Malawian president Joyce Banda urges investors to honour Livingstone's memory by helping rebuild her country's economy
Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 March 2013 14.18 EDT
The bicentenary of the birth of the Scottish missionary explorer David Livingstone, who is credited with a leading role in ending slavery in Africa, has been marked by an appeal for more overseas investment in his adopted home, Malawi.
As dignitaries and ministers gathered before a service and wreath-laying alongside his grave within Westminster abbey on Tuesday evening, the Malawian president, Joyce Banda, urged investors and development charities to honour Livingstone's memory by helping rebuild her country's economy.
Banda, in an official address to the Scottish parliament, said Livingstone – born 200 years ago to mill-workers living in a single room in Blantyre near Glasgow – was an iconic, inspirational figure to many Malawians.
"You can still sit under the tree where Dr Livingstone negotiated with slave traders to set people free," Banda told MSPs, before flying to London for the wreath-laying at the abbey.
A leading gender rights activists who has been feted by development campaigners, Banda said her country was now emerging from a deep and serious economic and political crisis which had left Malawi "in a state of collapse".
After several years of escalating unemployment, a fuel crisis and a failure to provide basic services, she said her reform programme, backed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, was beginning to work. But inflation has soared since Banda devalued the country's currency, the kwacha, after she took power following the collapse of Bingu wa Mutharika's government last April.
Political tensions continue. Last week, around 10 former officials and ministers in the former president's regime were arrested for allegedly plotting a coup to prevent Banda from taking power.
She told Holyrood that Malawi's future stability and growth, and her attempts to end corruption, depended heavily on outside investment.
On Sunday, Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister, announced £4.9m in new development funding for 15 projects in Malawi.
Before finishing her three-day visit to Scotland, which included a visit to Livingstone's home and museum in Blantyre and a visit as guest of honour to give the Scottish Communities cup football trophy at Hampden on Sunday, she met Ann Gloag, the Christian philanthropist and co-founder of the Scottish transport firm Stagecoach, and other business people to arrange a new investment push in Malawi.
"Let me assure the people of Scotland that Malawi is poised for transformation. We've endured the dangerous zone and we're just about to realise our destiny," Banda said. "There's hope for my people and indeed there's hope for my country."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/1...
Posted By: Steve Williams
Tuesday, March 19th 2013 at 5:13PM
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