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APRIL 14 2013
NATION on Sunday
APRIL 14 2013
special essay
Geopolitics of water
James Chavula News Analyst
I must emphasise again there is no doubt at all about the boundary. We know that no drop of the water of Lake Nyasa belongs to Tanganyika under the terms of the [1890] agreement.Julius Nyerere, former Tanzanian president, addressing the Tanganyika Legislative Council in October 1960.
It is a legacy of our colonial history that Africa was cut like a piece of cake when the Europeans met in Berlin in 1885. Tribes, even our extended families, were split. Some tribes or clans which were historically antagonistic were lumped together in one colonial entity. Benjamin Mkapa, former president of Tanzania, speaking in Malawi in 2003.
alawis number one lake is not just a stunning tourism destination. The fresh waters of what Malawians knew as Lake Nyasa nourish millions of people along its shores and beyond as well as over 1 000 fish species. When Scottish missionary explorer Dr David Livingstone saw the lake in 1859, he christened it Lake of Stars. Yet, this inviting image masks a simmering border spat which spans over a century when Malawi was a British colony and Tanganyika part of the German East African domain. In the stand-off, alternatively called a colonial-made dispute, Malawi is asserting full ownership of the lake except the south-eastern stretch in Mozambique while Tanzania is claiming the northeastern half on its shores. Malawis argument is based on a July 1 1890 treaty between Britain and Germany that maps the boundary between the two countries along the Tanzanian shore. On the other hand, the neighbours are invoking the 1982 UN Convention on Law of the Sea that stipulates that in cases where nations are
I consider such a claim and statement as rubbing salt in the wounds inflicted on the body of Malawi by imperialism and colonialism.As a result of those wounds, we have now such districts as Mbeya, Njombe and Songea to the north of uswhich geographically, linguistically and culturally belonged to Malawi and which in our forefathers time were definitely Malawi which are now outside.Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda in an address to Malawi Parliament in Zomba, on June 27 1967.
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hen elders shake their heads, something should be terribly wrong. For traditional leaders in Karonga, it is mind-boggling that Tanzania is claiming ownership of the northeastern half of the fishing ground they have grown up knowing as Lake Malawi. Actually, Paramount Chief Kyungu or Mtemi wa ba Temi, as Ngondes call their king, shook his head four times when asked what he makes of the state of the relationship between Malawians and Tanzanians since the two neighbouring countries started discussing the ownership of the lake. As the leader of people of Karonga and Chitipa, we do not have any dispute. Malawians are still living in peace with our neighbours from Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique regardless of the sensational stories about the lake, said Kyungu, who accompanied President Joyce Banda to a closeddoor meeting with her Tanzanian counterpart Jakaya Kikwete in August last year. The chief, who holds a Masters degree in diplomacy and international relations, is a portrait of the two countries ties. During the 1964 Cabinet uprising against Malawis founding president Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere granted Kyungu and his brother Kapote Mwakasungula (now village head Kasowa) asylum. While in exile in Dar el Salaam, the Ngonde royals did not only obtain higher education but also befriended Jakaya Kikwete, the current president of Tanzania. Having been close to the seats of power in both countries and worked as chief of protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Lilongwe, Kyungu feels the media is exaggerating a problem postindependence leaders have always
who said: The waters of Lake Malawi have always been shared between Malawi and Tanzania. Before the colonial people came, during colonial rule and after independence, we have always shared itand it must remain so. We should not provoke an issue which is not necessary. We have more problems to sort out now than to talk about the boundaries of Lake Malawi. We can wait until we have sorted out issues that are more urgent. The waters have always been shared; we have Tanzania on the other side and Malawi on this side. If there is anything of value in Lake Malawi may it be discussed amicably between Malawi and Tanzania. There is no need for us to start a war simply because we have found oil in the lake. It will always be shared because if there is a spill, even Tanzania will be affected. The quest for total control, rather than privileges emanating from geographical advantages, seems to be the genesis of the animosity that lies beneath the protracted face-off. Last August, President Banda disclosed that her predecessor, the late Bingu wa Mutharika, also wrote Tanzanias leader Benjamin Mkapa over the boundary issue after small conflicts were reported on the lake. People were complaining of arrests and intimidation, so he [Mutharika] wanted the countries to reaffirm the borders, Banda told the press after meeting her Tanzanian counterpart Kikwete in Mozambique. After the Mozambique meeting, Kikwete also made a commitment to pursue peaceful means of addressing the border puzzle for the benefit of the two countries. Despite the assurances and intergovernmental talks, the two governments agreed to disagree with Banda ordering Malawi out of intergovernmental talks when Exclusive inquiry page 6
When I left the country, I was of the view that the matter is resolved, but now the matter looks bigger than I thought. While in New York, I wrote them [Tanzanians] telling them that there is no point going on with the dialogue.President Joyce Banda, speaking when she ordered Malawi out of the dialogue on October 2 2012.
If the residents of Mbamba Bay, Liuli, Lituhi, Manda, Ngonga, Matema, Mwaya, Itungi and other towns and villages along the lake are told that the water body is no longer theirs they wont understand because for generations, they have used the Lake.It is our opinion that our countries do what the Anglo-German boundary commission did not do.Jakaya Kikwete, president of Tanzania, speaking in monthly national address in September 2012.
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Exclusive Report page 3 that Tanzania was aiding prominent Malawian exiles attempts to subvert his rule since it harboured Kanyama Chiume and other critics of his regime following the 1964 Cabinet crisis. But the lake issue, which became public from May 1967 to September 1968, has been a subject of policy statements and inconsistent maps by either side. An official report of the Tanganyika Legislative Council quotes a minister of land and mineral resources acknowledging that the boundary followed those described in Article II of the 1890 Treaty. Dissatisfied with the restatement, the Tanganyika government consulted the British Colonial Office for equitable distribution of the lake. But in response, the legal advisers to Britains Secretary of State for Colonies upheld that not a part of the Lake lies within the boundaries of Tanganyika. The parliamentary records quote Chief Mhaiki, a representative of Songea District, as arguing that with thousands of Tanzanians living along the lake, it was anomalous that their government should have no right over the lake. Press reports show the current president of Tanzania Jakaya Kikwete reiterating this position in his state-of-thenation address in September last year, saying the 1890 agreement denies communities living along the lake natural rights over the lake and its endowments. Contributing to the heated motion, Nyererewithout denouncing Mhaikis call for equity in dividing shared waters told the legislature in October 1960 that not a drop of the water Lake Nyasa belongs to Tanganyika under the terms of the agreement. He also doubted the logic of asking the Nyasaland government to change the boundary in favour of Tanganyika. The motion was rejected and rested until November 1961, according to Tanzanias
NATION on Sunday
APRIL 14 2013
NATION on Sunday
APRIL 14 2013
NATION on Sunday
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NATION on Sunday
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Songwe border is a thriving business area for both Malawians and Tanzanians
married Malawians after years of doing various businesses in the marketplace, dark corners and neighbouring communities. Save for the pronunciation of specific words, it is not easy for visitors to distinguish Malawians from Tanzanians in the Northern Region town. Their shared languages tell a tale of two worlds that have become one over the decades. That the two sides of the divide depend on each other is clear in the movement of goods across the boundary. The two-way traffic includes Tanzanians importing sugar, rice, plastic utensils, confectionaries and other manufactured goods. On the other hand, Malawians import truckloads of watercooling clay pots called ukisi, vegetables, fruits, potatoes, second-hand clothes, jeans wear and electronic appliances. Apart from the fact that almost half of the vendors in the main market are Tanzanians, over 75 percent of the goods on sale come from Tanzania. This is a sign that our relationship with Tanzania goes beyond the questions of who owns the lake, said Pastor Robert Mbewe of Christ New Ministries who has lived in the district since 1997. Most business people complain that reports of the Lake Malawi dispute briefly plunged the two
communities into uncertainty last year. However, Mbewe urged the governments of Tanzania and Malawi to pursue peaceful means of ending the simmering standoff. The uncertainty is no more, but that is no reason for the two governments to terminate the ongoing dialogue. When neighbouring countries disagree, business and investment suffer, he said. The vegetable section of the market is one of the few areas without Tanzanians, but nearly all cabbages, tomatoes and onions come from the northern neighbours. The district is endowed with vast water resources, agriculture schemes and other wetlands. According to Susan Mapingo, who heads the vegetables section, they prefer imported foodstuffs because they are cheap and the districts weather is not favourable for production of some of them. There are no Tanzanians in the vegetable section, but the benches would be almost empty if our border with Tanzania closed for a week. That would spell doom for Malawians who sell green foods for their income and livelihoods, she said. The sentiments were echoed by fruit seller Twilike Ipopo, one of the few Malawians on the neighbouring subdivision where avocado pears, beans, bananas and plantains are not Exclusive inquiry page 10
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James Chavula News Analyst
NATION on Sunday
APRIL 14 2013
s fish volumes continue to decline in Lake Malawi, delving deeper into the bluish waters might be the way to go for fishers searching for a better catch. But the fishing folk of Chakwera near Kiwe in Karonga seem to disagree because Tanzanian authorities detained some of them and confiscated their fishing gear on October 23 2012. Survivors of the incident and most fishing communities rank the scene as the lowest point in the neighbouring countries ongoing talks over the ownership of the 29 600-square-kilometre lake that straddles the borders of Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. Among them, Kumwenda brothersKelvin Ngoto, Lowani and Duncansay they were terrified last November during a Tanzanian police raid on their fishing boats. By dawn, our boats were running short of fuel, so we stopped on the Tanzanian side to sell our small catch and refuel our boats. We were resting on the beach when five armed men in camouflage uniform took away our friends, boats and fishing gear, recalled Kelvin, one of the seven that escaped the raid. Kelvin and Duncan said they escaped after some beatings and harassment on an uncharted route that cuts through hostile villages all the way to Songwe Border. They said Lowani and six others were beaten as they waited to be handed over to police officers at Kyela, Tanzania, where they spent a night in a cell. Although Tanzanian government officials say the groups captors were fisheries officials in civilian clothes, the Kumwendas parents decried the raid as a double loss. I couldnt imagine my son Medson losing fishing nets which benefit our extended family, but it was nothing more agonising than hearing that my sons were either in police hands or on the run in a foreign land, said their father Tickson Kumwenda. Also impounded were fishing equipment belonging to Simon Katawa Mtawali, whose crew accounted for four of the people arrested. The fishers reported their case at Kiwe Police Post. They said they have been interrogated by high-profile delegations of Malawis police detectives, intelligence officials as well as the Office of the President and Cabinet. Still, they described their relationship with their northeastern neighbours as calm and normal despite the tension their story stirred. Tracing the Lake Malawi beach
People from the two countries fish in the same waters of the lake
A woman and her children prepare a net for another fishing foray in the lake
from Ngala Fishing Village to Chakwera, Nation on Sunday saw a myriad of Tanzanians fishing and readying their nets side by side with locals. Like many, Duncan Kumwenda estimated that four in every 10 fishers are Tanzanians, saying even more pour in between August and November. Tanzanians are our brothers and sisters. When they come, we fish together. We do several businesses together. But the arrests go a long way to show what we have always been worried about: They tend to be confrontational when we step on the soil bordering Lake Malawi and their country, said Duncan. Kiwe Police officer-in-charge, Superintendent Darlington Chingaipe, confirmed receiving official complaints from the affected fishers. However, Chingaipe refused to give details because it was already being handled by investigators in high places. They reported the matter here soon after their safe
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carrying loads of sugar bales, plastic utensils, liquor sachets and other goods. On the legal entry point, there are truckloads of fuel, queues of second-hand cars and loads of cementa hint at the centrality of the Northern Corridor which has almost replaced the BlantyreBeira Railway that is rusting and suffering looting due to disuse in the past 20 years. The cargo going towards Tanzania includes maize which is in short supply and on high demand in the country. Our interaction is just normal despite the brewing conflict. No Malawian truck driver has been attacked as a result of the lake ownership wrangle, said a driver waiting to clear a truckload of timber at Songwe. Affirming the safety of travellers, Phiri, a businessperson who owns cross-border trucks, implored the two governments to resolve the conflict amicably and swiftly. The lake issue is a muted subject as Malawians and Tanzanians have always depended on one another, but the lengthy talks are casting uncertainty on the business community, potential investors and importers. Until government tells us what is going on, businesspeople will remain worried that the neighbouring countries can go to war. As a matter of fact, there are Exclusive inquiry page 10
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NATION on Sunday
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NATION on Sunday
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Photograph: james chavula
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