Factually, what one is stems from what one is made of.
Similarly, what one is culturally is informed by the passed traditions,
customs, and heritage of one’s ethnic foundations. This being the case, ardent
followers of current affairs are witness to the growing instances of groups—of
like mind and creed—uniting to champion causes, usually taking the face of
religion and statehood.
The tendency for like-minded people to come together has its
own extensive history and wayward justifications. Those in the know in
political circles would say that this tendency has its primary appearance in
America’s dark political days, thanks to the passing of the Civil Rights Act in
1965.
In recent history, the liberal traditions of fairness,
equality, democracy, and freedom of speech has given this phenomenon a new
face; now the like-mindedness takes the form of race, gender, sexual
orientation, ethnicity, and citizenship.
Identity politics—the coming together of members of a
specific subgroup for socio-cultural and eco-political change—seems to have
found a new haven in Malawi.
It would be culturally naïve to assume that there has not
been identity politics in Malawi. That be true as it may, it is of special
interest to learn the great political impact identity politics has had in
Malawi with the launch of Mulhakho wa Alhomwe in the late Bingu wa Mutharika
administration. This period is of special interest because it is during this
time that identity politics became highly organized, seriously powerful, and
obviously fierce.
The fact that this phenomenon became the kingmaking lobby
group in the late Mutharika days should give the current administration hard
days. Seemingly clear to President Joyce Banda of the importance and
seriousness of identity politics, she, at the annual uMthetho Cultural Festival
for the Ngonis last year, pleaded with the Yaos—herself being a Yao—to form a
Yao cultural group similar, both in form and fashion, to Llomwe’s Mulhakho wa
Alhomwe.
If recent reports are anything to go by, it is clear that the
Yao cultural group to be called Chiwanja cha Ayao will see the light of day
soon as the group’s foundations seem to have been already laid and positions
already filled, and President Joyce Banda will be hunted to be its patron. And
closely studying its interim leadership, Chiwanja cha Ayao, unlike Mulhakho wa
Alhomwe before it, happens to take both religious and ethnic identity
ideologies to its fold.
The inevitable fact of cultural groups is that they cause
ethnic and political isolation and division especially when they take
politicians to be its guardians and more so when the politician guardian is
Head of State. This fact should be all the more clear if we would go back in
recent history and observe the ethnic and political damage Mulhakho wa Alhomwe
caused to the Malawi nation.
Some would argue that identity politics cements one roots in
oneself and that one is assured of devoting one’s energy, talents, and
expectations with like minds on a singular purpose. That is true and positive. Others
still would argue that the formation of cultural groups simply celebrates
cultural differences. That is also true and positive.
But, sadly, focusing on a single purpose has its own dark
side too. It has been elsewhere argued that focusing on one purpose makes group
members to be close-minded about the bigger picture. In other ways, group
members tend to focus on issues from their perspective ignoring the others’
equally intelligent perspectives simply because they are not members.
And much as acknowledgement of differences cements the spirit
of tolerance, cultural groups have always tended to pursue isolationist
practices. This would not be surprising given the events surrounding the
cultural and political dealings of Mulhakho wa Alhomwe. It is therefore
difficult to predict a different outcome coming from the Chiwanja cha Ayao.
It is at this point that it appears clear to many Malawians
that the formation of cultural groups and as led by presidents has a lot more
problems than profits to nationalism and pursuance of national interest. To
this end, it becomes obviously Malawian if formation of such groups would be
meant to re-awaken identity only and not to serve as political lobby groups as
sadly was the case with Mulhakho wa Alhomwe then, and as would most likely be
with the yet-to-walk-baby Chiwanja cha Ayao.
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