Let’s embrace cultural, linguistic diversity
Last week as I was coming from a friend’s wedding at Comesa Hall at Trade Fair in Blantyre, I was booed, threatened and called all sorts of nasty names by a group of men. They shouted and uttered almost every unprintable word they could. I was called hule, mfiti, chitsiru, wakuba (whore, witch, fool and thief) but that’s just the few words I can write, the rest were obscene utterances. One of the men blatantly told me that if he had a gun with him, he would have just shot me dead. Mtundu uwu ndiofunika kungowupha (this tribe should be killed). He continued: Ine kungokhala president ndikhoza kungowathamangitsa anthu amenewa. Amabowa (If I were president of this country, I would chase this tribe out of Malawi). The only crime I committed was to speak Chitumbuka which according to these men, disgusts them. I was told when in Malawi I should be speaking Chichewa which according to them is the only true local language. I was told that Tumbukas are foreigners in Blan...