Going the wrong way

WHEN Robert Chasowa's body was found in the grounds of the University of Malawi's polytechnic campus on September 24th, police said the fourth-year mechanical-engineering student had jumped to his death after leaving a suicide note. He had a gash to his head but no broken bones or ruptured internal organs. The purported suicide note, written in capital letters, bore no date or signature and got his father's name wrong. As it happens, Mr Chasowa, a pro-democracy activist, was wanted by police for publishing details of alleged corruption in high places. This was no suicide, Malawians swiftly concluded, but a political assassination.

Until recently, this impoverished southern African country of 16m people, stretched out along the shores of Lake Malawi, was a darling of international donors. Since President Bingu wa Mutharika (pictured above) came to power in 2004, the economy has flourished, with growth averaging more than 7% a year. Thanks to generous fertiliser subsidies, tobacco production, the economy's mainstay, has soared and a food deficit has turned into a surplus. Child mortality has been halved, the HIV/AIDS pandemic (affecting 11% of the adult population) is under control and Malawi is one of just four countries in sub-Saharan Africa deemed likely to meet most of the UN's Millennium Development Goals by 2015.