Malawi: Blogging about marriage, language, lifestyle and health  · Global Voices
Victor Kaonga

The Malawian blogging community is gradually growing in terms of size and topics. In this roundup, I introduce four blogs dedicated to marriage and children issues, Tumbuka language, health and lifestyle issues.
Marriage and Child care
Sunganani Manjolo has a passion for family and children care. His blog is full of ramblings on marriage, family and all the in between. Based in Lilongwe, Malawi, Manjolo blogs from experience as a married man and having been associated with Christian ministries, he shares practical tips for a modern young professional. He started blogging February 2007.
One of his earlier posts was on Praying With Your Spouse raised and listed some benefits to him after he had practised what he blogged about:
I am beginning to be more open to her (I think she likes it)
I am praying and thinking about her more often. (I think she must like it)
There is a sense of growing intimacy about the entire practice.
New Language Blog
The Internet is a place where the dominant language is English and this poses a challenge to seekers of information in other languages or of their own. A blog called Manyani Choyowoyero cha Chitumbuka is dedicated to teaching the Tumbuka language dominantly spoken and used in Northern Malawi. It was introduced March 2007 by Tobias Kumwenda who claims to be a proud Malawian and always striving to beat the odds in ICT sector.
Here is a taste of the lessons from his blog:
Mphatata = Sweet Potatoes), (Mpunga = Rice)
The Eye Specialist blogging
Dr Khumbo Kalua who blogs under his name is currently a Lecturer and Researcher at University of Malawi's College of Medicine and Senior Eye Specialist in Blantyre, Malawi. He prides himself in having studied at several Universities in 3 continents. Being a medical specialist, his blog mostly focusses on health and medical issues affecting Malawi's health system.
His latest post titled “Primary Health Workers: Is Quantity better than Quality in Malawi” takes the reader to the challenges Malawi's primary health system has but also highlights the role of its players:
HSA’s (Health Surveillance Assistants) are the first level of contact with the patients in the community and they are supposed to give health promotion (HSA were first recruited in Malawi for Cholera prevention programmes), but unfortunately currently they do a lot; give immunisations to children, treat fever in children, treat pneumonia, malaria, supervise patients on TB and ARV, give support to home based care, implement NGO’s programmes and many other duties.
Career Woman
Fingani Mphande started blogging late 2007. She has so far written about the International Women's Day and Being a Career African Woman. Her latest post on “Being a Housewife” takes her to her home in Malawi away from Sweden where she is researching on malaria. She reflects on the importance of respecting women who spend most of their days at home:
There are several men who would prefer a house wife because they will manage the home full time and may also respect their husbands more because that is their only source of income. As for me I would say a house wife is a woman whom we have to respect in society even though she is not a career woman (like lawyer, secretary, doctor, scientist, you name it), being a house wife is a career on its own.