Various forms of solidarity have been seen in Malawi recently. But effective solidarity can only be achieved when the elites shed their tendency to alienate those groups they see as ‘illiterate’, ‘uneducated’ and ‘ignorant’.

Amidst an eight month battle over academic freedom in Malawi, Steve Sharra asks whether the roots of the crisis might lie much deeper, in the very nature of the Malawian public university in particular, and the modern African university in general.

Plans for Malawian civil society protests on 21 September plunged the country into a state of anxiety on International Day of Peace, writes Steve Sharra. But with conflicts continuing elsewhere across the globe, Sharra argues that as long as we perpetuate ‘educational policies that ignore larger ideals of uMunthu-peace, social well-being and the greater good, the world will continue the paradox of celebrating peace amidst war, violence and death.’

Following a day of protest on 20 July and a violent government crackdown that left 20 dead, Steve Sharra reflects on the lack of debate in Malawi.

Fearful of a return to the days when ‘party youths went wild beating up opposition politicians with impunity’, Steve Sharra asks what can be done to ‘tame’ and ‘redirect’ Malawi's young people ‘toward peaceful, nonviolent expressions of their views and beliefs’. A discussion with a group of secondary school students provides him with some inspiration.

Instituting a reading and book writing culture is key to encouraging intellectual renewal, writes Steve Sharra.

Malawian universities should become more involved in training primary school teachers, argues Steve Sharra. As it stands, a university teaching degree is a ticket out of the classroom into higher paid jobs. ‘The best teachers are always taken out of the primary school classroom and sent to secondary schools and other administrative positions,’ Sharra writes. Teachers should be motivated to stay in the classroom via ongoing skills development programmes.

As New York hosts the 2010 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) summit this week, Steve Sharra considers the problems behind advancing gender equality and the absence of peace education from the goals.

With youth and development as the thematic focus of this year’s International Day of Peace, Steve Sharra shares insights from the country’s primary school classrooms into how to define and understand peace from a Malawian perspective.

With International Literacy Day having taken place on 8 September, Steve Sharra considers the significance of ‘literacy’ in the Malawian context. Literacy – understood in a broad sense to include more than merely the capacity to read and write – should be at the heart of efforts to improve livelihoods and rights, while the country’s domestic book industry and greater digital resources should be embraced, Sharra contends.