By comrade Jumbe
They say “mlandu suola” — a crime doesn’t rot with time. And as we sre in another so-called Kamuzu Day celebrations, we must pause and ask: what exactly are we celebrating? For decades, we have danced in circles around a shadow, confusing oppression for leadership and silence for peace. But the truth? We have mistaken fear for order, and dictatorship for discipline.
Yes, we can’t erase history — and indeed, Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda played a role in Malawi’s independence. That much we can acknowledge. But should that alone earn him celebration?
Let us be honest with ourselves. if we don’t speak out, we will die in silence with our motherland.
Kamuzu Banda ruled with an iron fist. Under his watch, freedom was a luxury only for the loyal.
If you whispered the wrong words, you disappeared like dew in the morning sun.
Books were banned. Thoughts were monitored. People feared their own shadows. And yet today, some want to paint his memory with golden brushes — as if history has no eyes.
Should we celebrate a man who chained our minds while claiming to have unchained our country?The Shadows of Kamuzu: A Call to Abolish Kamuzu Day in Malawi
Our parents toiled like donkeys, barefoot in the fields, only to remain poor while his inner circle feasted.Hunger is not quenched by water. People needed economic transformation, not long speeches and cult worship. We needed schools that prepared us for the future, not for praise-singing. We needed industries, innovation, and freedom of enterprise — not handclaps at political rallies.
Let’s be real. It’s been decades since Kamuzu left power, yet his fingerprints are still on our wounds.
We suffer today because the foundation was built on fear, not freedom. On control, not creativity. On autocracy, not accountability. That DNA of dictatorship still flows in the veins of the Malawi Congress Party — the same party that cries crocodile tears while carrying Kamuzu’s flag in one hand and the stick of oppression in the other.
How can we claim to be free when we are still poor? What is “freedom” when your stomach is empty, your children are barefoot, and your dreams are buried under poverty?
Let me ask again: what did Kamuzu do for me? For my parents? For my village? For my generation? What factory did he build that created generational wealth? What policies did he leave behind that made sure no Malawian would sleep on an empty stomach? We’re not asking for miracles. We’re just demanding honest leadership — something we were denied for 30 years under his rule.
Let us not glorify our oppressors just because time has passed. time does not heal everything.
We must speak truth to history, not out of bitterness, but out of responsibility. Because if we don’t, our children will ask us: “Did you clap for the man who made you poor?”
As for me, I choose not to celebrate shadows. I celebrate visionaries. Builders. Thinkers. Dreamers who transform nations.
The true heroes are those who lift people out of poverty, not those who silence dissent with fear.
We must stop praising those who kept us crawling, and start demanding leaders who will help us walk tall.
So let Kamuzu’s name remain in the history books — not in the celebration halls.
Because until every Malawian is economically free, we have nothing to celebrate.
My 🖊 is mightier than a sword.
