The hard lot of old people

81-year-old widow Nasitima Chikadwala lives at Dzama village of Traditional Authority Chitukula, about 25 kilometres from Malawi’s capital Lilongwe. Chikadwala, fondly known as ‘Nana’, narrates her perils as an elderly person living in Malawi. She says that about ten years back, her relatives started mistreating her. She was even accused of being a witch. “I was beaten just because of my old age. And because I don’t have children of my own, so there was no one to protect me at that time,” she says.

Born in 1943, ‘Nana’ was once happily married. But she lost her husband in a road accident. With no children, Chikadwala has been surviving on her own. She lives in a tiny grass-thatched hut whose door is made of pieces of iron sheets tied with bamboo sticks. The room is so tiny that she must sleep with her legs folded. “This is where I find peace,” Nana says. She adds: “In the past, I was constantly beaten, denied food and shelter.” Her tormentor has since passed. “Now I can smile again,” she says.

In Malawi, many old people are subjected to torture and several of them have been brutally murdered by their blood relations, accusing them of practicing witchcraft. Many elderly people are living in fear of being subjected to this inhuman treatment.

Kapiseni Ching’ombe, aged 74, is another elderly man who has not been spared from the attacks against old people. Ching’ombe has eight children and two grandchildren who are currently taking care of him. He recalls how one of his sons tortured him. “He beat me because I was advising him to stop extramarital affairs.”

Some people care. Disgusted by the numerous cases of abuse against the elderly, 23-year-old Deborah Mbale decided to do something about it. She founded the Mai Mbambande Foundation in Lilongwe to care for the elderly. “I saw a need in my community, and I decided to help,” Mbale says. “I deal with people who are old, fit to be my grandmothers.”

She says that she works with the community chiefs who identify elderly people and bring them to her foundation’s temporary elderly home. She supports about 100 elderly people who come from different surrounding village communities, and she envisions that in the next five years, Mai Mbambande will be able to reach out to more people.

The foundation’s project manager, Richard Masina, says that the foundation also engages the senior citizens in different activities like games and dancing to keep their minds active and relieve them from stress. “These are our parents, and we have to show them love,” Masina says.

Benson Kunchezera is a Malawian freelance journalist based in Blantyre.
bkunchezera84@gmail.com