The elders present their case

The elders present their case

Wednesday night was the last night in the village for the students from Bishop’s university, so we had a party. Everyone enjoyed themselves as we sang and danced and relished those last few moments together. I had passed on responsibility for the pay to the Makupo “Central Committee” of the account signatories, elders and the ones who had organised the different work teams – cleaners, cooks, security and guides. There was a lot of heated discussion about the amount of money available and how some got paid less than in past years, but on the whole everyone was in a good mood with money in the pocket. So they danced and they sang. When the CD player in the truck stopped working, then out came the women led by Esnati who really knows how to whip the older women into a really good mood with lots of hand clapping, praise singing, dancing and laughing.

Esnati had come to the village from granny’s home village in the valley below Dedza as an orphan in 1970 and lived with the old lady anaMumba almost as a servant. She and her children were very much part of the fabric of village life and even though she never really went far in school, she was the energy and enthusiasm behind dancing and singing whenever she got involved. After many years in Lilongwe trying to be a business woman, she and her husband are moving back and building their house in a nearby village about 4 kilometres away. He is going to become a Group Village Headman (GPV) which makes him chief over as many as 6 to 10 other village headmen.

Our Chief Makupo came to invite myself, and the 2 professors, Christopher and Barbara to meet him. He had something to tell us. He praised us for what we had done and how we were working to make Makupoites work together and take responsibility for their own projects. He understood how we were passing on to the people of Makupo the running of the projects so they could build a stronger economic base.

However, he wanted to remind us that there were people who contributed a great deal to making the visits successful but were not included in the payroll. They were the elders who helped behind the scenes to smooth out rough patches and contributed in a variety of ways to the enterprise.

It was a very logical appeal and very instructive about how a village works. We were paying people for functions that fit the labour force, but behind the scenes was the wisdom and judgment of the village managers, the movers and shakers. Despite their age and apparent lack of visible contribution they had maintained a constant eye on things and monitored progress and ensured that the overview was never lost in the busyness of the moment.

Mr. Chikapa is a case in point. Now 72, he retired from the civil service many years ago after a career as a local government auditor. He was married to Nellie’s oldest sister, Ruth who died in 2007. He had suffered a stroke about 5 or 6 years ago that slightly incapacitated his left hand and leg, but his senses are still really strong. Because he had married into the family there was a tendency to leave him out of the family circle when things were discussed. From my first visit, I felt that we could use his background in accounts and bookkeeping to our advantage and that it would be therapeutic for him to be involved and called on for help.

That really began during the last trip in February, but he remained peripheral until this trip, when I set up a petty cash for him to administer so the workers in the kitchen, security, construction, etc.. would go to him and he would exercise the requisite controls and develop a business sense among the people and a sense of accountability and transparency. He was very busy throughout my stay and worked very hard to bring some order to my chaos.

The chief himself, intervened at any number of instances too ensure that problems were dealt with. When one person became too overly friendly with the women visitors and approached people when he was clearly drunk, Chief Makupo had called the elders together including the culprit’s father to correct the behaviour. With the many projects and actions which required a business sense, he was the go to person. He signed the contract for the hostel on behalf of Makupo and solved the problem of the signatories and the bounced cheque. (Don’t get me started on the sins of the Standard Bank of Malawi). And there were others – Mr Kuphera (79) and Anasimango (69) who did not march at the front of the parade, but who helped the whole machine work smoothly.

Now here was the chief reminding us that in all the calculations, these essential contributors had not been considered, nor rewarded. It was an important lesson in how a village works. This is true in any organisation let alone a village. The managers may not be visible on the ground, but they are the ones who create the conditions for everything else to work effectively. His message was articulate and clearly put. He was educating us in how a village works as much as he was making a plea for the elders to be included in the rewards assigned for the visits.