By Comrade Jumbe 06/06/25
On this day, as others rise to wave flags and beat drums in celebration of Independence Day, I rise instead with a question burning in my heart like the African sun:
What are we truly celebrating?
Tell me, what joy can there be in independence when your child sleeps hungry, and your mother dies in a hospital with no medicine?
Since 1964, we have been dancing in circles.
Government after government, president after president, we have not moved forward — only spun in the dust of poverty.
Your village and mine remain the same. No electricity. No running water. No roads. No jobs. No dignity.
They call it freedom. But how can I call myself free when my pockets are empty, my children are barefoot, and my country still begs for every development project? Our youth are flocking to south Africa and Europe for greener pastures .
Look at poor networks of our roads — still potholes in the name of progress.
Look at our hospitals — graves with roofs.
Look at our schools — chalkboards with no chalk.
Look at our railways — rusting ghosts of a dream that died long ago.
And look at our so-called cities — nothing more than large villages dressed in concrete.
We gather in a Chinese-built stadium to celebrate freedom — yet even that stadium is a loan, a debt hung around the necks of unborn children.
How can we stand tall while kneeling before foreign lenders? That is not sovereignty. That is economic slavery.
We are not free. We are simply decorating our chains.
Under our soil lies gold, uranium, and other rare earths — minerals worth billions of U.S. dollars.
But above the soil, our people live like beggars. We are rich beneath and poor above. How long shall we sit on a throne made of gold while eating crumbs?
Even worse, the very party that claims to have liberated us — the Malawi Congress Party — is now taking us back to the days of fear and oppression. Zikwanje gangs now beat and threaten citizens who dare to think freely or vote differently. Is that freedom? Or is it a return to bondage under a new mask?
Enough is enough.
This nation does not need another recycled politicians.
This nation does not need another 5-year promise of nothing.
We need a revolution — not of bullets, but of minds. Not of blood, but of ideas.
We need a generation of leaders who will rise not for titles but for transformation. Leaders who understand that building one hospital is greater than pasting 10 billboards. Leaders who will not only raise flags but raise the people.
We do not need another flag-raising ceremony. We need a nation-raising movement.
We must stop voting with our stomachs and start voting with our minds.
We must stop celebrating poverty with pomp.
We must stop mistaking borrowed projects for progress.
We must demand more — and accept nothing less than a total economic liberation.
Let us, the youth, men and women, the dreamers, and the thinkers — start this new story. A story where independence is not just a day on the calendar, but a reality in every home.
A story where your village and my village are transformed, not forgotten. A story where Malawi finally becomes a land of promise — not just in speeches, but in truth.
So today, don’t just sing the anthem.
Ask yourself: “Am I truly free?”
And if the answer is no, then let us not celebrate.
Let us organize.
Let us rise.
Let us rebuild this country with new ideas, new voices, and a new vision.
The child who refuses to walk will be carried by strangers
Let us walk. Let us march. Let us rise.
My pen 🖊 is mightier than a sword.