Moving Up and Down: 50 years of the Ilala Ferry
Assembled in 1949, from
Scottish parts hauled inland to Lake Malawi from Mozambique, the Ilala ferry has
become a symbol of a nation in 
transition.
Once a luxurious colonial liner decked with first class
cabins and silver flatware,
the Ilala has aged and adapted with time. Now in it's 5oth year, the Ilala
continues to ply the open waters of Lake Malawi in order to transport virtually
everything to the numerous villages that dot the shores of the lake.
For many of these
communities, the Ilala ferry is the only option available to travel beyond the
range of local dugout canoes. Loaded with foodstuffs such as sugar cane, refined
sugar, maize, flour, rice, fish, as well as chickens, goats, and even cattle,
the Ilala plugs away on a week-long circuit of the long and narrow lake. 
Cranes
lift larger loads of supplies like crates of soft drinks and beer, household
belongings, canoes and boats, building supplies, and vehicles, destined for
isolated northern ports.
Over the years, the Ilala
has faced numerous obstacles - high winds, sandbars, and breakdowns. However,
with uncanny reliability, the Ilala continues to offer ferry service, despite
the high prices of imported spare parts and fuel, and the aging hull of the
Ilala itself. On the first leg of the trip around the shallow southern shores,
more than 400 Muslim women boarded the ferry via the Ilala’s transfer running
boats. The women were returning from a nation-wide prayer meeting in a tiny
community on the south-western curve of the Lake. At 2am, at the port of Salima,
the women sang as they disembarked from the Ilala
In many ways, I have found
the critical dependency on, and failing condition of the Ilala to characterize
the current struggle of the post-colonial, multi-party Malawi as a whole. With
an increasing debt of over 2.4 billion US$ from the International Monetary Fund
and the World Bank to be serviced, the Ilala’s cargo is 
representative
of the shifts from a subsistence agriculture economy to a cash crop,
export-driven economy. Now, sugar and tropical fish are ferried south to export
while sacks of donated flour (from the government of Japan) and imported tin
sheets flow back to the Northern communities for food and shelter.
While the IMF’s
Structural Adjustment Program in Malawi is intended to assist the most
impoverished and contribute towards the development of the country, it appears
that the gap between rich and poor is widening. On my roundtrip journey on the
Ilala, it was incredible to contrast the expatriate-owned Range Rover vehicle
lashed on deck and the tons of processed sugar in the hold (mostly controlled by
governmental ministers and South African businessmen) with the flotillas of
dugout canoes.
Despite incredible odds,
antiquated technology, and limited educational opportunities, the majority of
Malawians, like the Ilala, continue to push on in hopes of making it to the next
port of call.
General alarm with President Bakili Muluzi
