A poor Malawi village rests hope on opposition leader

What you need to know:

In Tuesday’s election, Chakwera hopes to unseat President Peter Mutharika after being narrowly defeated in the last election in 2014. The result looks in the balance but Chakwera, a former senior pastor

Lilongwe. The tiny village of Chakwera is typical of thousands of settlements across Malawi -- life is tough, families rely on subsistence farming, and food, education and work are all scarce.

But flags featuring the black rooster of the Malawi Congress Party hang in the trees, a clue that this is the former home of a man who could be the next president. Opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera, 64, lived in the village, 40 kilometres (25 miles) outside Lilongwe city, until he left secondary school.

Three generations of the family have lived there since the early 1950s, and his relatives still populate the village.

Home to only about 50 people, it is situated at the end of a rough path leading through a thick forest, and has no mains electricity, one water pump and virtually no infrastructure. It is the reality of life for many people in Malawi, which is ranked by the World Bank as one of the poorest countries in the world.

Over half of Malawi’s population live below the poverty line, and just 11 percent have access to electricity. “Malawi lacks many things -- there are no businesses,” said Margaret Amos, a thin and glassy-eyed 20-year-old wearing cloth wrapped around her waist, as she walked away from a pump carrying a heavy bucket of water.

Amos dropped out of school as her parents could not afford the fees, before marrying early and taking on domestic chores.

“If Doctor Chakwera wins, people will be able to start their own business,” she said, loyal to the village’s prominent son.

Village son

A few brown-brick huts are scattered around a clearing where young men rest under a tree in the midday sun. Pigs lie in the mud near the water pump, and goats roam freely searching for small leaves to eat.

Four older women sit under a thatched shelter nearby, removing corn from cobs harvested earlier that week.

In Tuesday’s election, Chakwera hopes to unseat President Peter Mutharika after being narrowly defeated in the last election in 2014. The result looks in the balance but Chakwera, a former senior pastor in Malawi, can certainly count on the support of his home village.

Relatives see him as the country’s salvation from corruption, poverty and lack of development. (AFP)