There’s this magical moment, brief, powerful when everything stands still. Hands instinctively move to hearts. Voices trembling in unison to words we’ve known since primary school. The national anthem begins and the atmosphere feels sacred.
In that moment, something stirs deep inside. Pride, belonging, joy, hope and even love for the country. You see tears rolling down cheeks, strangers and enemies standing side by side in perfect tranquillity. For a few fleeting minutes, it feels like the song could carry the entire nation forward.
But then it ends. And …. life resumes, it’s just a song in the end.
And that’s what the “Buy Malawian” campaign felt like. A national anthem, stirring hopes and echoing with pride. We rose and cheered for it, we carried its rhythm in our hearts. But then the music stopped. Now we’re left facing the same frustrations that “O God Bless Our Land of Malawi” has created in us.
Buy Malawian, Build Malawi is a cool slogan. Truly. It’s noble, patriotic, and comes from a good place. But here’s the problem. Its glittering promises of bustling local manufacturing, innovation, or distribution is slowly getting disconnected from reality.
Seriously, drop everything now and take a good look at our products. Look at the packaging, the labeling, the quality and tell me you’re genuinely proud.
We’ve got a sea of “great” Malawian products crammed into the same cheap bottles a witch doctor in Malowa uses for his “power” concoctions. Like, really? You couldn’t find a better bottle? Some peanut butter hardens into a dumbbell you will need a warm-up before scooping. Or juice bottles so sticky on the shelf, you regret touching them.
Then there’s what’s supposed to be drinking yoghurt, yet you need a spoon and some upper body strength just to get it out of the bottle. Potato crisps? Oh boy, some taste like they were fried in engine oil from a 1994 VW Beetle.
And we’re expected to buy that in the name of patriotism? Nope. Not a chance. Celebrating mediocrity because it has a Malawian flag on it is a betrayal of what this nation could be.
You know what’s frustrating? The Buy Malawian dream is actually brilliant. We want to empower local businesses, grow the economy, keep money in Malawian hands. But the whole thing falls apart when “Made in Malawi” becomes synonymous with crap.
What’s even worse is that we’re importing a lot of bananas, potatoes, even maize flour. It makes no sense. Malawi has the potential to feed itself and its neighbours, yet we keep filling our supermarkets with foreign products. If we got our things together, we wouldn’t just reduce imports, we’d boost local pride and who knows maybe even create some of those famous one million jobs.
But don’t get me wrong. Some local companies are making good, export-grade products. Honey, chocolate, coffee, beverages you name it. Absolutely top-tier stuff, proudly Malawian.
Sadly, the Buy Malawi strategy has become yet another anthem we hum while doing the exact opposite. Beautiful words and posh dreams, while the reality doesn’t match the promise in the lyrics. It feels more like lip service as we keep singing about a Malawi that should be, while settling for less.
You see, we don’t just need to buy Malawian. We need to build Malawi with quality, pride, and standards that go beyond just putting a slogan on a label.
If we want people to buy Malawian, let’s raise the bar, let’s give them something worth buying. Let’s stop applauding mediocrity and start delivering the Malawi we proudly sing about.
