Clubbing The Malawian Way.

On Friday night my friend’s co-workers took us out. This is a fellow Canadian who I met during my pre-departure training in Canada. She works with a much larger NGO here in Lilongwe.
Her co-worker came to pick me up at home and we started at a British-style pub. We had some drinks and played a little pool. Most of the music was from the 80s and 90s, which thanks to my mother’s enjoyment of radio station CHFI 98.1, I knew most of the words to. We sat down at a table with two women, who began talking with my friend. After a while they asked her for her phone number. After giving it to them, my friend’s co-worker become concerned. He pulled us away from the table and explained that the women were sex-workers. “mahule” in Chichewa – meaning prostitute. Or “oyendayenda”, the more politically correct term, meaning ‘women who walk about in the dark’. For the rest of the night the co-worker kept repeating that we should not associate with women like that, and if we sit near them or talk to them, other men will think we are like them. The prejudice towards sex-workers was evident in the way the men spoke: the words they used and their tone.

After the pub – we moved on to a club called Chez N’Temba. It is a chain that is all over Africa. They had just re-opened their Lilongwe club after a renovation.
The ways in which Malawian clubs are the same as Canadian:
I recognized a lot of the music
girls dance with their friends in a circle
you can buy beer
there are lights and smoke

The ways in which Malawian clubs are different from those in Canada:
there is no ‘last call’
men are much more respectful and actually listen when you say you do not want to dance with them
there is a woman asleep in the bathroom who you have to wake up in order to get your ration of toilet paper
there is another woman who watches the stalls themselves and watched me pee (very awkward)
there is MEAT! yes, meat. Good barbequed meat to eat.

We were there until about 4am and had a great time. One person even told me that I dance like a Malawian: a huge compliment! Now if only I could do something about my skin colour……