Talking Blues: Does God live here anymore?

“Woman murdered, 7 houses damaged in Nkhata Bay”, “Religions in bloody fight”, “Christians, Muslims clash in Balaka” and “Muslims go on rampage in Mangochi, destroy beer places.”

These are appalling headlines from Malawi, a country working hard to lose the ‘Warm Heart of Africa’ tag as it declines into a cursed land where anyone can, at will and with little if any provocation, assault the next guy and where policemen go on raping escapades without fear of the very law they are supposed to champion.

Hot on the heels of policemen willy-nilly raping women in Lilongwe; seven houses were recently destroyed in Nkhata Bay District by irate revenge-seeking villagers.

Facts: the deceased, Sophina Kaunda, 48, of Chavula Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Fukamapiri sold a piece of land to a Thom James Manda at Dombolo River in 2018. The agreed price was K600,000 of which James Manda paid K250,000.

It is alleged that the [piece of] land wasn’t the deceased’s and hence James Manda demanded that his deposit be refunded pronto.

Tired of waiting in vain, on November 2, 2019 James Manda took the law into his own hands, followed the land vendor to a garden and hit her hard in the abdomen with a metal bar.

She lost consciousness and was rushed to Chintheche Rural Hospital only to be pronounced dead on arrival, ostensibly due to internal bleeding.

James Manda was arrested.

Nonetheless, the deceased’s relatives mobilized at night and attacked the suspect’s village in revenge.

Last month, some twenty-two houses were torched in another civil war between people of Msakanene and Mkondezi, T/A Mkumbira in the same district.

Four lives were needlessly lost.

Now, in addition to the ‘Warm Heart of Africa’ accolade which now sounds like a joke; for some reason, we often claim to be a ‘God-fearing nation’.

Now check this: ‘God-fearing’ Muslims were at each other’s throats with their fellow ‘God-fearing’ Christians at Mangochi Turn-off in Liwonde. Several were injured, two seriously.

Not satisfied with deforming each other, these ‘God fearing’ citizens ran riot and destroyed property, including residential houses, prayer houses and schools.

Even motorists using the newly-rehabilitated Liwonde-Mangochi Road were inconvenienced.

The underlying cause? Refusal by the Anglican Church to allow Muslim girls learning at its M’manga Primary School to wear hijabs.

A while ago, Mangochi – Malawi’s tourism gold mine – was the arena. After prayers, one wonders to which God, some people ran amok and damaged liquor shops and other places that sell beer at Mangochi boma.

Video clips are awash on social media platforms, showing alleged Muslims still in their religious outfits stoning beer places and chanting that alcohol has no place in Mangochi.

Not spared were billboards and signposts carrying related advertisements.

These, Blues’ Orators, are the spine-chilling facts which depict how low we have sunk as a nation.

I don’t want to even refer to us a people inhabiting the ‘Warm Heart of Africa’. We have made that a joke. Warm heart of Africa? More like laughingstock of Africa.

You want to know what we have degenerated to? A leaderless and lawless bunch of intolerant barbarians incapable of loving our neighbours.

Any mention, by anyone, be they a Christian or a Moslem or of whatever faith that we are a ‘God-fearing people and nation’ is, in my view, close to or outright blasphemous because, in all fairness and by any standard or measure, God is ashamed of us.

Which God embraces unrepentant rapists, serial looters and habitual plunderers?

Which one?

Yes, Blues’ Orators, if you profess to be a Christian, tarry a while, grab the Bible and show me a single verse wherein Christ says,

“Thou shalt rape at will, thou shalt loot without remorse, thou shalt pillage and plunder at the slightest provocation, all in my name!”

If you find such a verse, then I will say job well done with respect to the “Christian” contribution to the anarchy described above.

To my brother Moslems, I know you believe that Allah, God, Jehovah or whatever name is used to refer to the Creator, is Almighty. That He is so omnipotent that with our human failings, we would be insulting him if we engaged in violence – of any nature – in His name.

What’s more, any bona fide Moslem ought to know the root of the word ‘Islam’.

Islam, for those who don’t know, is an Arabic word meaning “submission”. In the religious context it means “submission to the will of God (Allah)”.

This word “Islam” is derived from the Arabic word “sal’m” which literally means peace.

I repeat: peace.

Hence, if anyone claims to be a good Moslem they must manifest peace and tolerance.

I therefore hereby submit that any Christian or Moslem, or Moslem or Christian claiming to be fighting or engaging in violence on God’s or Allah’s behalf has got everything all wrong.

They are merely using religion for their own evil purposes.

If your religious leaders fail to make the above as crystal-clear as I have, I am afraid, look for a new religion because such misguided ‘religion’ is contributing to the multitudes losing faith and increasingly questioning whether God still lives in Malawi, amongst us.

They say, “He relocated to Europe, America or China where they have so simplified life [afewetsa moyo] to the extent that ALL the hard manual work that breaks the backs of us, the God-fearing pretenders, is done by machines and bank credit are a matter of choice.”

They insist saying, “God relocated to those secular countries where despite the fact that – as we speak – men are legally marrying fellow men and women can wed fellow women; the poor and destitute in those countries are a minority.

“Yet, in our dubious God-fearing nation, those struggling with dire poverty and just barely making ends meet are the majority and going by the ongoing thieving in government, there is no hope for them.”

If we want to continue claiming to be the Warm Heart of Africa; and indeed to continue peddling the God-fearing nation lie; we must revive the tolerance and harmony expected of people living with God in their hearts and souls.

But if we believe that God doesn’t live here anymore, then by all means, let’s rape, loot and fight to proliferate our woes.

I, for one, choose peaceful coexistence.

Salaam!

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