The Story Of Vera Chirwa

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 Orton Chirwa, a recent graduate of  Fort Hare University in South Africa where Chipembere later on.

Orton Chirwa had just become a tutor at Domasi. By 1953 Orton Chirwa had joined the Nyasland African Congress. In 1956 Orton Chirwa went to London to finish his studies which he had started earlier,,, which were to lead to a barrister qualification. Upon his  return from England, Orton became the first African Lawyer in Nyasaland.

Orton established a thriving legal practice along with Abdul Sattar Sacranie. Vera Chirwa was arrested on 3rd March 1958 alongside other members of ANC. Upon their release, Orton Chirwa became the first President of Malawi Congress Party. Vera Chirwa and Rose Chibambo established the Women's League of Malawi and she became it's first President.

Vera continued studying for her degree of higher education and went to London in 1961 to study law. In England she registered for a bachelors of law degree (hons). In 1966, she completed her degree and passed her bar examination same year and proceeded to masters. Meanwhile, Orton was in exile with their children  in Tanzania where he practiced and taught law in Dars es Salaam.

Vera joined them in 1967 and worked as a prosecutor in Tanzanian Govt Ministry of Justice. She also worked for the East African Community Legal Department. In 1977 she accepted an appointment in the law faculty of the University of Zambia . A move that she later regretted as that's where they were captured later on by Nyasaland agents.

In December 1981 ,with their son Fumbani the Chirwas  were captured by Nyasaland agents near Chipata where they went to see a relative . Orton was also going to address a MAFREMO rally. Their trials by the infamous Traditional Court...are they not written in the annals of Nyasaland history . Vera and her husband  became the longest serving prisoners of conscious in the History of Nyasaland.

Orton died at Zomba Maximum Prison on 22 October 1992.  Vera was released in 1993. She formed Centre for Advice Research and Education on Human Rights. And there is a Vera Chirwa award at the University of Pretoria.