Middle East & Africa | The dead hand of dictatorship

Malawi has saved its democracy but not its economy

It remains the world’s poorest peaceful country

Women shell maize on May 16, 2019, in the Malembo Village in the Traditional Authority (TA) Khongoni in Lilongwe District, the birth place of Malawian presidential candidate and head of the main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Lazarus Chakwera. - Malawians head to the polls for general elections of May 21, 2019. (Photo by AMOS GUMULIRA / AFP) (Photo credit should read AMOS GUMULIRA/AFP via Getty Images)

Sep 22nd 2022|MSUNDWE

In many parts of the world democracy can feel abstract and immutable, like mountains in the distance; voting is not a triumph but a chore. But not in Msundwe, a thin strip of road lined by stalls selling beans, maize and cabbages about 40 minutes drive from Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital. Here democracy feels as fresh and real as the scars people still bear from beatings, shootings and mass rapes three years ago.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Escaping the dead hand of dictatorship”