Chisomo Ngulube Writes

She was born to Yao parents in the late 50s and consequently grew up in the early 60s. The prevailing expectation from family and peers at the time was that she would find a suitor just after puberty.

Many Malawians may have not heard about Mayamiko's ethically designed clothing lines woven in Malawi, but Meghan Markle, wife to Prince Harry of Britain has. The couple, referred to in their country as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived in South Africa for their tour of Africa on Monday, with Meghan, decked in a printed black and white wrap dress named Dalitso (meaning blessing) which according to the brand's website, was ethically made "by lovely humans" from locally sourced materials in Malawi. The dress which has already sold out is by British royal standards quite affordable at about US$86 but at around MK67,000 is out of reach for most Malawians. The brand says on its website that their textiles are hand picked from the local fabrics market in Malawi. "We work with a local cooperative of women traders to source the most exclusive prints and they are only enough to produce a very limited number of pieces," says the site. The garment...

Journalists the world over inform and educate the public about events and issues and how they affect people's lives; journalists help set the agenda and shape public discourse; journalists are not supposed to make news. But on Wednesday two journalists Gladys Nthenda a senior reporter for Kulinji.com and Golden Matonga of Nation Publications Limited made headlines when they were attacked and assaulted while covering demonstrations meant to force Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson justice Jane Ansah to step down. The harrowing tale of how Gladys' phone was snatched away, her pair of trousers torn all the while showing her official identification card leaves us wondering about the level of moral decay of our social fabric in which the decency of a woman is no longer as respected. I fear that such misogynistic attacks serve to compound the pressure that women journal...

In 2008, Charity Salima left her job as a nurse-midwife after working for nearly 20 years to set up a clinic in the populous township of Area 23 in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe. Achikondi Women's Centre would help expectant mothers and provide basic medical care to the surrounding community she thought.

  A group of women calling themselves Forum for Concerned Women has vowed to take to the streets of Blantyre on Wednesday, 10 July 2019 to demonstrate against what they describe as the harrassment of Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Jane Ansah in the calls for her resignation. Tearing up, the women led by Minister of Gender Mary Navitcha, human rights activist now a chief director in the DPP administration Seodi White addressed a press briefing in Blantyre on Monday having earlier written a blind statement.

  The 2018 Malawi Population and Housing Census report launched last Friday has shown that nearly 23 out of every 100 of Malawi’s 17.5 million inhabitants save their money and that most of such savings are made with village banks (11 percent) and other means as opposed to commercial banks (7.4 percent). The census found that of the 4.2 million that have some sort of savings, the majority of them 54.2 percent use a village bank (VB), 30.3 percent commercial banks. The figures also show a rise in mobile banking as 11 percent of the people who keep their money use the service.

Campaigners for more female inclusion in positions of power have lamented the failure by some female political stalwarts to retain their Parliamentary seats. Preliminary results show that UTM General Secretary Patricia Kaliati who has served as Parliamentarian for Mulanje West since 1999 is among the unconfirmed casualties that also include former Minister of Gender and Democratic Progressive Party candidate for Dowa Central Jean Kalilani, former Malawi Congress Party spokesperson Jessie Kabwila, former first lady Patricia Shanil Dzimbiri, outspoken Dedza East former MCP MP Juliana Lunguzi and DPP secretary general Grezelder Jeffrey.

The campaign period is over. Malawians vote in Tripartite Elections on Tuesday, May 21 2019. Fifty six percent of the 6,859,570 registered voters are women. There is no woman contesting for the presidency as was the case in the previous 2014 elections. But in the battle for Parliamentary seats, of the 1,333 contestants 304 are women representing 23%. If previous trends are anything to go by women’s success rate will hover at around 20-30%. This despite the 50-50 Campaign mounted to increase women’s participation in politics. I [Chisomo Ngulube (CN)] engaged Viwemi Chavula (VC) of the 50-50 Campaign Management Agency on the 2019 campaign. 

Malawians will vote in Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections in a few days time. Figures released by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) show that 55 out of the every 100 voters in the Southern African country’s May 21 Tripartite Elections will be women. In fact, in some areas such as the lake shore district of Mangochi, the number of women registered to vote far outweighs that of men as they comprise nearly 62 out of every 100 registered voters. Malawi 2018 Census figures that show that 51 percent of Malawians are women. The figures make women an important constituent of the electoral and governance process, although women remain at the peripheral even globally in terms of partaking of what is on the table; women are also remain grossly underrepresented in positions of influence including in the political sphere, prompting gender equality proponents to agitate for women’s inclusion.