Catholic University of Malawi says ‘vampirism’ saga needs multiple approach
Catholic University of Malawi (Cunima) has said blood sucking dilemma needs multiple approach to be resolved.
Director of Academic Affairs at the university Rev Fr Dr Dominic Kazingatchire observed this after a public lecture jointly conducted by Anthony Mtuta and Sangwani Tembo who are Catholic University assistant lecturers in Anthology at the university campus hall on Friday.
“As a university we cannot remain silent when the masses are suffering. The most important thing is that it has created a forum for discussion.”
“We need to dig deep from an Anthology point of view, theological, political, medical and law perspectives to pump sense into the public over this issue,” Fr Kazingatchire said.
Fr Kazingatchire said this in the wake of blood sucking dilemma which has instilled fear in the affected areas in the Southern Region districts of Thyolo, Phalombe, Mulanje, Chiradzulu and Nsanje.
During the public lecture assistant lecturer Tembo said over the years the blood sucking scare has been associated with economic hardships and inequality that local people experience since the first case broke out in 1948-1949.
“It’s not a new concept. It’s a problem of hardships that people experience. This year people have harvested but they are going through hardships because the prices of farm produce are very low,” he said.
“So people have find a way of expressing themselves to heard by drawing the attention of the public including top government and NGO officials,” he said.
While Mtuta said the situation has also led to antisocial behavior with other people taking advantage to destroy property and kill innocent people.
He also said traditionally people had not been comfortable with free cash and food aid given to vulnerable people in the rural who have become suspicious.
So far at least 10 people including two village chiefs have been killed for being suspected of being blood suckers or agents of blood sucking saga.
The government has enforced tight security in the affected areas in an attempt to restore peace and order.
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Either the reporter or the lecturers sound shallow. Please share full papaers.
Can someone of these athropologists do proper research including among others staying in such communities? Get in touch with Prof. Pauline Peters at John F Kennedy School of Governmentin in US you can partner with her
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I don’t think I agree with you. What these people are saying is that we should take a holistic approach when we want to examine the whole blood sucker issue. Malawi needs to conduct their its own research with Malawian scholars. what does this Pauline know that Malawian scholars don’t. I know an Anthropologist Prof. Chakanza who has written more books about this. Stop criticizing and start taking an initiative. At least they thought about doing something about it.
poorly researched papers. Anthropology and not “Anthology” as reported in this article is couched in the understanding the norms and values within the societies. And from the critical analysis as reported in the papers there is nothing valuable that one can relate to the blood sucking. There is much that goes into research not just working up with your own perspectives and lie to the people that its research. Can you delve into real issues that relates to the anthropology in blood sucking…bring forth various theoretical frameworks not just reciting what you think can explain the issue….CUNIMA wake up!!!
The word your reporter misheard was ‘anthropology’, not ‘anthology’.
Im glad to see our esteemed universities being involved in this debate. The article quotes that the proposed approach is from ”anthology point of view, theological, political, medical and law perspectives to pump sense into the public over this issue”. By the end of the article I’m still not sure what exactly that means. What of each of those areas should we do to address this? For the sake of those who didn’t attend, the article should also be informing readers or refer us to further details so we can debate the proposal and map the way forward as a… Read more »