Yes, there is an upside to the whole affair. Here is a true story that happened in the area I live in in Lilongwe:

Rewind to December 2007. James (not his real name) decided to sell his land that he inherited from his parents and seek his fortunes in South Africa. He had used this land for farm vegetables and a couple of other things that he used to support his family. He has a wife and three children. The oldest being 4. In preparation for his trip, he sent his wife to her parents’ village. Just yesterday I was informed that he came back following the recent outbreak of the xenophobic attacks. What’s the upside?

Well, he is back home to his family. True, he may have been sending money now and again, I do not know but there is something awry missing about a family which has one spouse in city a and the other with children in city B. And it is made worse when it is in different countries.

A colleague recently told me that he knows of a family where the man went to South African years ago having sent his wife to her village in Mzimba. While in South Africa, he married another woman. He used to sent money regularly to support his wife and children…the Malawi chapter. Now he is back and he has left his wife and children…the South Africa chapter. I can only presume that the wife in Malawi is happy that he is back. He may be jobless but he is back.

She is one of the lucky few. Stories abound that talk about how some women are sent away and do not even get any kind of support. So the upside of the xenophobic attacks is simply this: the women are most likely happy to have their hubbies back home. I think they prefer their spouse home than the money they send unless they kind of conditioned themselves to a “this is the way things are going to be” kind of mentality. I think they are less prone to sexual temptation. That’s good, now their husbands are here. Money wouldn’t do the job. Seriously. God never meant for the two to live apart. He made them one.

While the xenophobic attacks in South African cannot be commended, they definitely have had an upside for most Malawian families. What do you think?