Is Malawi poor?

Is Malawi poor? I have been asked this question many times since I have been here and, so far, I havent been able to gather enough evidence and thoughts to reply. What is considered 'poor', for a start? and 'poor' of what, one would ask? everything here looks poor to me....

I will probably never be able to reply this question properly, but I will try to reflect on how the country has appeared to me so far. Largely, this post is autoethnography, meaning critically reflect on how I see things and why I see things that way. 

I have spent the first few weeks in Malawi in sheltered conditions. Been picked up from my 40£ a night lodge, been driven around to the most efficient parts of the cities I have visited in a comfortable car. I have been surrounded by very literate people and immersed in very well-maintained university campus, visiting buildings that were modest, but functional.

I immediately romanticised, especially when comparing my stay here with my experience in Kenya, about which you can read more in this blog. I didn't listen to Chrispin saying 'we are going backward'. Everything seemed cleaner: cleaner cities, no rubbish around, drainage channels in the towns neat and swept, plunge toilets over latrines, and courtyards well-kept and swept in rural communities. To me, clean and well-kept meant "not poor". Modest, maybe, but not poor.

I have strolled around villages finding only smiles. Malawians are very smiley people. They never complain, they dont moan. They are reserved and respectful people who work hard and carry on with their business paying little attention to mzungus like me. Very dignified. I really appreciated that: not being asked for money, for favours, for futures. I thought, "they dont ask, so they dont need".

I have also been marvelled at Malawian beauty. Everything is so lush. the landscape, for a start. But also the people, the women wrapped in their colourful chitenje and the men on endless bicycles riding around on crumbled roads smiling composed and determined. No stereotypical UNICEF kids stretching their arms at me for food, no people wearing ripped dirty clothes. Part of me was jealous. Jealous of their radiating joy.

The M1 road I keep talking about should have given it away. An essential infrastructure crossing the country North to South which is left there to crumble and been eaten by potholes. And, the blackouts, the lack of hot water to shower, the poor network across the country to send whatsapp texts or make a call. And the statistics, to which I am not inclined to believe but that describe Malawi as the fourth poorest country in the world. Indeed, as soon as I started talking to people, a stark reality came to light. 

Malawi is poor. Very poor. But it has not always been this way. After decolonisation in the 60s, President Kamuzu, loved by every Malawians to date, things worked. Multistorey hospitals were being built, together with schools. Air Malawi operated direct flights to London Heathrow. There was food, and medicine. There was life.

Then, a set of poor political leaders came in, all too scared to do what was needed, all too scared to become too unpopular and to lose their seats. And, in a landlocked country were everything needs to be imported from very far distances on very poor roads, ignoring the macroeconomy was not a good idea.

First, fuel: prices of fuel were kept incredibly low, with people from neighbouring Zambia and Mozambique coming to refill their tanks for cheap. Suppliers couldnt be paid, so fuel couldnt get delivered. Hence, umpteenth stories of people waiting for days at petrol stations to refill their cars. Now, How does raising fuel prices impacts the ordinary Malawian? It doesnt, because the ordinary Malawian doesnt have a car. They ride a bike, up and down on poor muddy roads leaning towards their crumbled edges.

Now, energy: only 16% of the population has electricity. 16%. That means that most of the population cant charge their phones or have light at night. Escom, the electricity provider, is described as a mythological creature: everyone wants its service, very little get it, with connections taking up to 3 years to be established and lots of bribing in the middle, and those who have it being faced with constant blackouts and having to rely on generators - with diesel being incredibly expensive! To cook, people use mostly firewood. Malawi is so green and lush, but it is in the verge of an ecological crisis. The land is crying as people cut down trees at an unsustainable pace. "Collect firewood that is already fallen and dry", you would think. Except, that there isnt enough for everyone. I wondered why trees here look so thin and young: they dont have time to grow. There are parts of Malawi where people dig out tree roots as fuel, or burn maize cobs and stems. There are parts of Malawi where only mangoes tree survive, and that is because there is a very wise and strong chief forbidding their people to chop them down.

Charcoal production is another issue: people produce it in rudimentary kilns that are so inefficient that only about 10% of a tree is turned into charcoal. Charcoal allows people to escape subsistence farming and access the cash economy, to pay for school fees and medicine. It is transported as cooking fuel in the cities, where people could use electricity or gas to cook. Except that electricity is unstable, and gas impossible to find. Compared to Kenya, where LPG bottles were everywhere, here LPG bottles are very scarce. And even if you get hold of one, you have to travel long distances to find a retailer that can exchange it for a full one. Travel far distance, with the prices of fuel being now increasingly high...

What about food? I already talked about how expensive everything is in Malawian supermarkets. I always thought that living in the countryside is better than living in cities: there is always something to eat. Banana, mangoes, meat or fish that is hunted. But all these things are seasonal and require lots of work. There is maize everywhere I look, but thats not enough for the year. Having two harvesting seasons is impossible because irrigation is not there in the dry season, which I am yet to witness. A story that reminds me of the boy who harnessed the wind, of whom I talked about here. Plus, the land is progressively degraded and the rain falls weaker due to climate change. Maize, which needs to be imported, reached the cost of 100,000 kwacha per bag (40£), unaffordable to most of the population. And fertilisers, which are necessary for pest control in the country, were impossible to find for less than 190,000 kwacha a bag. Needless to say, Malawian went hungry.

I use the past tense because things are changing. A new government (although still a "recycled" government), came into power in October 2025 with the promise to revert the trend. To change things. Just yesterday, as we were in the capital Lilongwe, the President addressed the nation with a set of promises that to my naive eyes look credible. Blunt, clear: 'thats what we are going to do'. Already, prices of fuels have been adjusted to reflect international oil prices and maize bags are down to 35,000 kwacha. A big improvement. The roads are being rehabilitated. Malawi is a construction site. But things are still missing: water pumps to irrigate, fertilisers, which are being distributed now and too late into the harvesting seasons, electronics, car spares, power banks, even good textiles. Everything is missing.

Everything is missing also because of the Forex issue everyone talks about. There is no foreign cash in the country. Which means imported things can't be paid for. So you can't have things. Everyone is desperate for dollars or pounds. While the official rate is 1$ for about 200,000 kwacha, you can change dollars for over 400,000 kwacha at the black market. Needless to say this is illegal. Sour to say I am missing about 70$ dollars (I never lose things!) but really wishing they have gone to someone who was able to get a good exchange rate at the black market.

The life of an ordinary Malawian is bitter. Still, the ordinary Malawian keeps smiling, polite and reserved, hoping for a change. I am not sure change will materialise, but I really pray for them that things will be better. Meanwhile, I sit in front of Lake Malawi counting money that are worth nothing to pay my bill and feeling very lucky and a bit uncomfortable to be born in the right part of the world. How can we change things?