On 6th December, 2016, I was part of the Lilongwe
March for Life that was organized by the Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM)
and the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) in all but five of Malawi’s 28
districts. The marches were a culmination of 14-days of prayer for life and
family that began on 21st November and ended on 4th
December. They were primarily to counter the supposed government plan to table
pro-abortion and pro-same-sex legislation during the current sitting of
parliament, 21st November to 16th December. The
government spokesperson, however, said that there was no such impending
legislation in parliament; rather, there was a Law Commission report making
recommendations to government to adopt new legislation on abortion. Of course,
such sentiments did not stop the march from proceeding. As somebody that was
there, I would like to offer my observations about the Lilongwe march’s
positivity and orderliness, show of religious unity in the public sphere, maturing
ecumenism, and political muscle-flexing. In my next installment, Beyond the
March, I will share my thoughts of what should happen after the march. I
have already share my thoughts on why I think that Christians should
participate in this march in my previous blog.
A Positive and Orderly March
Contrary to many media reports of an “anti-gay and
anti-abortion” march, the march was not billed as an anti-gay and anti-abortion
march. The march was about being pro-life and pro-family both of which are
tenets that the Bible-believing church has held these past two millennia.
Certainly in a democracy any group has freedom of association and even the
right to demonstrate. Christians and those of other faiths with like-minded
values marched in solidarity to affirm their allegiance to their pro-life and
pro-family way of life in the context of an increasing imperial imposition of
same-sex and liberalized-abortion values from the “developed” countries.
Obviously behind such thinking is the felt superiority of those who would want
to impose such values on another society hence the label imperial. Apart from a
T-shirt that said “real men don’t bend over”, for the most part I did not hear
or see any form of derogatory remarks against those that are LGBTI from the
crowd, the EAM/ECM speakers, or anyone else.
The march was orderly unlike most marches that sometimes
degenerate into rioting and looting. The peacefulness of the march made the Police
to be there ceremonially though they seemed to me to be in full force ready for
any eventualities. The mc on the truck carrying the PA system is the one who
directed us on where to sit when we came to the parliament building. Though the
organizers were accused of forcing primary school pupils to join the march, I
heard one of the children saying that they had just finished writing their
exams and had been let off early from school. No person was harmed in any way;
no property was damaged in any way. This was an exemplary march.
A Show of Religious Unity in the Public Sphere
One of the riveting scenes in my mind is that of platform mc,
Rev. Dr Zacc Kawalala of Word Alive Ministries International which is a
Neocharismatic church, welcoming Rev. Father Henry Saindi of the Catholic Church
to make a speech whilst in the background a Rastarian Lion of Judah flag was
blowing in the wind. I stood watching this scene in fascination almost next to
two Muslims imams who were intently listening to what Father Saindi was saying.
This was a reminder that religious people share many similar values and seek
quite similar kinds of societies though they may differ in specifics. Sure, there
are those with extremist tendencies in every religion (the likes of Boko Haram
and the Lord’s Resistance Army) that would want to dictate every aspect of life
totalitarian style but these have no place in democracy.
Of course, this is not the only platform for religious unity
on public matters as there is also the Public Affairs Committee (PAC) which was
very instrumental in our transition from a one-party dictatorship to a
multiparty democracy between 1992 and 1994. And PAC’s good work continues on to
today. My point here though is that the march was a reminder that there can be
and should be religious unity in the public sphere to advance matters of justice,
peace, and prosperity. In this way, the religious communities can properly play
the role of civil society which Ollen Mwalubunju says “is the realm of
organized social life which lies between the individual and the state and is
the arena of social engagement which is above the individual yet below the
state” and, in its active form, “is key for sustained political reform and a
viable state-society relationship”.[1] Instead of parroting to the
government of the day that they are “partners in development”, religious groups
should act as watchdogs for justice, peace, and prosperity in society. This
march showed that the churches can properly play the role of an active civil
society that bring about political reform.
A Maturing Ecumenism in the Public Sphere
The march was ecumenical, that is, Christians from across
the denominations worked together. It is usually hard to get Evangelical/Born-Again
Christians to consider most Catholics as true believers and vice versa. To put
things in historical perspective, consider that it was only during the Second
Vatican Council (October 1962 – December 1965) that Catholics started regarding
Protestants – of which Evangelicals/Born-Agains are a subset – as their
“estranged brethren”. Before that, and stretching all the way to the
Reformation in the 1500s, Catholics pretty much regarded Protestants as
heretics. In the Malawian context,
Born-Again churches and Catholics rarely do things together. Take the Way of
the Cross Good Friday processions, for example. The Born-Again churches have
their more boisterous version while the Catholics have their more solemn one
and at times do cross each other’s paths. So it was a pleasant surprise to see
the realization on both sides that they need not major on what separates them
but rather what unites them in the public sphere. This pragmatism, in my
opinion, is a maturity on both sides. As was observed during the march, a
church speaking univocally makes for a strong prophetic voice that speaks truth
to power. This is what we need in our infant democracy.
A Necessary Flexing of Political Muscle
Finally, that this was a big political statement was not
lost on anyone with political eyes to see. The organizational aspect of it that
involved groups in all but five districts, speaks of a formidable movement. The
fact that many people took time off their work and businesses to march also
speaks of great commitment to this cause. There are no official attendance
statistics yet but Makhumbo Munthali, the EAM’s point-person for the march,
estimates that there were approximately 5,000 in Lilongwe, about 7,000 in
Blantyre, and probably 40,000 nationally.
This is a very needed statement in the Malawian context
where the apathetic ruling elite take the people for granted. It was a reminder
that the church will not allow the powers that be to ride rough-shod over the
people as they pursue whatever self-serving agenda they may plan. Rev. Dr. Zacc
Kawalala, who is also the chairperson of EAM’s Ethics, Peace, and Justice
Commission – made an overt threat to the parliamentarians present that day by
saying that if the MPs were to vote otherwise concerning legislation to do with
abortion and same-sex marriages, they would not be voted back into office come
2019.
Thank you EAM and ECM for awakening our consciences to be
the salt and light to a very sick nation. The march is not it. It’s not the
place of arrival. It’s just part of the process. The real issue becomes what
happens after it.
[1]
Ollen Mwalabunju, “Civil Society”, in Nandini Patel and Lars Svasand (editors),
Government and Politics in Malawi, Center for Social Research/Chr.
Michelsen Institute, 2007, pp. 268-269.
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