Malawi threatens arrests over Madonna school row
Malawi threatened on Thursday to arrest protesting villagers blocking construction of Madonna’s multi-million dollar girls academy, a new controversy for the singer in the African country where she has adopted two children.
About 140 villagers are demanding more money for land the government has leased to Madonna’s charity — Raising Malawi — for 99 years.
District Commissioner for Lilongwe Charles Kalemba, other senior government officials and Raising Malawi failed to reach an agreement in talks with representatives of the villagers on Thursday in a bid to resolve the dispute.
“If we cannot agree on this and if you cannot understand that this is government land, then I will have no choice but tell police to arrest you people for blocking development work on the site, ” Kalemba told the village chief, Chinkhota.
Madonna launched the construction of the school last month and pledged to build similar facilities in other countries if the project succeeds.
The Raising Malawi Academy for Girls — in Chinkhota village about 15 km (10 miles) outside the capital Lilongwe — is expected to be completed in two years and will admit 500 girls from the small southern African country’s 28 districts. The construction is expected to cost $15 million.
Malawi’s government came under fire after Madonna adopted 13-month-old boy, David Banda, in 2006, with critics accusing it of giving her special treatment by skirting laws that ban non-residents from adopting children.
In June this year, Malawi’s Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling made in April which said Madonna could not adopt a four-year-old girl — Mercy James — because the singer was not a resident of the country.
An AIDS epidemic has left more than a million children orphaned in Malawi, a country of 13 million people.
“We are protesting because we feel government and Raising Malawi have not been fair … earlier agreements about how much they were supposed to pay us have been scrapped and now we are being told the land does not belong to us,” Chinkhota told Reuters after the meeting.
“The construction of this school will be affected if these problems are not resolved, my people are not given enough money for them to buy farm land somewhere else and continue their lives.”
Ministry of Lands senior official Nector Mhura said compensation for the land was based on fair market prices.
–Reuters
The land is government land, public land, the government has leased it out. Villagers encroached on the land when they found out Madonna was going to build a school there. The whole belt from area 18 to Lumbadzi is no go land, it was set aside for development. The villagers do not own the land but they were still compesated. Opusa ndigulu la madonna team for trying too hard to please the villagers. The villagers have become greedy because they think they will get some more money. The villagers are not claiming kuti they were not compasated, they are saying they want more money on top of what they received and already ate. The DC is right, he should arrest them, they encroached and they were still compasated and now they want more. The land was not theres to give away or sell, the land belonged to government to do whatever they pleased with it. Sukulu imeneyi akangoimanga ku Zambia basi. Monse mwayambira anthu osayamika inu.
Those villagers are just trying to get advantage of the kindness that Madona had on them. The land belongs to the government what they needed was compansation which was aleady given. Kodi chipepeso amatolirira.
These are real issues for arrest. A Malawi when will we stop being greedy? A police atengeni amenewo they are barring development and “anyone trying to derail national development does not deserve to live in this country” the President says!
atidye nawo atochuluka kandalamako kakwana basi mulira chani?eeee mwagwa nayo basi
Umewu ndiye umbuli, dyera, umphawi tsango komanso ufiti. Because you know has money now u wan 2rip her. Be embarrased. The school wil help malawians that’s priceless. For me my prayer is madona 2run the school to avoid what we do, destroying n lack of care to public properties. In the first place u were not even supzd to get even 1t. U’ve already abused the manna u got
This article raises a lot of questions. What is these people’s land? How did the state acquire the land – saying ‘this is state land’ is not enough. Whas it acquired from these villagers during colonialism? Is this why they were compensated? Were they compensated the market value of this land?
Also, the old colonial (and now neo-colonial) notion of the 99-year lease should be done away with. It is an open invitation for corrupt politicians to sell the land from under the feet of the people of Malawi.
Lastly. There is an interesting book, “The Politics Of Land Reform in Africa” by Ambreena Manji, in which she points out the the difference in priorities between people who want to see everyone have land and the likes of the IMF, who want security of tenure for foreign corporations in Africa.
The difference is in land reform as a) land redistribution and b) land tenure reform.
If land in Malawi is a problem, why does the government have so much of it?
I think we should have a close look at the need for land redistribution in Malawi – as well as Zambia, Namibia, Tanzania, Kenya, and of course South Africa.
And lastly – Africa is extremely rich, but it’s people are poor. This has to change. Today, the cheapest land in the world is African land. It is time to start remembering that, and to treat land ownership by local people with the respect it deserves, before you go to bed in Malawi and wake up in China.
Ajaila if the continue to behave like this and the police fail to act in time then I will direct Vampire Nachipanti of Ndix to do the unthinkable for the Gvt because these people & their Mfumu, nyakwawa are useless. Just relocate them dont bother to give them money, adzingomwa kachaso ophikira ma ARVs instead of being reproductive.
Ingowalekani, bwerani mudzamange kuno ku Sandama, Thyolo; malo ambiri kutapa kutaya, aaarri! mukuchita kuwakakamiza chitukuko ife kuno tikuchililira!!!!
Timakuuuzani kuti munthu wagule ndi sukulu sizigwirizana.Madonna is trying to civilize them by building a school that will have an impact for their kids future koma ayi ndithu nyau zimenezi ndizosayamika.Koma akati kulilira quota ndiye number one.Kodi kuchulukidwa ufiti chiani?Just look at their leader Puluzu ndimunthu wamakani aufiti.Chewas will never learn.Chimene chimawavuta kwambiri ndi ufiti and they are very primitive people.Ali ndi dyera lopusa kwabasi.Madonna leave these people otherwise these vampires may end up sucking blood from your two beautiful adopted kids.They are alot of mfitis around mchinji area.They eat people and sleep in grave yards.they keep their costumes in the graveyard that what they know best.They hate school so much.Madonna you are not going change the nyau people.Its just a waste of your hard earned dollars.Helping Dave and Mercy is enough.Anthu osayamika amenewa..kukonda zinthu zaulere kwabasi.They don’t know the importance of hardworking in their lives.