Explain to learners that before learning more about Malawi’s language and culture, it’s first important to explore a bit more about ‘culture’, what it means, why it’s important and how to avoid reinforcing stereotypes when talking about culture.

Q – What is ‘culture’?

If learners struggle to give a definition of the word, try starting by asking for examples of culture and work backwards from that.

Here are just some of the many different definitions of culture include:

• the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.
• the characteristic features of everyday existence (such as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time
• the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time
• the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group
• the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization
• the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behaviour that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations

The truth is it’s a very hard word to define as it’s a broad concept that includes lots of aspects. What ‘culture’ is, and what it includes, is constantly changing and is seen by different people in quite different ways.

Descriptions of a country’s ‘culture’ are really ‘cultural generalisations’: not everyone conforms to all aspects but it describes certain common aspects of shared belief, behaviour and customs.

An example of a cultural generalisation would be “People from country X tend to have a direct style of communication.” This statement is not true of everyone in country X. Some may disagree with the statement and some may agree (it is subjective – not something that can easily be proved).

Q – What is ‘Scottish culture’?

Encourage learners to share as many different points as possible. When you have a good list, ask individuals if everyone in the class is all of these things?

Emphasise that culture is not uniform: not everyone in a country shares precisely the same culture (not even everyone in the same family shares all the same culture).

Encourage learners to reflect on what is their culture: is it a ‘Scottish culture’, a ‘young person culture’, a culture defined by their music, style or identity, or all of these.

There are overlapping and competing cultures; there are dominant cultures and sub-cultures.

Help learners see how complicated ‘culture’ is when you stop and drill down into it: it’s all too easy to say sweeping things about other people’s culture but there’s a risk in doing this you’re really just defining them as ‘different’ to yourselves.

Q – What is a ‘stereotype’?

Definitions include:

• a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.
• a set idea that people have about what someone or something is like, especially an idea that is wrong
• a standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group and that represents an oversimplified opinion, prejudiced attitude, or uncritical judgment

Q – How does it feel to be on the receiving end of a negative stereotype?

Ask how it would feel if someone you met:

• insisted that everyone in Scotland shared exactly the same culture, or
• insisted they ‘understood you because they understood Scottish culture’, or
• laughed at Scottish men for wearing “multi-coloured skirts” (kilts).

Aspects of other people’s culture may seem strange, or even funny at times, but it can be insensitive and harmful to joke about someone’s culture or to stereotype people – not least because you’re often just showing your own ignorance (a kilt is not a skirt!).

Keeping asking yourself ‘how would I feel if people were talking about me and my family in this way’. This encourages empathy - the ability to understand and share the feelings of others.

Q – What is the difference between a ‘cultural generalisation’ and a ‘stereotype’:

Generalisations become stereotypes when all members of a group are categorized as having the same characteristics.

Both stereotypes and generalisations can be linked to any type of cultural membership, such as nationality, religion, gender, race, or age. They can also both be good, bad, or neutral.

Stereotypes are typically inflexible and resistant to new information: it is assumed that all members of a particular group follow these traits.

Stereotypes can, and often do, lead to prejudice and intentional or unintentional discrimination. 

But the difference between a ‘stereotype’ and a ‘cultural generalisation’ can be hard to see.

Therefore:

• Be very careful about your language when talking about others’ culture
• Be sure you are not implying all people in a group have these same characteristics
• Keep asking yourself, ‘how would I feel if people were saying this about me’
• Think about what the impact of your assumptions or generalisations might be
• Try to reflect the complex and overlapping cultures: not just nationality but age, gender, music taste, faith, etc.
• Try to avoid language of ‘them’ and ‘us’, as it defines other groups in terms of their ‘otherness’ and difference.

Explain that now we have a better understanding of what culture is, and how to avoid harmful stereotypes, we can now learn more about some aspects the culture in Malawi.

We recommend you use the powerpoint for this next section, as there are photos and audio files to help with pronunciation.

Q – What does ‘Malawi’ mean?

The name Malawi means ‘flames of fire’. The country is known as the ‘Warm Heart of Africa’, due to its rich and friendly culture, its land-locked position in south-eastern Africa.

Q - Where is Malawi?

Malawi is a landlocked country on the continent of Africa, it is landlocked by the countries of Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique.

Teachers may wish to take time to explain what the terms ‘continent’ and ‘landlocked’ mean.

One third of Malawi's landscape is taken up by Lake Malawi, in Chichewa this is known as Lake Nyasa, the word Nyasa means ‘lake’ in Chichewa, so this translates to ‘lake lake’!

Malawi also used to be known as Nyasaland before it changed its name to Malawi in 1964, when it became an independent country.

Q - What does the Malawian flag represent?

The Malawian flag, is vertical bands of Black, Red and Green.

• The 31 rays of the sun represent the fact that Malawi was the 31st African nation at the time of its independence.
• The black represents the indigenous people of the continent.
• The red symbolises the blood of their struggle.
• The green represents nature.

Q - What currency do they use in Malawi?

The currency of Malawi is Kwacha, the kwacha is similar to our pounds and tambala is similar to our pence.

You can check the £:MK exchange rate HERE.

Q - What do Malawians typically wear?

In Malawi, many people wear beautiful, brightly coloured local-produced fabrics which people use to make dresses and shirts, or simply have wrapped around the body for women. These fabrics are know a zitengi. (sit-ten-jay, or chit-en-jay). It is very uncommon for women to show their knees or shoulders in Malawi, for cultural and religious reasons.

A popular way of carrying babies in Malawi is on the back, simply attached by a piece of zitengi cloth tied together at the sides (the knot can even be used like a purse, to store money).

Like in Scotland, men tend to wear suits for formal business-wear.

Emphasise that, just like in Scotland, different people wear different things. Fashions change over time and between different groups in society.

Q - Where do Malawians tend to shop?

Most people in Malawi grow much of their own food, buying the rest from local markets. However, in the larger towns and cities there are also large supermarkets, very similar to what we are used to in Scotland.

Q - What do Malawians typically eat?

Nsima (n-see-ma) is the staple food of Malawi. It is made from maize flour and has a similar consistency to mashed potato. Most Malawians grow their own maize.

You can click on the speaker icon to hear the correct pronunciation.

Nsimsa is so dense that, only half-joking, Malawians often say they don’t feel full if a meal doesn’t have Nsima!

Nsima is served with Ndiwo (relish) which is comes in the form of tomatoes, cabbage, it is basically anything that served on the side with your nsima.

Q - What language do they speak in Malawi?

Malawi is a multilingual country – this means they speak more than one language. In fact, there are 13 major languages spoken in Malawi. They are called Bantu languages.

English is the official language of business, law and education in Malawi: this is a legacy of colonial rule (Malawi was a British protectorate from 1891 to 1964, then called Nyasaland). However, outside the towns and cities, most Malawians do not speak English. In the 1998 census, only 0.1% of Malawians spoke English as their first language and yet this is the language that almost all school is it. Some in Malawi now question why English continues to be imposed as the official language.

The most common primary language in the centre and south of Malawi (70% of the population) is Chichewa.

The most common primary language in the north of Malawi is Chitumbuka.

“Chi” means ‘language’ (or, to be precise, ‘in the manner of’). So “Chichewa” means the language of the Chewa tribe and Chitumbuka means the language of the Tumbuka tribe.

Other common languages include:

• Chiyao (especially in the east)
• Tonga (especially in the north-east)
• Sena (especially in the very southern tip)

‘Translators without Borders’ have an interactive map showing the relative percentages of different languages spoken in each Malawian district www.translatorswithoutborders.org/languages-of-malawi-interactive-en/ .

Learning basic greetings in Chichewa

Use the slides and audio files in the Powerpoint to learn the below phrases and have learners practice this, greeting and speaking to each other:

• Moni = hello

When shaking hands in Malawi, you can show respect to the person you are greeting by touching the inside of your right elbow with your left hand. This can also be accompanied by a slight dip at the knees, accompanied by bowing down the head. Learners could practice this, shaking hands and saying ‘Moni’.

• Ndine = I am
• Muli bwanji? = How are you?
• Ndili bwino, kaya inu? (I am fine, how are you?)
• Ndili Bwinonso = (I am fine too)
• Zikomo! = Thank you!