Liberals are a Global Minority

In 2014 I travelled to Malawi for a business trip. It was my first time working in Sub-Saharan Africa and I was excited to see the countryside and meet the people for the first time. Most of my work had been in North Africa and I was used to the culture there. Malawi provided some unexpected shocks.

We arrived as a cohort of researchers from local institutions and from partners in nearby countries, along with me and another person (who is African) from my institution. There were a handful of European white folks amongst the African experts and that felt right and normal. We pulled up to the community meeting place for the project, where we were working with fisheries on Lake Malawi.

Going to Malawi in 2015 to support a project on improving fish processing at Lake Malawi. The fish weren’t drying very well (C) because it was raining so it was a perfect day to talk about alternatives, like smoking (R). Photos by the author.

The meeting started with a song and it was, for me, surreal. It was a slice of African life that is often featured in video clips and felt cliche, but it was real.

It was followed by a fervent prayer.

We had the meeting and we ended it with another fervent prayer, and then more singing.

The prayers at the beginning and ending of the meeting went on for several minutes and were clearly deeply heartfelt. That’s where my shock set in. In North…