obadina). Some African leaders have pillaged African wealth to the west.

Corruption: Corruption robs any nation of resources that could be used for development. Mobutu of Congo amassed so much worth meant for government. “By the time he was overthrown in 1997, Mobutu had stolen almost half of the $12bn in aid money that Zaire - now the Democratic Republic of Congo - received from the IMF during his 32 - year reign, leaving his country saddled with a crippling debt.” (Guardian 2007). How he duped IMF is a mystery. Mobutu is not alone. Most of the politicians benefit from the ignorance of the poor. They get loans from IMF and other financiers without a clear understanding on how they will pay back and siphon the money out of the Government to their personal bank accounts. They enter into office poor and amass wealth to the extent of opening foreign banks in few years time. Where do they get this money from? It is the same leaders who unleash accusations of the evils of IMF in their political rallies. Such double standards will not bring development. They should bring back the money to Africa and invest in African banks.

Bad Governance. George Kinoti singles out bad governance as the major cause of Africa’s cause of economic problems. (George Kinoti 1994, 36). Most of the leaders go into office to be served rather than to serve. Wrong priorities are given to government expenditures and sometimes recruitment is done on tribal alliance and not merits. There are a lot of trained people in Africa since we got our independencies and some of them are frustrated by these practices of recruitment – the wakwathu (homeboy) syndrome. Tough decision need to be made to redeem Africa. The West will not develop Africa; neither should we expect them to do so. Africa must develop herself. Africa needs to discover her own economic formula to redeem herself from the present crisis. We can not blame colonizers and say they make us grow their raw materials for thirty years and sit with them in conferences without finding solutions. If we know that the trade practices are not benefiting Africa; why not stop them. Gandhi resorted to wearing a traditional dress to expose practices that were not bringing national wealth. There are many ways of exposing immoral trade practices without violence. In 1951, President Truman of United States of America is quoted to have said: “the only kind of war we seek is the good old fight against man’s ancient enemies … poverty, disease, hunger and illiteracy.” (Nkrumah 1965). These enemies seem to have found permanent residence in Africa. In many African countries, the four still remain the national enemies. As independent nations; African states need to work out its redemption plan and implement it.

I have highlighted in these sections that colonialism can still be seen in the political, social, economic and spiritual life. We can not change our yesterday; but we can put strategies to change our destiny. Let us now turn to see if there are elements of mission today that still betray colonial attitudes.

The church and colonial attitude.

Missionaries and colonialism came together. Missionaries were seen either as collaborators or agents of colonizers in the annexing and extending imperial power. There seemed to be a symbiotic relationship between imperial rulers and the missionaries. After all, both the state and the missionaries were after the same people; they had to collude in some cases. (Porter 2004, 16-21; Andrew Porter 2005, 40 ; Brian Stanley 1990, 11). This kind of relationship was untenable. “…Missionaries did not want to be imperial propagandists and colonial rulers, any more than they intended to be consistent or uncritical supporters of capitalist enterprise.” (Porter 2004, 323). This is seen in their questioning the colonial authorities in their unfair treatment of the indigenous people. Maurice Leenhardt, who was a French Protestant missionary, suffered for defending the Kanaks land rights. William Sheppard and William Morrison, who were Presbyterian missionaries were tried in 1909 for defending poor rubber gatherers in the Belgian Congo. (Dana L. Robert 2000, 51). The practices of imperialists needed a moral arbiter and missionaries to some extent, provided that. However, they in a real way were relating to one government and influenced one another. Today, we see some imperialistic attitudes in the following:

Cultural and Racial imperialism: The church by its nature is superior. It brought schools, hospitals and the gospel in a western culture. Missionaries went to the field with what I would call replacement missiology. By replacement missiology, I mean the feeling that everything indigenous had to be replaced. It is observed that “We Christians, like our forebears, have used our faith to bolster our sense of superiority.” (Inglebay 2006, 3). Paul tells us the right attitudes. Phil. 2:5-11. Contemporary mission should strip off this pride.

Managers of mission: The west has a feeling that since they have been involved in missions for a long time; they are well experienced in mission and can manage it with their money and the rest should listen. This is wrong. In contemporary mission, there are more Christians in Africa and Asia. Africa and Asia can save the church which is dying in the west and they will do it not with money from the west. Mission is not cheap. Just as it cost the west to do missions to Africa; it will equally cost Africa to do missions to the west. Globalization is already bringing us together.

Dominant ideology: Mission comes with the same dominance of sometimes not wanting to learn from the fields. In contemporary mission, lessons are everywhere.

The gospel has imperialistic elements. It calls people to listen to them alone. The world has Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and all kinds of faiths. Mission should develop listening ears and a soft heart to hear what others are saying if we have to win them.

A theologian who attempts to work out his position unaware that he does so as a member of a world society in which other theologians equally intelligent, equally devout, equally moral, are Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and unaware that his readers are likely to be Buddhists or to have Muslim husbands or Hindu colleagues – such theologian is as out of [touch with reality]. (Harold Coward 2000, 139).

Contemporary mission challenges us that mission belongs to God; the creator of heaven and earth; the creator of human race. He calls us to knock down the walls of theological intolerance and begin to listen to one another.

Centre of mission: Imperialism operated from the centre (the west) to the colonies; which was very inward looking, very self protective. The structure of the church has that imperialistic element. The western church in its arts and design has been imported to the colonies. Churches were recreated abroad. (Porter 2005, 40). Globalization is knocking off the walls of centredness to a liberalized operation where the centre is becoming almost non-existent.

The class system: The church has its hierarchy as well. Christianity was associated with advancement.

In the west (at least in the past) Christianity used to be identified with social respectability … public prestige going for them … Dominant community pressure made church membership not only a necessity but also the mark of civilization, good manners and decent living. Much of this mentality had been exported to Africa … to become a Christian meant to identify with the ethos and value system of the aspiring middle class. (David J. Bosch 1991, 417).

Equality and justice: The church should not keep silent in the midst of the suffering of people. Isaiah 61. Apartheid found refuge in the Dutch Reformed Church. The church needs to speak out to the inequalities of our day. These cover the inequality of the powerless as well as when the rich suffer. The church must always stand for equality, justice and peace.

Economic control: Colonialism used its economic muscle to control. Mission agencies sometimes use funds to control their agenda. The relationship between the western churches and the churches in the former colonies indicate real power is still in the west since they have material resources. What is needed is meaningful partnerships of trust and accountability.

Servanthood: The imperialists came as masters to find markets for their products. The church should avoid the tendency of looking at people as products to fill the pews. The prosperity gospel in Africa is not taking issues of the poor and poverty seriously. The church exists to serve and not to be served. Mark 10:42 – 45.

Gender: Just as the fight against colonialism was dominated by men; the church is dominated by men and gifts of women marginalized. Women need to be given platforms and exercise their gifts without undue restraints.

Developing contextual theology: The west has reflected on theological issues for a long time. Africa needs to reflect and tell the gospel story the African way. We have a beautiful story to tell. David Smith echoes the words of John Berber: “never again will a single story be told as though it is the only one … How can we retell the story of the gospel in such a way to recognize the validity of many of the concerns of our postmodern contemporaries …” (David Smith 2003, 63). Contemporary mission has to be both existential (answering the issues of today) and with an eternal perspective.

Conclusion

We have such an opportunity in history to present a message of salvation and hope for our people in our time. Never was such an opportunity available to the church before. The technological advancement of our age makes mission easier. Both travel and communication can be done easier and faster; the whole world has been brought close to us. It calls for a shift in our thinking of mission; a shift in the methods of communication and a shift in interacting with people of other faiths. Since mission is the mission of God which include all people of God of different culture and languages, as we co-exist next door to each other; we have to learn how we can peacefully co-exist. Colonialism helps us to avoid mistakes that were made in the past. The contemporary mission provides us with opportunities of doing missions better. Let us remember, we have our own subalterns. Jesus spoke for them. Contemporary mission must speak for them.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alen and Thomas, 2000: Alen, Tim and Thomas, Alan., eds., Poverty and Development into the 21st Century., The Open University, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2000.

Barber 1995., Jihad vs McWorld – How Globalism and Tribalism are reshaping the world., New York: Ballantine Books 1995.

Boahen 1987: Boahen, A. Adu, A. African Perspectives on Colonialism. Bartimore, Maryland: The John Hopkins University Press 1987.

Bosch 1991: Bosch, David., Transforming Missions – Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission., Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books 1991.

Cabral 1994: Cabral, Amilcar., “National Liberation and Culture” in William Patrick and Laura Chrisman., eds., Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial Theory. England: Pearson Education Limited 1994.

Coward 2000: Coward, Harold., Pluralism in the World Religions - A Short Introduction, Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2000.

Hoogvelt 1997: Hoogvelt, Ankie., Globalization and the Postcolonial World – The New Political Economy of Development. London: McMillan Press, 1997.

Kinoti 1994: Kinoti, Georgwe., Hope for Africa and what the Christian can do. Nairobi, Kenya: International Bible Society, Kenya, 1994.

Loomba 1998: Loomba, Ania., Colonialism/Postcolonialism – The New Critical Idiom. London: Routledge, 1998.

McLeod 2000: McLeod, John., Beginning Postcolonialism. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000.

Mishra 1994: Mishra, Vijay and Hodge, Bob., “What is Post(-)colonialism?” in William Patrick and Laura Chrisman., eds., Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial Theory. England: Pearson Education Limited 1994.

Parry 2002: Parry, Benita., “Directions and Dead Ends in Postcolonial Studies” in David Goldberg and Ato Quayson., eds.; Relocating Postcolonialism. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers 2002.

Porter 2004: Porter, Andrew., Religion versus Empire? British Protestant Missionaries and Overseas Expansion 1700 – 1914. Manchester: Manchester University Press 2004.

Porter 2005: Porter, Andrew., “An Overview, 1700 – 1914.” In Etherington, Norman., ed., Missions and Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press2005.

Prendergast 1996: Prendergast, John., Crisis and Hope in Africa. London: Inter Agency group 1996.

Smith 2003: Smith, David., Mission After Christendom. London: Darton, Longman and Todd 2003.

Stanley 1990: Stanley, Brian., The Bible and The Flag – Protestant Missions and British Imperialism in the Nineteenth and Twentienth Centuries. England: Apollos 1990.

Townsend and Gordon 2002: Townsend, Peter and Gordon, David., eds., World Poverty – New Policies to defeat an Old Enemy. Bristol: The Policy Press 2002.

Young 2003: Young, Robert J. C., Postcolonialism – A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2003.

Young 2001: Young, Robert J. C., Postcolonialism – An Historical Introduction. Malden: Blackwell Publishing 2001.

Articles

Inglebay 2006: Inglebay, Jonathan., “The Failure of the West and Can the South Save the West?” Encounters Mission Ezine 11., pp 3, 7, and 11.; www.redcliffe.org/mission. [24th October, 2007].

Robert 2000: Robert, Dana L., “Shifting Southward – Global Christianity Since 1945.” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 50th Anniversary 24. 2, p51.

Websites

Denny 2004: Denny, Charlotte. Suharto, Marcos and Mobutu Head

Corruption table with $50bn scams. The Guardian., March 26, 2004. http://www.guardian.co.uk/indonesia/Story/0,2763,1178382,00.html [October 28, 2007].

Dodd 2007: Dodd, Ged., Land of Hope and Glory: http://12121.hostinguk.com/Glory.htm [11th November 2007].

Obadina 2000: Obadina, Tunde., The Myth of Neo-Colonialism. http://www.africaeconomicanalysis.org/articles/gen/neocolonialismhtml.html [October 25, 2007].

Mazrui 2005: Mazrui, A. Ali., Uhuru Bado Kidogo: Africa’s Condition of “Not Yet Uhuru”; The Balance Sheet. http://igcs.binghamton.edu/igcs_site/dirton28.htm [12th November 2007].

Nkrumah 1965: Nkrumah, Kwame., Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism. http://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nkrumah/neo-colonialism/introduction.htm [2nd November, 2007].

Yew 2002: Yew Leong., Neocolonialism – Political Discourse – Theories of Colonialism and Postcolonialism. http://www.usp.nus.edu.sg/post/poldiscourse/neocolonialism1.htm [02 November, 2007].

Waterman 2002: Waterman, Laurel., Book Review., The African Condition by Ali A. Mazrui.; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980. http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/tiberg/Poli390-week5-BR/Laurel-Mzrui.htm [12th November 2007].

African Diaspora., http://www.coloradocollege.edu/Dept/HY/HY243Ruiz/Research/diaspora.html., [08 November, 2007].

Wednesday, 23 April 2008

Calvary Family Church


Apostle Dr. Madalitso Mbewe is the man behind the vision of Calvary Family Church. Dr. Madalitso Mbewe is a third generation preacher in his family line. His father was a Pastor, and his grandfather was a Pastor too fulfilling the third generation principle of passing on the vision.

Dr Madalitso Mbewe grew up in a Christian home and his father brought him up in a Christian environment. But that did not make him a Christian. It was in 1974 when he personally made a decision for Christ. He finished his secondary education in 1975 and came to Blantyre where he got a job with Commercial Bank of Malawi. Soon after getting saved in 1975, God gave him a burden for young people. He started sharing the gospel with them and then started a fellowship group called Young Believers Fellowship. This fellowship of young people from different churches grew. In Blantyre, they used to meet at Nyambadwe Primary school every Sunday afternoons. They had other centres in other places like Lilongwe. Later, this fellowship changed names and adopted the name of Pentecostal Revival Crusade Ministries. The focus of the ministry changed too as now, they were involved in reaching out to people through crusades in various places. However, this led to a big challenge. Those that were won to the Lord were not easily accepted in other churches because of doctrinal differences on the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. This led to the idea of forming a Pentecostal church in 1972 which in the same year materialized by the founding of Calvary Family Church. In 1973, Calvary Family Church got registered with the Government of Malawi. They started with five people in Blantyre.

Calvary Family Church believes in the transforming power of the gospel. Their ministries focus on preaching, open air meeting and church planting. Seventy percent of the memberships of Calvary Family church are young people and therefore, they consider themselves as a church for the young people. “Young people want answers to life, they want to be told the truth and they want to be involved. If you don’t use them, you loose them.” Dr. Madalitso asserted in talking with him.

Apostle Dr. Madalitso Mbewe continued to lead the church whilst working with Commercial Bank. He was doing very well and climbing the ladder of professional attainment. He was the Assistant Manager in the Bank and at a time when a house was found for him to move to Lilongwe for a transfer to manage his own branch; that was the time when God spoke to him to provide leadership for the church full time. He had to decline a lucrative job with all that goes with Managerial position to lead a church which by then had no structure.

The church now has branches in all the regions of Malawi. It has branches in other Countries of Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa and they have five branches in UK. These churches (except for Mozambique where they sent a missionary from Malawi to Mozambique to start the church), were started by members who went to these Countries for job opportunities.

The church now has a radio station, a primary school, a bible school, a microfinance project where members are given loans to start their own businesses and they are a licensed church to have a television station. Apostle Dr. Madalitso Mbewe says God has given him a vision to take the church out of the four walls and therefore has the “Joseph anointing ministry” where he goes to stadiums to address people with the gospel messages and winning them to the Lord and enabling them to break away from the poverty trap.

He has as well succeeded in the past in bringing together political leaders from different parties during times of crisis and especially after general elections and mediated on very sensitive times in the life of the nation and bring them together for a prayer fellowship.

Sunday, 20 April 2008

Living Waters Church in Malawi




The Humble churches that have become Mighty in Malawi – an evaluation of Living Waters Church.

I spent some time with Apostle Dr. Stanley Ndovi, the founder of Living Waters Church. Dr. Ndovi was born on 9th December 1957. He was at one time a member of the Apostolic Mission Church in Zingwangwa, in Blantyre, Malawi where he served as a Pastor for seven years.

The Lord spoke to him to spearhead revival in Malawi and he sensed that he may not realize this vision in this church. He left the church and the position of a Pastor and started Living waters church from nothing – no bank account, no building or any resource except the original membership of four families. The church was started on 5th January 1985.

The ministry started by holding open air evangelistic meetings in the townships of Blantyre. The Lord honored this in that many people were won to the Lord.

In the initial days, Dr. Ndovi faced two challenges. The first challenge was finances. Living in Blantyre, one needed money for rentals, local travels, food and the day to day needs for life. It took the faith of Dr. Stanley Ndovi to trust God for these and many more other needs for ministry. Apostle Stanley Ndovi says: “when God calls you, he gives you the means and grace to accomplish his purposes.” God did provide what he needed for food, for rentals and for the means of transport to enable him do ministry.

The second challenge was acceptance of the vision God had given him. Were Malawians going to accept him as one sent from God to the nation? This was a big challenge. Many organized churches were against him and some were reporting negatively about his ministry to Police. Dr. Ndovi remembers being called to the Police at one time where he was shown by the Police fourteen different letters from fourteen different churches ordering the Police to stop him from preaching because they were not in agreement with what he was preaching. God intervened in that the day before he went to the Police office, this top Policeman, responsible for registering churches was warned in a dream that if he stops him from preaching, he would not go to heaven. Instead of being arrested, he was helped by being told how to register the church by the same policeman who was ordered to arrest him. He even laid hands on him and prayed for him at the end of their meeting. You may think that he was preaching seditious messages but that was not it. God was increasing the number of people joining the church and these other churches were simply jealousy of the growth of the church. Gradually, as people saw the hand of God in this man of God, Malawians eventually accepted messages he was getting from the Lord. To prove this, when the president of Malawi Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika lost his wife, church leaders including the Catholic church met to discuss about a visit to condole the President and proposed Apostle Stanley Ndovi to be the spokesperson for the delegation.

By August 2007, Living Waters church had approximately eighty churches in the North, One hundred and eighty churches in the central region and three hundred churches in the Southern region. It has churches in other countries too responding to the missionary call. These Countries include Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Tanzania, U.K., U.S.A., and they have partner churches in Switzerland and Germany and a Bible school in Egypt. Malawian missionaries have been sent and are serving in most of these Countries.

When one considers that the church had four families in 1985 and these statistics in 2007, the church has all the reasons to thank the Lord.

However, the Apostle was quick to point out that these days; there is a high percentage of mobility of Christians. People change membership at a faster rate now and they move from one church to the other sometimes causing a strain on church relations as they accuse each other of sheep-stealing.

Saturday, 12 April 2008

Welcome to my Blog

Welcome to Mvula's Reflections! I will be posting a lot of things that hopefully will interest you. Please come and visit often and leave comments. I would love to interact with you!

God bless you!