Historical Dictionary of Malawi Part 5

BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY (BSAC). Formed and granted a royal charter in 1889, this company was the brainchild of diamond and mines multimillionaire Cecil John Rhodes (18531902). With a ruthless and fanatical zeal, Rhodes ama.s.sed his fortune and proceeded to use that awesome wealth as a power base in Central and South Africa. Rhodes had applied for a charter for the BSAC promising Her Majesty's government that he could forestall a Portuguese presence in Malawi and could avoid quarrelsome ethnic problems while carrying out the responsibilities of government.

Shortly after the BSAC was formed, it acquired controlling stock of the African Lakes Company (ALC). In order to make good promises to protect the mission and provide law and order, Rhodes paid Sir Harry Johnston US$10,000 annually to administer the new region with the a.s.sistance of a police force recruited from India. Johnston also had the use of ALC steamers providing there was no interference with ALC trade. This was the arrangement from 1891 to 1895. By that time, Lord Salisbury, the British prime minister, wanted no further financial involvement in the Lake Malawi region.

In 1893, Rhodes's BSAC laid claim to one-fifth of Malawi's land. Nearly all of today's northern region (almost 3 million acres) was claimed as BSAC property until 1936, when it reverted to the Protectorate government. However, until 1966, the company continued to retain the mineral rights for the region.

BRUCE, ALEXANDER LOW. Husband of Agnes, the daughter of the missionary Dr. David Livingstone, Alexander Bruce was a major holder of Certificates of Claims in the s.h.i.+re Highlands, with holdings in Zomba (101,83 acres), Blantyre (27,858), and Mulanje (38,130 acres). When he died in 1893, his son Alexander Livingstone Bruce took over the owners.h.i.+p of the estates. Alexander Low Bruce was also a founder of the Imperial British East Africa Company, which in the 1880s and 1890s controlled Kenya and Uganda and had extensive economic interests in East Africa.

BUCHANAN, JOHN (18551896). Born at Muthill, Perths.h.i.+re, Scotland, Buchanan was one of the first layman recruited by the Church of Scotland to work in the s.h.i.+re Highlands. In 1880, he, Duff Macdonald, and George Fenwick were dismissed from the mission, after less than three years' service, because of the nature of civil administration they had adopted, resulting in indiscipline on the part of some missionaries. Buchanan, recruited as an agriculturalist, had actually been sent to work at a substation at Zomba, in the vicinity of the present-day Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) school, and, he remained there after he lost his job. Adjacent to the mission, especially along the Mlunguzi stream, he grew coffee, as he had done at Blantyre, and he is credited with introducing the crop into the country. On the lower side of the Mlunguzi, Buchanan grew sugarcane and, in 1885, he brought from Great Britain coffee pulping machinery and a sugar mill for his Zomba operations. Buchanan also developed major land and business interests in Blantyre, becoming one of the most influential settlers in that town.

Between 1885 and 1891, Buchanan acted as British vice consul for the Lake Malawi region, and during the British Central African administration, he was an unpaid vice consul, joining Alfred Sharpe, Cecil Maguire and others in Harry Johnston's team of administrators. As vice consul, Buchanan played a major role in the expansion and consolidation of British authority in that part of Africa.

Farther up the slope on a site commanding good views, including Mount Mulanje, he built a large and attractive two-story house that he used as a consulate, which Johnston later turned into the residency and capital of the new British Protectorate. On its grounds, Johnston was to establish an impressive botanical garden, which since the 1980s has been revived by the National Herbarium. The building, now protected under the National Monuments Act, is still much in use and is known as the Government Hostel. He died at Chinde in 1896 on his way to Scotland.

BUNDA COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE. This const.i.tuent college of the University of Malawi is located 22 miles southwest of Lilongwe boma, near Bunda Hill. It opened in 1966 and specializes in agricultural and environmental sciences, animal husbandry, fisheries, and home economics and human nutrition to diploma and degree levels. See also EDUCATION.

BUTLER, RICHARD AUSTEN "RAB," BARRON BUTLER (19021982). Butler was minister of home affairs in Great Britain when, in March 1962, Harold Macmillan rea.s.signed him to a new cabinet position specifically dealing with Central Africa, that is, the Rhodesias and Nyasaland. After visiting the region twice that year, he concluded that Nyasaland could leave the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, thereby effectively dismantling the controversial political union.

BWa.n.a.lI, EDWARD CHITSULU (19461998). Born in Blantyre district and a holder of a diploma in public administration from the University of Malawi, Bwa.n.a.li was district commissioner of Mchinji and then of Kasupe when, in 1975, he became a member of Parliament (MP) for Blantyre North and minister of health. He also served as minister of transport and communications, as well as southern regional chairman of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). In 1989, he was dropped from President Hastings Banda's cabinet as minister of local government and as MCP chairman. Subsequently, Bwa.n.a.li "resigned" his parliamentary seat representing Blantyre North. In the early 1990s, he reemerged as a force in the struggle for a new democratic dispensation and, when the United Democratic Front (UDF) a.s.sumed power in 1994, he became minister of foreign affairs, then moved to the Ministry of Health and, finally, to the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. Bwa.n.a.li died on 23 October 1998.

BWa.n.a.lI-MPULUMUTSI. One of the most famous healers in south-central Africa, Bwa.n.a.li was born in 1910 on the Mozambican side of the Dzalamanya range. His parents settled in Inkosi Gomani's area in Ntcheu district not long after he was born. He returned to his birthplace, got married there, and began to practice as a healer, singa'nga. While on a hunting expedition some time in 1946, he claimed that an angel visited him in his sleep, and bestowed upon him the authority to heal people. He became a healer, diviner, witch-finder and witch-cleanser, working mainly in Blantyre and Chikwawa districts. Eventually, he established himself at Nkurmadzi, near the MalawiMozambique border. One of his main disciples, Monjezi, who came to be known as Mpulumutsi (the saviour), worked primarily at Matenje in Mozambique, and helped to spread the Bwa.n.a.li-Mpulumutsi reputation and influence further, including into Zambia and Zimbabwe. Although Christian missionaries did not have a high opinion of Bwa.n.a.li, he professed to be a Christian, and his healing and cleansing ceremonies accompanied preaching about G.o.d.

BWANAUSI, AUGUSTINE (19301973). Born in Blantyre, Bwanausi was educated at Blantyre Secondary School, where he distinguished himself as a brilliant student. He went to Makerere College, Uganda, graduating with a BSc degree. He returned to Malawi, increasingly became involved in nationalist politics, while at the same time looking for a teaching job. In 1955, he completed a diploma in education at the University of Bristol and thereafter became a schoolmaster, teaching mathematics and sciences at Blantyre Secondary School. During the State of Emergency in 1959, he was arrested and detained in Southern Rhodesia. Released in 1960, he returned to teaching but continued to play a major role in party politics.

In 1961, Bwanausi was elected to Parliament as member for Blantyre and was appointed minister of internal affairs and development. Later, he became minister of works before Dr. Hastings Banda dismissed him during the Cabinet Crisis in 1964. He went into exile in Zambia, returning to the teaching profession while also becoming a prominent member of Henry Chipembere's Pan-African Democratic Party (PDP). In 1973, Bwanausi and two others were killed in a car accident on the Copper Belt while on their way to a PDP meeting in Ndola. See also BWANAUSI, HARRY WILLARD.

BWANAUSI, HARRY WILLARD. Leader of the United Democratic Movement (UDM), Harry Bwanausi, brother of Augustine Bwanausi, was educated at Blantyre Secondary School, Wit.w.a.tersrand University, and the University of Natal where he qualified as a medical doctor. On his return home, he worked in the government medical service, but at the same time was quietly active in nationalist politics. One of the handful of Malawian medical pract.i.tioners at independence in 1964, he was forced into exile after the Cabinet Crisis because he sided with the rebelling ministers. He was to spend the next 29 years in Lusaka, Zambia, where, besides engaging in anti-Banda politics, he practiced medicine. He returned to Malawi just before the 1994 general elections, which he contested as leader of his party but lost. He was appointed chairman of the University of Malawi Council, a position he relinquished after just over two years.

C.

CABINET CRISIS (1964). Within two months of Malawi attaining independence status, differences between Dr. Hastings Banda and several cabinet ministers erupted into a serious and permanent break. There were important domestic and foreign issues separating the two. The ministers resented Banda's approval of the Skinner Report and wished to see it discarded. They also wanted Banda to adopt a more rapid Africanization policy in the civil service. The inst.i.tution of a monetary charge (three pence) for hospital outpatients was loudly decried as well. In foreign affairs, Banda favored a policy of coexistence with Portugal, but this was despised by those ministers who wished to support the Mozambique liberation movement and wanted to minimize the political contact with Portugal.

Submerged beneath these frontal issues was a resentment of Banda's treatment of his ministers whom he often referred to as "his boys." Ministers also felt that Banda trusted expatriates more than his cabinet. These grievances were stifled in favor of a united front, but Banda knew that differences existed. Apparently the ministers felt that compromise was possible with Banda, but, unfortunately, he was insensitive to their feelings. Although the ministers remained personally loyal to Banda, he concluded that loyalty and acceptance of his policies were one and the same.

At an August 1964 cabinet meeting, several ministers challenged Banda's indecision on an aid offer from the People's Republic of China. Banda felt so threatened by these unprecedented "attacks," as he called them, that he offered to resign but was dissuaded by the governor, Sir Glyn Jones. The next day more amicable relations prevailed as Banda seemed willing to review points at issue: the Skinner Report, hospital charges, and foreign policy. Soon Banda began believing rumors of a cabinet conspiracy, and he told the ministers that he had no more time for their grievances. The angered ministers then wanted Banda to resign but, instead, on 8 September, he dismissed three of them at an emergency cabinet meeting. Augustine Bwanausi (Housing and Development), Orton Chirwa (Justice), Kanyama Chiume (External Affairs), and Rose Chibambo (Parliamentary secretary) were accused of disloyalty and of conspiring with a foreign power, China. Three other cabinet ministers resigned in solidarity with their colleagues: Willie Chokani (Labour), Yatuta Chisiza (Home Affairs), and, upon his return from a visit to Canada, Henry Chipembere (Education).

Reconciliation seemed possible as both sides voiced hope of finding a solution to the Cabinet Crisis. Expecting to gain const.i.tuent support for their demand that they be more involved in cabinet decisions, the ex-ministers returned to their districts. In their absence, Banda appointed new ministers to the cabinet, but he kept four positions vacant, stating he expected some former ministers to return. However, ministers such as Chipembere made less than temperate speeches in their home districts. Enraged by their resoluteness and fearful of a broader plot against him, Banda expelled all the rebellious former ministers from the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) on 16 September. In spite of this move, the ministers reaffirmed their loyalty to Banda, but he decided not to make any concessions or to allow Governor Jones to mediate the crisis.

By early October, it was becoming clear to the ex-ministers that their personal lives were in danger from party operatives. Five of them left Malawi for Tanzania and Zambia and, under new security regulations adopted by Banda, Chipembere was restricted to his Malindi home. When Banda toured the central and northern regions, he found support for his actions; only in the southern region were there minor disturbances in Zomba and Fort Johnston, primarily as a show of support for Chipembere. In February 1965, this localized support resulted in a rebellion in Fort Johnston district, but it was quickly ended by Banda's security forces. A less successful revolt occurred in September 1967 and was led by Yatuta Chisiza, who with a group of supporters tried to infiltrate Malawi through Mwanza district in the southern region.

Soon after it was ruthlessly crushed, Banda pa.s.sed a series of security measures aimed at preventing a recurrence of the incident. Two years earlier, parliamentary amendments had made treason punishable by death and allowed detention without trial of those persons deemed to violate the security of Malawi. The amendments also made it possible for members of Parliament not representing the MCP to be dismissed; they further gave authority to the prime minister to appoint to ministerial positions persons outside Parliament.

As a result of the 1964 Cabinet Crisis, Banda was able to strengthen his position as head of state and as leader of the MCP more quickly than might have otherwise been the case. Another consequence was the obvious loss of talented ministers and the unlikely possibility that members of the cabinet in the future would speak out against the president or his policies. The crisis had an ideological and generational basis, but it also had its ethnic implications and long-term effects. No ministers from the central region resigned and, during the following years, the majority of people who were detained on suspicion of supporting or a.s.sociating with the former ministers tended to be from the northern and southern regions.

CAMERON, COLIN. A Scottish lawyer and sympathizer of the African cause in the fight for decolonization, he represented many African nationalists in trials following the declaration of the State of Emergency in March 1959. In August 1961, he was elected to Parliament on the higher roll and was appointed minister of works and transport. Although a firm supporter of Dr. Hastings Banda, he resigned his position as cabinet minister before the Cabinet Crisis primarily because Banda was planning to reintroduce a 1960 preventive detention act. For safety reasons, he left Malawi for Scotland, where he continued to practice law. He maintained an interest in the country, becoming an active member of the Sottish organization, Friends of Malawi.

CANADA. This founding member of the Commonwealth of Nations, to which Malawi belongs, was in the 1970s and 1980s one of the consistent providers of aid to Malawi. The numerous projects financed with Canadian a.s.sistance include the Natural Resources College and Malawi Inst.i.tute of Management (MIM), both located in Lilongwe district, and the SalimaLilongwe railroad extension. However, relations between Malawi and Canada predate the 1960s as a significant number of Catholic missionaries (priests and nuns) came from the province of Quebec. Canadian Protestant churches have also been involved actively in Malawi. In 1992, Canada, like some other governments, withdrew aid to Malawi as part of an effort to force Dr. Hastings Banda to inst.i.tute political reform. It resumed aid in 1994, and in the period 1999 to 2005, the country, through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), was to spend about US$50 million mainly on, among other projects, poverty reduction, HIV/AIDS, gender issues, and water supply. Since the mid-2000s, Canada has reduced its aid to Malawi as it has to other African countries, and many CIDA financed projects have stopped. However, in 2010, Canadian nongovernmental organizations such as Engineers without Borders, Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief, Lifeline Malawi, and the Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development continued to be active in Malawi.

CAPE MACLEAR. Located on the southwestern sh.o.r.es of Lake Malawi, Cape Maclear is one of the most beautiful spots on the lake. Most of the Cape Maclear area falls within the Lake Malawi National Park, created in 1980 to protect the flora and fauna in the reservation and the special marine life that is found in the bay area. With clear sands, Cape Maclear is easily the favorite destination of the majority of low-budget international backpacking visitors to Malawi who stay at the Steven's Rest House. Cape Maclear's fame dates back to 1876 when it became the site of the first Livingstonia Mission. Six years later, the mission moved to Bandawe, leaving Cape Maclear as an outstation. From 1949 to 1950, Cape Maclear was the main Malawi port for the Short Solent flying boats, which the British Overseas Airways Corporation (today called British Airways) regularly operated between Southampton, England, and the Vaal Dam near Johannesburg, South Africa.

CAPRICORN AFRICAN SOCIETY. This society emerged in Southern Rhodesia and spread to Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia. It espoused multiracialism in the sense that it opposed separation of peoples on the basis of color while also advocating a cultural bar. In 1956, the society held its meeting at a lake resort in Salima; delegates came from East and South Africa, among them: Alan Paton, famous for among other books, Cry the Beloved Country; Noni Jabavu, author of Drawn in Colour, and, respectively, daughter and granddaughter of the eminent South Africans, John Tengo Jabavu and Professor D. D. T. Jabavu. Among the Nyasalanders who attended the Salima meeting was Charles Matinga, former president general of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) who by that time had become a supporter of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which the Capricorn Africa Society hoped to sell to Africans in the three territories. During the period 195863, when nationalism was at its height in Nyasaland, the term "capricorn" became a derisive term, being equated with duplicity.

CATHOLIC BISHOPS' PASTORAL LETTER. On 8 March 1992, a pastoral letter, "Living Our Faith," issued by the seven Catholic bishops in Malawi, was read in all their churches. It expressed major concern about the detrimental effects on family life and social relations of, among other things, lack of human rights, poverty, fear, and hunger. Although the government and the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) were very upset by this honesty, most Malawians were pleased and encouraged by the letter, marking a turning point in the postcolonial history of the country. For from that time onward, the fervor for political reform was intensified, leading to the referendum and general elections of 1993 and 1994, respectively. The Catholic prelates had issued pastoral letters before, most of which went unnoticed by the government because their messages were deemed to be innocuous. One such letter was "How to Build a Happy Nation," issued in March 1961, just as Malawi was approaching its first major const.i.tutional changes. In it, the bishops dwelt on churchstate relations and on the duties and rights of Christians in a nation-state and on the role of the church in helping to fulfill these rights and duties. The letter had followed a period of tension between the church and the MCP (see KATSONGA, CHESTER; THEUNISSEN, JEAN-BAPTIST).

Since 1994, the bishops have written other Lenten letters where they have again conveyed their disquiet, this time regarding the continuing poverty, hunger, disease, and violent robberies. In November 2010, the conference issued a detailed pastoral letter in which they criticized the Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika government for, among other things, making decisions of national importance without adequate consultation with the Malawian public, and disregard for the office of the vice president and its inc.u.mbent, Joyce Banda. See also BANDA, HASTINGS KAMUZU.

CATHOLIC CHURCH. See CATHOLIC BISHOPS' PASTORAL LETTER; EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE OF MALAWI; MISSIONS; RELIGION.

CENTRAL AFRICAN BROADCASTING SERVICES (CABS). Formed in Lusaka, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), in 1941 as an entertainment and educational radio station for the emerging westernized Africans in Rhodesias and Nyasaland, the CABS broadcast in English, chiNyanya, ciBemba, ciTonga, ciLozi, ciShona, and Sindebele. The station became particularly popular after 1949 when an affordable receiver, the "saucepan radio" (shaped like a saucepan) was introduced into the region. Programs included education-related ones; local plays, thereby giving rise and exposure to African playwrights; and most popular, zimene mwatifunsa, a request program, usually in the form of greetings to friends and relations in the wider southern African region. Announcers and producers would regularly visit the three territories to record items for broadcasting on the station, and surveys of listener opinions were also regular.

It was through the CABS that most Africans received national and world news and became part of the world culture: listening to jazz and other popular music of the time. African musicians such as Alick Nkhata, Enock Evans, and the Paseli Brothers became widely known mainly because of the CABS. Among the many popular African announcers was Sylvester Masiye, who would become a member of the senior management team in the postcolonial broadcasting system in Zambia.

Until 1953, the CABS was little affected by the racial views prevalent in the colonies but, by 1954, when it was taken over by the federal government, changing its name to Federal Broadcasting Corporation, many Africans did not like the way it reported facts, which they felt were distorted and propagandistic in nature. In fact, Michael Kittermaster, the director of broadcasting, resigned in protest against the direction the service was being forced to take.

CENTRAL AFRICAN FEDERATION. See FEDERATION OF RHODESIA AND NYASALAND.

CENTRAL AFRICAN PLANTER. See NEWSPAPERS.

CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND REHABILITATION (CHRR). Established in 1995 by some exiles who had returned to Malawi following the demise of Hastings Banda's rule, the CHRR is one of the nongovernmental organizations that is concerned with human rights and good governance in Malawi. Through a variety of programs, it seeks to ensure public awareness of human rights, and, by way of advocacy and litigation, it ensures that the government and other holders of power are held accountable for their actions. Besides research and doc.u.mentation, the CHRR also has programs in rural and urban areas relating to gender, and economic empowerment and health, including HIV/AIDS. During the case of a gay couple, Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, CHRR was one of the few organizations that advised the government and the public to be sensitive to the position of the two people. Ollen Mwalubunju, one of its founders, was the CHRR's first executive director and, in 2005, Undule Mwakasungula, another of its founders, succeeded him.

CERTIFICATE OF CLAIM. These were official doc.u.ments issued by the government to European settlers in Nyasaland, legally recognizing land they had bought or taken possession of. During Harry Johnston's tenure in Malawi, it was becoming increasingly obvious that land, especially in the s.h.i.+re Highlands, would be a source of major problems. As more European settlers arrived in the country and bought land from traditional rulers, it became imperative for the government to regulate the transactions and to confirm sales. Most of this land was sold on very generous terms, even though, as the government would find out later, the chiefs had no right to sell this land, of which they were mere custodians.

CHAKUAMBA, GWANDANGULUWE "GWANDA" (1935 ). Born in Nsanje district in 1935, Chakuamba, sometimes known as Chakuamba-Phiri, was educated at Zomba Catholic Secondary School and in Southern Rhodesia. He worked as secretary for the Port Herald (now Nsanje) branch of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) in the late 1950s, was briefly detained during the State of Emergency, and, during the period leading to const.i.tutional changes, became particularly active in the Malawi Congress Party's (MCP) Youth League. In 1961, he was elected to the Legislative Council (LEGCO) as a representative for Port Herald. During the Cabinet Crisis, he remained a staunch supporter of Dr. Hastings Banda, who rewarded him with the position of minister of community and social development. In subsequent cabinet reshuffles, he was moved to the departments of Local Government, Education, Information and Tourism, Agriculture, Youth and Culture, and Southern Region. For part of the 1960s and during the 1970s, Chakuamba was commander of the Young Pioneers (see YOUTH), a position that made him one of the most powerful and feared people in the country. Not only did the Young Pioneer bases in all districts produce much food, the organization, regarded as the military wing of the MCP, had its own a.r.s.enal and intelligence gathering service that was active as the Special Branch of the police.

In February 1980, Chakuamba was expelled from the MCP for "a gross breach of party discipline, illegal possession of firearms, uttering seditious words with the intent of raising discontent, and having copies of prohibited publications." Placed on trial in November 1980, the former chairman of the Central Committee was found guilty and received a 22-year jail sentence.

Chakuamba was released in 1992 and he rejoined the MCP, becoming a campaigner, first for the retention of one party rule and, after the referendum in May 1993, for the return to power of the MCP. He was elected vice president of the MCP and became Banda's running mate in the 1994 presidential elections. In 1997, he became president of the party, and the position was confirmed at a party convention held in Mzuzu in January 1999 when he defeated his deputy, John Tembo. Late in 1998, it was announced that in the general elections in the following year, the MCP would form an alliance with Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), and that Chakuamba and Chakufwa Chihana of the latter party would stand as candidates for the offices of state president and vice president, respectively. Tembo disagreed with the decision but was overruled, and in April and May 1999, the Electoral Commission went to the High Court of Malawi to issue an injunction to stop the two parties from working together in this manner. As it became obvious that the judges saw no legal impediments to such party cooperation, the commission withdrew the pet.i.tion. Chakuamba garnered 45 percent of the vote, losing to Bakili Muluzi of the United Democratic Front (UDF). He and his parties went to court again to challenge the results, arguing that the governing party had rigged the voting process in 16 districts.

Just before the 2004 general elections, Chakuamba resigned from the MCP and formed the Republican Party, which joined a coalition of six political parties under the platform of Mgwirizano, with him as the presidential candidate. Mgwirizano lost to the UDF's Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika. When the latter established the Democratic Republican Party, Chakuamba joined it and served as minister of agriculture from February to September 2005, when he was dismissed from the cabinet. He formed another party, the New Republican Party, and in the 2009, Chakuamba declared that he would support Bakili Muluzi as presidential candidate of the UDF. Later, he announced that he would soon retire from active politics.

CHANCELLOR COLLEGE. This original college of the University of Malawi opened in 1965 at the former Chichiri Secondary School in Limbe. It graduated its first students in 1969 and, four years later, it moved to its new location at Chirunga on the periphery of Zomba. With about 2,500 students, Chancellor College awards undergraduate and graduate degrees in natural and social sciences, humanities, and in education. It also has a law school and issues diplomas in education and public administration and certificates in library science.

In February 2011, the faculty at Chancellor College withdrew their teaching services in response to Inspector General of Police Peter Mukhito's interrogation of an a.s.sociate professor of political science, Blessings Chinsinga, for something he said in cla.s.s in reference to the turmoil occurring in North Africa. The college's Academic Staff a.s.sociation announced that its members would resume teaching after two conditions were met: an apology from Mukhito, and an a.s.surance from the authorities that academic freedom would be respected. Students supported the faculty and demanded that the conditions be fulfilled. Within a few days, the teaching staff and the students at the Polytechnic in Blantyre, a const.i.tuent college of the University of Malawi, also began boycotting cla.s.ses in sympathy with their counterparts in Zomba. In the following month, President Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika ordered that they resume teaching immediately. The faculty defied the order and, in April, the University of Malawi Council dismissed three faculty members at Chancellor College, including Dr. Jessie Kabwila-Kapasula, the chairperson of the Chancellor College Academic Staff Union, and closed the college and the Polytechnic. The academic staff union obtained a court injunction to nullify the University Council's decisions. In May, President Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika announced that he had appointed Dr. Brown Chimpamba, former vice chancellor of the University of Malawi, to head a commission of inquiry into the recent problems at the university. He also ordered the college resume cla.s.ses on 4 July but the faculty refused to teach before the resolution of the issues that had led to the impa.s.se. In the third week of August, a sit-in began at the main university offices in Zomba, and on the 27th of that month, President Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika instructed that the college be closed until further notice.

CHANGALUME. Located 10 miles southwest of Zomba, Changalume was for a long time the site of Malawi's main limestone mine and the factory that produced most of the cement used in the country. It has now been converted into a military base, the Changalume Barracks.

CHAPONDA, GEORGE THAPATULA (1942 ). Member of the National a.s.sembly for Mulanje Southwest since 2004, Chaponda was born at Mendulo Village, Traditional Authority Mthiramanja, in Mulanje district. He attended the University of Delhi from 1963 to 1968 and graduated with degrees in political science and history. In 1975, he entered the law school at the University of Zambia and four years later completed his LLB degree. In 1980, he was called to the Zambian Bar. He then studied at the Yale Law School in the United States and was awarded a degree as doctor of juridical science. While resident in Zambia, George Chaponda worked as a lawyer in Patel, Hamil, and Lawrence in Lusaka and as an a.s.sistant general manager of Zambia Tanzania Road Services. In 1983, he joined the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and served in different countries, including Somalia, Kenya, Thailand, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Austria, and Poland. He returned to Malawi in 2002, joined the United Democratic Front (UDF), and, from 2003 to 2004, was chairman of the University of Malawi Council. In 2004, he became the director of research in the UDF party and, following general elections of that year, he became a member of the National a.s.sembly for the Mulanje Southwest. In June, he joined the cabinet as a foreign minister, and, in 2005, he was moved to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. He was returned to Parliament in the May 2009 elections and, a month later, was appointed as minister of education, science, and technology. In the cabinet changes of August 2010, he became the minister of justice and const.i.tutional affairs. Almost a year later, on 7 September 2011, he was transferred back to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

CHATSIKA, LEWIS (19341997). Born in Thyolo district of Maseko Ngoni and of Lomwe parentage, Chatsika went to Blantyre Secondary School and Goromonzi High School, Southern Rhodesia, before working as a civil servant in Nyasaland. When, after the general elections of 1961, the Inst.i.tute of Public Administration at Mpemba began to prepare prospective advocates for Part 1 of the English Bar examinations, Chatsika became one of its first candidates. He proceeded to one of the Inns of Court in London where he was called to the bar in 1965. Back in Malawi, he worked in the Legal Defense Department and, in 1968, became the first Malawian director of public prosecutions. Two years later, he was appointed a judge of the High Court of Malawi, again, the first local person to occupy such a position. Regarded as one of Malawi's most brilliant and articulate lawyers and judges, Chatsika left the bench in 1980 to join the law faculty at the University of Malawi. Ten years later, he returned to the judiciary as a member of the Supreme Court of Malawi, and there he made many courageous decisions at a time when the country was going through unprecedented political changes. In 1994, he was appointed to head a commission of inquiry into the conditions of the civil service. See also CHATSIKA REPORT.

CHATSIKA REPORT. In 1994 and 1995, there were widespread civil service strikes, and the new United Democratic Front (UDF) government appointed a commission of inquiry, led by Justice Lewis Chatsika, to recommend solutions to the problems. The Chatsika Commission recommended sweeping changes aimed at improving the working conditions of civil servants; the latter included a major increase in salaries. Although salaries were indeed raised, workers felt that the Chatsika Report had not been followed to the letter.

CHAWINGA, DUNCAN "GOODNEWS." This soccer player and artist was famous for his cartoon, njolinjo, which appeared in the government newspaper Msimbi for most of the 1950s. Born in Hewe, Rumpi district, and a member of the ruling family of the area, Duncan Chawinga was trained at Livingstonia, before joining the Department of Information where he retired as information officer.

CHAWINGA, TIMOTHY, THEMBA KATUMBI (19121997). From the 1940s to the early 1970s, Chawinga, or Themba Katumbi (ruler of Katumbi area), was the traditional ruler of the Tumbuka-speaking people of Hewe, in northwestern Rumpi district. A committed modernizer, Themba Katumbi was determined to develop his area to the extent that, in the 1950s, he made his area available for an agricultural project sponsored by the Colonial Development Corporation (CDC). The scheme did not materialize, but this did not discourage him from repeatedly proposing various other projects to the colonial government. Courageous and articulate, Chief Katumbi was also one of the traditional authorities who always identified with anticolonial views and was an active member of the Chiefs Council. In 1972, he and a few other chiefs supported the return of Wellington Manoah Chirwa to Malawi, and because of this the Hastings Banda government removed him from his traditional position of chief.

CHAZIYA PHIRI, LYOOND CHAKAKALA (19472000). Born in Lilongwe, Chaziya was educated at Kanzimbi School and Likuni Boys Secondary School. He received his diploma in education from the University of Malawi and taught for several years. He was elected to Parliament in 1977 and later appointed minister of finance before becoming governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi, a position he lost in 1987. Chaziya spent some time in political detention, and when the movement for multiparty democracy started in the early 1990s, he became an active member of what was to become the United Democratic Front (UDF). For a brief period, he returned to the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) but the UDF lured him back and, in the late 1990s, he accepted a position in President Bakili Muluzi's cabinet, becoming minister of local government and sports.

CHEEK, LANDON N. (18711964). Baptist pastor and one of the two African American missionaries to work at John Chilembwe's Providence Industrial Mission (PIM) headquarters at Mbombwe, Landon N. Cheek was born in Canton, Mississippi. He attended a black college in Jackson, Mississippi, before going on to study theology at Western College in the same state. Cheek had always been interested in mission work in Africa, and in 1899 he offered his services to the Baptist Convention, which was in the process of setting up operations in the Lake Nyasa area. With financial a.s.sistance from African American churches, Cheek sailed for Africa in January 1901, arriving in the s.h.i.+re Highlands in May the same year, and proceeding to Mbombwe where he immediately set out to help Chilembwe build a Christian center.

Besides preaching and teaching, Cheek supervised construction work at Mbombwe as well as working on the mission's trial projects on coffee, tea, rubber, cotton, and pepper farming. He learned ciNyanja, and his relations with the local African peoples and local rulers, such as Chiefs k.u.mtumanji and Malika, were very cordial. Like other black Americans in the British colony, Cheek was regularly subjected to government surveillance because of the fear that he would encourage anticolonial att.i.tudes among the indigenous peoples. The government constantly worried that black Americans would help spread Ethiopianism, which would lead to dissent and disquiet in the colony. Cheek married Rachael Lydia Chilembwe, John Chilembwe's niece and by the time he returned to the United States in 1906, they had three children, one of whom, Ada, died in the s.h.i.+re Highlands. Also returning with Cheek to the United States were the two sons of Duncan Njilima, Frederick Njilima and Matthew Njilima.

CHEWA. The Chewa inhabit most of the central region of Malawi, parts of the Chipata district of Zambia, and sections of Tete province of Mozambique. Their area const.i.tuted part of the core of the Maravi empire, with Kapiri-Ntiwa on the Dzalanyama range as princ.i.p.al religious center. In 1967, Dr. Hastings Banda declared chiChewa the language of the Chewa, which is basically the same as ciMang'anja/ciNyanja, as Malawi's national language. This was reversed by the United Democratic Front (UDF) government, which liberalized the language policy.

CHIBAMBO, MACKINLEY QABANISO YESAYA (19172005). The son of Yesaya Mlonyeni Chibambo, Mackinley Chibambo was born in 1917 at Ekwendeni in Mzimba district. He went to school at Ekwendeni Mission and at Livingstonia where he qualified as a bookkeeper. His first job was with the Nyasaland Tobacco Board and, in 1940, he entered the civil service as a clerk, rising to the position of head clerk, the highest rank an African could expect to attain. He served at different district headquarters, including the district commissioner's office at Fort Manning (now Mchinji) before being transferred to Lilongwe in 1948. Having worked there before, Chibambo knew this provincial headquarters well, and soon became involved in anticolonial politics, especially the mounting opposition to the creation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. In 1953, while working in Zomba, he was imprisoned for 15 months for his opposition to the Federation, and for, ostensibly, inciting people to rise against the government, especially following the arrest of Paramount Chief Philip Zintonga Gomani and his close advisers in May that year. Upon his release in 1954, the government placed him under restriction at Port Herald (now Nsanje) at the southern tip of Nyasaland. He remained there until 1959 when, following the State of Emergency in March that year, he was rearrested and, with other detainees, taken to Khami in Southern Rhodesia and, later, back to Kanjedza prison camp in Limbe.

Soon after his release in September 1960, Chibambo was elected Malawi Congress Party (MCP) chairman for the northern region. In the following year, he was elected as a member of Parliament for a Mzimba const.i.tuency and, in 1963, became parliamentary secretary to the Ministry of Works and Housing. At independence, Chibambo was made minister for the northern region and, later, minister of works, development, housing, and health. In 1976, he was no longer a government minister. Later he was executive chairman of the Malawi Housing Corporation. He retired to Chibambo village near Ekwendeni. Chibambo died on 2 July 2005. One of his sons, Ziliro, an activist in the pro-democracy movement of the early 1990s, became a United Democratic Front (UDF) cabinet minister and later served as amba.s.sador to France and Mozambique before returning to private business.

CHIBAMBO, ROSE (1931 ). Born Rose Ziba, at Kaf.u.kule, Mzimba district, she was a political activist in Blantyre in the 1950s. In 1958, she was a member of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) committee appointed by Dr. Hastings Banda to organize the Women's League, and she became leader of that wing of the NAC. In 1959, she was arrested and detained without trial, and, in 1964, Chibambo was elected as a member of Parliament for Mzimba North const.i.tuency and appointed parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Community and Social Development, a post she held until the Cabinet Crisis in September that year, when Banda suspended her and others from the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). She and her family, including her husband, Edwin Chibambo (son of Yesaya Mlonyeni Chibambo and brother of Mackinley Chibambo), took refuge in Zambia. When her husband died, she went to live in the United States but returned to Malawi after the demise of the Banda regime; she settled in Mzuzu where, among other activities, she became involved in charity work, especially the Tovwirane Orphan Care, which is a.s.sociated with the Church Action Relief Development. She is also an active member of the Malawi Council of Churches, the Christian Service Committee of the Churches in Malawi, and the Interdenominational Support Group of Prisoners.

CHIBAMBO, YESAYA MLONYENI (18871944). Father of, among others, Mackinley Q. Y. Chibambo, Yesaya Chibambo attended mission schools at Ekwendeni and Khondowe. In 1920, he had the distinction of being the first mission student to be awarded the honors schoolmaster's certificate. Known for his forthrightness, he wrote (in 1921) to the powerful Mission Council pointing out the unfavorable working conditions for the Africans in the employ of the Livingstonia Mission, how little respect was accorded to them by their European counterparts, and how they were not included in the decision-making process of the establishment of which they were part. In 1924, he entered the theological college and was ordained four years later. When the Mbelwa Administrative Council began local commercial initiatives in the 1930s, Chibambo became secretary of a farm committee that managed two of the council's stock farms at Ekwendeni and Chitara.

A respected Ngoni historian and advisor to Ngoni chiefs, Chibambo wrote Makani gha baNgoni (History of the Ngoni) in 1932 and was a key informant and a.s.sistant of Margaret Read during her researches for, among others, The Ngoni of Nyasaland and The Children of My Fathers. Earlier, he had submitted written evidence to the commission investigating the Chilembwe uprising. Chibambo died in 1944 and is buried at Ekwendeni.

CHIBUKU. A popular sorghum/maize-based beer brewed by a nationally organized company and sold in paper cartons in most parts of Malawi. See also CHIPERONI.

CHIDAWATI, SIMON. A prominent politician and member of the Nyasaland African Congress's youth wing, Chidawati fell out of favor with Dr. Hastings Banda because he sided with the rebelling ministers during the Cabinet Crisis of 1964. Banda declared him one of the foremost enemies of the state and announced that he wanted him dead or alive. Chidawati escaped into exile.

CHIDYAWONGA. The Maseko Ngoni in the central and southern reaches of Malawi have their origin in Mputa and Chidyawonga, the sons of the Swazi chief, Ngwana. In a separate group from Zw.a.n.gendaba, Mputa crossed the Zambezi in the 1830s and settled for a while in the gra.s.slands of Donwe Mountain. Fearing that the followers of Zw.a.n.gendaba were too close, Mputa moved east and north of Lake Malawi reaching the area of Songea (Tanzania). This area, like the Dedza area he left in Malawi, was cattle country. A segment of northern Ngoni who had separated, and were led by Zulu Gama, joined up with Mputa. After the deaths of Zulu Gama and Mputa, the Ngoni were driven out. Led by Mputa's brother, Chidyawonga, the Maseko Ngoni returned to Domwe Mountain where the Maravi inhabitants were integrated into the new Ngoni state. Chidyawonga, an effective military strategist, consolidated and dominated east and west of Dedza and Ncheu. After Chidyawonga's death, his nephew, Chikusi, became paramount chief, not Chidyawonga's son, Chifisi: the Maseko were henceforth divided into two lines.

CHIDZANJA-NKHOMA, RICHARD BESTON (19211978). Appointed minister at large in July 1977, Chidzanja-Nkhoma was born at Mtimuni in Lilongwe district in May 1921. He qualified as a vernacular grade teacher in the Dutch Reformed Mission system and taught for some time before going to work in Southern Rhodesia and South Africa. On his return home, he campaigned vigorously against the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and, throughout the 1950s, became a leading politician and businessman. His hotel, the Chidzanja Hotel, became the gathering point of most activists visiting Lilongwe. A local councillor, Chidzanja-Nkhoma was one of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) officials who in 1957 sent a pet.i.tion to Dr. Hastings Banda in Ghana imploring him to return to Nyasaland to provide the required leaders.h.i.+p in the fight for decolonization.

Following the declaration of the State of Emergency in March 1959, Chidzanja-Nkhoma was detained but, a year later, was released. Soon afterward, he was appointed as the Central Province chairman of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). After the first general elections in 1961, he became a member of Parliament for Lilongwe and, following the Cabinet Crisis in 1964, he entered Banda's cabinet as minister of local government and minister for the central region. In the late 1960s, Chidzanja-Nkhoma held diplomatic posts and, upon rejoining Banda's cabinet in 1969, he occupied a number of offices, including those of minister for Organization of African Unity (OAU) affairs and minister at large. He was regarded as one of the best party organizers at the gra.s.sroots level. Chidzanja-Nkhoma died of natural causes in April 1978.

CHIEFS COUNCIL. Formed in 1952, the council was meant to be the mouthpiece of all the indigenous rulers in the country, especially at a time when they were under pressure from the colonial government to support the introduction of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Activist chiefs such as Philip Zintonga Gomani II, Mkhosi Lazalo Jere (M'mbelwa II,), Kuntaja, k.u.msamala of Balaka, and Nsomba worked toward the formation of the organization chaired by Chief Mwase of Kasungu, the spirit behind it. In 1953, the council sent a delegation to pet.i.tion the British government and the queen to stop the Federation from becoming a reality. The delegates, which included chiefs M'mbelwa II, Maganga, Kuntaja, and Willard Gomani, the son of Chief Philip Gomani, was not allowed to see the queen but had an audience with Colonial Secretary Oliver Lyttelton. It was also through the Chiefs Council that chiefs, as a body, spoke with the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC). See also SUPREME COUNCIL OF CHIEFS AND CONGRESS.

CHIHANA, TOM CHAKUFWA (19392006). President of the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) since its formation in 1992, Chihana was born at Lubagha in the Henga Valley, Rumpi district, and, after secondary school, worked, becoming a leading labor unionist. In the early 1960s, he was leader of the General Workers Union, which was allied to the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). However, from the middle of 1962 onward, the labor unions and the MCP drifted apart, mainly because the former argued for more radical policies such as nationalization, a program that the new government did not favor. As a result, Chihana and Suzgo Msiska of the Allied Workers Union were suspended from the political party and attacked by the Malawi News. This marked the beginning of the crippling of labor unions and the increasing control of the labor movement by the government.

From 1971 to 1977, Chihana was detained without trial. Not long after his release, he left Malawi, studied in Europe, and worked in Kenya, among other countries, before becoming secretary general of the Southern Africa Trade Unions Co-ordinating Council (SATUCC). In this capacity, he lived in Botswana and Lesotho. In 1989, SATUCC's headquarters moved to Malawi where, within a short time, Chihana also began to clandestinely involve himself in politics of reform. In April 1992, he was imprisoned for openly calling for political change and was not released until June 1993, just in time to campaign for the general elections due to take place in the following year. While he was in prison, AFORD had formally come into existence, and the leaders.h.i.+p had made him its president.

Chihana lost in the presidential elections but, when the coalition government of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and AFORD was formed in late 1994, Chihana became second vice president and minister of irrigation. In 1996, his party withdrew from the arrangement, and he returned to his Chiweta base in the Rumpi lakesh.o.r.e area and, from there, he continued to head AFORD. In 1998, his party and the MCP established a partners.h.i.+p for purposes of the general elections in the following year and, besides standing as AFORD member of Parliament for Rumpi Central, Chihana was vice presidential candidate for the MCP-AFORD alliance. He easily won the former but lost the latter following the reelection of Bakili Muluzi. He and Gwanda Chakuamba, the MCP presidential candidate, challenged the results in court on grounds of vote rigging.

From 1999 onward, Chihana's leaders.h.i.+p of AFORD was tenuous, as many in his party questioned his commitment to the organization. Some of his close lieutenants, including Sam Kondodo and Green Mwamonde, left the party to form their own, the Movement for Genuine Democracy. AFORD became virtually a skeleton of its 1994 version. In the 2004 presidential and general elections, Chihana allied AFORD with the UDF in effect supporting Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika as presidential candidate. AFORD itself won six seats and was no longer a factor in the National a.s.sembly, and by the time Chihana died on 12 June 2006, it was an insignificant organization in national politics, even in the northern region, its former stronghold. Chihana is buried in Mzuzu in the northern region, but the Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika government has announced plans to exhume his remains and inter them at the new Heroes Acre in Lilongwe in honor of the part that he played in political reform in the period 199294.

AFORD itself won six seats, and in the 2009 elections, Dindi Goa Nyasulu, AFORD's presidential candidate, received 0.45 percent of the total votes, and only one AFFORD contestant won a seat in the National a.s.sembly. See also BANDA, HASTINGS KAMUZU; POLITICAL PARTIES.

CHIJOZI, DUNSTAN W. This Nkota Kotaborn politician was elected to the Legislative Council in 1956 on the Nyasaland African Congress ticket, at the same time as Kanyama Chiume, Henry Chipembere, Nophas Kwenje, and James Chinyama. Regarded as a moderate, he fell out of favor of the mainstream nationalist movement and in the 1961 elections unsuccessfully stood as a parliamentary candidate of Thamar Dillon Banda's Congress Liberation Party, the organization he had earlier represented at the const.i.tutional talks in London. As const.i.tutional changes accelerated in Malawi, Chijozi disappeared from prominence.

CHIKANG'OMBE. Located at Chikangombe Hill, this was the main religious shrine of the Tumbuka-speaking region under the jurisdiction of the Chikulamayembe. The chief priest came from the Kachali clan, one of the established pre-Chikulamayembe group in the area.

CHIKULAMAYEMBE. This is the t.i.tle of the traditional rulers of most of what is today central Rumphi, and the clan name is Gondwe. Originally traders from Tanganyika, the Gondwe's migration route took them across Lake Malawi, hence their praise name, balowoka. By the time the Ngoni arrived in the area, the Chikulamayembe dynasty had been established for about a century. During the rebellion against the Ngoni in 1880, Mujuma, the eighth holder of the t.i.tle, was killed and the office was abolished. It was revived in 1907 when Chilongozi Gondwe, a policeman, became the ninth Chikulamayembe. The seat of the Chikulamayembe is Bolero, in the Nkhamanga plains, Rumphi district.

CHIk.u.mBU. This is the t.i.tle of the ruler of a Yao chiefdom in Mulanje district, and most of the occupants of this office are known by the term rather than by their first or family names. An occupant of the office in the 1880s and 1890s fearlessly resisted the imposition of British authority in his area. Regarded by the Scottish missionaries and administrators such as Harry Johnston and Alfred Sharpe as a threat to the spread of Christianity, Western civilization, and the establishment of the Pax Brittanica in the s.h.i.+re Highlands, much effort was put into subduing Chik.u.mbu's area. Originally in the Nsoni area, he moved east nearer to Mulanje Mountain, not far from Fort Lister, which the British built to observe the traditional commercial route to Quilimane on the Mozambique coast. Chief Chik.u.mbu of the 1960s and 1970s was appointed to the national traditional court.

CHIKWAKWA, JOHN "JOMOH" (1937 ). Founding member of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and former national chairman of the League of Malawi Youth, Chikwakwa was born at Namitambo in Chiradzulu district in July 1937 and educated in local schools and at Zomba Catholic Secondary School. In 1958, he joined the youth wing of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) and, a year later, was in the group, headed by Orton Chirwa, which formed the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). Regarded as a militant, he was often compared to some of the young leaders.h.i.+p of the Mau Mau movement in Kenya, hence his nickname, Jomoh, after Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of Kenya. In 1962, Dr. Hastings Banda sent Chikwakwa and Kapombe Nyasulu, another Youth League activist and one-time bodyguard, to Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) to organize support for the MCP and to establish branches of the party in that country. In the following year, Banda arranged for the two youth leaguers to go to Ghana to study at the Winneba Ideological Inst.i.tute set up by Kwame Nkrumah.

At the beginning of 1964, five months into the course, they were recalled home, apparently to take part in the preindependence elections campaign. However, upon arrival they were suspended from the MCP on account of disobeying the order to return home weeks earlier than instructed. Reinstated after a few months, Chikwakwa was forced into exile soon after the Cabinet Crisis of 1964 because of his a.s.sociation with Henry Chipembere and his views. For most of the 1960s, President Banda declared Chikwakwa a wanted person. Chikwakwa lived in Tanzania as a refugee until 1993 when he returned to Malawi. At a major ceremony in Mulanje in August 2010, President Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika presented a three-bedroom house built by his Silver Grey Foundation to Jomo Chikwakwa as a tribute to his work during the era of decolonization.

CHIKWAWA. Chikwawa is the capital (boma) of Chikwawa district in the Lower s.h.i.+re area of Malawi. Chikwawa boma is also the farthest point of navigation on the s.h.i.+re River as, above this site, are the Murchison Cataracts, which make river navigation impossible until north of Matope. In the early colonial period, Chikwawa became an important river port on the s.h.i.+re River and a major center of activities. The African Lakes Corporation (ALC) had a trading store at Chikwawa and, in 1892, the British established a government station there. A main cotton growing area, Chikwawa was most recently the site of an irrigated rice project and fish farms sponsored by nongovernmental organizations. It is also the major sugarcane growing part of Malawi, and thus the main operations area for the Sugar Company of Malawi (SUCOMA), which has recently been bought by the Ulova Sugar Company of South Africa.

Not far from Chikwawa boma is a site where Chewa/Mang'anja rulers resided in the past.

CHILD s.p.a.cING. This government-sponsored birth control program started in the early 1980s, mainly at the behest of the World Bank and donor agencies such as the United Nations Population Fund. Afraid of offending traditional Malawian sensitivities to matters concerning reproduction, the government stressed adequate s.p.a.cing between children, hence the name, Child s.p.a.cing Program. The emphasis was always the health and developmental advantages to mothers and their children of such an approach to child bearing. Based at all hospitals and health centers throughout the country, teams led by nurses would talk to women about various forms of birth control, and they would administer to such women the appropriate medications. The teams would also visit rural areas to do the same. See also POPULATION.

CHILEMBWE, IDA (?1918). This extraordinary woman was married to John Chilembwe, and was probably of Sena parentage. She was a teacher at the main day school at Mbombwe, Chiradzulu, where she taught weekly cla.s.ses in sewing and European-style deportment to women and girls. In the early days of the Providence Industrial Mission (PIM), her princ.i.p.al a.s.sistant was Emma DeLany. With Bible in hand, she often visited women in nearby villages where she tried to encourage them to learn to take a more equal place next to their husbands. Ida Chilembwe did not like the widely accepted practice of early marriage for young women because she felt they were merely children themselves when they became pregnant and that they never got to enjoy their youth. She also argued that such marriages rarely led to happy lives, and that it was important for women to attend school so that they could be equal partners with their spouses and so that they could help their families financially. Despite her exemplary behavior, deep religious feelings, and her efforts to help her sisters, Ida Chilembwe obtained little or no help or consideration from neighboring European women, some of whom were themselves wives of pastors. She knew incredible hards.h.i.+p and bore a double burden of isolation from both European and African societies. She died in 1918 during the flu epidemic.

CHILEMBWE, JOHN (c. 18701915). Malawi's leading early nationalist leader was born around 1870 of Yao parentage in Chiradzulu district and went to elementary school in Blantyre. In 1892, he met English missionary Joseph Booth at his Mitsidi Mission. Chilembwe became a servant in the Booth household and acted as nursecompanion to the Booth children. Chilembwe was strongly influenced by Booth and his teachings, particularly the missionary's egalitarian belief of Africa for the Africans. In 1897, Booth took Chilembwe to the United States where the National Baptist Convention underwrote his education at Virginia Theological College, a black seminary in Lynchburg, Virginia. During Chilembwe's two years in the theology department, he learned much about the experiences of American blacks. He also traveled in several American states before returning to Malawi as an ordained minister in 1900.

Chilembwe purchased about 90 acres of land near Mbombwe, Chiradzulu district, and built a mission patterned after an earlier concept by Booth. He called it the Providence Industrial Mission (PIM). Soon several black American Baptist missionaries came to Malawi to help Chilembwe's mission: Landon Cheek and Emma DeLany were among them. During their five-year stay, the PIM grew steadily with followers from Chiradzulu and Mulanje districts. The mission began experimental planting of cotton, tea, and coffee. Chilembwe also established a series of mission schools at Namkundi, Matili, Ndunde, Tumbwe, Malika, Sangano, and the main school at Chiradzulu. The British standard elementary subjects were offered at Chilembwe's schools. The PIM also offered practical agricultural courses and, at the urging of Chilembwe, women were taught European-style deportment and dress. Chilembwe was convinced that if his community experienced European-type success, they would develop more self-respect. He preached hard work and clean habits to his followers whom he urged to be sober, industrious, and respectable. In 1913, he and his followers completed construction of the PIM church, a beautiful large brick structure.

Prior to the 1915 uprising, Chilembwe had elected to work within the framework of the colonial government, a position that the African Welfare a.s.sociations and the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) would also pursue for several decades after World War I. Chilembwe always sought to improve conditions for his African community, and he understood its burdens well. Although there was compliance on the part of Malawians, Chilembwe realized that there was also resentment against the colonial government's imposition of power over traditional authorities, against the increased hut tax rates, and against the continued abuses of the thangata system. Additionally, the Protectorate had experienced drought, and with subsequent crop shortages many Malawians starved during the famine of 191213. Chilembwe was not only aware of these conditions, he faced personal frustration and suffering with his poor health (chronic asthma and growing blindness), heavy debts, and the death of his daughter Emma. Although all these factors were c.u.mulative, the immediate event causing the revolt was World War I.

When Chilembwe articulated his complaints against the government in the Nyasaland Times of November 1914, he also reminded the British of the loyalty shown by Malawians since the commencement of their rule. In peacetime, he continued, the government had directed all its attention to the Europeans, but now in war, Africans had been recruited for a cause that was not their own. Chilembwe became distressed at the intense recruitment demands for carriers (tenga-tenga) in his PIM area. By December, Chilembwe and his followers became more militant in their meetings, and by the next month, they had agreed to "strike a blow and die." a.s.sociated with these fatal expectations was Chilembwe's willingness to become a martyr for his people. To this end, he conspired with Filipo Chinyama in Ntcheu district and he hoped for support from Mulanje district and perhaps from the Germans in East Africa (Tanzania). However, none of these subplots materialized.

Chilembwe chose to begin his revolt on Sat.u.r.day evening 23 January, apparently because he knew many Europeans were partying at the Blantyre Sports Club. He sent some of his followers to Blantyre where they attempted unsuccessfully to burglarize the African Lakes Corporation (ALC) store and take its ammunition. Another contingent was sent to the A. L. Bruce Estates, infamous for harsh working conditions. The chief target on the estates was its unusually cruel manager, William J. Livingstone, who had burned down African tenant prayer houses, whipped and moved those tenants frequently and without reason, and paid them extraordinarily low wages. Livingstone was killed and beheaded, and two other European planters were speared to death. Following Chilembwe's strict orders, his army of 200 did not harm any women and did not seize any property. Chilembwe was able to elude government forces until 2 February, but his followers were rounded up earlier and, if they were not killed, they were jailed or went into exile.

Although most of his co-conspirators had some Western education and were propertied African entrepreneurs, Chilembwe enjoyed support from areas beyond the PIM, including among the Ngoni of Ntcheu district. Few traditional authorities lent him support despite a common complaint against war recruitment for the King's African Rifles. The Watch Tow