MALAWI: THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

Several years ago, I read about Madonna’s nonprofit charity Raising Malawi. The program aims to help the state of extreme poverty in the country by focusing on education and health care. The nonprofit has erected several schools and healthcare facilities, and as far as I could tell from the website, it has made some impacts. Of course, there have been plenty of criticisms as well. Even though there are some obvious problems with poverty and lack of adequate healthcare in Malawi, I have a feeling there’s more to this country than this. So, I can’t wait to find out more. 

The name Malawi may be derived from a word meaning “tongues of fire” possibly in references to the way the sun reflects off of Lake Malawi. However, the first president of Malawi, Hastings Banda, said during the time the country was known as Nyasaland (“Nyasa” means “lake”), that he once saw a “Lac Maravi” on an old French map, and it got him thinking. He decided “Malawi” would make a better name. 

Malawi is a landlocked country in southeastern Africa. It’s surrounded by Tanzania to the northeast, Mozambique covering most of the southern parts, and Zambia on the northwest side. Lake Malawi runs along its eastern border with Tanzania and Mozambique. It also includes the island of Likoma that is located in Lake Malawi and actually closer to Mozambique than Malawi. The southern part tends to be hotter than the more temperate northern regions. 

 

Hastings Banda

The original inhabitants were Bantu-speaking people who migrated here from northwest Africa. There were several tribes here who united and created the Kingdom of Maravi. During the 1600s, they worked with the Portuguese traders, but by the 1700s and 1800s, large numbers of people were caught up in the Swahili-Arab slave trade. In 1859, David Livingstone reached the shores of Lake Nyasa and decided that was a great place for Europeans to settle. In the following years, missionaries and trading companies began to settle in the area and set up their own towns. In the late 1800s, the land known as the Shire Highlands was placed as a British Protectorate which was later expanded to include the entire country, renaming it as Nyasaland. The African nationals created a group to present their own interests to the British government. During the early 1950s, the British combined Nyasaland with Northern and Southern Rhodesia (mostly modern day Zimbabwe) and renamed the entire area the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. As they gained independence, Hastings Banda was declared the first prime minister of the country and renamed the country Malawi. Since its independence, the country had its struggles economically and politically and is trying to overcome poverty and strengthen their economic ties. 

The capital city, Lilongwe, is named after the Lilongwe River. It’s located near the central region of the country, not far from the border with Mozambique and Zambia. The city itself is divided between the Old City and the New City. There’s a definite distinction between the modern shops and the old walled sections of the city. Several smaller local markets are spread throughout the city. And because of the number of tourists in Lilongwe, you can find a number of diverse cuisines. As far as transportation goes, there is an international airport, regular bus service, and there’s also a limited rail service. The city does have a sports stadium as well. Although the city is the fgovernmental center of the country, the financial and commercial capital is located in Blantyre. 

Malawi has its struggles. It’s among the least developed countries in the world. The vast majority of its people live in the rural areas, and its economy is largely based on agriculture and especially tobacco, tea, and sugar. It also depends on foreign aid and aid from the World Bank and the IMF. Although the country battles high unemployment and poverty rates, there are some small strides being made, but they tend to be few and far between at times. 

Because of Malawi’s history with Britain, it is a majority Christian country. Of the Christian population, the largest denomination is Roman Catholicism with a number of other smaller denominations present as well. About a quarter of the population is Muslim, mostly Sunni. Of course, there are also a significant number of Baha’is, Hindus, Rastafarians, Jews, atheists, and people who practice traditional African religions. 

While the official language is English, there are many local languages spoken throughout Malawi. The majority of Malawians speak Chichewa although Chinyanja, Chiyao, and Chitumbuka also have large numbers of speakers. 

I’m a fan of the Danish beer Carlsberg and have been for some time. In 1966, the Danish Foreign Minister took a trip to Malawi, and when he returned he had this idea that Carlsberg should open a brewery there. It didn’t take terribly long for the negotiations to manifest itself, and two years later, Carlsberg built their first brewery outside of Denmark in the city of Blantyre, Malawi. (And now I’m craving a Carlsberg.) All I know is that there are a lot of interesting things I’ve already come across in reading about this country. So let’s find out what Malawi is really all about.

Up next: art and literature

DENMARK: THE FOOD

Well, my son finally turned five years old this week, and I turned in his application for kindergarten and the magnet school program for next year.  Hopefully, he’ll be accepted to the same school that his sister goes to, a Spanish-immersion language school where their math and science classes are taught in Spanish and the rest of the classes are taught in English.  I really love it. I wish I had those opportunities when I was in school. 

And it was also a busy week, because the rugbrød bread is now at the top of my list of “bread that takes the longest to make.”  I had to start the sourdough starter last week because it was supposed to sit for seven days (ok, mine sat for six).  I’ve never made a sourdough bread before: this one called for buttermilk, water, rye flour, whole wheat flour, and some salt to be mixed together and then sprinkled with course salt before its covered and put in a cool place (but not in the refrigerator) and forgot about.  Then today, I had to get up and start this much earlier than I normally do.  I mixed a bottle of Carlsberg beer, some honey, salt, water, yeast, rye flour, and the sour dough mix together.  Then I stirred in some cracked wheat (because I didn’t have cracked rye), some water, and some crushed sunflower seeds into it.  In Denmark, they have special rugbrød molds, but I’m just using a regular loaf pan.  I didn’t take out any to preserve as a starter, but I could have if I wanted to.  Since I didn’t do that, I had to use three loaf pans.  The recipe says to let this sit for six hours, but I’m hoping science can do its thing in five hours.  After that, it calls to bake it at 350º F for two hours, spraying it with water every half hour or so (of which I had to get kind of inventive since my husband took my spray bottle to the garage where it’s lost and presumed dead.  I improvised with a Hello Kitty soy sauce dispenser.).  Technically, to do this the right way, the bread is supposed to cool on its own for a couple of hours and then wrapped in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for a day before slicing. Obviously, I should’ve made this yesterday, and since I didn’t, I’m going to try to accelerate all of this cooling business.  Maybe I should give it the cold shoulder? (I did manage to put it in the refrigerator for a bit, and I think it was fine to cut.)

Hearty and perfect for cold weather -- it was 25 degrees colder in Indianapolis than in Copenhagen. 

The rugbrød is the basis of an open-faced sandwich called smørrebrød.  There are probably hundreds of types of smørrebrød from pickled herring to vegetarian styles.  The one I chose was called frikadeller.  It’s basically a meatball made from pork and veal, but I couldn’t find any veal, so I went with just the ground pork.  (Of course, I am shopping in the days before Thanksgiving, so some of the shelves are a little bare.)  The pork is mixed with a little onion, egg, some soda water, salt, flour, a little allspice, and pepper.  Unlike the baked meatballs that I made from Belarus, these meatballs are pan fried in butter and flattened slightly to resemble small patties. I think there was a little too much soda water because the first batch kept falling apart.  I added a little more flour, and really, even at that, they still turned out more like patties rather than slightly flattened meatballs. But regardless, the flavor was excellent. 

Yes, I ditched the veal, but these were really good.

And now it comes time to assemble the smørrebrød.  It starts out by spreading some Dijon mustard on a slice of the freshly made rugbrød (although I think I would prefer yellow mustard), then topping it with a couple of the frikadeller meatballs and some kind of garnish on top of the meatballs. I used a recipe called syltede agurker, which is Danish Pickled Cucumbers to put on top of it.  This recipe is 98.1% like a similar recipe my mother would often make in the summer.  It’s thin-sliced cucumbers, cider vinegar, water, sugar, salt, and pepper stirred together and refrigerated for a couple of hours.  Then it’s drained and sprinkled with dill weed.  I bought fresh dill for this because it was 99¢ for a bunch, but it’s a HUGE bunch, and I’ll never use it all.  Maybe I can find someone to pawn off some dill on. And maybe a loaf of rugbrød. 

Tastes like childhood, and the fresh dill just made my childhood even better. 

The bread was extremely hearty. And even though each ingredient is delicious, yet completely different from the others, when it was assembled, it all came together.  The reason I would’ve chosen yellow mustard over Dijon is that between the Dijon mustard and the vinegar cucumbers, it was a little too much bite.  But that was my only measly complaint.  Otherwise, it was the most wonderful thing I’ve eaten today.  And it was really filling.  One sandwich was plenty enough. I think this will make the best lunch tomorrow, and probably for the next couple of the days.  Of course, I chased this all down with a Carlsberg beer (but when I was at the liquor store, I found a dark rye ale called Rugbrød – it tasted something like Guinness -- I only bought it for the name). 

I suck at pouring beer into a glass since it was all foam.  So, I drank it straight from the bottle.

And at least this is a short workweek for Thanksgiving. It’s a common time to reflect on what you’re thankful for, and I suppose I’ve been thinking about it a little myself.  I’m thankful for so many things including my family and this blog, and my ability to think and read and write – it’s more than a lot of people have.

Mmmm. There are no words but mmm mmm. (Ok, that's also the sound I make with food in my mouth.) 

Up next: Djibouti