Green snake in our ‘green waters’ – The case of Malawi Tanzania misunderstanding
There are those people who do not understand that they do not understand that they will not understand because they can’t understand. And this does not need any Hetherwick Ntaba to explain it out or indeed one Nicholas Dausi to come and ‘jargonise’ the situation. Some people will remain adamant and very ‘in-understanding’.
You may be one of them. We may all be some of such characters, but one thing for sure, people with great depths of greed, heavy lack satisfaction, deep rooted trends of treachery, and of course, pure stupid pigheadedness will always exist. And they and we do exist.
I have two little puppies that use ‘personal’, if you like, eating plates. Each dog has its own eating bowl and every time they are fed from the same. Same amounts of food, same type of foods, same time of feeding, and same type of treatment.
You see, whenever I get out to feed them, both puppies are up and tail wagging, jumping to reach for the food. And whatever the case, it cannot happen that I drop or place the food in their plate at the same and one time, so it’s one, then the other. And they eat greedily at that.
What fascinates me is that they will always rush to the other’s feeding bowl, sometimes knocking heads midway, to sniff and check what is in the other’s bowl. Such is the lack of satisfaction and understanding that the puppies seem to have decided to be their way of life.
They always think the other has, perhaps, better food, more food, different food, or whatever, than the other. Such is the deep rooted greed in their animal instincts life.
And some people behave just like that, even more than that. And the Taifas next door are no better brained that these puppies, may I argue.
We know about the misunderstanding between Lilongwe and Dodoma. The Tanzanians have always enjoyed fishing and drinking and even ‘sh****ng’ in our Lake Malawi. We watched, quietly, out of brotherly love, and not stupidity. But our neighbors seem to have taken that for granted.
Well, we are so civilized and friendly as Malawians as the Warm Heart of Africa, so when the Taifas started to pretend we had our ship sailing in ‘their’ waters illegally, and that we had planes flying in ‘their airspace’ even God must have been very disappointed.
For starters, this has never been their part of the lake. This has always been Lake Nyasa (as we were called Nyasaland) and later Lake Malawi (after independence). It has never been any lake under the Germans and Dodoma or Dar es Salam as it were. The ship that was on that lake is ours, and rightly sailing on its good waters. Unfortunately, the plane that the Taifas claim was Malawian and flying in ‘their’ so-called part of the lake is and has always been Tanzanian.
So our neighbours have just been picking a fight. Our being neighborly has wrongly been translated as being stupid, succumbing and most of all, not a nation at all.
But ahem, the Taifas need to go back to their drawing board. They need to relearn their geography and their history. They need to know that Malawi is Malawi and Tanzania is Tanzania. They also must not forget that a whole big chunk of what is Tanzania today was under Nyasaland, but for the good heartedness that we have been known to exercise, we let them, during that demarcation exercise of ages then, have that part of the land across the lake.
We are saying enough is enough. We have given the Taifas enough to suffice their greed and we have offered them a lot of help as we let them even use our lake.
Now Dodoma is planning to put their two boats or vessels on our Lake, and they claim the two floats will be in ‘their’ territory. Damn my a…se!
For all I care, we can accommodate the Taifa’s to continue to fish, wash, bath, shit, and even drink from our lake, but when they start to behave as if they are the landlord and control that part of the lake, simply because there are prospective gas and oil deposits in that part of the lake, then we must show them generosity is not being stupid.
As one of the many peace loving Malawians both resident in Malawi, and others in the Diaspora including Tanzania, I wish to ask, and of course with authority, the Tanzanians to open their eyes and realise they are on the wrong side of the law, of God’s intent on brotherly hood, and all. They need to go back to Dodoma and devise other tricks for their ruling party to win elections come 2015 and not use Lake Malawi as a campaign trick.
They have enough land, they have enough natural resources, they have enough moneys, great development, and a great people. This, so am saying, should not be destroyed only because of their greed and lack of satisfaction and by madly hunching for something that is not theirs.
They can beg to use our lake for their boats, and we could consider that with the same warm heartedness as we have always done. They can ask to have a share of our prospective oil and gas, and we could reach some ‘concessions’ or anything legal and binding other than the Taifas trying to bully their way into Malawi’s territory.
Most of all, I will only blame Jakaya Kikwete, his minister of foreign affairs, the few greedy parliamentarians, church leaders, chiefs and citizens on the Tanzanian side of the order that are blinded by greed in this whole situation.
Ladies and gentlemen, Tanzania has no business in Malawi apart from the good relations we have always enjoyed with each other as brothers and sisters. Kikwete and his party must lose his election in 2015 for other reasons, and not because he has let Malawians have our lake to ourselves.
We do not need those boats in Malawi. We do not need Taifas hassling our people along that part of the lake. We need to coexist as we have always done. They can continue to enjoy the fresh waters as they have always done, but please do not paint that part of the lake in those Taifa colors. The Black, Red and Green on that patch of Malawi is already beautiful and legally binding.
This is a legal and not political affair.
But if our neighbors want some ‘exercise’ after Amini’s Uganda, then am happy to replace my pen with that rifle. And that is when Dodoma will not only lose its own shameful ‘war’, but Malawi will also reclaim all the land that used to be part and parcel of Malawi. This country is already small, and this could be our opportunity to reclaim what belongs to us. Then we shall see if the SADC Forum of Former Heads of state Government and even the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will call Malawi the aggressor.
There is still time for change and to give peace a chance. Malawians aren’t stupid!
My prayer is Dodoma changes its aggression and exercises some level headedness. Otherwise the Taifas will only have Kikwete, Membe and their political stooges to blame and not our professionals for what may befall them and the extra land and resources they will lose.
Like Israel, we are a chosen people! We shall kill that green snake in our ‘green waters’!
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