It was painful to watch Malawi getting clobbered by Guinea in their opening match at this year’s Afcon tournament. Interim head coach, Mario Marinica, responded to the loss by reiterating that Malawians should not expect too much from their team.
Some people may not have liked this, but is far better to know the truth and proceed on that basis than to live in a fantasy. It is common knowledge that our team lacks many things, not least the financial resources to get it exposed to world football. Statistics show that since 2001, Malawi and Guinea have met 9 times, Malawi losing 4 times, winning once and drawing 4 times.
Clearly the odds are against us beating Guinea although in a game of football nothing should be ruled out completely. Yes, we can beat even giant teams like Egypt or Nigeria, but it will be by fluke.
Malawi can produce flashes of brilliance that will dazzle the world. In 1984, for example, Malawi’s Clifton Msiya dribbled past a chain of Nigerian defenders and went on to score a goal that was to be declared the goal of the tournament. Such brilliance is possible, but, the way things stand now, it is more the exception than the rule.
The point is that we should learn to be realistic with what to expect from our team or from our country. Expecting too much will only lead to incurable frustration. What is important is that we should learn to deal appropriately with any situation before we even begin to think that we will get something from it.
Let me throw in an example from an activity I am well versed with: choral competition. From time to time choirs in the CCAP Blantyre Synod compete against each other in competitions organised by the Synod or a Presbytery. A good deal of preparation precedes theses competitions. Choir members need to be so disciplined as to regularly attend practice sessions and go through a plethora of vocal (and sometimes physical) exercises to stand a chance of performing well in these competitions. Sometimes a choir will engage in hasty preparations but still enter the competition hoping that, by some fluke, they will do well. More often than not such choirs perform poorly.
On the strength of probability a well prepared choir or football team will outperform one that is not well prepared. To expect a different result is to be unrealistic and to expect too much.
We, Malawians, often expect a little too much from our resources. I have seen aerial pictures of Lilongwe, Harare, Lusaka and Dar es Salaam juxtaposed, with a remark to the effect that although the three countries became independent roughly at the same time, and Zimbabwe much later, yet Malawi’s capital is way behind the other capitals in terms of development.
Perhaps we expect a little too much from our cities. As a small boy, I lived in Lilongwe in the late 1960s. Lilongwe was only a municipality then. There was nothing beyond Chilambula Road or beyond Area 3 to the north and west. We lived near what is now Msonkhamanja Church, beyond which was Phwetekere, then a settlement outside the municipality. Phwetekere was a haven for gulewamkulu practitioners. The tanks near St Johns were on the fringes of the municipality on the south eastern side.
By that time, Harare (then called Salisbury), Lusaka and Dar es Salaam were already well established cities, having achieved city status in 1935, 1960 and 1961, respectively. Dar es Salaam appears to have been declared a city late but it predates all the other three. It was founded in 1865 and declared a municipality in 1949. By 1961 it was already a fine metropolis.
By comparison, Lilongwe became a city in 1975. To expect it to match its older siblings is to expect a little too much. By some fluke, some aspects of Lilongwe city could surpass corresponding aspects in Lusaka or Harare of Dar es Salaam but on the strength of probability Lilongwe will play second fiddle to its siblings. We should not be alarmed by that but, rather we must think of ways of developing the city so that it approaches the other three.
The same reasoning should be applied to our economy, which is, by no means, a great one. It is as fragile as the commodity on which it depends: tobacco. We keep hoping that our economy will suddenly transform into a developed one. There is so much each one of us needs to do before this can be realised.
Let us continue to search within our abilities to find what can be done to transform ourselves.