Agony of hope

The dawn of the year of 2024 brought so much hope and success stories to bear in the ongoing time. The experience learnt in the previous year brought so much hope and success that just a newly entered year would bring. The new day arrived and still becoming full with weeks and eventually people started getting used to mention the new year by its name. I mean the mistakes which easily come on the slip of the tongue mentioning the previous year when addressing people or writing the official documents.

As a country Malawi which is a landlocked country and happens that the main source of the income is from the subsistence farming and just amidst the small pieces of land. The hope is always kept in such small pieces of land. The lands had been scarcity since the beginning of the raining season and little by little people could hold the hopes in the new month of January that would bring a changing story. The clouds which would gather and pretty showing the signs of the drops of the rains would be welcomed with attentive smile on the faces of so many small farmers in the country but alas this had been turned into a disappointment. The usual question to one another would be: ‘Have you received any rainy there?’ And the response would be: ‘Mmh ,no at all’. The conversation of the people would be like that as time passes by. The farming season of 2023 to 2024 had been full of disappointment and most farmers would plant twice or more in one growing season because of unfailing of the seeds to shoot out and this has been an issue of the dry spell which occurred in the country. In other fields you would set fire and the whole field turn into fierce of fire. As we have drawn to the harvesting period, no wonder that people could just harvest a handful bags. This is really a big problem because a lot of people just depend on the main food like nsima. The small rivers which could run up to the end of September and also early October, have already dried up and this brings it tough to have an irrigation system which has been happening in the previous years. I have personally observed how hard working people are but only facing the problems of weather change. The hopes are shuttered and the only hope is held in the Mighty God who is a sustainer in all seasons. May the hope of the people keep on dwelling in the hands of the mighty God.