Conversations with Moses… ‘The Federal Republic of Malawi?’

I agree with you that federalism in the strict sense of the concept may not be a panacea for our political problems as its most fervent proponents would have us believe. The politics of regions and ethnicity in Malawi needs a more nuanced understanding. There is nothing scientific about our borders. They, like our state boundaries, were drawn up by the colonial powers without regard to any ethnic configuration whatsoever. Regionalism is not, therefore, an inevitable consequence of the regional boundaries that we have but a socially constructed phenomenon that fortifies and feeds into our patrimonial politics. Accordingly, there is absolutely no guarantee that folks from the 3 regions will not retreat into their even small sub-ethnic cocoons once the regional boundaries were done away with. So for arguments sake, if the Northern Region was to become an autonomous region, it wouldn't be long before the minority tongas, nkhondes, nyakyusas (you can add the many sub-ethnic groups that inhabit the region) started complaining of being excluded from the political process by the region’s majority ethnic group. Insidious fault-lines have got a way of being conveniently peppered over by the uniting presence of a common cause and or enemy. Closer to home, the tragic case of South Sudan should offer us all a sobering lesson. Against the mainly Arabic and Islamic political forces of the North, the darker peoples of the South found it easier to band together and demand their independence. But once the same had been secured, the thinly veiled ethnic fissures were to spectacularly explode. Folks who had hitherto fought side by side against a common enemy turned their weapons against each other in brutish slaughter. Now the very existence of their nascent state has been imperilled. My point is, folks from the 3 regions should not be naive enough to think that their own desired politically autonomous regions will be utopias and free from tribalistic rancor.

In addition, like DD Phiri, I have grave doubts about the viability of micro-states within a federal Malawi. Size can be a determinant for the viability of a state. Several political science scholars, for instance, have surmised that several African states have struggled to develop because they are simply not viable as states due to their tiny geographic size. Why? Well, the tinier the state the less likely it is that it will have the resources with which to take off and sustain itself development wise. That is why, perhaps [and holding all things constant!] Malawi would have been much better if it had been part of the larger states of Zambia, Mozambique and or Tanzania. So folks who want the North to be a micro autonomous state within a federal Malawi should ask themselves some tough question: is the region viable as an autonomous state? Does it have the resources with which to develop itself in a sustainable fashion? How and from where would the state government raise the revenues to meet its social-contract obligations to its citizens? The same can be asked of all the regions in fact. If one pays some sober attention to these questions, then one realizes that the matters of size of Malawi vis-a-vis the viability of a federal state as raised by DD Phiri cannot be cast aside with the casual indifference of some of the supporters of federalism.

That said, the debate about federalism and the rather surprising traction that it has gained is symptomatic of deep seated disaffection with the status quo. I personally believe that the grievances of folks from the Centre and North (at least for the time being) are not without justification. They are worth paying attention to before they find expression in more destructive forms. But maybe a Federal State may not be a way to go. We could start by ensuring that power really devolves to the lowest levels possible through decentralization. If say district/town/city councils had more say in the provision of social amenities such as roads, hospitals and education together with the control over relevant resources, then maybe some regions would not complain of being denied development. We could also introduce another tier of political authority at say provincial level they way they have in South Africa. Given the right conditions, these provincial governments could counter the central government. We should also reform our electoral system by requiring a President to be elected by an absolute majority.  If a President knew that he needed more than half of the voters to vote for him to stay in power, then I doubt if he would govern in a manner that was only pleasing to an enclave of his tribesmen. An electoral system which made it extremely difficult for one party to govern without a coalition would for these reasons also be preferred.

P.S. Isn't it amazing that we the colonized peoples continue to struggle with the legacy of colonialism decades after our supposed independence? From Iraq to Sudan to the tiny state of Malawi, the evidence suggests that we will continue to pay for the folly of straight-line maps drawn by imperialists without any regard to 'nationalistic sensitivities'.