By Sean Mateus
At times, we say things out of excitement.
Sometimes out of frustration.
Sometimes, out of a conscious resolve to exact damage, psychological or otherwise on others.
Sometimes, out of indifference to what we said or plan to say.
Sometimes, out of limited understanding but truly convinced that that was the appropriate thing to say.
In the case of my sister Hellen Chabunya , it could be any or all of these things.
I want to dwell much on the context and less on what was said.
In light of the attention her post garnered, this an opportune time for learning, unfortunately the moment has been hijacked by base pursuasions of those apparently hurt. Let’s momentarily rise above that.
The Hon Marcus Mosiah Garvey teach us that when one of our creed slips, the way forward is to admonish that other with with wise counsel so as to bring him right back on the path of enlightenment and in harmony with his brothers and sisters. Only when such a person refuses to renounce his old wayward ways is he/she to declared an enemy of the society! Wise counsel fosters unity and understanding.
You can’t beat ignorance or misunderstanding out of a person. It never works. He only retreats into a safe space to avoid scrutiny. Their changes are only skin deep. Ignorance or misunderstanding is an ideal. It is goes beyond the absence of correct information. Because in the absence of that said proper information, the individual finds him or herself holding on to a narrow perspective shaped by his experiences or equally informed by wrong information. So make a positive impression upon the character of the individual, there is always a nedd to enrich his thought process first so as to effectively emmacipate him from his ignorance.
In the matter at hand, calling her names was literally unnecessary. She benefited nothing in that regard. She should have been schooled on why the team was composed like that. Trust me, she is not the only one who made that observation . . .
I am of the firm opinion that particularised statements like “Hellen, netball is a physical game that requires above average tall players, and these players are only found in the North” or, “sister, netball as a sporting discipline is well developed in the North as opposed to the South/Central because the North has more/better sporting facilities as compared to the south, consequently, the talent pool in the North is significantly huge and better skilled as compared to the South/Central” or “sister, this is the criteria that the Coach employed to select the national team players, so as you see it is a mere coincidence that seemingly alot of players have been identified as Northerners”. Whatever was to be offered in response to her post should have been aimed at highlighting lapses in the thought process of our sister and not aimed at belittling her.
For all I care the netball team could comprise 100% thoroughbred Yao’s, Lhomwe’s or Sena’s if there are no questionable grounds for that. They are all Malawians!
I am a Chewa by tribe. So, for example, if someone were to raise issue with the president appointing a disproportionately large number of Chewa’s into strategic positions, in disagreeing with them, I should be able to explain why such is a mere case if coincidence and not one of concious bias on the part of the president. A satisfactory explanation ought to be proffered to explain away the visible disproportionate trend. Because failure to do so will likely breed resentment in aggrieved persons, consequently creating enemies and alienating allies within. A clear run against the Pan African spirit.
Then there are those who wondered, in earnest or not, as to why her Northern friends never bothered to defend her. This is wrong! I think it will suffice to say that wrong is wrong no matter who or how many are standing with you. The herd mentality is an enemy of progress. A toxic ideal does not all of a sudden become a innocuous because a larger group has embrace it. A million people can be wrong!
As I understand that, she has since retracted her post and issued a statement. This is how men and women living in a civilised society ought to conduct themselves when it is brought to their attention that their conduct has occasioned harm in one way or another. Personally, I do not think that our sister is a tribalist. During the DPP era, she unequivocally called out its cronyism and nepotistic tendencies in fighting for a fair Malawi for all. Her acknowledgement of other people’s feelings is a testament of her great personality.
Let me close on this note. We need to embrace the Pan African approach in resolving our difference. We need to normalise admonishing errant folk with wise counsel and not bricks and sticks. We need to embrace making and not breaking each other. We need to embrace uplifting each other by enriching each others apparent narrow perspectives. Moments of weakness should be seized turned into moments of learning.
We have a much bigger task at hand: weaving unity and illuminating the minds of the Negro folk! We need to stay the course.
Peace
