Obama and Africa - What can we expect

The following piece was an analysis I did for the Amandla show back in early September. With the election just a short time away it remains topical. I did not make any such commentary on the Canadian election, since Canada is such a minor player and none of the parties even dealt with the war in Afghanistan as an issue, let alone relations with the African continent. In other words, the recent history of disinterest and neglect will not change.

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Obama and Africa

What are we to think? Change is in the air or is it? Barack Obama is widely and sometimes wildly touted as the saviour, a Son of Africa, the prodigal son. It is reported that in Kenya literally every new day sees another song extolling his virtues and how he has made Kenya great. The excitement is equally euphoric in the USA where many people have jumped on to the bandwagon attracted by his charismatic charm and powerful speeches not to mention his strong and intellectually powerful partner, Michelle. A lot of expectations have been aroused around the issue of change, but what does it really mean for Africa?

Some background:
It is true that Barack Obama is the son of an American woman from Kansas and a father from Kenya, but from all accounts he never knew his father. Rather he grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii where his African connection was quite thin before finally arriving in Chicago. As a child, he often called himself “Barry” to avoid his awkward African surname and later is said to have played to the stereotypes of Africa to his advantage by claiming that his father was a prince and that his name meant “Burning Spear”.
At college, he really began to shine and show some awareness of the continent. During the anti-apartheid movement in the 1980’s there was a very active disinvestment movement to force the colleges and universities to drop any funds in their portfolios that supported the South African regime. He reports in his autobiography about making an impassioned speech in favour of disinvestment when a band of students dressed as soldiers dragged him off the stage in a guerrilla theatre stunt.

His record on Africa:
During his stint in congress, he has shown considerable interest in Darfur and Sudan, the forgotten genocide of the Congo, and pursuing Charles Taylor for war crimes. He also mobilized international pressure for a just government in Zimbabwe, to fight corruption in Kenya, to demand honesty on HIV/AIDS in South Africa, to develop a coherent strategy for stabilizing Somalia, and as a United States senator he made one epic trip across the continent raising awareness about these issues. He has also increased America's focus on the long term challenges of education, poverty reduction, disease, strengthening democratic institutions and spurring sustainable economic development in Africa.
His official campaign website today includes Africa as one of his 8 foreign policy priorities. Therein he lays out 3 priorities:
- the Darfur tragedy and pressure on the Sudanese government to respect its people and its international commitments;
- double foreign aid, cancel the debts of the heavily indebted countries, and contribute to the global fund to fight HIV/AIDS
- reform the World Bank and the IMF and improve trade possibilities for African countries with America.

What is the reality?
As evidence of the change he espouses, Obama is rightly proud of his fundraising for the presidential race with millions of donations from ordinary citizens. However, he still represents the Democratic party with its big business interests. Huge funding has come from large Wall Street firms and even the likes of media baron Rupert Murdoch is quoted as saying, “Politicians are at an all-time low and are despised by 80% of the public, and then you’ve got a candidate trying to put himself above it all. He’s become a rock star. It’s fantastic.” (ISR pg3) Therein lies the rub. Around half of the money supporting his campaign comes from big companies involved in oil, mining and resource exploitation who profit enormously from the chaos and anarchy that reigns in the Congo. For decades they funded Mobutu until the country had decomposed into the mess it faces today. Trying to effect change in a system so entrenched in a status quo representing such wild profits presents enormous challenges to any administration. Murdoch’s fascination would soon turn to hostility if his profit margins were affected.

Three elements have become the cement of American foreign policy during the Bush regime and in many cases well before the advent of George W. Anyone who follows will have a devilish time breaking the mould. First is the American militarization of Africa that has been escalating remarkably since the beginning of the War on Terror. Secondly is the drive to secure resources especially minerals and oil in the face of mounting competition. Finally are the economic policies that perpetuate and “exacerbate inequalities” at the same time as Bush claims to be a compassionate conservative with his unsupported concern for Darfur and his unilateral HIV/AIDS initiative (LeMelle).

On the military front:
Military sales, training and financing have quadrupled since 2001, for the countries of Africa that Bush’s advisors consider strategic. The Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) has been using Camp Lemonier in Djibouti as its main U.S. base for counter-terrorist activities offshore and in the region since October 2002. In January 2007, the military announced that Camp Lemonier will expand from its current 97 acres to more than 500 acres (LeMelle). Similarly, there are the Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI) and the Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance Program (ACOTA) as well as naval patrols up and down the Gulf of Guinea coast, as well as agreements for access to airports, ocean ports and other facilities in a large number of countries on the continent. The trend to deliver military aid through the private sector, given the history of mercenaries on the continent and the record of Haliburton and Blackwater in Iraq is one of the more frightening elements of this militarisation.
Most controversial is the flagrant lie from the Bush spin doctors about the AFRICOM initiative which dresses up the militarization of the continent as a humanitarian and development programme. THE AU and most African countries have denounced the programme as an unwelcome intrusion on African sovereignty and a return to a form of colonialism that is still all too fresh in the African memory. By formalising a command base and upping the military ante in Africa, Bush policy seeks to assure its presence, discourage its competitors and ensure unrestricted access to Africa’s economically important resources.
One telling sign of future direction is Susan Rice, Obama’s top foreign policy advisor, who was Bill Clinton’s Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 1997-2001. While she has been very active in calling for increased American support for a joint AU/UN peacekeeping force in Darfur, she has also been known to favour a more activist US military intervention to avoid situations like Rwanda (Ray). On this front she has come out in support of the AFRICOM initiative and should she become a policy maker in an Obama administration has committed herself to pursuing its goals. Obama, himself has declared his support for AFRICOM: “There will be situations that require the United States to work with its partners in Africa to fight terrorism with lethal force. Having a unified command operating in Africa will facilitate this action."

Securing Resources:
Guaranteeing access to Africa’s resources is fundamental to the militarization of American foreign policy in Africa. Oil from the continent has passed beyond 25% of American supplies, and in addition, Africa produces 90% of the world’s cobalt; 64% of its manganese; 50% of gold; 40% of platinum; 30% of uranium; 20% of total petroleum; 70% of cocoa; 60% of coffee; over 80% of coltan and 50% of palm oil (LeMelle). The addition of the hungry, expanding economies of India and China to the traditional European industrial complex means that the competition for African resources will continue to become more intense. Oil is the most obvious source of current insecurity and despite the general decline of productive capacity, American industry and consumer culture has outstripped its ability to supply itself and been extremely dependent on cheap foreign raw materials for a very long time.
The lobbies that represent American agribusiness and industry also include the powerful military manufacturers who want to ensure they stay in business. Weak or corrupt African governments, hard-hearted dictators, and war zones are situations where companies can easily insert themselves and participate in mining endeavours that provide mineral products at minimal cost. Almost without exception, local people find themselves totally left out of any benefit that resource extraction should provide. Foreign corporations and local elites run roughshod over the people’s rights and leave environmental devastation in their wake.

The economic element:
Even the produce of the poor farmers of Africa is either squeezed by the unfair competition of the heavily subsidised American agribusiness or allowed into the USA on extremely unfavourable terms that perpetuate the unfair terms of trade that have kept Africa mired in poverty and underdevelopment since the days of slavery and colonialism. The Bush administration has dragged its feet on debt cancellation, consistently promotes the discredited neoliberal policies of the World Bank and IMF and has steadfastly refused any concessions at the WTO and related talks that would give poor African economies any entry to the world economy.
The corporate forces that direct American foreign policy are as powerful as the military interests. As just one example, agribusiness depends on their bloated subsidies for their lifeblood. This includes the shipping as foreign aid of huge quantities of maize and other grains for free or almost free and always well below the cost of production, much to the detriment of the small peasant farmers in Africa. There is no way that inefficiently grown American cotton, peanuts or corn could compete with the small scale farmers of Senegal, Mali, Malawi and Ghana. Obama laid his cards clearly on the line when he was senator for Illinois. He unconditionally defined his role as defending his constituents and mentioned particularly the farming lobby which opposed a loosening of trade restrictions which protected their privileged production.
It should also be pointed out that with the declining manufacturing capacity of the United States, the one sector that has continued to grow despite the absence of a major Cold War or formal enemy is the military and its related war machine. The famous industrial-military complex that Dwight Eisenhower spoke about after WW2 is measured in the trillions of dollars and depends on unrestrained military growth and enormous foreign sales. As the world’s largest exporter of small arms that fuel local conflicts, it is no accident that the USA has been the most vigorous opponent of a small arms ban treaty. Congressional and Senate careers rise and fall on how much military money and ‘defence’ contracts candidates can sprinkle around their constituencies.

What change is to come?
A progressive set of goals underlie the African priorities on Obama’s campaign website:

Expand Prosperity: Obama will expand prosperity by establishing an Add Value to Agriculture Initiative, creating a fund that will extend seed capital and technical assistance to small and medium enterprises, and reforming the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. He will launch the Global Energy and Environment Initiative to ensure African countries have access to low carbon energy technology and can profitably participate in the new global carbon market so as to ensure solid economic development even while the world dramatically reduces its greenhouse gas emissions. Obama will also strengthen the African Growth and Opportunity Act to ensure that African producers can access the U.S. market and will encourage more American companies to invest on the continent.

It is all very laudable, but like so many other elements of the campaign for change, it really doesn’t address the real underlying fundamental injustices of the neoliberal world trade system behind which the American economy is still the major driving force. The forces that shape the presidency are very powerful and often more capable of influencing policy than the incumbent. As president of a very powerful country and wishing to bring positive change to a continent long exploited and maligned, he must deal with many contradictory demands that are in conflict with the real needs of the people of Africa.

Barack Obama is tapping into a deep vein of unhappiness in America as well as the rest of the world and promoting the idea that change is possible. The American public wants jobs, health care and an end to the war. Africans want a fair shake, a chance to get into the global economy on an equal footing and an end to destructive foreign intervention. In both cases, the desire for change is much greater than the ability to deliver it. Before proceeding with speculation about where an Obama presidency might go with its Africa policy the man must get elected president. His actions in office will tell us how much Africa really means to him. Until then, let’s all take a deep breath and prepare to continue the struggle as usual.

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Blog FoM 2 - Lake of Stars

17 October 2008

Greetings

One of the reasons to visit at this time of year was to experience the Lake Of Stars. The organisers bring together some of Malawi's best musical acts and musicians from a variety of other places. I heard about this event in December 07 and resolved to get my son Chimwemwe and his group, The National Parcs, over to play this October. In the meantime, the Conservative government has completely cut the funding for cultural travel and Chimwemwe and his wife are expecting their first child shortly after the end of October and it wasn’t possible to be away for an extended period so close to such an important moment. I have his promise that he will not plan any more babies right away so that he and his group can perform at Lake of Stars 2009.

So there I was at the old Grand Beach Hotel, now gussied up and owned by the Sunbird chain, probably out of South Africa and known as the Livingstonia Beach Hotel. I had spent many a weekend and even my second Xmas in Malawi in idyllic debauchery and camping at the old Grand Beach. This time, I am a dignified elderly gentleman and I went with my niece, Undeni, who is Yonah’s sister and attached myself to Zilanie Gondwe, the niece of my sister-in-law, Ivy Gondwe. Zilanie is a music agent and editor of the Entertainment section of the Weekend Guardian. When I asked her to help me meet artists for a documentary I wanted to do for Amandla, the radio show I do at the community radio station at McGill, she quickly and opportunistically asked me to save her having to write a column and snookered me into writing about what I was seeing and experiencing at the festival.

Zilanie had graciously helped me get interviews with Sally Nyundo, Malawi`s reggae supreme, Wendy Harawa, an energetic and entertaining dynamo and the elder statesman of the music scene, Lucius Banda. Just brilliant as the city kids here say.

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Lake of Stars – The Freedom Party
By Doug Miller

There is such a breath of freedom in the air as I walk the shore at Livingstonia Beach Hotel. The Lake of Stars Festival is happening and for me it is like the wind of change reflecting the state of democracy in my second home. Why would an old white guy want to attend a music festival on the shores of Lake Malawi? The answer is simple – because I can and because I am free to do so. I am no music critic and am not a skilled journalist but here is what I saw and what I think for what it is worth.

It wasn’t always this way. Democracy and its trappings, such as freedom of speech and all those other freedoms have moved Malawi’s music scene light years forward. A plethora of bands, empowered musicians, access to equipment and technology, and that touch of Malawian ingenuity and creativity have served to make music a dynamic and critically important element of the transformation from the dark days of political repression. I do not want to pretend that all is light and roses, and yes there is a lot more that can be done, but a weekend at Lake of Stars in Senga Bay showed me how far things have advanced as well as allowing me to listen to and talk with some of the most talented people in Malawi’s music industry.

Picture this - a tropical lake; a cooling onshore breeze in the evening refreshing the crowd after the intense heat of the afternoon. The Deputy Minister of Tourism takes the microphone and instead of a speech about how much the government is doing, he begins to sing. The Honourable Billy Kaunda belts out an upbeat song in an upbeat tempo and the words “The Warm Heart of Malawi” come to have real meaning. How many countries in the world can that happen? Not in Canada for sure. In fact, I never want to hear Canada’s Minister of Tourism sing – that would be a scary concept.

I am surrounded by people from all over the world and of course a very large contingent of Malawian fans. I share beer with a ChiCheŵa speaking Japanese teacher whose Malawi name is Nambewe. I am so used to being one of the only white guys in a crowd in Malawi but here I am with all shades from all over the world grooving to whatever the programme organisers have put together for the devotees who have come to this lakeside Woodstock.

The musicians do more than work the crowd like many North American acts. Instead, they interact with the fans and depend on their participation as though everyone is part of the set. I was really impressed by the artists as free people attempting to integrate their history into the present – to look at the traditional and update it and be relevant to their world. It was dynamic, creative, expressive, and varied.

I do not want to retell the story of the oppressive years under Kamuzu Banda, but its impact on the cultural life of the country was stultifying. Political repression and poverty marked the music scene when I came to Malawi as a teacher in 1968. Most bands could not afford the fancy western gear and because of the huge migration of workers to the south, the beat tended to be adopted from there. In addition, there were very few venues to put on a show. The musicians were talented and made good sounds, but simply couldn’t go anywhere creatively. You wake up in the morning, or late afternoon as many musicians do and you have a song in your head. You couldn’t dare perform it without the approval of the censorship board. Knowing how that august body thought and operated, most songs died still born. Much rich talent lay fallow or went to waste.

Now I stand on the shore of Lake Malawi, one of the world’s most stunning lakes as a backdrop, a crowd nicely mellowed with green on tap, listening to the cream of Malawi’s musical talent with die-hard Malawian fans and visitors eager to learn. They had backpacked and caravanned and flown in from all over the world.

What a show the talent gave us. I am sure they have to reinforce the stage when Wendy Harawa and her amazing, boneless dancer friend, Jane, start careening across it with Lulu. And pity the hapless male amateur from the audience who is suckered into trying to keep up with them. Wendy boldly sings of love and relationships emphatically reversing the stereotypes of the passive submissive Malawi woman. Tay Grin, the Nyao king, distorted my prejudices against rap by doing rants with Nyao drums and dancers backing him. I did say I was a very old guy and normally the rap style of shouting says nothing to me and seems totally unmusical. But here were those amazing drummers pounding out the multi-rhythms and toc-toc syncopations to move both the idioms of the gule wamkulu and rap forward in a unique and creative fashion. I only use two examples but there were many others.

I won’t go through the whole programme list but what I saw was fantastic, and as I mentioned earlier, the Malawian component of the crowd knew their artists and their work and were integrated into the music almost without exception. And over sitting under one of the young baobabs that dotted the scene was the musical elder of the Malawi music scene, Lucius Banda, graciously greeting the fans who approached him and chatting with his fellow musicians. No VIP loge at a musical festival not even for him, and no formality, but lots of dignity and a wonderful touch of class.

I tend to look at things through the eyes of a sociologist and an old political activist – I am a child of the sixties after all – so I am not pretending to write the definitive musical critique here. A review is supposed to be somewhat critical and there are always ways to improve so we move forward in a positive fashion. However, before I start this part I want to focus on the attitude of some of the visitors. I had no time for the whining of some snobby types. I still have a problem with racist arrogance whatever the accent. Any festival I have ever heard about or attended had organisational, logistical, service and cleanliness issues. In fact, Woodstock the famous mother of all festivals became known for the plethora of glitches and was an organisational nightmare from beginning to end. Forty years after my first arrival in Malawi it frustrates me to have to listen to these snobby types who ascribe such problems to some sort of Malawian inferiority. The freedoms that have been won here do not include the right to be racist.

That having been said there are things to do to build a better festival in the future. I have no solutions – this is not my field. It appeared to me that a lot of the imported talent were DJ’s and it was an excellent idea to give them their own stage far enough from the main stage that the two sounds did not interfere with each other. However, there was a lot of techno and house music (I use these words and am not even sure what they mean) on the main stage and only a couple of live imported acts. Seth was amazing on the fiddle and drew a very enthusiastic crowd and for that matter the DJs may have been top notch, but it was apparent to me that when they were on the Malawians generally gravitated to the bar and beach scene and left the white visitors on the floor to dance. However, as soon as a Malawian group came on, then like magic the dance floor was filled again with the home town fans and the visitors as well, because they are music fans and had come all the way to learn, so they stayed even when the language was not theirs and the idiom was unfamiliar. I can understand the complexity of putting together a festival that pleases all musical tastes and appeals to all generations, but there must be some Malawian DJ`s out there who can slip a taste of Africa into that genre.

A morning walk up the beach found bodies littering the coast like a marine disaster. But they represent a wonderful freedom to just lie where they fell. They had the right to party till they dropped and they did both party and drop. Four young Malawian gals in bikinis were frolicking unselfconsciously in the surf as they should be free to do so. Condoms were available for free on the bar counter and the rap guys sang about “infection is certain.” It was Malawi’s newest political movement, The Freedom Party.

As I watched the girls enjoying themselves, I think I heard a late member of the censorship board turning in his grave and maybe some others were uncomfortable too. But that’s life. We often do not get it until we are past our best before date, so move with the times or get out of the way. And to put the cherry on top of the ice cream, as the musical scene was unfolding, Malawi’s football team beat DRC. It just added to the radiance of the day. It may not be a perfect democracy but it has come a long way baby. The Freedom Party worked wonders on the weekend – democracy is here to stay.


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Doug’s bio: Doug taught at Mitundu Day Secondary School from 1968 to 1972. He married his fellow teacher, Nellie Saka from Kasungu and they have 4 children and 6.5 grandchildren. Doug has recently retired. They all live in Montreal, Quebec but have kept their links with Malawi alive over the years. Recently the Canadian based family established a little non-profit organisation, Makupo Development Group, to improve the quality of life and promote self-sufficiency in Nellie’s home village.

Submitted: 14 October 2008

Blog 1 Some Goals

Friends of Makupo

Most of you received a list of my goals for this trip especially as they pertain to the projects we might undertake as Makupo Development Group.

Basically it looks like this:

Makupo projects

- To work with Makupo citizens to develop projects, establish reporting systems, take pictures, write project reports, write thank you letters, plan visits.

- Work with Chief Makupo on project support.

- Work with Kaomba and Mlangali to set up future projects.

- Work with Chilanga schools to prepare for visits and project proposals.

- Work with Machesi on projects for the disabled (Cyclo nord sud).

- Youth Skills intiatiaive for Cyclo-nord sud

- Visit Fair Trade farm in Mchinji with farmers.

- Visit Ripple, KUDO, Malawezi

- Meet WUSC & CIDA for hosting visits.

- Prepare for Vanier visit in June 2009.

Other projects:

- Visit Alice Trindade (take Makupo women to see the piggery project)

- Visit Bunda to deliver thesis to library and research updates.

- contact Clement Mushane and Archibald Mwakasungura

- Lake of Stars for The National Parcs

- Write blog entries – 2 per week

- Update masters thesis

I have 3.5 weeks to do all of this which could mean a fair bit of running around. My preference would be to sit in the village and not move. Then I could work on community development, but that looks to be only a small part of the work.

What is happening so far?

1 Frazer has built a rondavel for meetings. Two things became apparent from the two visits in January and March. First the village of family members has grown beyond the point where it can behave like a family pure and simple. Six or seven family units operated as independent entities and like most families just about anywhere they only really came together for weddings and funerals. Given the size of the family village, there is a real need to sit and meet in governance on a more or less regular basis to make decisions about the collectivity and plan for the future. Secondly, the meetings we tried to hold in the living room of Amai’s[1] big house were very difficult because of the small room and awkward seating.

The rondavel concept is a thatch roofed structure with open walls and room to sit in a circle for a much larger group. I am not sure where the word “rondavel” comes from, but the idea of having meetings of the whole community and discussing issues until consensus is reached is an old time honoured custom.

2 The citizens of Makumbo have asked for their own chief. Ours is a village headman and in the hierarchy he reports to Mlangali, the headman of the nearby village of which we are a part and also to Senior Chief Kaomba who has several hundred headmen (there are very few female village heads and the term headman is still very often used even in their case) under his jurisdiction. Following the tradition, the eldest son of the eldest daughter in Nellie’s grandmother’s lineage was asked to take on the role. In ChiChewa matrilineal tradition, chieftainship is chosen by the mother’s line. In this case, Nellie’s cousin, son of Mrs Kamanga, her senior mother, has been selected. Japhet Chiwanda is a graduate of agricultural college and was looking to settle back at home after many years away. Different family members are helping to build him a house and getting him installed. The ceremony for his investiture just took place in September and it is our hope that he will become a key player in making Makupo a real centre of development in our area.

3 The five young men involved in the agricultural resettlement project have started clearing land for next season, burnt the bricks and organised the construction of their house so they have a proper place to stay. I hope to spend a night with them there. I also want to take a couple of them and a couple of the women from Makupo to see the projects at KUDO, RIPPLE Africa and maybe to Dedza to see the pig breeding operation set up and run by the Trindade family. The late Anna Maria Trindade lived since the mid 1960s in Magog, Quebec with her husband, Jean Paul Bessette, and her 4 kids who are now grown and have their own families. We have been close to them ever since we came Montreal in 1979 and they like us have been sending money home to support their elderly parents and other family members in need. In January, I went to Mtendere near the Mozambiquan border just west of Dedza to visit Anna’s sister Alice and was very impressed with her son Brian’s efforts to reconstitute the family farm, and especially his pig growing operation. With a half-a-dozen sows and a good boar her raises litters of piglets to the point where they can be weaned and sold to other farmers to finish the raising for market. Our farmers with some good planning can get into that kind of commercial farming and gain a revenue more regular and superior to what can be gotten from tobacco, the most common cash crop.

4 This also ties in with the pig raising scheme that the women of Makupo proposed last March. Vanier College Library has already collected $400 to build the pig barn. The women of their own initiative had already made the bricks and were waiting for money to buy the wood needed to burn the bricks hard. I hope we can build a symbiotic relationship with our relocated farmers by paying them a good price for the feed grain. Normally they would sell at a low price to whichever businessman had the means to transport it to market and the women would have to pay higher market prices for the feed they need. If we can work collaboratively we should be able to ship the grain the 40 kilometres from the farm directly to Makupo for its needs. In this way the farmers can get paid a fair price for their produce and the women will pay less than what the market board charges for buying grain.

5 The village tourism has not gone at all well since the March visit of the OPSEU delegation. I had hoped for a group in June or July and another in October, but my inexperience and lack of planning meant they never happened. Since then, Vanier’s International Education department has received a grant from CIDA for public participation and they were so pleased with the wonderful way the January 2008 AIDS education trip went that they are including a 3 week stay in June / July 2009 as part of a study on “Education for All”. There may be as many as 10 people which will help bring some revenue for the Makupo residents who host and work with Vanier. In the meantime, I have started to talk with Jim Munro in Vanier’s Continuing Education Department and Judy Macdonald from International Education to see about the possibility of including a tour each semester as part of the life skills offerings in Continuing Education. The Ontario Public Service Union OPSEU last year contributed funds to allow us to renovate two houses into visitors’ hostels. Smokey Thomas the president and his

assistant, Ron Lavigne from OPSEU and I have spoken about study work visits by OPSEU members but we have been trying to meet since last March and not managed to find a time in their very charged schedules. In addition, WUSC often brings groups of young Canadians to Malawi for work / study and we are hoping to host one of these in the near future. With Vanier, OPSEU and WUSC we could have visitors coming very regularly as part of our plan for sustainable tourism.

Where do we go from here? That is very much the reason for this trip. I found when I was hosting visitors, I was so preoccupied with their agenda and everyone’s welfare that I couldn’t do a lot of groundwork for the future projects, hence the list of goals and almost a full month to work things out. I will keep you posted on what comes up.

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[1] Nellie’s mother is known by everyone as Amai which is a very respectful term meaning mother.