What do you mean I’m not allowed to paddle? What do you mean there are no paddles? This isn’t canoeing...

This heart is on fire.

They say Malawi is the heart of Africa, both in the meaning of its name and in its people. 

This past weekend I ventured to Liwonde National Park. After my bicycle taxi was an hour and a half late and facing two barely successful minibus rides (running out of gas) followed by a 9km bicycle taxi to get to the park I was able to go canoeing for the afternoon. At the edge of the park is a hill that borders on being a mountain but you can barely see it through the smoke.

When you look around Malawi, the hills and mountains are widely scarred with scorch marks, most areas still smouldering and many more still on fire. I have yet to look around and not see fire. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with a good fire, and often get lost in watching one’s flames...my siblings seem to think I’m a bit of a pyro, while others know I can’t help but fidget with lighters, candles and the like. Going into this adventure I thought there would be many opportunities for campfires. During blackouts, I would be more than content to cook on a fire, but I am not able to as there is absolutely no dead fall. You don’t collect deadfall here to cook; you either cut down a tree, buy fire wood, or use coal. It seems like obsessive compulsive cleaning since there is nothing left on the ground as anything and everything has already been ignited. I can’t get my head around this logic yet, so I have been asking around about the reasoning with no sufficient answer yet. Here the fire is excessive and unlike in the city, people are not setting them to burn down their garbage. Nor is it consistently an act in preparation to cultivate the land.

Throughout Malawi, there is extreme environmental degradation, with deforestation leaving little left except where trees are untouched to mark burial areas. Going into a National Park I did not expect the fires to continue within its live wire fences.  In Liwonde, the billowing smoke was caused by poachers utilizing it to force the antelope down the hills. This is the most logical, yet disheartening, justification I have heard for the fires here, but it by no means explains them all.

I’ll let you know if I figure all the fires out.