The Internet Keeps Malawian Diaspora Closer HomeThe Internet Keeps Malawian Diaspora Closer Home
August 20, 1999 

Raphael Tenthani, PANA Correspondent 

BLANTYRE, Malawi (PANA) - To Malawians in the diaspora, epecially those in Europe, there was virtually a blackout of Malawi news prior to 1993 when a national mathematics professor working in the US registered a listserv, the NYASANET.

NYASANET is a play on Malawi's colonial name, Nyasaland (land of the lake).

Taking advantage of the growing influence of the world wide web, Losten Kaonga thought of a way of keeping abreast of Malawian issues without having to go to the embassy in Washington to peruse through the country's newspapers which are themselves sent to the embassy occasionally and late anyway.

''Although NYASANET per se started around 1989 as a network among friends, by the end of 1992 it became apparent that we needed a full blown mailing list,'' he says.

When permission was granted at the end of 1993, NYASANET became a vehicle of instant information from Malawi and about all things Malawian. With the help of online publications, like Africa News Online, Malawians abroad started to know what is happening in their country almost immdiately.

Steve Sharra, an educationist currently studying in Iowa, US, says whoever wakes up early and sees anything about Malawi floating on the net he or she plucks it up and posts it on the listserv.

''In this way we get to know almost immidiately what is happening back home despite our being thousands of kilometres away,'' he adds.

In Malawi itself, the internet is a relatively new but fast growing phenomenon. Compuserve, an American company, pioneered it around 1995 but got into trouble with the law. 

According to Bessie Saidi, chief executive of MalawiNet, the country's established Internet Service Provider, Compuserve came in as a non-governmental organisation but started using SITA (international company for airline telecommunciation) lines to provide internet services.

''This was apparently in conflict with the law guiding their status so they had to apply for a new license,'' she says.

Apparently Compuserve never bothered to apply and quitely ceased to operate.

MalawiNet got into the picture in May 1997 as a joint venture between an American company, US Connections and the state-run Malawi Post and Telecommunication and a private company, BLT Trust.

Saidi says since its inception, there has been excitement among Malawians who suddenly discovered their once exhorbitant communication bills could be reduced to almost nothing.

For instance, sending a fax within the Southern Africa Development Community region costs around 3 US dollars per page while beyond it costs around 9 dollars per page, quite a fortune for Malawians whose average per capita income is around 220 per annum.

''But with e-mail sending messages across the world is less than 50 US cents per as many copies as you would need to send in a day,'' she says.

Saidi adds that internet usage in Malawi is mainly dominated by tourists and other vistors doing business in the country who want to stay in touch with their folks back home. 

But Malawian businessmen and other professionals, like journalists, have also capitalised on this cheap mode of communication.

Felix Mponda, who writes for the French news agency (AFP), says previously he could not be prolific enough since each fax transmision he made ''dug a deep hole'' in his pocket.

''Now I can transmit as many stories as possible on the e-mails for a song,'' he says.

Another freelance journalist, Edwards Hobbs Gama, agrees, saying he feeds more than 10 news agencies per day.

''With the little money we journalists make, I don't think I could have been managing that feat with the fax,'' he adds.

June Lamba, a communications lecturer with the University of Malawi, says the internet has simplified her life. Where she could have been digging up books in libraries, which normally do not stock all the books she would need, she merely goes to an internet cafe, types an URL address she needs on the computer, and there comes a whole world of information.

''With the internet life has become simple not only in costs but also in availability of information,'' he points out.

However, although the internet is a fast growing mode of communication, it is not without its own attendant frustrations.

Saidi says the telephone system in Malawi makes it very difficult for one to get to the internet.

''Malawi is mostly still using the analogue type of phones while we are using digital, so for the system to configure from analogue to digital it kind of slows down connectivity,'' she notes.

Actual allocations of phone lines are also a headache for internet development in Malawi. 

According to Mike Makawa, Malawi's post master general, the country needs about 300,000 lines but the sate-run telecomunication corporation has the potential of providing barely 65,000 lines although only 36,000 are in use.

The corporation has since contracted out LM Ericson of Finland to upgrade the system.

Saidi says to improve internet service provision, MalawiNet recently increased its number of phone lines from 30 to 90. 

But internet gurus in Malawi say there are very few internet service providers because license fees are prohibitive.

In spite of this, the use of internet is growing in Malawi. 

Saidi says MalawiNet wants to carry out civic education to sensitise Malawians on the importance of the internet.

''We are talking with the ministry of education for a possibility of introducing internet lessons in Malawian schools,'' she adds. 





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Copyright © 1999 Panafrican News Agency. All Rights Reserved.