Driving through the gravel road from Nkhamenya trading center to Kanyika community in Mzimba district, in the northern part of Malawi, nothing catches the sight suggesting there could be significant mining activities in the area. Kanyika is a the predominantly Ngoni community that is currently hosting one of the most potentially lucrative resource reservoirs in Malawi. And yet moving through the community only poverty and hunger greet one’s eyes. Tattered clothes, peeling and broken skin, and broken lips are now some of the poignant characteristics representing Kanyika people.  

In 2006, Globe Metals and Mining set up shop in the area to explore the availability of Niobium, a rare metal that is used in the aviation industry. The company’s operational area is called “Kanyika Niobium Project site”, a name coined after the community itself that would normally suggest community ownership. But alas! This is not the case. After years of mineral exploration, the area has not seen any benefits. Even the road leading to the mining site has not ben improved. Perhaps this is because 12 years down the line, the company has yet to commence commercial mining, even though extensive prospecting points to the existence of many precious minerals in an area stretching several kilometers in all directions around Kanyika community, including uranium and tantalum, in addition to niobium. 

The last decade has a surge of activity by mining companies in Northern Malawi. Besides the exploration by Globe Metals and Mining, Paladin Energy has been mining Uranium in its Kayelekera mine until recently; Eland Coal Mine has also exploited coal from the area. But whereas these discoveries are good news for the government, which is likely to earn more revenue, and the mining companies, which are likely to earn handsome returns from their activities, communities in Northern Malawi have not reaped the rewards. Instead of better public education systems for their children, improved facilities, better roads, and other improved social services, communities face environmental degradation and claims of unfulfilled promises of compensation for relocation arising from exploration and mining. 

Jackson, a retired civil servant, knows all too well how his community has suffered since a coal mining company began operations in his area in Karonga district. Not only did the company refuse to honour its corporate social responsibility promises, it also left a literal trail of environmental degradation and health risks: huge trenches in the ground that are now breeding grounds for mosquitos carrying malaria and a danger to young children and the community members’ livestock. The company left suddenly, and to date, there is no trace of its activities to bring accountability. According to Church and Society Programme (CSP), a local faith-based community advocacy group that has been supporting this community, government officials plead ignorance of the company’s whereabouts.  

Because of stories like these, communities like the one in Kanyika that face the prospect of exploration in their region are skeptical that mining is in their interests. And in some cases, they are fighting back.  In the Kanyika community, where Globe Metals and Mining operates, locals were told to cease planting any perennial crops, because they would soon be relocated to pave the way for the company’s operations, and compensated for their trouble. More than half a decade later, however, the company has not resettled the locals nor has any information been forthcoming about the fate of the mining operations.  

Martin, a local Kanyika resident, say of the company: “They are like elephants that drain water from the local watering points without caring whether smaller creatures are having their fill.” “If not checked,” he continues, “the elephants might end up finishing all the water for the tinier creatures, leaving them for dead.”

In their case, however, the Kanyika community is ‘taming the elephant’. With the support of community advocacy groups, especially critical support from CSP, they have organized, and have filed a claim against the company in the local court. They have succeeded in enjoining the government for failure to ensure that the company’s operations do not compromise its livelihood, including adequately compensating them for preventing them from planting food crops. 

We recently conducted a mission in northern Malawi to empower groups impacted by mining activities better advocate for their rights. Through our interaction with the Kanyika community, we witnessed how it exemplifies how targeted mobilization and engagement is a potent tool to ensure cohesion and coherence of efforts to engage a company, including experimenting with new frontiers such as local litigation. The community is quick to admit that they would not be that far, were it not for CSP’s support.

This increases the chances of an even playing ground for such communities. International organisations, including the donor community, should support such communities to organize and engage companies, and share the good practices with other communities elsewhere on the continent to prevent the elephant from starving the other animals at the watering hole.