Mcpherson Maulana – Malawi

Mcpherson Maulana is senior producer and journalist at Radio Islam. He grew up in Zomba, a district in southern Malawi. Radio Islam offered him a job after noticing the journalistic potential that came through in his writing and poetry. After offering Maulana training, he went on to get a diploma in journalism and achieved a scholarship to study in Uganda.

Maulana continued to work for Islam Radio after returning from Uganda. He first met Pushba in 2006, when the Gender Links team was helping Islam Radio develop a gender policy through the CEO program. Maulana distinctly remembers the impact this first encounter had on his perception of gender. “There was a time when gender issues were seen as feminist issues and that gender was solely about women. I believe many men saw it only as a feminist struggle. After the Gender Links training, I slowly began to understand that gender is about both women and men”.

Since 2006, Maulana attended a number of workshops held by Gender Links and other organisations which influenced his style of reporting and his work as a producer. “I found myself reporting on issues that concerned women and that had gender dimensions. I was also more aware of my use of language and was far more gender sensitive, especially avoiding stereotypes about women”.

As a senior producer, Maulana immediately notices the gender stereotypes that come out of the work produced by young reporters, interns and junior producers. Through these occurrences, he acknowledges and appreciates his understanding of gender and how with this knowledge, he can mentor and teach budding producers and radio journalists. “There is a lot of stereotyping that they just don’t see, and they don’t understand the implications of that kind of work, so I explain what the problems are and tell them to edit their work. We often debate naming and designation and to always be aware of how they position men and women”. Through these discussions and processes of learning on a day-to-day basis, Maulana recognises the gradual change in perceptions, and how journalists are moving away from carless and insensitive reporting.

Maulana attributes his better understanding of gender to the women he grew up with as a young boy. “I am more a product of women than I am men. Growing up, I was surrounded by my mother, sisters and grandmothers, so I grew up valuing women because they tend to carry the important responsibility of bearing and bringing up children”.

He also appreciates the influence his grandmother has had on his poetry, which mainly addresses the disparities, and the dispossession women experience in Malawi.

He has a personal issue of men absconding to other countries to find work and leaving children and the mothers of those children with nothing. Boys grow up with women but without fathers and women struggle along without help. “I write to impact others; I write poetry, record and play them on radio. Even Malawians in South Africa have heard my poems, and this is putting them out there and influencing people (local language is Yao). My poetry is having an impact on people. Through this, I can reach people who can’t read. I’ve heard they load it on their cellphones to listen to. Most South African and Muslim Malawians speak Yao.

According to him, Islam addresses issues of gender; it doesn’t clash or conflict with his gendered thinking. “Women have a place in religion. Islam allows the woman to keep her maiden name; my wife continues to use her father’s name. Islam does not stop or prohibit me from covering issues about the plight of women. If I had the opportunity to make a contribution to gender, I would want to mobilise the masses to understand that gender is not just a women’s issue.”

McPherson believes Gender Links needs more men to communicate the gender message to men. “Men need to speak to men. So men understand it’s not just a female issue. More men need to be involved in change; this way we could have a rapid response. I have the same influence as a communicator on the radio, and also because people know me as a writer. We need to impart information that discourages and educates people about practices that oppress women. I grew to despise chauvinism that creeps in; this make me appreciate the media dimension in my work.”

Below is a sample of one of McPherson’s poems

Title: My son abroad (South Africa)

the mother is pleading with the son that he should send something to support the family back at home
the mother is lamenting that family property was sold for him to get a passport and transport money so that may be one day their lives will change but they are now tired of waiting.

The mother is also pleading with her son on behalf of the daughter in-law that the wife he left behind is suffering

that the wife is being deprived of conjugal right whereas the husband is going out with other women in South Africa,
that the husband had to put a spell on his wife so that she cannot sleep with another man( the mother in-law is pleading with her son that before he dies of xenophobic attacks in South Africa, he should come back home to overturn
the spell on his wife that she can get married to another man because if he dies while his wife is in that condition, she will be able to get married thereafter.-emphasises that marriage is not just money or material possession but more importantly mutual respect, conjugal enjoyment and sense of security when men or husbands are around.

The mother is also expressing her worry to her son that his children back home are growing without knowing their father and that the wife is alone taking that responsibility which is a cumbersome task for the wife-the children are lacking fatherly love.

At the end the mother introduces the issue of HIV. She cites examples of some people who were doing what the son is doing but are either living with the virus or are dead-the fear comes when such men come to Malawi, with their economic power, women at home are just submissive and in the process they contract the virus from such husbands who contracted it from south Africa.

Lastly the mother mourns that she feels like she has lost the son.