Africa is generally not a safe place to have a same-sex relationship - you can be shunned by society, beaten up, thrown in jail, or worse. In Malawi you can get 14 years in prison with hard labour. In a bold move, Malawi’s Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP) and South Africa’s Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA) have collected the stories of 12 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) women and men and published them in a book, Queer Malawi.

Escalating fuel prices, climate change and the impact of the global financial crisis are the challenges currently compromising development in Malawi. The Southern African country wants to see a bold plan of action addressing these problems agreed upon at the Fourth U.N. Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV) currently taking place in Istanbul, Turkey. In recent months, Malawi has been experiencing a fuel crisis so severe fuel has been rationed at the pump. People have taken to parking their vehicles at service stations overnight to get a place near the head of the queue. The country is facing severe shortages of foreign exchange, leading to strict controls on the export of hard currency and causing problems for businesses that need forex to pay for imports.

Malawi continues to have the highest number of child labourers in Southern Africa, with more than 78,000 children working on tobacco farms, according to child rights NGO Plan. The health risks are high. The handling of the leaves is done largely without protective clothing and the children absorb up to 54mg of dissolved nicotine through their skin - which is equal to smoking 50 cigarettes. As a result, many suffer from green tobacco sickness (GTS). The symptoms including severe headaches, abdominal pain, muscle weakness, coughing and breathlessness.

How healthy is Malawi's leader for democracy in that country? Akwete Sande analyses the political situation in Malawi.

When Malawi's Inspector General of Police Peter Mukhito summoned political science senior lecturer Dr Blessings Chinsinga over an example he gave in the lecture room, he had no idea that the incident will appear on Boniface Dulani's blog. And when it did, Malawi media picked and followed the rest of the developments which have left the University of Malawi's two main colleges closed for a month now. Global Voices author Victor Kaonga interviewed Dulani about his blogging experiences and the movement for academic freedom. You can read the interview on the Global Voices site.

The Malawian government is working on assisting women enter the trading system: at the end of March 2011, the country hosted a regional consultative meeting aimed at integrating women into trade activities in the agriculture sector as a way of improving production and enhancing food security within the region. The Federation of National Associations of Women in Business in Eastern and Southern Africa (FEMCOM), an umbrella body of businesswomen, and the Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) organised the meeting.

The Malawian government's farm input subsidy programme was first implemented in 2005 after several years of drought and chronic food shortages left nearly a quarter of the population in need of food aid. President Bingu wa Mutharika hoped to avoid the need for future food handouts by distributing coupons for maize seed and fertilizer to the poorest 50 per cent of farmers. But the cost of fertilizer and transporting it to farmers all over the country has risen steeply in recent years and by 2008/09 the programme was draining 16 per cent of the national budget and nearly 7 per cent of GDP.

Malawi's Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo adjourned to 11 April hearing of a case in which the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) is challenging the constitutionality of Section 46 of the Penal Code. The section, which was amended by parliament in November 2010, empowers the Minister of Information to ban either importation or publication of materials which, according to the minister, are not in the public interest. MHRC took the matter to court arguing that the section was inconsistent with the Constitution and therefore invalid.

CODESRIA has postponed a colloquium to celebrate the life and works of Malawian academic, Thandika Mkandawire, following ‘gross violations of academic freedom’ at proposed venue, the University of Malawi. CODESRIA says that it will not hold the meeting until ‘our Malawian colleagues feel less threatened in the exercise of their rights as scholars and the enjoyment of the freedom of research and expression, without fear of being persecuted because of their ideas.’

The personal security noose seems to be tightening on Malawi’s civil society leaders, with Dorothy Ngoma, who has fled her home after receiving threats, being the latest target. Ngoma, who is executive director of the National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives, said she suspected the cause of the threats could be rooted in her close association with activist Undule Mwakasungula, executive director of the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) - whose offices were attacked last month.

'In recognition of his contributions to the development of CODESRIA and to the advancement of knowledge production in Africa and around the world, CODESRIA has planned to hold an international colloquium in honour of one of the greatest African scholars, the Malawi-born Professor Thandika Mkandawire. This event, organised by CODESRIA in collaboration with the University of Malawi and the South Africa-based Intellectual Heritage Project, was earlier scheduled to take place in his home country, Malawi, on 2-4 May 2011...However, the recent gross violations of academic freedom at the University of Malawi has made it necessary for us to postpone this historic occasion, until such a time when our Malawian colleagues feel less threatened in the exercise of their rights as scholars and the enjoyment of the freedom of research and expression, without fear of being persecuted because of their ideas.'

The Industrial Relations Court in Blantyre has granted an injunction restraining the University Council, the regulatory authority of the University of Malawi, from 'completely shutting down' two constituent colleges of the University of Malawi. The Council ordered that the Blantyre-based Polytechnic and Zomba-based Chancellor College be sealed to prevent all academic and general staff from accessing their offices following the now seven-week-old stand-off between lecturers and Inspector General of Police Peter Mukhito. But the lecturers appeared before the Industrial Relations Court arguing that the Council's order was illegal.

The International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) announced in early March that world cotton prices had reached a new record of two dollars per pound (0.5 kg) in February. ICAC is a global body representing governments, which raises awareness and promotes cooperative action on issues of cotton worldwide. In Malawi, farmers are happy about the news, reports Inter Press Services. Malawi’s economy is highly dependent on agriculture, with cotton contributing about 32 million dollars in foreign exchange earnings.

Grace Mwalabu lives in Chikalogwe, Balaka District, in southern Malawi. On a warm day, she stands smearing cucumber seeds on the outside wall of her kitchen. She explains, 'It is our tradition. I smear them one or two metres from the ground. The advantage is that the seeds dry quickly, do not rot and survive the dry season.' Hybrid seeds are popular in some areas of Malawi. They often yield more than local varieties. But they are expensive. Farmers need to buy them every year, so they are dependant on seed companies and distributors. They know that saving local seeds from harvest is cheaper and more reliable, reports Farm Radio Weekly.

Malawian civil society organisations have lashed out at religious leaders in support of the new bill outlawing lesbianism in Malawi, stating, 'Christianity as a religion should not be used to alienate diversity, people in Malawi come from different backgrounds and have different beliefs and traditions.' This came after Malawian Council of Churches (MCC) Chairperson Bishop Joseph Bvumbwe said same-sex practices 'threaten the family unit' and 'contradict Malawi’s rich traditions, culture and its spirituality as a God fearing nation'.

The future of many girls in Malawi is in jeopardy. Poverty-stricken parents are marrying their daughters off at a tender age, robbing young girls of their right to education and exposing them to gender-based violence and HIV and AIDS in a country with one of the world’s highest prevalence rates, says this article from the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service.

Lecturers at the Chancellor College, a constituent college of the University of Malawi in the eastern city of Zomba, some 80 kilometres from Blantyre, Monday held peaceful demonstrations, protesting what they called an intrusion on their academic freedom. This follows the summoning, by Inspector General of Police, Peter Mukhito, of political science lecturer, Dr. Blessings Chinsinga, over an example he allegedly gave in one of his classes. Dr. Chinsinga reportedly drew parallels between Malawi's current fuel crisis with the insurrections that toppled the government of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.

Malawi’s security forces blocked a demonstration against fuel shortages on 14 February and arrested organisers of the protest, reports Bloomberg. Mavuto Bamusi, the national coordinator for the Human Rights Consultative Committee, was among those detained, Deputy Commissioner of Police Innocent Botomani told reporters in the capital, Lilongwe.

Human Rights defenders are outraged after Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika passed a Bill outlawing lesbianism. The new Section 137A, titled 'Indecent practices between females', states that any female person who, whether in public or private, commits 'any act of gross indecency with another female', shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a prison term of five years.

As a wave of social protests started on 14 February in Malawi, the impoverished country's main donors are withholding aid over repressive media and anti-gay laws. The long announced anti-government protests kicked off in Malawi's capital Lilongwe and in the northern town of Mzuzu. The main demand was for government to address high fuel prices and shortages, causing a large black fuel market in Malawi.