Are Malawians the slowest walkers in the world?

Going at a fair clip, this man on Likoma Island 

I was in Malawi recently when news broke that an international survey of walking speeds in major cities found that people in Malawi are the slowest walkers in the world.

Researchers conducted the experiment by secretly timing thousands of pedestrians’ speeds in city centres around the world. According to the survey, Singapore was top followed by Denmark’s Copenhagen and Spain’s Madrid. Malawi’s Blantyre was ranked the slowest walkers in the world.

Funnily enough I was lying down at the time at the time I read this news. I was lying down on the beach on an island in the Marelli Archipelago in the southern part of Lake Malawi – and I have to say the people around me, were all also somewhat horizontal. The thought of walking simply didn’t seem right, not with this beauty, this exquisitely cold ale...

Not much walking in the Marelli Archipelago 

I encountered the news via a blog called Muli Bwanji which means hello in the local Chichewe. “A few weeks ago I wrote about time management in Malawi”, sighed the author, “Today’s paper had this interesting article that sheds some light on how laid back Malawians really are..”  

The reaction of the readers was interesting: “I remember from my school days that many Malawians are very fast runners” wrote Nancy, putting a positive spin on things. “I bet Malawian ladies can carry much heavier load on their heads than their equivalent in Japan”, said Douglas, introducing another angle. “I think that slow walkers are appreciating life”, said Fred and then James: “Having lived in Malawi for over ten years I have always wondered how it’s possible to walk as slowly as the Malawians do.”

I’m kinda with James and not so much Fred on that one. I spent a few days in Blantyre having just come back from New York, which ranks eighth in the survey of walking speeds, and no one could ever accuse Blantyre of being the world’s speed-walking capital. First of all it’s one of the world’s poorest cities, so what’s the rush exactly? It’s not like everyone’s tearing off to the Prada sale.  Secondly Blantyre is hot and dusty and noisy. The taxis are terrifying, the potholes are magnificent and the average Singaporean would probably faint at the sight of a Blantyre street.

The Japanese came in 19^th out of 32. “Whereas a Tokyoite takes an average of 12.83 seconds to walk 60 feet (about 18m), residents of the Malawian commercial capital Blantyre take 31.60 seconds.” said the survey, “Malawians have great difficulty walking on a treadmill set to the average Japanese walking speed”. I lay languidly on the banks of Lake Malawi trying to picture the researchers – a psychologist-led team apparently - plucking some unwitting young lads off the squalid, potholed pavements of outer Blantyre, giving them Hello Kitty t-shirts and strapping them onto Japanese-speed treadmills.

Did the Japanese send a walker to Blantyre I wondered?

And then I found out the Japanese actually sent a comedian to test the research. “They set up an experiment”, says the website Japan Probe. “Three friends of their guide are told to meet them at a location approximately 800 metres from each of the friend’s houses. The friends are told to leave their houses at 10:00. The earliest friend takes 26 minutes to arrive, the second friend takes 29 minutes, and the third takes 48 minutes. The friends say that it’s no big deal, since people in Malawi don’t stress over hurrying up or waiting for things.” 

https://intomalawi.wordpress.com

www.japanprobe.com

www.malawiantourism.com