RASTAS VISIT MALAWI`S HEAD OF STATE
By:Bro.Paliani.
Picture:
Ras Nimrod - RasTafari priest and the State President 
-
Dr Bakili Muluzi
In
response to the presidential invitation to all Rastafarians in Malawi,
on Wednesday 30th April 2003 the Rastafari sons and
daughters visited the then state president of the Republic of Malawi,
Dr.Bakili Muluzi at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre City.This particular
occasion unique in its nature, entered into the annals of history as
far as the Rastafari Movement in Malawi is concerned as the first time
a contact and dialogue between the state president and members of the
Rastafari community had ever materialized.
During
the meeting, besides complaining over the situation which is a norm
where by dreadlocked rastas are being denied school and job
opportunities in the government and private sector, the rastas through
Ras Judah I, treasurer general of Rastafari For Unity requested to the
state president the following among other issues:
- Financial
support.
- To
extend presidential appointments to members of Rastafari community
who may be equally competent and qualified for such positions.
- To
issue land to the Rasta community for settlement and farming.
- To
intervene and make it possible in his capacity so as to fasten the
registration process of the Rastafari Organisations in fulfillment
of a registration act.
Sometime
in February 2003, affiliates to the Rastafari For Unity marched to the
state president's private residence in Blantyre City to hand in a
petition on the disguised state's denial of the rastas `freedom of
worship’.
Particularly
on the request to freely use cannabis, on the Wednesday meeting with
the rastas the state president remarked that in his capacity he could
not just give the rastas a go ahead for that would be a violation of
the law of the land which he is entitled to defend at all cost.
Instead he asked the rastas to formally
register the entire Rastafari organisations and form a centralized
executive committee representing all Rastas so that further
discussions and concerns on various issues between the government and
the rasta community at large would be enhanced and channeled through
respectively.
The
state president also ordered the mayor of Blantyre City who was
present at the Wednesday meeting to identify a suitable place within
to be granted to the rastas for congregations.
However
the Daily Times newspaper of Friday 2nd May 2003,reported
that some rastas were barred from entering the palace at the gate. One
eyewitness who opted for anonymity told this writer that some rastas
could still be seen going to the palace about an hour or so after the
first groups of rastas had already been ferried. Probably the rastas
who are said to have been denied entry into the palace could be those
who arrived at the gate late.
This
is not the first time the state president accorded the rastas a warm
gesture. In late 2001, immediately after the state president
instituted a commission of inquiry on public demand to investigate the
death of reggae maestro, Evison Matafale who had died mysteriously in
November of the same year while under police custody, the rastas
organized a march which was prematurely prevented by security forces
and petitioned the state president as well.
Amongst
other issues in the petition, the rastas protested against the
composition of the commission of inquiry which was not representative
enough as no Rasta was included with regards to the fact that Matafale
himself was also a Rastafarian.
With
urgency, the state president responded by asking the rastas to choose
amongst themselves one individual to be sworn in with the other
commissioners. But what came out to be a total surprise to the nation
and captured headlines in the local media, was the rastas` steadfast
refusal to accept the offer on the grounds that it fell far short of
fairness and logic to accommodate only one rasta in a commission of
about seven and the inclusion of one musician in the commission who
had allegedly been at loggerheads with Matafale himself.
Nevertheless,
it was now discernible that the Wednesday meeting which came sometime
after the unforgettable hoax which was tactifully moulded by some
government officials that the state president had organized a meeting
with the rastas on 28th December 2001 seemed to have marked
the beginning of a new chapter over a new leaf all together as far as
the relationship between the government and the rasta community in
Malawi was concerned.
