Meet Joyce Mlenga, Dean of Academics,

College of Education, University of Livingstonia

Speaking to Women at Westminster Presbyterian Church

Olympia Presbytery, Washington– 10/6/2011

Overcoming Obstacles

Introduction

Good morning Ladies,

First of all I would like to thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak to you this morning. I am glad to be here and visit with you because you people are very special to us from University of Livingstonia. I know that I will be meeting you again on Sunday but let me take this opportunity to personally thank you so much for the support you always give to University of Livingstonia. In Malawi, we say that “women are the backbone of the church,” and I want to believe that it is the same here. Behind every successful church, there are women…

I also want to thank you for what the church is doing in providing scholarships to students. These make a big difference in the lives of students who could in no way achieve college education without your support. Thank you very much for those of you who packed things in boxes which were sent to Malawi in the container. Some of you supported the Livingstonia water project, if you are here, please accept our gratitude. Thank you for giving us life, for it has been said that “water is life.” The list is endless. On behalf of the church and University of Livingstonia in particular, I would like to express our sincerest appreciation for your prayer, financial and material support. May God bless you so much.

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Some of you have heard from Maria Nkhoma and Ninas Msiska about a woman’s life in Malawi. I know these two ladies because together we are part of the community which supports the work of University of Livingstonia. We are neighbors and we share most of the things in common. I would like to add to what you already know about a Malawian woman.

Personal life

I was born and raised in the military base because my father worked in the military for 18 years. I had access to free education (from grades 1-8) and free school uniforms, which were privileges for children of military men. At that time, primary education was not free. However, it has been free since 1994. We had free food, free medical treatment, free housing, free water, and free electricity. This was not the case with those who were outside the military base and especially those who stayed in villages. They had to pay school fees, buy uniform, look for firewood, had to go to school on an empty stomach, carry water on their head for a distance of 3 miles, for farming first before going to school, et cetera. Some dropped out of school because there parents could hardly pay their school fees. Parents who earned little money sent only boys to school and girls could stay at home because it was argued that they would get married and their husbands would take care of them. I did my primary school up to grade 8 where I had to write government examinations for three times before I could find a place in high school. This was due to shortage of space in high schools since most of them were boarding schools. Many girls chose to marry rather than repeat standard 8 not knowing when they would be selected to a high school. I made it the third time and was given a place at a high school located at Livingstonia.

After the completion of my high school education I passed with good grades but I was not selected to college due to shortage of space at the only public university—University of Malawi. I therefore got a job and worked for 6 years, got married and had two children. A year after I got married my husband went to acquire college education in another town and I had to raise my children single handedly, but at the same time I had to support my husband. Life was not easy because when one gets employed, s/he is expected to support one’s family but at the same support the extended family, including my parents. Being the first born in my family, I had to help pay tuition fees for my younger brothers and sisters because my father had retired from the military. I also needed a house helper to take care of the children while I worked. I had to pay her for doing the work as well as feed her because she stayed in my house.

In Malawi, almost everyone has a house helper because most tasks are done with a lot of effort. The house helper could be employed or one has dependants (nephews and nieces) stay with them. For example, you have to take maize, which is Malawi’s staple food, to a maize mill which may be two miles away, to have it processed into flour. The process is so involved so much so that one cannot do it alone. Those who don’t have house helpers can ask their neighbors to assist who also have their own tasks to accomplish. As people travel to their farmland to cultivate, there is need for someone to stay at home and take care of the young ones who go to school. In addition, we have to heat water for a shower, carry water from rivers or taps, and fetch firewood far away from home. Furthermore, we have to wash clothes by hand and with extended families there is normally too much laundry to do. It takes a lot of labor to have most of the tasks done, hence the need for house helps. Many women do all this work while carrying their babies on their back.

Professional Life

I am a teacher at University of Livingstonia, College of Education (which Henry and Jenny worked tirelessly to establish) and this is my sixth year at the College. At the moment, I am the only resident lady teacher at the College, and I have served as Dean of studies for four years. Of course it is not easy to get married women teaching on the plateau because it normally means separation from one’s family. There are not many companies at Livingstonia where one can be employed. I am privileged because my husband and I are both teaching at the University. Being Dean of Academics has not been an easy task. I had to work extra hard to prove that a woman can do a good job. In Malawi, at many work places, men generally look down on women and sometimes the woman’s authority is undermined. Men usually do not like to take orders from women and at times, it took a lot of effort on my part to have assignments accomplished and meet the dead lines. My boss could sometimes call for faculty meetings in the evenings where I was supposed to be in attendance but he did not invite me. When others asked why I was not invited, my boss would gladly tell them that ‘She is a woman and she must be cooking at home’. Even though I am a teacher and the Dean of Academics, I am still regarded first, as a woman, then as a teacher and finally as Dean of Academics. Being the only woman there is not only a challenge but also a privilege in the sense that I serve as a role model to many girls at the College of Education and many get inspired to aim high.

My husband served as Dean of Students at the time I served as Dean of Academics and we used to host students for dinner in order to know them better. Students were also welcome to our home for counseling and my husband would invite me to assist with the counseling, especially when it was a female student who needed help. This was a good opportunity to mentor and impact students’ lives.

Family Life

I am a wife to Moses, and a mother of two girls aged 19 and 17. Both of them are in college now. One stays away from home in the dormitories in the south of the country, while the other one stays in our home and attends the College of Education where I teach. In addition, a niece, a nephew, my sister in-law, and two other workers live with us under the same roof. When parents get sick, they come from the village to our house in order to seek medical treatment which is not so good in village hospitals. For example, just a day before I left Malawi for the US, my sick father-in-law and my mother-in-law traveled from the village, 300 miles away, to join us at Livingstonia in order to access medical treatment from a mission hospital. So, in addition to taking care of my immediate family, I also have to take care of extended family members. Since Livingstonia is far from the nearest town, and in order to feed the large group of people staying in our home, we grow vegetables and raise chickens in our home so that we can have them whenever we want them. Livingstonia is located in a remote area and the grocery store which stocks many items that we use is 3 hours drive one way from us.

I must point out that my life is much better than that of other women especially those who have little or no education at all. While many women have to travel for long distances to look for firewood for cooking, I use an electric stove for cooking. Of course electricity is not reliable because it goes off time and again and I have to use other alternatives when that happens. When power goes off, I use charcoal stove, even though it takes long for it to be ready for cooking. In addition, food takes longer to cook compared to electric stove or open fire. In addition, I have running water in my home, so I don’t have to carry water on my head like others do. I also stay close to the maize mill, but other women walk for four miles, carrying a heavy load of maize on their heads to the nearest maize mill. Women are exercising the whole time they are performing their household chores!

I am not saying this so that you can feel sorry for Malawians, but that you can understand what life is for a Malawian woman. I am grateful for whatever I have.

Church life

In our church I am a church elder and as such I participate in the vestry meetings that take place before the service begins. I sometimes participate in the service by reading the scriptures, singing, and reading out the announcements especially when I served as church secretary. I am also a member of women’s guild; women’s grouping that meets every Friday for Bible Study. Apart from having Bible studies, we also visit the sick, the elderly, the bereaved and orphans. It is also the responsibility of women’s guild members to prepare meals on open fire when there are congregational meetings (like Easter and Christmas), Synod meetings, and others. I sometimes participate in the cooking of meals. There are nine village chapels which are part of the Livingstonia Congregation. The mother church is located at Livingstonia plateau so the chapels are closer to villages so that members do not walk long distances to go to church. Monthly kirk sessions are held in different chapels where I have to, at times, walk six miles each way to get to the venues. As a church elder I am also expected to visit church members of my particular area to encourage them and have fellowship with them, which I rarely do, due to having too many things on my plate.

Community life

As we all know, no woman is an island, but lives in a community. As Malawians, community is everything to us. As a member of the community, there are expectations from me. When there is a funeral in our community, every adult person is expected to attend and those who fail to attend are reprimanded. If one chooses to regularly absent himself/herself from funerals then people will not come to his home when there happens to be a funeral. When a funeral occurs, people have to gather at the funeral home to comfort the bereaved family, help with the cooking, help with the digging of the grave, et cetera. If the one who died is a Christian, men and women sing hymns in the house while others are doing other tasks. Funerals of those who die away from home take many days. For example, one woman died about a thousand miles from home and it took five days to have her body transported to Livingstonia. We gathered at the home of the bereaved for those five days spending nights at their home until burial took place.

Apart from funerals, we have weddings and most of the times I am asked to be chair/facilitator of bridal showers or serve in wedding committees. Involvement in these committees goes along with financial assistance—I have to give money. Being a teacher at the university gives me a certain status and as such people think I can be a good leader and I have money. There is always pressure from the community for me to be involved in various activities and when I decline their requests they think that I am proud because I am educated. Livingstonia, being a mission station, has a lot of activities going on. Celebrations of different kinds take place: centenary celebrations of the hospital, the Gorodi road, University of Livingstonia’s annual graduation ceremonies, and many other activities which always need people to serve in the committees in preparation for the celebrations. In addition, being a mission station, Livingstonia attracts many people who come to visit and we host several visitors in our home, for dinner or tea, and some stay for a night or two.

Education

I did my college education while I already had two children, and the youngest was two years and eight months. At my husband’s suggestion, I went to a college 350 miles away from home and I left my children with my husband. There was a house helper who helped him to take care of the children. My parents and my husband’s parents were not happy with this move because they were happy that I had a job and didn’t see the relevance of my going back to school. Of course I understand why they did this because they are not very educated themselves, and in addition, my going to school meant withdraw of support, since I didn’t have a job. My mother actually advised me not to go back to school because my husband would marry another wife while I was away. I got my degree after four years and started teaching. Two years later, my husband and I got a scholarship to go to graduate school in Nairobi where both of us got our Masters. Again, parents and some of our friends questioned the rationale behind our education. Some felt that it was not necessary for me as a wife to have all that education, what for? Relatives and friends kept on warning my husband not to have me as educated as he was because I would no longer respect him if both of us had the same level of education There were discouraging messages coming from different directions but he ignored them. I am one of the lucky women who has a husband who is very supportive in my education. Many women want to go to school but their husbands do not allow them. If they have children the husbands always ask, who will take care of the children? Who will cook for me?

In 2007, I started studying for my PhD on part time basis—working full-time and studying part time. I have collected my data and I am currently writing my dissertation. People are still asking back home, is it necessary that she gets a PhD? She is a woman, has a good job and has a husband, what is she looking for? They ask.

Efforts to Balance the Various Aspects of Life

Having shared all these aspects of my life, you might be asking yourself how I manage all these. It is always a challenge to balance all these and as I go about performing my tasks, I do find myself failing in some areas. Putting all these roles together: a wife, a mother, a teacher, a church elder, a women’s guild member, a community member, and currently a student is just overwhelming to me! I always feel like I could do more but I am unable to. I sometimes spend more time on others and I don’t have time for my daughters; let alone for my self (I can hardly find time to exercise). I feel like I should put more time in my studies, but pressures from work, church and community make it impossible. That is why I really appreciate the opportunity I have here, just to sit and write with fewer distractions. This is a rare opportunity for me.

There are a lot of things that I would love to share, but let me stop here for now.

Thank you for your attention.

Joyce