In 1949 Peter Seeger and Lee Hays released a song in America called “If I had a Hammer”. The song did not climb high on the charts until Peter, Paul and Mary recorded it again over a decade later. Their version of the folk song in August 1962 became a Top 10 hit. Since that time the song has been recorded by dozens of major artists. The first part of the song reads,
If I had a hammer
I’d hammer in the morning
I’d hammer in the evening
All over this land
I’d hammer out danger
I’d hammer out a warning
I’d hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land
It is hard to travel in Malawi without thinking of this song
when one looks at the lack to tools to accomplish even the simplest of tasks. The hammer in the song was, of course, a symbol of a message the writers wanted to get to the audience, but it gave hammers a higher profile. While one cannot conclude that an actual hammer can destroy danger, or create love between peoples, it is certainly within the ability of a hammer to assist the poor people in Malawi to accomplish their daily chores around the village.
On one of his first trips to America in early 2001 Napoleon Dzombe visited his first Lowe’s Store ever. He walked the isles in amazement seeing a quantity of tools and home repair items that is unheard of and unparallel in his country. At one point he stopped in front of a display of simple hand tools – hammers. “You have more hammers in this one store than we have in our entire capital city.” For a moment we looked at the display of hammers then sadly responded, “You might be right Napoleon. You might be right.”
It is hard to imagine the excitement a box of hand tools arrives in this poor nation. Your gift of a simple hammer can make so much difference to a small village family who has no hand tools with which to care for their property.