PageMaster had the honor of interviewing Winston Chakudika Msowoya, with his book Malawi: The Legacy of Tyranny and Shame. We were able to connect with him on a more personal level to understand his true feelings and what he personally went through, some information not even shared in the book. With his lovely wife Jane by his side, both share their perspective on Malawi as a country and the struggle that continues to this day.
Question: When you wrote the book, what was your intention for writing it?
Winston: To let the people know what kind of government there is in Malawi; government of one man is not the government, it is a very wild dictatorship.
Question: You lived under that dictatorship, how many years ago was that?
Winston: That is why I’m here, I ran away from there. I left my homeland 30 years ago.
Jane: When he ran away, it was in exile before democracy, which took him 30 years. He came to Canada in 1987.
Question: Can you personally tell 2 moments that made you realize back home that this wasn’t right?
Winston: We had no freedom of speech, people were being arrested and detained, and put in very inhumane conditions, prisons.
Jane: Family members went through this too, his dad was even sent to prison for that matter. Being asthmatic and old, they still locked him up, and his father passed away.
Question: What is the message that you are trying to tell young people when they read this book?
Winston: They had been under the dictator government for a long time, what I am trying do is explain to the people that one-man government and one-party rule is not good for the citizens.
Question: Do you feel like there has been any change, and what more change would you want to see?
Winston: There is a little bit of change, though more can be done obviously. Freedom of speech is there, but it is still being controlled. People must be free, the government right now that is running the country is one sided. Tribalism.  Tribe: Timbuka. That is my tribe; this tribe has started to get education long time ago, when the missionary came, during the colonial time. When we got independence (1964), we experienced again separation and brutality from the government. 1964 was the year I ran away to Tanzania first.Â
Question: What are the rival tribes in Malawi?
Jane: Technically there are two tribes, Timbuka and Chewa, so I should say Malawi are divided into 3 parts: North, Central, and South. So north is the Timbuka, Central and south is Chewa. The population is kind of neck and neck. Where we are coming from, which is the north, there are about 3 million of us. As for central and south, there is probably 6 plus million, because the overall population is 18 million. We are the minority, and we are the victims. But then when it comes to education, more people are educated from the Northern region.
Winston: The government had imposed a quota system of education, where the northerners were given a higher percentage to go to secondary school, even University. The two tribes which are the majority, take the position whether they are qualified or not, they are given such responsibilities.
Question: Your son, how does he feel about his roots and what is going on in his country?
Jane: He is feeling really sad in the point that he has been taken home three times, the last time was 2015 and he was 17 years old, he saw with his own eyes the poverty which is happening in our country. He loves his country, but the conditions are making him not like it, nor to even call it a home. The last time all of us have been back home was 2015.
Question: Do you feel like outside help (from the U.S or Canada) could maybe help benefit the country? Or is this something that the country needs to figure out on its own without any outside help?
Jane: You know what, my country, the government, is running because of the donors. If there were not any donors, I do not think Malawi would even be a country. But the government is misusing the funds. Instead of the funds going to education, they put it in their pockets. Any funds that should be going to the hospitals, or helping of infrastructure, they put the money in their pockets. That is the brute of these African Leaders. They do help, but it is still little progress.
Winston: No medicine in the hospitals, people are dying, and education system is going down. Those same government officials have their children study abroad for better education, but what about the common man? The common man is dying! It is unfair.
Discussion & Conclusion
Interviewer: It is hard and very painful to hear, but to also see with your own eyes. You want to see your own people thrive, but yet it is your same people that are pushing them down, it just wicked.
Winston: It is terrible in Africa.
Jane: Like for us, the way we are living here, we love to go home, like this year we were planning to go home. I lost a mom, he lost a dad, and so we want to go visit. You just arrive at the airport, and the second they see a Canadian passport, it’s like I’m not welcome in my own motherland. I’m a foreigner, but because I’m a tiger, I fight with them. I have to fight for my rights, yet in my own country. Unless you win 6/49 lottery, you’re a millionaire, then maybe you’ll feel more welcomed.
Interviewer: You have to fight for your rights, even though it should just be given to you.
Jane: Exactly!
Winston: We love our country, but it’s just the problems there are very disturbing. When you pose the system of the government, they know you, hear you, and kill their own people. You are killing your brothers and sisters, and for what cause?
Tanzania is one of the most civilized African states. So many African Americans there, they come back home (motherland). When some black people want to go back, they are welcomed and given some free land, because of the slave trade. Most African Americans have been in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, whenever they want settle, they are welcomed there because of the slave trade past in West Africa. After all, we are all one. We got separated, and it’s not fair, so it is time to come back.
Interviewer speaks: Well, thank you so much for your time and getting to hear your story firsthand, I also look forward to finish reading the book myself.
Jane: Thank you sister.
Winston: After all, we are all one people.
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