About Logos – Open culture
An innovative social enterprise that is using technology to:
– Produce and sell content promoting Malawi’s rich cultural heritage, and
– Help foster a culture of critical engagement especially with Malawi’s history
The Problem
The telling/re-telling of the Malawian story is needed because even over 50 years since independence, our country is marred by growing inequality while citizens especially the youth continue to grapple with questions of identity, belonging and destiny. Part of the tragedy is that we are ‘historically’ uninformed or misinformed, and thanks to legacies of our leaders and the structure of our education systems, we lack a critical populace.
There is a lot of discussions on the current status of Malawi, whether it is through the old media like newspapers and the radio, or new media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, etc. But these conversations often lack depth or the necessary background. Without critical engagement with our histories as well as current issues, our leaders will continue to shape narratives to secure their power, undermining the democratic process and opening up of society. Our multidisciplinary approach draws on a collective of critical skills to help in addressing this problem.
The start-up
We are storytellers and Malawi is our story. We are a collective of artists, academics, thinkers and technologists, united by our pursuit for a more reflective Malawi. Our solid grounding is in our Africanness – Ubuntu, the essence that we are because you are. We are a social enterprise that creates, expands, and enhances content about Malawi, including its history and many contemporary realities.
As Logos – Open Culture, we take seriously our role in helping nurture an environment where there is critical debate especially through creation of vibrant and carefully-crafted projects.
People/Anthu
Muti Michael Etter-Phoya
Muti has been a part of Malawi and Africa’s open landscape since 2005, when he started the now defunct Portrait Malawi, a repository for curating Malawi’s heritage. He has authored several books on Malawi and has been involved in several film projects. He is a former academic with Sara Lawrence College and is currently finishing an MSc in Data Science, Innovation and Technology with the University of Edinburgh.
Dr John Lloyd Chipembere Lwanda
Dr Lwanda is a physician, social researcher, political historian and writer. Born in 1949, he has lived and been educated in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Scotland. His Ph.D. was on the dynamics between culture, politics and medicine with reference to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Malawi. John’s research interests include collecting, archiving and recording popular and traditional music, still photography and collecting Malawi artistic and craft objects, including fabrics. He is a member of Scottish PEN, and a member of the Copyright Society of Malawi. For more on John Lwanda, visit Pamtondo, a space that celebrates Malawian culture, politics and history.
Mona Hakimi
Mona is a social anthropologist based in Lilongwe, Malawi. She has an MSc in African Studies from the University of Oxford and a BSc in Social Anthropology and Gender Studies from the University of Cape Town.
What we do
Data
Archives
Books
