To Mr. Masauko Chipembere Jr.

I have plenty of stories. This days have been very interesting. I went to Nampunwe, a community where two Development Instructors from DAPP (our organization) are working. But I will let the pictures tell you that nice story. I also travel from Luzaka, capital of Zambia, to Lilongwe, capital of Malawi. It was interesting to take hours and different cars, to meet people, to talk with the black market traders of money, to cross walking an african border... which I can say it was pretty similar to the borders in Central America. So your imagination can tell you that story.

I will dedicate this post to Mr. Masauko Chipembere Jr. who I met today in the bus from Lilongwe to Blantyre.

I saw him coming to the bus with a old women, her dress code was the one of a malawian princess, him a rasta man from somewhere else, not malawian. They sat close to me. He took his laptop out and check something, this made me realize he was not african, but he knew where he was, he was confident. I wanted to talk to them, but of course, you know Lola, she doesn’t talk with strangers, not that easy, she needs to take her time. So during that time I used some of my rasta women charms so he talked to me.

And we talked, and talked, and talked. His name didn’t say anything to me, but then he told me that his father, of the same name, was one of the revolutionary leaders of Malawi. He literally said “my father was the Ché Guevara of Malawi”. This, obviously, impressed me. So he grew up in california, together with his six siblings, where her mother was in exile. When I talked about me and DAPP he said, my mom needs to know this, so I start talking with her and the result is that she, herself (as they say here) was part of the beginning of DAPP in Africa 30 years ago. DAPP invite her to give speeches because, of course, she is also a very strong revolutionary personality of southern Africa. This days she’s back in Malawi and she, with her pension of the states, has twelve pre-schools up running.

After this connections we were more into talking and sharing what’s in our progressive mind, it was one of those mental masturbations... (if you know what I mean). We came to analyze what is wrong with the world; what does it mean to Fight Shoulder to Shoulder with The Poor; what's Sustainable Activism; what’s the point of being a man if you don’t love your children; why we don’t see that the Mother is the Everything; and that forever this Mother has been a women; how a man can find the women in him and how the african population is complex, part because it doesn’t have surplus and part because it doesn’t know its history. We also discussed the situation in the US, Obama, the latino-black identity, Toni Morrison, gay marrige, García Marquez, the afro-latino poetry, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica... so yes, it was a journey in our minds and spiritual beings too.

He is a musician, he is in a tour with his guitar, something that has to do with the US embassy. So he is playing, probably now, in a Jazz Bar in Blantyre. I couldn’t go. He also offer me to come tomorrow to play here because he really wants to know what is it that we do. He wants, may be, to see what does it mean for us Fight Shoulder to Shoulder with the Poor. So perhaps tomorrow I have more stories of this character that the road introduce to me. I have a list of books that he wrote in my moleskine to introduce me to the real African Literature, and he has a list of easy reading latin books, he is learning spanish with his afro-latin-usa kids.

So... the last question is how do we organize the new revolution? Paulo Freire? yes, yes. We talk about him and the oppression and he said to me that how I as a lesbian feel of being in the homophobic Africa “liberating” them while they are oppressing me, because I cannot be myself here or I can end up in jail. And as for myself the answer is that I am not liberating nobody but myself by not being, as much as I can, an oppressor.

Who knows, perhaps this is a long last friend, perhaps its just one of the spirits of the road that pass by. Anyway, Mr. Masauko Chipembere Jr. thank you for that good journey together, hope one day we can read our poetry, play our drums, and share more of that good talking somewhere on the big Pachamama.

Jah praise!