Part 8 (2/2)

Between 2004 and 2007, 90 percent of the development aid to Malawi came from Great Britain, the World Bank, the EU, Norway, the United States, the African Development Bank, and the United Nations. The remaining 10 percent came from countries such as j.a.pan, the Netherlands, West Germany, Denmark, and Taiwan (since 2007 replaced by the People's Republic of China). Of the donors, the British government, through the Department for International Development (DFID), accounts for 27 percent the total amount followed by the World Bank, the EU, Norway, and the United States. Some 38 percent of British a.s.sistance is in the form of project support, and the rest goes to budget and sectoral support. Of all the major donors, only the Unites States gives all its aid specifically for projects; similarly, the United States, unlike most others, does not use the Malawi procurement arrangements. Also, many donors allocate a significant portion of their a.s.sistance to social programs rather than to economic ones, which the Malawi government tends to emphasize as a means of attaining its development goals as stated in the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS).

Although there was concern from donors about indications of a lack of fiscal discipline and corruption in the public service, the government of Malawi's a.s.sumed an increase in foreign aid by over 36 percent in the fiscal years 20089 and 200910, and it hoped that as long as its economic policies received the approval of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, all its usual external financial funders would continue to support its development agenda.

Donor aid to Malawi was expected to be adversely affected as a result of the government's decision in April 2011 to expel the British high commissioner because of a report he sent to his superiors in London deploring the political intolerance of President Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika and his threats to civil society organizations. In reaction, the British Foreign Office announced that it was immediately undertaking a review of its bilateral relations with Malawi, including cutting aid to the southern African country. See also FOREIGN POLICY.

FOREIGN POLICY. Throughout Dr. Hastings K. Banda's period as head of state, Malawi's foreign policy was pro-Western and anti-Eastern bloc. From late 1964, when Dr. Banda took over control of external affairs, Malawi had few contacts with nations other than those in Western Europe, the United States, and several Asian states. At the United Nations (UN), which it joined at independence, Malawi almost always voted with the West. Besides the United Nations and its specialized agencies, Malawi was also a member of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the British Commonwealth of Nations. During Banda's time, the country enjoyed a respected status at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Three principles governed Malawi's foreign policy according to Dr. Banda: no interference in the affairs of other nations; each individual country is to be judged on its own merits; welcome any country that was willing to aid Malawi. In fact, Banda maintained a strong anticommunist stance, and foreign aid was accepted only from Western sources. As head of state of a landlocked and poor nation, Banda chose to place Malawi's economic welfare above political considerations and, at independence in 1964, he elected not merely to establish a coexistence accord with white-ruled regimes in South Africa, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), and the then Portuguese-controlled Mozambique. Instead, Malawi's president actively cultivated friendly relations with Lisbon and insisted that it was out of economic necessity that Malawi pursue this course of action. Respecting the military might of South Africa and the limited chance that his or any other African state could defeat apartheid forcibly, Banda established diplomatic relations with Pretoria in September 1967.

Whereas another nation might have reasoned that a policy of neutrality was best when there were powerful neighbors, Banda's considerations included the hope that he could make Malawi the ”bridge” between black and white rule in Africa. He argued that in adopting a position of open dialogue with South Africa he was not implying any support for apartheid, the repressive South African rule, a situation he had experienced firsthand as a young man. Banda expected to bring about political changes, which he could not conceive as occurring by brute force or economic sanctions. He consistently maintained his opposition to apartheid, and his speeches that publicly criticized the South African government had the same theme: antiapartheid, anticommunist, and pro-West.

A s.h.i.+ft in Malawi's foreign stance took place in 1985 when it recognized Romania and Albania; three years earlier North Korea had received diplomatic recognition. Despite these overtures to the east, the policy had no real impact on the parties concerned. Malawi remained strongly pro-West and refused to allow any communist nation to have an emba.s.sy in Malawi. Although the recognition of these two Eastern European countries probably made Malawi feel more important, it was in fact merely window dressing.

Banda's att.i.tude toward white-ruled southern Africa was not well received at the OAU, which expected all members to actively support the liberation movements in overthrowing colonialism. In fact, as a general rule, Banda was not supportive of OAU policies and specifically disdained embargoes or violence as a solution to the southern African problem. This stance did not ingratiate him with many African leaders, and it tended to place Malawi in an isolated position within the continent. In spite of this, however, in 1980, Malawi was a founding member of the Southern Africa Co-ordination Conference (SADCC) and the Preferential Trade Area (PTA), both of which did not originally include South Africa.

Post-Banda foreign policy remained friendly to the West. President Bakili Muluzi continued to maintain diplomatic relations with countries such as Great Britain, the United States, France, j.a.pan, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway, most of which also provided financial and technical aid to Malawi. They also remained committed to global organizations such as the IMF, World Bank, and the UN and its agencies. Western-based nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including those in the general field of human rights, have become progressively active in Malawi. Also, unlike Hastings Banda, President Bakili Muluzi, a Muslim, established close relations with Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia and Libya. Under Muluzi, Malawi also became an active partic.i.p.ant in African affairs, fully embracing the OAU (in 2002 renamed the African Union), and even contributing to an African peacekeeping force. Since 1994, contingents of the Malawi army have served as part of the UN observer forces in Rwanda, the Congo, and Eastern Europe. Muluzi attended all meetings of SADCC, now renamed the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and served terms as chairman of both organizations.

Although President Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika's government has not been as close to Islamic countries as its predecessor, there has not been a significant change in foreign policy. Malawi has been supportive of international organizations such as the Commonwealth and the UN system, continues to host many NGOs from various parts of the world, and has maintained diplomatic ties with most of the countries that Bakili Muluzi's government did. As a former secretary general of COMESA, he has partic.i.p.ated fully in regional organizations such as SADC, and in February 2010, he was elected as chairman of the African Union, indicating his government's commitment to the ideals of the organization. A radical departure from policy occurred in 2007 when Malawi established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, thereby cutting the 41-year-old tie with Taiwan. Also in 2007, the government consolidated relations with India by building an emba.s.sy in New Delhi.

In April 2011, the Malawi government expelled the British high commissioner because, according to a leaked report, he had recently informed the British Foreign Office that President Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika had become less tolerant of criticism to the point of threatening civil society. The British government reacted by asking the Malawi envoy to leave and announced that it would reexamine its relations with Malawi, especially its aid to the country. In May, it canceled new aid to Malawi and revoked the special visa status granted to the president and vice president of Malawi and to other senior government officials. See also ECONOMY.

FORESTRY. Malawi has considerable forestry potential, but demand for wood has reduced the land cla.s.sified as forest, most of it in protected hill tops and watersheds. In 1975, 47 percent of the country was designated as forest, and, in 1994, such land area totaled about 3.6 million hectares, representing 38 percent of the total land area. These forests had 97 percent and 3 percent indigenous and planted trees, respectively. Demand for fuel for cooking (i.e., charcoal in the urban areas and firewood in rural areas) continues to be a threat to Malawi's forests. Similarly, the use of wood to build sheds for tobacco and extension of agricultural land remains a threat to forests. The reduction of the civil service as part of the expenditure reduction in the 1990s has also affected forests as many of the personnel who guarded them against bush fires and against human predators have been laid off. At the beginning of 2000, there was ample evidence of unprecedented deforestation in many parts of rural Malawi. In that year, forests comprised only 28 percent of the land area, and of this, 21 percent and 7 percent were forest reserves and customary land, respectively.

The National Forestry Policy of 1996, the Forestry Act of 1997, and the supplement to the Forestry Policy of 2003 provide the guidelines for the growth and management of the forests and their products in Malawi. The Forest Department is charged with executing the policy. Previous policies focused on protecting the forests, whereas the 1996 policy emphasizes the involvement of communities in which these forests are located. Similarly, the 1997 Forest Act, unlike that of 1942, which tended to confine itself to controling forest resources, operates within the larger framework of poverty reduction, bettering the socioeconomic well-being of Malawians. Local communities are encouraged to conserve forests and to help police preserve them. Now individuals must obtain licenses to be involved in production and transportation of wood products. These efforts are critical in a nation where timber provides approximately 90 percent of the country's energy. Although pulpwood is confined to the Viphya plateau, timber production is also active in Dedza, Zomba, Mulanje, Dzalanyama, and Blantyre, and in 2008, all these major centers accounted for 83,520 cubic meters of wood worth MK91 billion.

When economic constraints prohibited the use of the softwood from Viphya plantation as feedstock for paper production, the government established a plywood sawmill (Viply). Softwood wastes from the government plantation were applied as feedstock for a charcoal production project. It was the largest of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa with a capacity of 9,500 tons per year. More significantly, it was a feasible alternative to coal and other fuel wood for household cooking and tobacco curing. In the heavily populated southern region, where, in the past, resources have been taxed by the influx of refugees from Mozambique, stands of wood have been replaced by crops of maize needed to feed the expanded population. Reforestation programs are in place, particularly legislation to protect indigenous trees. Shortages in newsprint in the mid-1980s and, in the early 1990s, in packaging materials, led the Malawi government once more to request that Viphya Pulpwood Corporation (VIPCOR) investigate the establishment of a pulp mill at Liwonde. That too fell through. In 1999, as part of the privatization program, the government dissolved VIPCOR and sold Viply to TS Rai Ltd. of Kenya, which renamed it Raiply Malawi Ltd. By 2008, Raiply was producing 30,000 cubic meters of processed timber annually and was exporting half of it to Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zambia. Individual entrepreneurs also engaged in wood production, especially in the Viphya area. See also ECONOMY; ENVIRONMENT; TRADE; VIPHYA PULPWOOD SCHEME.

FORT HARE UNIVERSITY. Located in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa, and founded by Presbyterians in 1916 to provide tertiary education to black people, Fort Hare University would be the alma mater of many future leaders of southern Africa, including Henry Chipembere, Orton Chirwa, Wellington Manoa Chirwa, and the former South African president Nelson Mandela.

FORT HILL. See CHITIPA.

FORT JAMESON. Now called Chipata, this Zambian town near the border with Malawi developed close to the seat of Inkosi Mpezeni, one of the sons of Zw.a.n.gendaba. In pre-Ngoni times, this was part of the heartland of the Chewa kingdom of Undi, which was part of the Maravi confederacy. Today both the Chewa and the Ngoni live in the area, and the dominant language is ciNyanja, which is basically the same as chiChewa. The British defeated the Mpezeni Ngoni in 1898, and, in the following year, Robert Codrington of the Northern Rhodesia administration moved there from Zomba, turning it into a regional headquarters of the British South African Company (BSAC). Today, Chipata is the headquarters of the eastern province of Zambia.

FORT JOHNSTON. Named after Sir Harry Johnston and, after independence, renamed Mangochi, this district headquarters, located at the southern tip of Lake Malawi very near the point where the s.h.i.+re River flows out of the lake, was a British fort in the late 1880s and in the 1890s at the height of the establishment of Pax Britannica in the area. Fort Johnston became a defensive and an offensive post against the Yao chiefs Mponda, Makandanji, Makanjila, and Jalasi, all of whom strongly resisted the new British authority. Part of the memorabilia relating to the period of British pacification is currently displayed at the Mangochi museum at the boma.

FORT LISTER. Renamed Phalombe and located in the valley northwest of Mulanje Mountain, this was a British post in the fight with Yao chiefs, especially Chik.u.mbu.

FORT MAGUIRE. See MAGUIRE, CECIL.

FORT MANGOCHE. Located in the mountainous area west of Mangochi (Fort Johnston) boma, this was a British fort (in the 1890s and early 1900s) used to extend their authority in the mainly Yao-dominated area in the border region with Mozambique.

FORT MANNING. Renamed Mchinji and located in Chewa/Ngoni country, the fort was built in 1898 during campaigns against the Mpezeni Ngoni. In January 1898, Captain William Manning of the King's African Rifles (KAR) launched his attacks on Mpezeni from this fort, and it was here that the defeated Mpezeni was held prisoner for a year; about 12,000 cattle from Mpezeni's area were also taken to Fort Manning. In recent years, the fertile lands in this district have become major tobacco and maize growing areas, and the large estate owners included Dr. Hastings K. Banda and several of his ministers. Groundnuts are also grown in the district. The district headquarters is also the Malawi railhead for a railway line extending from Lilongwe to the MalawiZambia border.

FORT MLANGENI. Located on the MalawiMozambique border, between Ntcheu boma and Lizulu, this was a British post in the campaigns against the Gomani Ngoni (see GOMANI I). Later, Fort Mlangeni became a major recruiting center of the Wit.w.a.tersrand Native Labour a.s.sociation (WENELA). Later still, it became a training center for the Young Pioneers and the Police Mobile Force.

FRASER, DONALD (18701933). Born in 1870, he came to Nyasaland in 1897, joining senior colleague Rev. Walter Elmslie at the Livingstonia Mission at Ekwendeni. Later, with his wife, Agnes Robson, he was stationed at Loudon. With Fraser's arrival came a more sympathetic att.i.tude toward some African customs. He attempted to reform the more puritanical church restrictions on dancing, polygamy, and beer drinking; instead, he emphasized the writing of Ngoni hymns and the similarity of existing Ngoni and Tumbuka religious beliefs with Christianity. Among the books he wrote are Winning a Primitive People (1914), African Idylls (1923), Autobiography of an African (1925), and The New Africa (1927). He left Malawi in 1925 and died in 1933 but was buried at Loudon Mission, Mzimba, next to where the body of Rev. Jonathan Chirwa lies. See also LAWS, ROBERT.

FRELIMO. See MOZAMBIQUE.

FRENCH, MARGARET MERENE. This British woman became Hastings Banda's friend, lover, and companion during his stay in London and Ghana. The two met in northeast England when Margaret's husband was serving in World War II; she became his landlady, and when Banda moved to London and bought his own house, she, her son, and her husband joined him. Later her husband left and successfully filed for divorce, citing Banda as the corespondent. When Banda left for Ghana in 1953, she went with him, leaving her son with his father. However, when he decided to return to Malawi in 1958, she remained in Ghana and eventually went back to London; at first, contact between them was minimal and soon terminated completely. Mrs. French died in 1976.

G.

GADAMA, AARON ELLIOT (19341983). Born in 1934 near Kasungu, Gadama went to local primary schools before proceeding to St. John's Bosco Teacher's College, Lilongwe, where in 1959 he received the primary schoolteacher's certificate. While teaching at a number of schools in the central region, he studied by correspondence to upgrade his basic education. He became headmaster of Kasungu Primary School but continued to further his education. The mid-1960s were busy years for Gadama: he was awarded a British government bursary to study education for a year at Morray House, Edinburgh; he spent some time in Australia studying education; and he received a certificate in modern mathematics from Nairobi.

An articulate, intelligent, and entertaining person, he became a member of Parliament for Kasungu in 1971. Gandama was quickly promoted by Dr. Hastings Banda to minister of community development. In the mid-1970s, he was appointed minister without portfolio before moving on to become minister for the central region. In the latter capacity, he was also chairman of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) in the central region. In May 1983, Gadama was one of the four cabinet ministers and members of Parliament who died in a car ”accident” in Mwanza district. A commission of inquiry established in the post-Banda period found that the police killed the ministers on orders from the top, and it is no longer a matter of speculation that he may have been involved in a power struggle involving the issue of succession to the aging Banda. See also MWANZA ACCIDENT AND TRIALS.

GLOSSOP, REV. ARTHUR GEORGE BARNARD. Arthur Glossop was a missionary of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) and a firm believer in British imperialism. In 1893, he was posted to Likoma Island and for 50 years continued to work in the Lake Malawi area. As the high Anglican archdeacon in the UMCA, Glossop was the sole cleric representative on the commission of inquiry on the Chilembwe uprising. In the Report of the Commissioners (1916), Glossop's bias against small independent missions was apparent; he believed Africans needed discipline, not the kind of individualism seen in Chilembwe and his followers.

GOMANI I, INKOSI CHITAMTHUMBA (?1896). In September 1891, Gomani succeeded his father, Chikuse, as the leader of the Maseko Ngoni. Within a few years, a civil war commenced between his followers and those of his cousin, Kachindamoto, grandson of Chidyawonga. With the a.s.sistance of the Yao chief, Mponda, Gomani forced Kachindamoto to the lakesh.o.r.e area where he established a base at Mthakataka, a famous railway station and Christian mission center. In November 1894, the two warring leaders reconciled at a meeting on Dedza Mountain.

Peace attracted many foreigners to the area, and they included missionaries, hunters, businessmen, and colonial administrators, a development that concerned some of Gomani's followers who became convinced that their ruler had lost his grip on the domain. To prove the contrary, Gomani sent his security forces to the area between the Kirk ranges and Liwonde to punish villages that had offended his administration. Convinced that this was a challenge to it, and seeing this as a chance to humiliate an African ruler considered to be recalcitrant, the colonial government sent soldiers to remind Gomani that he was answerable to it. Defiant, he reminded the government party led by Captain F. T. Stewart and Acting Consul Greville that he and his people would never submit to the British. When Kachere, a bodyguard, tried to prevent Gomani's arrest, he was beheaded; on 27 October 1896, Gomani was taken away by the army and, midway between Dombole and Chiole, he was killed and buried. His subjects found his body and reburied it about five miles north of present-day Ntcheu district headquarters; the grave has become a major symbol for all the Maseko Ngoni. See also GOMANI II, INKOSI ZINTONGA PHILIP MASEKO.

GOMANI II, INKOSI ZINTONGA PHILIP MASEKO (18941954). A descendant of Mputa and Chikuse, paramount chief of the Maseko Ngoni of Ntcheu district from 1921 to 1953, one of the few traditional rulers to stand firm against the establishment of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and a founding member the Chiefs Council, Zintonga Gomani was born in 1894 at Chipiri on the Mozambique side of Malawi. After mastering the basic elements of reading and writing, Zintonga Gomani went to the Henry Henderson Inst.i.tute (HHI), Blantyre. He was baptized at Ntcheu in 1921, the year he succeeded his father, Chitamthumba Gomani, as chief. Under the District Native Ordinance of 1933, Zintonga, now using his Christian name, Philip, became officially recognized as paramount chief of Ntcheu district. In 1934, he was among the first chiefs to attend a course for traditional rulers at Jeanes Training College, Domasi. Ten years later, he was appointed to the Provincial Council and to the African Protectorate Council, a position that gave him the opportunity to meet and know other chiefs and leading Nyasalanders outside his district.

Totally opposed to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Chief Gomani would become part of the delegation of Nyasaland chiefs who went to London to oppose its inst.i.tution. However, because of poor health, his son Willard Gomani went instead. When the Federation was imposed in 1953, Gomani began to pursue peaceful resistance by ignoring official agricultural and conservation regulations, many of which were highly unpopular in the colony, and by encouraging people to follow suit. In reaction, the government suspended and then withdrew its recognition of his chiefly authority. On 14 May, the governor, Geoffrey Colby, decreed that he leave the district. He refused, and the police, led by Deputy Commissioner Geoffrey Morton, tried to force Gomani out of the district but failed because the thousands of people gathered at the chief's Lizulu headquarters made it impossible. The chief then hid near Villa Coutinho, on the Mozambican side of the border, where he was arrested by the Portuguese authorities who handed him over to the Nyasaland police. In June, the case against him was due to start in the Zomba magistrate court, but the chief could not appear as he was ill and was taken to the Seventh-Day Adventist Hospital in Malamulo. The government did not allow him to return to Ntcheu district again. In the meantime, the events at Lizulu increased tension in the district and detachments of security forces from Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia, and Tanganyika were sent to the area to reduce the political temperature.

The arrest and treatment of Gomani and his advisors were followed by major disquiet throughout the colony. African nationalists and others unhappy with agricultural regulations and with the establishment of the Federation felt they were under government a.s.sault. Questions concerning the Gomani affairs were also raised in the British Parliament. On 12 May 1954, Gomani died at Malamulo and was buried at Lizulu two days later. His funeral was attended by thousands of people, including leading nationalist politicians such as James Sangala, Charles Chinula, and James Chinyama. See also SCOTT, MICHAEL.

GOMANI III, INKOSI WILLARD MASEKO (19152006). Born in Lizulu in Ntcheu district, son of Inkosi Zintonga Philip, Gomani II, Willard went to Seventh-Day Adventist schools, and during World War II was a signaler in the King's African Rifles. Upon demobilization in 1943, he joined government service as a clerk and, by the time he became acting chief in 1952, he had risen to the rank of head clerk, the highest position an African could attain in the colonial civil service. Like his recently deposed father, Inkosi Willard was strongly against the imposition of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and, in 195253, he was part of a delegation of six chiefs that went to London to oppose its inst.i.tution. Unimpressed by this, the colonial government not only refused to accept Willard as the successor to his father when the latter died in May 1954, but he was also imprisoned for seven months for helping his father defy government orders to leave the district and for resisting capture in May 1953. When he was released, still only acting chief, he continued his support for African nationalist causes to the extent that during the State of Emergency in 1959, he was again detained for eight months.

In 1961, Inkosi Gomani stood as Malawi Congress Party (MCP) candidate for Ntcheu and was duly elected to Parliament, which he left four years later to devote his attention to his traditional role as leader of the Ngoni in the NtcheuDedza area. Willard Gomani died in 2006, and two years later, his son, Kanjedza Alex Gomani, succeed him and a.s.sumed the t.i.tle, Gomani IV. He pa.s.sed away in September the following year, and the new Maseko Ngoni ruler became Willard Alex Gomani, son of Kanjedza Alex, but because he was under age, his aunt, Mary Malinki, was appointed regent.

GOMBERA, THOMAS. The first African detective in the Nyasaland police, and the first African to attain the rank of police inspector, Gombera was born in 1896 in Southern Rhodesia. From 1912 to the beginning of World War I, he served in the British South African Police Force and, for four years, saw war service in East Africa as part of the Rhodesia Native Regiment. Upon demobilization in 1919, he went to Nyasaland to join the police force that was being formed. In 1920, he became one of the first recruits of Major Francis Stephens, the first police commissioner with whom he had served in Rhodesia and East Africa. From January 1921 to his retirement in 1961, Gombera was in the Criminal Investigation Division of the police. A recipient of five police medals, including the Colonial Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 1947, he was promoted to the rank of inspector in the police force in February 1959.

GONDWE, CHILONGOZI. In 1907, this former government policeman became the Chikulamayembe, the traditional ruler of the Tumbuka-speaking peoples in Rumphi district. The position had disappeared in the 1870s after the M'mbelwa Ngoni ransacked the area, conquered the people, and turned it into part of their new territory. Backed by Church of Scotland missionaries such as Rev. Thomas Cullen Young, Tumbuka speakers a.s.sociated with the Chikulamayembe dynasty campaigned hard for the revival of the office of the Chikulamayembe. It was duly reinst.i.tuted in 1907.

GONDWE, DOROTHY TIJEPANI (19242010). Political activist and one of the leading members of the League of Malawi Women of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), Gondwe was born at Mpoda Village in north Karonga on 24 March 1924. She attended schools in Nyasaland and Tanganyika, married, and, after early widowhood, returned to Nyasaland in the 1950s. Within a short time, she joined the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) and became an activist in Karonga. In 1958, she was elected joint-organizing secretary for the district. She also became a prominent member of the Women's League to the extent that she even attended the secret bush meeting in February 1959 called by the NAC's leaders.h.i.+p to plan a program of action. In the period leading to the declaration of the State of Emergency on 3 March 1959, Gondwe and Flax K. Musopole worked day and night to inform people that should Dr. Hastings K. Banda be arrested they should take up arms against the government. As people were detained, they crossed the Songwe into Tanganyika where they were arrested in August and taken back to Malawi. Gondwe was imprisoned for nearly a year.

In the mid-1960s, Gondwe went to England to study community and social work and, upon her return in 1969, she worked for the government. However, within two years, she had fallen out of favor with the authorities and was dismissed from her job. She returned to Karonga to farm and was not fully reinstated into the Malawi Congress Party until 1992, when she was appointed to its National Executive Committee, in the hope that she could sway opinion toward retention of the status quo. Gondwe campaigned against political reform and, in 1994, worked tirelessly for the retention the MCP government. Although still a member of the MCP, she virtually retired from active politics in the early 2000s.

GONDWE, EDWARD KAYIWONANGA (19061993). One of the most senior and respected civil servants in colonial Malawi, Edward Gondwe was born at Enukweni in Mzimba district. He attended the local Presbyterian mission school and Ekwendeni Primary School before proceeding to the Overtoun Inst.i.tution at Khondowe where he completed his primary teacher's certificate. He taught at several schools, including Ekwendeni, where he became headmaster. He was also active in the church, holding the position of church elder. As part of a program to improve the quality of primary education, the colonial government in Nyasaland identified some of the best indigenous teachers and educational administrators to become school inspectors and, when required, tutors at the Domasi Training Center. Gondwe was such a candidate and, in 1948, was among the first Nyasaland teachers to attend an 18-month course at the Inst.i.tute of Education, University of London. Upon his return, he was appointed inspector of schools, mainly for Rumphi, Karonga, and parts of Mzimba districts. In 1958, he became education officer, the highest position occupied by an African without a university degree. One of the most respected civil servants in Malawi, Gondwe retired from government service in the mid-1960s.

Throughout his working life, Edward Gondwe played other significant roles in public life. In 1938, he presented evidence to the Bledisloe Commission, and in the 1940s he was one of the first members of the Northern Provincial Council. In 1949

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