Yambakata

Picture this: a few years to come you're in the sumptuous lounge of your state-of-the art home—on the millennial Lunzu Plain. Before you—despite three years of drought—are tapestried lush green fields forming the prosperous Lunzu-Zalewa Irrigation Program.
Nearer home: below the fauna-decked veranda—at the family braai stand—is your multimillionaire son—the “chiYambakata” Supremo. With fellow Yambakatas they are leaning against their latest cars that bounce to the pounding rhythm of Yamba Beat. On ultra-modern cellular video phones—latest exportable technology from our own "Chirimba Silicon Valley"—are live images of Malawian ladies squeezed in designer wear and ensconced in topless stretch limos. They are heading for your house.
The Yambakatas are having another of their traditional weekend ‘doggone’ parties. "Unfortunately" you are not invited!
But you bear it with a grin because your chiYambakata owns everything around here—including the towering grain silos and agribusinesses that are visible in the yonder Shire Valley horizon. Still you like it because—as a member of the ‘reasonably-schooled’ Malawians—you created this YAMBA [Young and Ambitious Malawian Business Achievers] culture.
Cut!
Open your eyes to present day. Your son—in knock-off Chinese jeans—has just sidled around a further kitchen corner of your ram shackled house; probably off to visiting with friends and some puffing off on their daily dose of Nkhotakota "zol". Just yesterday you overheard them:
"Come 2009 we'll buy the wickedest zol in town... and just see "Yellow" on the ballot paper!'
A life of despair… And who is to blame?
Of course, it's you and I—today's parents and policy makers. We have duty-failed to create a conducive environment for our youth. And it’s not about reverting to Dr. Banda and his MYP [Malawi Young Pioneers] concepts. Rather, simply listen to our radios or watch that TVM thing again. Ask yourself: which program seriously emphasizes empowering our youth? None!
It’s alright to sit back—and nowadays we do that a lot—blaming the government for "doing nothing about our youth". Just the other day—because our NGOs have now joined in blaming the government for ‘disappearing forex and fuel’—our idle youth were involved in the bloody butchering of 18 lives across Malawi.
And typically the children are suckling the blame games. "Zols and voting Yellow" and “wanton damaging of lives and property after so-called peaceful marches” are now favorite pastimes. Ignored is the fact that the "Jaundice" guys threw out Kamuzu's MYP baby with the dirty bathwater! For ten good years we kept the ‘Yellow tribe’ in power while creating the "beggar syndrome" that has now colonized the brain cells of our youth.
And it has come full circle—ask-Malawi’s NGOs.
Nevertheless, the first positive step is for us—parents. We must get out of this rising "wallet parenting" culture. The Chilembwe bills we are using to buy peace in our homes will never build self-respecting youth! Instead, we should impose some real parental responsibilities. Critically—if you are averse to smacking some dirty mucus out of your child's mouth—then get those radios and TVM—like they do elsewhere in Africa—to mold some leadership qualities in them youth.
For example Kwaito—that gutter existence on community radio stations [with parents phoning in to stop young DJs from '"dissing" on family airwaves]—now rules South African and regional airwaves. Indeed, Kwaito stars are now Movie and TV directors of exportable and Emmy Award pictures and soundtracks. Can you imagine the number of movies Malawian youth—organized into an effective movie industry—could produce around the good-and-dirty stuff that took place during the Kamuzu and Bakili eras! Alas—our creative writers are on useless zols or waiting for another ‘pretender-politician’ to send them on a ‘property-destruction’ errand!
The way forward is for parents INSISTING on radio and TV programs where youth are allowed to showcase—no matter how crass and stupid—their talents in music, brainpower and creativity. Let's hear them—let them hear themselves—making mistakes and improving on these. There is a Chinese Proverb that says: ‘a perfect journey starts with a mistake’. Let’s all learn from that.
The second step is for government to facilitate the overdue policy on YAMBA Initiatives—newsletters, creativity competitions etc. Youth require robust development policies because an exporting nation requires young and ambitious entrepreneurs. Naturally—within Globalization—raw cassava-dumplings exportation is a DoDo competence! The youth—the new EHS [Exportable Human Software]—are the cutting edge. NGOs read my lips: "Youth and Exportable Brainpower"—not yesterday's "Muscle power" concepts—are the new Strategic Independence raw material that Malawi needs today. Naturally youth must be nurtured into NDC [national development competences].
Only then can Yambakatas seriously irrigate Malawi, develop the associated agribusiness ventures and exploit the emerging global service sectors—now at 30-40% of GNPs of most successful economies—in logistics, telecoms [look out for Malawi's own genuine cell-phone company], cross-border trading and conspicuous person-to-person consumption.
If you’ve loved my opening: then we are on our way!

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