Politics and Geographical

Vera Chirwa  Born 1932 in Mzimba. Her paternal grandfather was Jonathan P Chirwa, one of the first Africans to be ordained as a minister at Livingstonia together with Yesaya Zerenji Mwasi and Tweya. Her maternal grandfather, Yesaya Mlonyeni Chibambo, at Livingstonia, doubled as an advisor to Inkosi ya Makosi M'mbelwa II. He was also the founding member the Mombera Native Association. Her uncle Qabaniso Chibambo was one of the 1st Govt Ministers in Postcolonial dispensation. Vera grew at Loudon Mission, Embangweni then moved where she started her primary school and then moved to Mzimba Boma where her father Kadeng'ende Chirwa was a Hospital Assistant. She was selected to Blantyre Secondary School where she did her secondary school with  Henry Blacius Chipembere. In 1950 she passed the Junior Education Certificate and entered the Domasi Teachers Training Centre. At that time it was the only institution that trained teachers at higher level in Nyasaland. While at Domasi she met O...

  The Nyasaland Paradise Dream Of Sir Geoffrey Colby Sir Geoffrey Colby was so dedicated to develop Cape Maclear into a major City on Lake Malawi. When Cape Maclear Hotel was built in 1949, Colby persuaded the General Manager of the Nyasaland Hotels and Breweries, F. H. X. Gwynne to ensure accommodation of 44 BOAC plane passengers which was to fly directly from Britain to Cape Maclear twice every week. Colby had convinced the British govt to stop the flights to Victoria Falls in Rhodesia and commerce the flight to the 'paradise' in his reference to Cape Maclear. Colby's Nyasaland paradise was granted by the British govt when he and lady Colby flew directly from Southampton in England to Cape Maclear on 7 October I949. There used to be 2 flights a week direct from England to Cape Maclear and others to Victoria Falls and Vaaldam Johannesburg The service was discontinued in October 1950 In the picture Cape Maclear Hotel in 1950 1949, Geoffrey Colby brought planes which la...

The  Life and Death of the Legendary Gilbert Ponde ponde who fought for the independence of Malawi and how he was  assassinated. 1963 Christmas eve , Gilbert Ponde ponde, the leader of Mbadwa Party, a small but very critical opposition party to Dr Banda's Malawi Congress Party  is dragged out  from his house at night by the Malawi Young Pioneers and members of Malawi Youth League to an isolated place where he was beaten and murdered in cold blood.  But what had Ponde ponde committed to be assassinated?  Malawi Congress Party had moved a motion in  its rank and file to endorse Dr Banda as the life President of MCP at that time.  The country stood quiet.... while Gilbert Ponde ponde stood up and opposed this move. Ponde ponde warned the nation that they were building a lion that will massacre them in the years to come. Ponde ponde stood for what he believed in and foresaw what nobody could see. He had to be eliminated.... the MYP and the  Youth...

  Primary School Std 6/7 Malawi in 1980s history had a question Who was the first Treasurer General of Nyasaland African Congress? The answer was Issa Macdonald Lawrence. The question was common in most schools but pupils did not know who Macdonald Lawrence was. Most pupils thought he was a European. Lawrence McDonald was an educated Malawian of that time. Teachers did not bother to explain much as the history at that time did not put much emphasis on anybody but Dr Banda. Dr Banda himself adored Issa Macdonald Lawrence to an extent that when Macdonald Lawrence and Levi Mumba died in 1944, he thought that was the end of Nyasaland freedom struggle. Infact Dr Banda was reluctant to send money to Nyasaland African Congress after the demise of Issa Macdonald Lawrence Marcus Garvey in 1920s wrote a lot on the rise and oppression of Issa McDonald Lawrence of Central Africa. For Marcus Garvey, Issa Lawrence was the revolutionary who was continuing the Chilembwe Uprising in Centra...