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T. Mtambo: Address to Summit 2022, Session IXa
Written by Hon. Timothy Pagonachi Mtambo, minister of civic education and national unity, Malawi
Saturday, August 13, 2022
Address to Summit 2022 and Leadership Conference,
Seoul, Korea, August 11-15, 2022
Thank you so much. You know, every time you are the last to speak, you have advantages and disadvantages. When I look around, I can see that faces are changing because the undeniable right to food is speaking to all of us. But I would remind you all that the Bible says man shall not live by bread alone. I therefore request you to listen and listen carefully.
Excellencies, fellow Peace Ambassadors: I have been asked to talk on the subject of peace and unity in Malawi and Africa in general, based on the vision of character education. But before I do so, allow me to express my profound gratitude for the honor and privilege to stand before you and address this august audience on this important subject. Honorable delegates, I bring with me fraternal greetings and best wishes from Malawi, the warm heart of Africa. I stand before you, inspired by the colossal dream and vision of our beloved Moon family, the Mother and Father of Peace.
I stand as a testimony to value-based and character-based education. When I was nine years old, my grandfather, who was my best friend, told me about three important things. He used the analogy of the jungle's greatest animals.
He told me: “Son, listen. The elephant is the most respected and most honored animal in the jungle. Wherever you go, you have to respect people; look at them like elephants.”
The second lesson he gave me was that the lion is the most ferocious animal—brave, fearless and courageous. “Be brave and fearless when you are standing up for justice,” my grandfather said.
He also said: “Listen, this is the most important one. The sheep is the most peaceful, selfless, caring, and kind animal. Focus on the sheep, because that's what binds humanity together.”
I received this preaching at a tender age, and I've carried the preaching forth. And I've realized in the few days I've been here that if you have a dream that is rooted in God, it stands to survive and it shall stand the test of time. The Moon family have shown to us what that means. I have decided to manifest the values I was given at a tender age in my three beautiful children, whom I named Peace, Freedom and Justice.
My brothers and sisters in the Lord: I've come to learn that early childhood development is crucial. If we were all to adhere to the values and principles of the same, we could have built a very beautiful world, because almost 85 percent of the way you are today, the way I am today, was created between 0 to 8 years. That is the foundation of humanity.
What you plant in a child at that stage shall reign for the rest of their lives. Look at the baby as it is born—so innocent—but this world has a way of changing and destroying innocence. Therefore, we must focus on inculcating specific virtues, values and principles in our children so that they grow into people who will bind and not divide our beautiful world.
Esteemed colleagues: Indeed we were not created with the spirit of fear but rather the spirit of courage. It is said that those who fear the Lord shall be called children of God. I believe that all of us here stand by such an important principle.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen: Loosely defined, character education is a generic term used to describe the teaching of children and adults in a manner that will help them develop as moral agents; civic, well-mannered, well-behaved, critical, successful, compliant and socially acceptable individuals. It is the process of learning common attitudes, beliefs, and behavior that is important for responsible citizens.
Honorable delegates: Character education is about habits of thought and deeds that help people to live together as families, friends, neighbors, communities and nations. Thought and deeds are at the heart of character formation. These are pillars upon which a good education system, formal, informal, must be built.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen: Modern education in many parts of Africa, including Malawi, is largely a result of Western influence through colonial and Christian missionaries’ activities toward the 19th century. This is the model of education that independent Africa inherited with little modification to date. We are still influenced by that formal education. The key objective of this education had more to do with building capacity among members of indigenous communities as human resources for accelerated propagation of Christian faith and aiding administration of the colonial state in providing support services. That was the key objective.
But given this overarching objective, colonial education was not designed, and neither was it meant, to build civic health and a critical and successive citizenry; hence, it failed to meet the expectations of character education or what could be referred to as holistic education.
Distinguished delegates: Africa had its own form of education prior to the advent of Western education. Closely examined, the model of education was more oriented toward learning how to live and not necessarily to get into the job market. That was the focus of African education.
Typical African education exhibits three dimensions of holistic education:
- The mind for knowledge;
- The hand for skills;
- The heart to the spirit of character.
Thus, the traditional African model of education is well manifested in character education with its focus on thought and deeds. Thought is about belief and value systems, while deeds are about behavior patterns or personal conduct. Personal conduct is a product or a result of a belief and value system that individuals and families, communities and nations uphold. Therefore, character education as a process of inculcating the beliefs and values of a given society is critical for the production of women and men of integrity and honor, trustworthy and consumed with zeal for the welfare of families and communities, societies and nations, and humanity at large.
Ladies and gentlemen: In Africa, particularly in southern Africa, including Malawi, these noble values are captured in the philosophy and the way of life commonly known as Ubuntu, which is the essence of existential philosophy of being in the world for and with others.
In this regard, the famous Senegalese philosopher, poet and statesman Léopold Sédar Senghor spoke of a community society and not a collection of single words. Senghor was not constrained on mere collective individuals, but with people inspiring together, conspiring— in the basic Latin sense—to literally mean “breathing together,” and united even to the very center of being.
Ubuntu is an inclusive philosophy, irrespective of race, gender, religion and political identity. The root word is tu, which is “being.” We are the same regardless of our differences. Same people, different rights. This is a designation of a radical bond in the universe, not only human beings, but even those existences that make human life possible. Individual and collective essence is only possible with and through this bond.
The morality of Ubuntu is intrinsically related to human happiness and fulfillment. It is something driven by our nature as human persons with our deepest moral obligation to become more fully human. Ubuntu philosophy as a way of life is summed up in the manner that “I am because you are,” and “because you are, therefore I am.” Ubuntu philosophy reflects our shared existence and responsibility toward the individual, family, community, society and nation, and the environment. It extends to the taking care of our environment responsibly. It disputes segregation of any form.
Malawi is committed to value-based education that is based on character. That is why the Ministry of National Unity—which I am happy to head, as I consider it as a calling from God—wants to introduce a comprehensive curriculum on moral education and citizenship studies and to develop a department of ethics, integrity and patriotism.
Our government has come up with a very comprehensive, robust national infrastructure on peace. We have passed an act of Parliament that will develop an infrastructure of peace from the national Malawi Peace and Unity Commission to the grass-roots, where structures will be developing peace across Malawi, and we encourage our African brothers to do the same.
May God bless you all, and may God bless our beautiful world. Thank you.
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