In the movie, ‘Step Up Revolution’ released in 2012, a group of street dancers used to storm the streets and other places, like libraries, to dance just for YouTube endorsements.
But everything changed when they learnt that a billionaire, Bill Anderson has bought the entire of their community and was set to tear it down and erect hotels, which would have rendered them homeless.
They turned the focus of their dance from YouTube to protests. On several occasions, they stormed council premises where Anderson was to sign for the contract to tear down the coastal community.
Anderson then gave up, telling the crew, which had, by this time grew to unimaginable size, ‘perhaps, there is a way we can build without destroying the community’. The group won. The community won.
LESSON
Here in Malawi, there was a time street protests worked and really sent strong message to the Bingu and Peter Mutharika administrations. But now, things have changed it’s no longer the democrats that were the Mutharikas at State House.
There are new players in town. When the music changes so should the dance. Lazarus Chakwera and his boys fully understand what demonstration can do to an administration, like theirs.
And as already demonstrated, Chakwera will always use state machinery to land heavy-handedness on those leading and participating in protests.
They finished off the HRDC and the group can no longer bark for fear of dropping the bone from their mouths. They scared of Sylvester Namiwa with one of the very undemocratic bail condition ever heard in history: “thou shall not lead or participate in demonstration again”.
And expect the same to happen to Chisa Mbele and friends.
This administration is a scared dog, just like their founder Hastings Kamuzu Banda. Their only way to survive is to unleash terror to those shaking their already shaken foundation.
The way out is to change the dance to something cutting-edge. The kind of demonstrations so unheard of that will even attract the police and the military and the courts to participate in a subtle way.
Time to rebrand the wheels of protests to something hotter that not even the police will come near to arrest anyone.
