I recently came across a lady venting out her frustration over the lack of durability of a pair of shoes she had recently purchased. She was quick to brand the shoes ‘Chinese’. This, at any rate, is a consistent attitude in Malawi, where anything perceived to be less durable is called ‘Chinese’.

I had no way of checking whether the shoes in question had indeed been made in China, but that is beside the point.

What intrigued me is that although this lady—and indeed many Malawians—ridiculed the supposed Chinese product, she, more likely than not, did not have anything that she could have shown as her own product, made by herself or her colleagues.

We continue to scorn other people’s products, forgetting that at least those people have made something while we still produce next to nothing. When the Tata vehicles first appeared in this country many people derided the “obviously inferior” Indian product.

Today, several years later, Tata has been improved greatly while we still have not made one vehicle since. I am aware that in the 1970s Malawi did experiment with car assembly.

A Blantyre-based company called Central African Transport Company (Catco) made a handful of vehicles that were branded Zonse, but that project was short lived.

Malawians lack product patriotism, I mean that kind of patriotism that makes you turn a blind eye to minor defects a local product may have and still prefer it to a foreign substitute. I once had the opportunity to visit the northern Italian city of Trieste. I was surprised on arrival that by far the commonest vehicle in the city was the Fiat Uno. Now I know that Fiat Uno is not the ultimate in motor vehicle quality, but the patriotic Italians preferred it to foreign makes. In Italy, you can stand by the roadside for a long time before you spot a single Toyota.

The only way the quality of local products will improve is if we buy them, or at least show some willingness and readiness to buy. That way we will create a market for the products in question, and in time many players will become producers.

With many producers and buyers, market forces will be unleashed and those producing inferior products will eventually leave the scene. It will of course require substantial sacrifice on the part of the consumer for that to happen. Buyers will initially have to put up with low quality and high price, as it will take time for the proper price-quality equilibrium to be reached.

Malawians lack that kind patience. They would rather jump onto the next plane to China or Dubai and bring container loads of merchandise. If the containers they bring contain items like floor tiles, Jacuzzis or anything that is not locally made, that may probably be pardonable. But I have no kind words for people that bring container loads of furniture or curtains, as these items are made or can easily be made locally. Such conduct is simply deplorable, to say the least.

An American friend of mine, who was lecturing at Chancellor College, had zitenje for his curtains. People used to laugh at him but it gave me something to think about. For me, it is better to use locally made zitenje as curtains than to import exotic curtains from God-knows-where.

Malawi has a rich tradition of production, from its past. The Malawian of the 17th and 18th centuries was a smelter of iron, which used to be fashioned into all kinds of implements. In fact one school of thought holds that the name Malawi was derived from the flames emerging from the many iron smelting kilns that were all over the place, lighting up the landscape, in those days

A few years ago, I attempted to describe, albeit briefly, the life and work of a 19th century enterprising chief from Dowa, called Msyamboza, in one of my articles. He was a hunter and an agriculturist, a school planter and a preacher, all rolled into one. The reader may find it hard to believe but Msyamboza grew wheat, from which he baked bread, at Chibanzi. He also grew castor oil and extracted oil from its seeds. The people of Chibanzi were introduced to the luxury of anointing their bodies with oil in the 19th century. Some of the oil was used to produce soap.

What can we say we produce in the 21st century in Malawi? We need to conduct an honest search within our nation so than we can right all the wrongs that prevent us from progressing into a manufacturing nation.

The post Show me your product appeared first on The Nation Online.