MALAWI: Uneasy Times for Muslim Head of Mainly Christian Nation

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Julius Kaliya

BLANTYRE, Oct 15 1995 (IPS) - Efforts by Malawian president Bakili Muluzi to strengthen ties with the Middle East have already yielded substantial financial support for the Southern African country.

But they have also exposed Muluzi, a Muslim who heads a mainly Christian nation, to allegations that he aims to spread Islam in Malawi.

While his predecessor, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, had close ties with countries like Israel and South Africa — then ruled by a white minority government — Muluzi has been courting Arab Gulf nations since he won the first multiparty elections here in May 1994.

His efforts have begun to pay off. After a visit to Kuwait in late June, Muluzi announced that the Kuwaiti government had agreed to lend Malawi 315.8 million U.S. dollars in development aid, the biggest loan the country has ever received from a single donor.

In July, Lands Minister Shaibu Itimu announced a second loan, whose amount he did not disclose although he said it was to be used to buy 6,000 hectares of land to house 3,000 landless families.

But Muluzi’s detractors appear bent on turning the aid into a political football, with the opposition Malawi Democratic Party (MDP) and two newspapers owned by the former ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) charging that the second loan was to be used to build mosques, a claim denied by Itimu, himself a Muslim.

The ‘Malawi News’ and the ‘Daily Times’ charged that the Kuwaiti aid had strings attached to it — spreading Islam in Malawi.

MDP head Kamlepe Kalua told IPS last week that he was deeply concerned over Muluzi’s move, in June, to establish diplomatic links with Kuwait and accused the Malawian president of aiming to force people into becoming Muslims.

“We are very much concerned that Muluzi is going to islamise the country,” he said. “People should not be forced to take a religion they don’t believe in.”

However, both he and the two newspapers were unable to back up their allegations.

Muslims represent about 12 percent of the roughly 11.1 million Malawians, while the remainder are mostly Christians. The two groups have generally co-existed peacefully.

In fact, it is only since Banda agreed to hold multiparty elections under pressure from the West — after subjecting Malawi to his autocratic rule for three decades — that Muluzi’s religious beliefs became an issue.