Drugs are killing Malawi youths, but why are we silent?

Area 47 in Lilongwe, Malawi, is slowly becoming another Tembisa, a location in Johannesburg, South Africa.

In Tembisa, you have fiercely and dark corners that you can’t just peep your nose into.

In these corners, you find fairly young people—mostly aged between 10 and 25—sit in ecstasy, injecting themselves and some sniffing a strong intoxicating drug called ‘Nyaope’.

Nyaope is a cocktail of all serious drugs—from hemp, cocaine, heroin, termik, ARVs and all that. It’s cheap, you can get it at an average MK100. With a MK100 dose, you are assured to remain high, really high, for about 24 hours.

It’s addictive and as I write, mostly in South Africa, almost 80 percent of youths in townships and locations are, as early as 8 am, already drowsy and committing heinous crimes.

I don’t know how many Malawians know Nyaope but I can tell you this drug is, slowly, becoming prevalent in our locations and townships.

I have Area 47 in Lilongwe as my case in point.

Just like in Tembisa, I have seen striking contrasts of ‘cartel-like’ corners in Area 47, run mostly by Nigerian brothers, where our youths are buying drugs and, judging by its price and effect, I can’t help but conclude its Nyaope. These youths, I tell you, can easily be spotted around Bwandilo. As early as 8 am, these youths are already drowsy, violent and stuttering insults at passersby. Women can testify to this: they are always the target, being insulted, abused, called names and, even, chasing them. It’s there, yes, at Bwandiro.

I bet authorities need to wake up to this reality.

I speak of Area 47 because that is what I only know. But what about other locations? Think of Zolozolo, Bangwe, Ndirande, Mbayani, Kawale—where our loafing and unemployed youths are always captured by the bliss of these cheap cocktails?

The tragedy of Nyaope, as I have said earlier, is that it’s a cocktail of several drugs. That is why when you are intoxicated, or let’s say, dead with it—those who examine dead bodies can find any of the ingredients in your bloodstream. Even termik.

I think it’s time we started a big conversation regarding drugs, the people behind these cartels; we need to arrest this problem. Or else we are building a drunk and drowsy generation.

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