Lake Malawi, one of the world's largest, fills much of the Great Rift Valley that stretches north and south in East Central Africa. The lake is 350 miles long and 10 to 50 miles wide. Along its west side stretches the Republic of Malawi, a landlocked country about 560 miles long and 50 to 100 miles wide.
Malawi is one of the best friends of the Republic of China and the scene of some of its most extensive international technical cooperation projects. In a recent visit, I found the country still has a long way to go in some ways but is well on its way. The Chinese program of technical cooperation is a big help.
Farther to the south, in Southern Africa, Chinese teams are working on projects in two other countries. In Lesotho, 27 technicians are engaged in demonstrating the cultivation of rice, upland crops and vegetables, and on irrigation engineering projects.
Twenty-eight technicians are undertaking similar projects in Swaziland. Five of them are operating a handicraft center, instructing the local people in the making of artistic bamboo and wood products.
Malawi lies wholly within the tropics. The area is 45,747 square miles. That is about the same size as Louisiana and nearly three times that of Taiwan. The population is estimated at 5,200,000 with the highest density in Africa at 113.7 people to the square mile. Malawi is bounded by Tanzania in the north and northeast, Mozambique in the east, south and southwest and by Zambia in the west.
Malawi formerly was the British protectorate of Nyassaland. Politically, its government follows what the first and only president, Dr. Hastings K. Banda, calls "discretionary non-alignment." It remains tied closely to Britain, its most important trading partner, and is a friend of the free world.
I was met by my old friend, Moon Chen, press attach of the Republic of China Embassy, when my Air Malawi plane landed at Blantyre, the country's largest city (population about 190,000). We had dinner that evening at the home of the press counselor, C. Y. Feng.
The first European to explore the Malawi region was the famous Scottish missionary, Dr. David Livingstone, and the city of Blantyre is named for his birthplace in Scotland.
Moon Chen drove me north from Blantyre to see something of Malawi and its progress, and especially what the Chinese teams are doing in cooperation with the local people to improve the living standard and increase income from exports.
This is gently rolling country, rich in red soil and with frequent small villages. Most houses have heavily thatched roofs and either adobe or woven grass siding. More than 90 per cent of the people live in thatched houses like those their forebears occupied for generations. Most cooking is done outdoors over wood or charcoal fires. The government has drilled water wells and installed hand-operated pumps at many villages in recent years. These pumps are popular gathering places. Newer urban houses are mostly of brick or reinforced concrete with corrugated metal roofs.
The handsome Malawi people stand erect and walk with the air of facing the future with confidence. They probably have as good posture as any people in the world. In part, this comes from bearing burdens on their heads. Practice in the needed balancing begins when they are small children. What they can carry is amazing ... pails or jars of water ... bundles of laundry en route to the nearest stream or folded clean clothes en route home ... sizable loads of firewood tied together ... produce being taken to market or groceries from a shopping expedition to the nearest store.
Actually, there are many advantages to carrying loads on the head. Among them: it distributes weight evenly among the bones and muscles of the bod9' ... it leaves both arms free ... and it results in erect posture that would be the envy of most Westerners, especially of the feminine gender. How it might crunch their beauty shop hair-dos is something else again.
My visit to Malawi came just before the start of the rainy season, which lasts from November to April, and many of the bridges we crossed spanned dry streambeds. The most common Malawi crop is maize. It is the basic food cereal. Villagers also produce large amounts of millet, cassava - a bushy plant with starchy, edible roots from which tapioca is made - sweet potatoes, peanuts and various other vegetables.
The peanuts are of a large type commonly called "ground nuts." They are much in demand by confectioners and Malawi produces about 50 per cent of the world supply.
South of Blantyre are extensive plantings of tobacco, Malawi's most important export crop, as well as tea, coffee, cotton and sugar cane.
A curiosity to outsiders but hardly an aid to agriculture is the numerous anthills. These rise as high as 6 to 8 feet and are weathered into fantastic shapes resembling mountain peaks or impenetrable fortresses.
The Republic of China Agricultural Mission to Malawi, which comes under the Committee of International Technical Cooperation, began work in December 1965. This agency was established in 1960, the year in which 17 former African colonies became independent nations. It has been the consistent policy of the Republic of China to make friends with other freedom-loving nations. A spokesman for the committee said:
"According to our experience, political independence means little without economic independence. It is out of this experience that the Republic of China started its technical cooperation program."
The first mission in 1961 was sent to the West African Republic of Liberia - not, however, as a new nation but one of the oldest on the continent. Over a period of 17 years more than 2,000 free Chinese agricultural and other technicians have served overseas. Missions are now at work in 19 countries of Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Central and South America and the Caribbean.
China has been an agricultural country for thousands of years and has wide experience in the art of food and fiber production built up over countless generations. During the last quarter century the Republic of China has implemented in Taiwan a "land to the tiller" program that since has been copied by many other countries. Land reform has enlarged production by appealing to the self-interest of small owners - the yeoman farmers of Taiwan. Agronomists have meanwhile combined scientific knowledge and techniques with the best of the old practices. On the island of Taiwan a population approaching 17 million is fed and fed well from an arable land area scarcely larger than the small American state of Delaware. There is also a large amount of food for export.
The spokesman said: "We therefore definitely have something to share with other friendly countries in the field of agriculture."
The first agricultural mission to Malawi was established in 1965 in the Karonga district of the northern region. In 1966 a sub-mission was set up at Zomba, then the capital of Malawi, in the southern section. The Malawi government later asked the mission to undertake the reclamation of land in the area of Domasi, some 16 miles northeast of Zomba, and turning it into a new community. The mission established its headquarters there. All operations in Malawi are now directed from Domasi.
At the time of my visit, the Republic of China had 40 people at Domasi and three sub-missions. Rice is the staple food of Asia and many other countries. A major part of China's technical assistance has been in rice cultivation. Under the best of conditions, rice will produce more food from the same amount of land than any other crop. In Taiwan and in most of the countries of Africa where the Chinese technicians have worked, two crops of rice a year are common and three are sometimes possible - often with a crop of fast-growing vegetables between the rice crops.
During the dozen years that the Republic of China's agricultural mission has been in Malawi, it has undertaken 13 irrigation projects on a total area of nearly 5,000 acres. As soon as a project is finished, the Chinese turn it over to the local people and withdraw. At the same time the mission has reclaimed more than 15,000 acres of land in cooperation with the Malawi government.
At each project there is a demonstration farm to show what can be done in producing rice, fruits and vegetables. The mission has trained well over 600 extension cadres - mostly young men qualified to teach others - and more than 850 Malawi farmers in the best agricultural techniques. Some of the cadres are given advanced training in Taiwan.
The Domasi rice project follows the policy of keeping operations relatively simple and inexpensive - within the limits of what is practical and an example for what may be done elsewhere. Water is taken from behind a diversion dam on the small Domasi River and flows through a tunnel to an irrigation canal, then through lateral canals and into farm ditches. The Domasi project irrigates about 1,600 acres of some 1,000 farmers, each with 1¼ acres of land. The Domasi River does not provide enough water to irrigate two crops annually for the entire project. About one third of the farmers can grow a second crop each year and this privilege is rotated.
The Domasi rice farmers live in nearby villages. Most also raise maize, cassava, millet and other crops for their own food. The villagers also keep poultry, goats, pigs and a few head of cattle. Large quantities of fish are caught in Lake Malawi and several other lakes. The Chinese teams are making a start on fish culture at one of the projects. While there is still concern about the average level of nutrition, it is improving.
The rice produced by the Domasi project and most of the other plots of the Chinese Agricultural Mission is sold to a government agency, most of it for export to other African countries. During the past three years the average yield of rice was 28 bags (4,480 pounds) per acre per crop.
Demand for plots in the Domasi and other rice land reclamation projects far exceeds the number available. Holders are selected by a committee on the basis of farming experience, apparent ambition, families and other factors. Nearly every farmer chosen makes good.
Before the Domasi project was started, there were about 500 people living in the area. Now there are over 5,000, mostly rice farmers and their families. A Chinese survey showed that 45 per cent of those families own bicycles, 30 per cent have radios and 20 per cent of farmers own wrist watches - physical evidence of improved living conditions.
The demonstration farm at Domasi had thickly growing rice with heavy heads almost ready for cutting at the time of my visit. It also had a lush garden growing maize, beans, cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, cantaloupes and watermelons. This apparently was the best season of the year for watermelons - as crisp, juicy and sweet as any I ever tasted. A large melon was cut and served us almost everywhere we stopped.
The demonstration farm attracts much interest from nearby Malawi farmers and from others who come from more distant points. The week-end before our visit the Domasi center held an open house. The Republic of China's ambassador to Malawi, Dr. C. Y. Chao, led a large delegation of other diplomats and Malawi government officials from the new capital at Lilongwe in the central part of the country. Among the visitors was the American ambassador, Robert Stevenson.
The Chinese at Domasi have built a small Chinese-style park adjoining the demonstration farm, landscaped with shrubs, flowers, pool and an ornate two-story pavilion. The second floor offers an excellent overall view of the reclamation work.
As in other countries where the Republic of China's agricultural teams have worked, those in Malawi have followed three general principles: (1) The project is urgently needed. (2) It is within the means and capability of the Republic of China in providing cooperation. (3) The project must be one in which both the government and people of the host country take a keen interest.
Cooperation seeks to introduce Chinese agricultural technical know-how and experience to friendly countries, to assist them in training farmers and agricultural technicians, to aid them in farm extension work and to help them attain self-sufficiency in food production.
President Hastings K. Banda has taken great interest in the Chinese-sponsored projects in his country. As part of Malawi's cooperation, corps of prisoners serving sentences for minor offenses have been assigned as labor crews, helping build dams and irrigation tunnels and performing other tasks. The Chinese give the convicts their lunches when they are working on cooperative projects.
The Domasi River project, like all in which the Chinese teams are involved, aims at making use of available resources in the simplest and most economical ways possible. Irrigation is usually carried out by gravity flow, so there is no expense for pumping water. The hope is that all potential resources eventually will be exploited, mostly by the local people themselves, following the guide lines set up in the cooperative projects.
President Banda, 72, is a remarkable figure in recent African history. He was born into a poor family in 1906, but his family managed to send him to a mission school. He learned to read and write, and also acquired the ambition for further education. As a youth he walked to Rhodesia and South Africa, seeking better opportunities. Nyassaland, as the protectorate then was called, served as a labor reservoir for South Africa, with little development of its own potentialities.
Young Banda worked for a copper mining company in South Africa, meanwhile reading as extensively as possible and saving all possible money. In 1930 he managed passage to the United States, where he entered Wilberforce College in Ohio. Later he attended the University of Chicago and obtained an M.D. degree from Meharry Medical College at Nashville, Tenn.
Dr. Banda was practicing medicine in Britain during World War II when he met Jomo Kenyatta, the Kenya nationalist leader. Kenyatta had long campaigned for full independence of his native land and contended that the destinies of all colonies should be in the hands of their native peoples. Banda found himself in agreement with most of Kenyatta's ideas.
Banda went back to Nyassaland following the war. In 1953 the British established Nyassaland as a part of a federation with white-dominated Rhodesia. The doctor could see little good for his country in the move. He organized the Congress Party to oppose it, and continued to urge the withdrawal of Nyassaland from the union after it was formally established. When he found his freedom endangered, he went to Ghana, the first of the former British colonies to attain independence, practiced medicine there, and continued his political activities from exile.
Banda returned to Nyassaland in 1958 to take a more active part in the separation movement. The government reacted by banning the Congress Party. In 1959 Dr. Banda and 1,500 of his followers were arrested. He spent 13 months confined in a detention camp at Gwelo Prison.
The arrests increased support for separation from the Rhodesian federation. In 1960 Dr. Banda was released. The British agreed to the dissolution of the federation. In 1964 Dr. Banda become the first prime minister of the new nation of Malawi. He became president in 1966 and was elected President for Life in 1971.
The Congress Party remains the only political organization in Malawi and is in control of the government. The capital is being moved from the old British capital of Zomba to the more central city of Lilongwe with a population of about 100,000. Handsome new government buildings are taking shape.
Malawi remains primarily an agricultural country. The government's policy is to produce as much as possible without destroying the natural resources of soil and water. Surveys indicate that the country has at least 1,600,000 acres of undeveloped but potentially productive land.
To encourage production, the government has set up the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation. The corporation buys all cash crops and surplus food crops grown by small farmers, sometimes at prices higher than the normal market level, to assure continued production. The corporation buys all the rice grown on the reclamation projects created with the cooperation of the Chinese Agricultural Mission.
Malawi's industry is still relatively small, but it has expanded at an average rate of 13 per cent annually since independence. The main industrial products are processed foodstuffs, cotton textiles, tobacco, beer, soap, radios, batteries, agricultural equipment and building materials. Since independence, imported consumer goods have declined from 49 per cent to less than 30 per cent of the total.
From his own experience, Dr. Banda is well aware of the importance of education. Enrollment in elementary schools has increased from fewer than 360,000 in 1964 to nearly 650,000 in 1976. High school enrollment increased from fewer than 6,000 to nearly 15,000 in the same period.
The University of Malawi was opened in 1965. It has two affiliated colleges specializing in agricultural and polytechnic subjects. A medical school was opened at Lilongwe in 1976.
The Chinese agricultural teams in Malawi work with the Young Pioneers in two vegetable research and development centers, one near Lilongwe and the other outside Blantyre. Young Pioneers are affiliated with the League of Malawi Youth, which supports 22 training bases covering many fields, a central training school and 20 Young Pioneer settlements. Nearly 25,000 young Malawians have been graduated from these training centers after 10 months of instruction in leadership, agricultural development, citizenship and self-help skills. Graduates have formed more than 100 youth clubs, which became centers for local farm communities and provide places for young people to meet. More than 100 Young Pioneer settlers have been established in agricultural communities where such crops as tobacco, ground nuts, maize, rice and cotton are grown.
Accompanied by Y. H. Lee, the head of the Chinese Agricultural Mission to Malawi, Moon Chen and I were driven north to Lilongwe from the Domasi headquarters. Several large watermelons were packed into the car trunk as a gift to Ambassador and Mrs. Chao, our hosts for the night.
We passed many villages in the rolling country and through many large plantings of eucalyptus or gum trees. These trees are grown partly for firewood and partly in development of a pulp and paper industry.
Part of our route took us along a road that is something of an international curiosity. It runs along the border between Malawi and Mozambique, for over 400 years a Portuguese colony but more recently taken over by a revolutionary native government. Residents of farm villages on either side of the road, most of them belonging to the same ancient tribes, freely cross from one country to the other. Apparently all sales of produce must be within the country of residence. I was told the road was built and is maintained by Malawi.
We traveled east the following day, past many more small villages and patches of farm crops, mostly maize and cassava, to the shore of Lake Malawi. The beach and pier of the small port we visited made it a popular place, thronged with families, fishermen and swimmers - mostly young boys unhampered by bathing suits. We saw many of the sturdy native dugout canoes on the lake.
Intake for the main irrigation channel at Bria. Thirteen Malawi rice growing projects are under way. (File photo)
Nearby is the "Bua Irrigation Scheme" of the Chinese Agricultural Mission supervised by Yeh Huo-mu. We spent the night there, and visited the work under way. Another diversion dam is being built, this one on the small Bua River, chiefly by convict labor, and a tunnel to carry the water to the main canal leading to the irrigation project.
The Bua project has about 750 acres divided among 600 families. A demonstration farm to be operated temporarily by Chinese technicians includes a sizable pond for fish culture.
The reclamation area had been plowed and leveled but was not yet ready for cultivation. Many of the people who would own the tracts were at work with hoes and other tools, removing weeds, roots and other impediments to planting, cultivation and irrigation of rice. They included a number of women, some with small babies on their backs. They worked with enthusiasm on the land that was to be theirs.
The Bua River will furnish enough water to irrigate all of the land for one crop of rice a year and half of the plots for two crops. Each landholder will be permitted to grow two crops every other year. I was told that members of the Young Pioneers were assigned many of the plots in the Bua project.
Bua farmers face one crop hazard not present in paddies of the Republic of China or most other rice-growing regions of the world. Occasionally hippopotamuses come calling in the night from their homes in a nearby swamp to see what's going on and sample tastiness of the growing rice. Two small hippos were captured and penned up by Bua settlers, I was told, but had escaped and gone home to the swamp before my arrival.
The government game department has been asked to try to do something about the hippo problem. He hasn't yet. Even so, having some of the world's second largest land animals (after elephants) as close neighbors doesn't discourage the Bua rice growers. They are still bringing their land into production.