- published: 05 Sep 2009
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Lilongwe is the largest and capital city of Malawi with an estimated population of 1,077,116 for 2015. The city is located in the central region of Malawi, near the borders with Mozambique and Zambia, and it is an important economic and transportation hub for central Malawi. It is named after the Lilongwe River.
Lilongwe had existed for centuries as a small fishing village on the banks of the Lilongwe River. During British Colonial Rule, the settlement became an administrative center due to its strategic location. Formally founded in 1906 as a trading post, Lilongwe was officially recognized as a town in 1947. After gaining independence, it increasingly developed into an important trading center in Malawi's central region. Its growth was encouraged when the country's former head of state, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, established it as Malawi's new capital city in 1975. The last government offices have been relocated to Lilongwe in 2005. The city's population is increasing rapidly, with an annual growth rate of 4.3%.
Another vacant building is a tax shelter and nothing more
Cemented doors and windows keeping out the poor
What purpose does it serve to keep these buildings emply
Destroying our community to protect abandoned property
Functioning as financial loopholes instead of the housing they could make
Because those owning empty buildings claim a generous government tax break
So is housing just a luxury to b enjoyed by the upper class
Another right you don't deserve if you haven't got the cash
The trouble with ruling class financial tactics
Is that it's the people who need shelter not their taxes
Destruciton described as progress evicting people from their shelter
Renovating and rebuilding under the guise of making cities better
But who does this progress better by putting people in the street
Has it benefitted the community when construction is complete
Housing is not a privledge, not a luxury but a right
communities don't function any better with their problems out of sight
Our communities consise of more than concrete, brick and steel
It's made up of people including the homeless they conceal
The trouble with ruling class financial tactics
Is that it's the people who need the shelter not their taxes
Every inch of established land got that way by means of force
And by paying rent were forced to contribute to that source
With our communities our people suffer under this establishment
It's not about housing these are human rights they make us rent
Only the landlords profit as our lives are sold and bought
And those who fight this process get evicted from their squat
So while our leaders carry out these unjust squat evictions
They prove that freedom can't exist under capitalist conditions
The trouble with ruling class financial tactics
Is that it's the people who need shelter not their taxes