Historical Dictionary of Malawi Part 14

Mumba also established himself as a notable political activist. He was a founder of the North Nyasa Native a.s.sociation, the Southern Province Native a.s.sociation, the Committee of Northern Province a.s.sociations (see AFRICAN WELFARE a.s.sOCIATIONS), and, with James Sangala and others, formed the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) in 1944, becoming its first president general. In 1929, Mumba, Isaac Mkondowe, and Paddy Nyasulu formed the African National Church, which would later spread to the rest of Nyasaland and beyond. Also in 1929, Mumba was the first African to be appointed to the Education Advisory Committee where he fought relentlessly for improvement in African education. He died at Mzimba on 23 January 1945.

MUNLO, LOVEMORE GREEN (1950 ). Chief justice of Malawi since 2007, Munlo was born in Mulanje district, graduated from the University of Malawi in 1976 with a bachelor of laws degree, and, in the late 1980s, studied at the London School of Economics, which awarded him a master's of law degree. He worked in various government legal positions, including as state advocate, senior state advocate, and director of public prosecutions in the attorney general's chamber and as director of international relations in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1990 to 1992, he was a judge for the High Court and Supreme Court of Malawi. During the last years of Hastings Banda's presidency, Munlo was deputy minister of justice (January 1992September 1993) and minister of justice and attorney general of Malawi (September 1993May 1994). After the May 1994 elections, he went into private practice. From 2001 to 2005, Munlo served as deputy registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania. Thereafter he became registrar of the Special Court on Sierra Leone.

MUNTHALI, MARTIN MACHIPISA. Political activist and one of Dr. Hastings Banda's bodyguards in the preindependence period, Munthali was a political prisoner from 1965 to 1992, hence he was known locally as the Nelson Mandela of Malawi. Arrested for supporting the views of the dissident ministers during the Cabinet Crisis of 1964, he was charged with illegal possession of arms and, after serving his sentence, was detained without trial and was at Mikuyu Prison until the clamor for political reform started in 1992. After his release, he tirelessly campaigned for multiparty democracy, presenting himself as a living symbol of oppression. In 1994, Munthali successfully took the government to court for having deprived him of his civil liberties for 27 years and he was awarded MK4 million as compensation. In the 1999 general elections, he stood as United Democratic Front (UDF) parliamentary candidate for Rumphi East but lost to Gowa Nyasulu of the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD). He contested again in the local government elections in November 2000 and was elected to the Rumphi district council as UDF member for Mlowe ward. He continued to be active in district politics.

MUNYENYEMBE, RODWELL THOMAS CHANGARA (19362005). Born in Lukomo village, Nthalire, in Chitipa district, he studied at Domasi Teacher Training College and qualified as a teacher in 1960. He has held several ministerial positions including that for the ministries of Information and Broadcasting, Community Development, and Social Welfare. In 1974, he was appointed minister of education as well as deputy regional chairman of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) for the north but, four years later, he fell out of favor with Dr. Hastings Banda, losing his cabinet post and his seat in Parliament. He retired from politics and concentrated on tobacco farming in Rumphi district. He was later elected chairman of the Tobacco a.s.sociation of Malawi (TAMA) and vice chairman of the Tobacco Control Commission.

In the early 1990s, he reemerged as a prominent player in the political reform movement, and later identified himself with the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD). In 1994, he was elected to Parliament as member for Chitipa South and, in the initial working arrangements between AFORD and the United Democratic Front (UDF), he was elected speaker of the National a.s.sembly, a position he held until 1998. In 1999, he stood for the Chitipa Wenya const.i.tuency as a UDF-backed independent candidate but lost to AFORD. Despite losing the elections, President Bakili Muluzi appointed him minister of state for presidential affairs and, a few months later, he became minister of defense. He later became speaker of the National a.s.sembly, and died while still in office on 27 June 2005.

MURRAY, ANDREW CHARLES. Born in South Africa of Scottish parents, Andrew Murray was the pioneer missionary from the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) of South Africa. Secretary of the newly formed Stellenbosch-based Students' Missionary Society, Murray went to the Lake Nyasa area in 1888 and worked with Livingstonia missionaries for a time while looking for a site for his church's mission station. In the following year, Rev. T. C. B. Vlok joined him and, together, they established a mission station near Chief Chiwere Ndhlovu's village, west of present-day Salima. Murray was much influenced in his methods by the Livingstonia Mission and, especially, by Dr. Walter A. Elmslie; he tried to pattern the Mvera (obey) mission station on Livingstonia farther north. Murray retired in 1900.

MURRAY, WILLIAM HOPPE (18661947). One of the pioneer missionaries of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) of South Africa, Rev. William Murray was born in South Africa. He qualified as a doctor in Edinburgh, Scotland, and received theological training in South Africa. A cousin of Andrew C. Murray, William was the second of the numerous members of the Murray family to work in the DRC in Malawi. In 1894, William Murray journeyed to Lake Malawi, traveling with Albert van der Westhuysen, a missionary farmer who would start the DRC's agricultural work program at Mvera. Rev. Murray was a.s.signed to Livulezi mission station, south of Mvera, which the Livingstonia Mission handed over to the DRC in 1895. In agreement with the Livingstonia Mission, the DRC was responsible for Livulezi and Cape Maclear in the central area and Livingstonia would confine its work to northern Malawi. In 1896, Nkhoma Mission was founded, and as additional missionaries arrived more stations and schools were opened. In 1900, Murray married Elizabeth Duckitt. They had two children, both of whom became missionary doctors in central Africa. In 1925, Murray was appointed to the Legislative Council (LEGCO), and in 1937 he retired after 43 years of mission work.

MUSIC AND DANCE. Malawi's music can be divided into three broad categories: indigenous, Western, and that with an indigenous or African base but with major Western influences, especially in the type of instruments used. Indigenous music varies according to area and, sometimes, according to ethnic group. To cite a few examples, chimtali and gule wamkulu are mainly a.s.sociated with the Chewa, likhuba and chitsukulusumwe with the Mang'anja, ndingala with the various groups along the Songwe River (the Ngonde, Sukwa/Ndali, and Lambya/Nyiha), visekese with the Tumbuka-speakers of the Lake Malawi region, tchopa with the Lomwe, ingoma with the Ngoni, and Vimbuza with all Tumbuka-speaking areas in general. There is music for every occasion, including rituals a.s.sociated with rites of pa.s.sage such as birth, initiation ceremonies, marriage, and death. There is also music specifically connected with war. As with most parts of Africa, nearly every type of music is danced to, and the nature of dance changes depending on the occasion. For example, the lyrics, form, and pace of dance in gule wamkulu, ndigangala, and ingoma change if it is performed at a funeral, a wedding, or as a war performance. Instruments vary, although drums feature in many of them.

During the colonial period, Malawians went abroad, mostly to South Africa, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Tanganyika (Tanzania), and the Belgian Congo (the DRC) in search of employment, and there, mainly in Southern Rhodesia, they became part of the emerging African urban music, which used Western instruments, the dominant ones at the time being the banjo, acoustic guitar, and the accordion. Many of those who became famous were based in Southern Rhodesia mostly from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, among these were the Paseli Brothers, Luka Maganga, and Thailo and Kapiye. Many tended to sing in duets but some, including Enoch Evans remained solo performers. All of them were part-time musicians in the sense that they were fully employed and would play their music after work, usually to groups of their compatriots. Their lyrics reflected this in that they were about home and about the experiences of working far away from home. Typical of the popular songs in this genre was Bari Paseli's "Kwathu nkutali" (Our home is far away) and "Ndafela moyenda" (I have died in my travels or migrations), and almost all of them were in ciNyanja (chiChewa) and ciYao.

It was not only the labor migrants who contributed to the evolution of Malawian music. Some of the soldiers who returned from World War II had brought banjos and guitars to Malawi, thereby popularizing them in rural and urban Nyasaland. Among the many home-based musicians were Wilson Makawa and Fred Ndiche Mwalare, a paraplegic banjo "wizard" who performed from his wheelchair. Mwalare's music, like other Nyasaland-based artists, tended to comment on everyday life in the villages, on conflicting social situations, and on the experiences of living in urban centers. In this regard, more influential was the music of Alick Nkhata and his Lusaka Radio Band who sang in ciNyanja and ciBemba and whose compositions, such as "Kalindawalo ni mfumu," "Chisoni," and "Taxi driver," became very popular in this region of Africa. All this was dance music and was played at parties, in bars, and beer halls.

The emergence of this type of music coincided with two important developments: the saucepan radio and the establishment of the Central African Broadcasting Services, based in Lusaka, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia). Shaped like a saucepan, the saucepan radio was extremely simple and was meant to be easily accessible to Africans in the British empire. By the early 1950s, many businesspeople, teachers, and those working in various clerical jobs who could afford it owned one. Although the radios were able to receive short wave signals from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and from neighboring countries, the main signal came from Lusaka. Besides indigenous music, the Lusaka station played the African compositions of the Paseli Brothers, Alick Nkhata, Enoch Evans, and many of their contemporaries, thereby turning them into household names and their type of music into an integral part of their culture. The increasing availability of the music led to the popularity of the gramophone as people went on to buy the 78-rpm records. Radio also exposed Malawians who had not traveled abroad to music from other African countries and to different types of Western music, such as jazz, country music, and later to rock and roll, all of which influenced, in varying degrees, local musical development. It was through radio that Kwela, music of the pennywhistle used by South African performers, particularly Spokes Mas.h.i.+yane and Lemmy "Special" Mabaso, came to be popular with such Malawian musicians as the Kachamba Brothers.

Another form of Malawi music and dance that is directly linked to external influence is Mganda or Malipenga; Beni, which is a.s.sociated with the Mangochi area, is a variation of Mganda. Based on the European military tradition of uniform, neatness, and precision, it features drums, whistles, and bajas or kazoos, made from dry gourds of different shapes. These are used much like Western trumpets. The songs are indigenous and the lyrics tend to be a commentary on society in general, although sometimes they mock the behavior of rival dance groups from neighboring villages. a.s.sociated with the dry season when people rest from active farming, Mganda groups compete, usually on weekends, and are judged by adjudicators appointed by elders from the competing villages.

A slight change in the forms of indigenous music began to take place after Hastings K. Banda returned to Malawi in 1958. As part of introducing him to the country, National African Congress Party loyalists, encouraged by politicians such William M. Kanyama Chiume and Henry B. M. Chipembere, began to praise the abilities and leaders.h.i.+p of Banda in the fight for decolonization. Everywhere he visited, local groups would praise him. After independence and especially after the Cabinet Crisis, districts competed to show loyalty to him by singing indigenous songs that turned him into a G.o.d. Described as traditional dances, they actually ceased to fall into this category as they became performances in adoration of Hastings Banda and the Malawi Congress Party. Ingoma, gule wamkulu, visekese, tchopa, likhuba, and all others adapted to the changing political situation in Malawi. A good example of such music was that of the Kamenya Brothers. Although this stopped after the 1994 elections, some in the women's sections of the United Democratic Front Party of Bakili Muluzi tried to perpetuate dances and songs in praise of the new president. The same would happen when Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika became president.

Even as the political atmosphere during Hastings Banda's dominance of Malawi politics was affecting Malawi's music and dance, many male performers tried to continue in the tradition of the Paseli Brothers, Enoch Evans, and Fred Ndiche Mwalare. They avoided political commentary and sang about life in general. Among them were Joseph Nangalembe, the Kachamba Brothers, the Katenga Humming Bees, Robert Fumulani, and Alan Namoko. At the same time, again primarily due to the Malawian tradition of travel and to radio, which was by then more affordable, diverse types of Western and African music became increasingly popular. Among the numerous Malawian groups that adopted the former were the Jazz Giants and New Scene whose leader, Morson p.h.u.ka, became a national icon. Congolese rumba (soukous and kwasa kwasa) and South Africa's Lucky Dube, and mbaqanga of Mahlatini and the Mahotella Queens and their Makgona Tsohle Band represent a major regional influence on Malawian musical performance. Typical of this genre is Wambali Mkandawire.

In the post-Banda period, freedom of expression and constraints on the arts loosened remarkably, enabling musicians to write lyrics that articulated their thoughts and often critiqued politics, economy, and society. Easily the most well known of these was Lucius Banda, whose style of music is Malawi-based but borrows heavily from the Congolese and South African traditions. Banda's music comments on corruption in the government, mismanagement, poverty, and elections made him the most popular entertainer in the country. Other notable music artists include Anthony Makondetsa, Mlaka Maliro, and Paul Chapuka. The post-Banda era has also witnessed the flouris.h.i.+ng of gospel music, and among the significant artists in this genre are Allan Ngumuya and Chimwemwe Mhango. a.s.sisting the surge of music in the 1990s and the early 21st century has been the easy access to recording studios and to the technology for CDs, again an aspect that the Banda regime would have controlled strictly. See also MWAKASUNGULA, RAPHAEL KAPOTE.

MUSOPOLE, FLAX KATOBA (19181989). One of the most feared African nationalist in late colonial Malawi, Flax Katoba Musopole was born in the Misuku area, Chitipa district. He attended local schools and Mwenilondo School on Karonga lakesh.o.r.e before immigrating to South Africa where, while working, he studied by correspondence and pa.s.sed the South Africa matriculation examinations. In 1953, he was admitted to the University of Cape Town but left after two academic years. While in South Africa, he became an atheist and was influenced by leftist thought; he also became a strong advocate of anticolonialism and even corresponded with Dr. Hastings Banda in London. By late 1957, he was back in Nyasaland where, in a fiery manner, he began to speak against colonialism and the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. When Dr. Banda returned to Nyasaland in 1958, Musopole was one of the politicians who accompanied him during his introductory visit to the northern province. During the State of Emergency of 1959, Musopole was accused of organizing and promoting violence in Karonga district, and security forces hunted him relentlessly without success. He was such an elusive and effective organizer that newspapers nicknamed him the "General." In August 1959, he was finally captured in Tanganyika, brought back to Nyasaland, and charged with sedition.

Musopole was defended by the distinguished British lawyer and Labour Party politician Dingle Foot, a.s.sisted by Orton Chirwa. He served his sentence in Zomba Central Prison for two years and, upon his release, was appointed clerk of the Karonga district council. In the preindependence elections of 1964, he was elected to Parliament as the first member of the new Karonga West (later, Chitipa) const.i.tuency and was appointed parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Community Development. In 1967, he was a.s.signed to the Malawian mission to the United Nations but, after two years, he was sent to the Malawi Labour Office in Botswana. Within a short time, he was back in Chitipa where he became a businessman.

MUSOPOLE, YORAM REV (?1994). This Bible scholar and translator and former chairman of the Bible Society of Malawi was born in Misuku, Chitipa district. He went to school in Misuku, Karonga, and at the Overtoun Inst.i.tution where he qualified as a teacher. In the postWorld War II period, he returned to the Overtoun Inst.i.tution to train for the church ministry and was ordained in 1949. He served as pastor in a number of congregations, including Ulambya, and in 1960, he became a member of a team of Lutenganyo (Southern Tanganyika)-based church scholars translating the Bible into kyangonde. For the remainder of his career, he was stationed at Khondowe and Karonga, where he continued to work on Bible translation. In the early 1970s, he retired to farm coffee and raise chickens in Misuku.

MUSSA, ULADI (1965 ). One of the most prominent Muslim politicians in the postHastings Banda era, Mussa was born at Matenje in Salima district. He became an active member of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in the 1990s at a time when most of his central region identified itself with the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). In 1994, he won the Salima South const.i.tuency on the UDF ticket and, from 1997 to 2006, served in several capacities: deputy minister of agriculture and irrigation, minister in the president's office, minister of natural resources and environmental affairs, and minister of local government. In 2004, Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika appointed him as minister of agriculture and food security, but, two years later, he was dropped from the cabinet but retained his position as deputy leader of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). In 2008, he retained his parliamentary seat on his new party's ticket, the Maravi People's Party, and, in 2010, he announced that he would consider disbanding it and rejoining the DPP.

MUSSA-GAMA, ELIAS AMIN (1926?). A prominent Muslim and politician, Mussa was born at Chindamba, Zomba district. Educated in Malawi and South Africa, he set up a tailoring business in 1954. He was active in the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) in the 1950s, and was imprisoned for a year for his involvement in politics. In 1961, Mussa was elected district chairman of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) at Zomba and, two years later, became Zomba's first African town clerk. In 1970, he entered the National a.s.sembly as one of the members for Zomba district and remained in parliament until the early 1990s.

m.u.t.h.aRIKA, BINGU WA (1934 ). Born in Kamoto village in the tea-growing district of Thyolo in the s.h.i.+re Highlands, and originally known as Brighton Webster Ryson Thom, Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika, president of the Republic of Malawi since 2004, changed his name to his Lomwe family name in the 1960s. After completing secondary school in Malawi, Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika won a scholars.h.i.+p to India where he earned a bachelor of commerce degree at the University of Delhi and then went on to study for a master's degree. Later in his career, he obtained a doctoral degree at the Pacific Western University in the United States. He joined the Nyasaland civil service and in 1964 went to Zambia, where he also worked for government until the 1970s, when he moved on to the World Bank in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., where he was employed briefly as a loans officer. Next he joined the United Nations (UN) Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In the early 1990s, he was one of the first employees of the Preferential Trade Area of East and Central Africa (PTA), becoming its secretary general in 1991. A founding member of the United Democratic Front (UDF), he returned to Malawi in 1997 and formed the United Party (UP). In the 1999 general elections, he unsuccessfully stood as its presidential candidate. Not long after that he disbanded the UP, rejoined the UDF, and was appointed as deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi. In 2002, he became minister of economic planning and development. When Bakili Muluzi failed in his bid for a third term, he nominated Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika as the UDF's presidential candidate in the general elections of 2004. He won, but in February 2005, he resigned from the UDF and formed the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), taking with him to the new organization a significant number of cabinet ministers and members of the National a.s.sembly.

Although Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika did not depart radically from the domestic and foreign policies of his immediate predecessor, and despite the fact that corruption and mismanagement continued to be problems, he showed some determination to deal with them. He won national and international praise for this as well as for his government's efforts to improve the economy, especially the agricultural sphere. In May 2009, Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika, a Catholic, won the presidential elections convincingly, and his party const.i.tuted an overwhelming majority in the National a.s.sembly. In January 2010, Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika succeeded Muammar al-Gaddafi as chairman of the African Union, and in April that year, Bingu, whose first wife, Ethel, had pa.s.sed away in May 2007, married Calista Chapola-Chimombo, previously a minister of tourism, wildlife, and culture. In August 2010, he appointed her as presidential advisor on maternal, infant, and child health.

In January 2011, Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika completed his term of office as chairman of the African Union. Domestically, he faced numerous problems. The increasing shortage of foreign exchange affected the ability of commerce and industry to import material and, in turn, this reduced the country's capability to export its products. Scarcity of fuel became a major problem and had a significant impact on the transport sector. In February, the government amended Section 46 of the Penal Code, thus enabling the minister of information to ban publications and circulation of publications deemed to be not in the best interests of the public. There was widespread national and international outcry at this measure, but Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika did not seem to be very concerned by it. In the same month, uneasiness started at Chancellor College and the Polytechnic, const.i.tuent inst.i.tutions of the University of Malawi, following the inspector general of police's summoning to his office of a member of the political science department at the former college and questioning him for giving a lecture that included references to the turmoil occurring in Egypt. The faculty at the two colleges stopped teaching and demanded an apology from the inspector general and a.s.surance from the government that it would respect the principle of academic freedom. Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika refused to accede to the demands and, in March, the university council dismissed three members of the teaching staff, including Dr. Jessie Kabwila-Kapasula, the president of the Chancellor College Academic Staff Union. In the following month, the university council closed the two colleges. The government turned down civil society's offer to help resolve the matter.

At the end of April, the Malawi government expelled the British high commissioner on grounds of a leaked letter to the Foreign Office in Great Britain in which he remarked on President Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika's increasing intolerance of criticism and his tendency to threaten civil society and anyone who did not agree with him. The British government reacted by asking the Malawi envoy in London to leave the country and began to review its bilateral relations.h.i.+p with Malawi. All stakeholders in Malawi, including all opposition parties, churches, some foreign missions, and citizens in general, appealed to the president to reconsider the unprecedented action, especially in light of the fact that Great Britain has been historically close to Malawi and the country's major donor since independence in 1964. However, the Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika government did not relent.

m.u.t.h.aRIKA, PETER (1940 ). Born in Thyolo district, Peter m.u.t.h.arika went to Dedza Secondary School in Malawi and attended the University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, before going to Yale University where he received LLM and JSD degrees. He taught at several universities, including the University of Dar-es-Salaam and Was.h.i.+ngton University, from which he is on extended leave of absence, and which in 2008 appointed him as the Charles Nagel professor of international and comparative law. From May 2004 to May 2009, he was senior advisor to his brother, President Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika, and in the latter month he was elected to the National a.s.sembly as a member for Thyolo Central Const.i.tuency. In the following month, he was appointed as minister of justice and const.i.tutional affairs. In July 2010, the Democratic Progressive Party decided that Peter m.u.t.h.arika would be the party's presidential candidate and, in a cabinet reshuffle on 9 August 2010, he became minister of education, science, and technology. In September the following year, he was appointed as minister of foreign affairs and international co-operation.

MUWALO-NQUMAYO, ALBERT (19271977). One of the most powerful individuals in Malawi in the period 196476, Albert Muwalo-Nqumayo was born on 23 June 1927, at Baleni village, Ntcheu district. He attended Gowa Primary School before going to Blantyre Secondary School and, in 1947, he qualified and practiced as a medical a.s.sistant. In 1956, the Nyasaland African Medical a.s.sociation elected him as its secretary general, a powerful position, especially when medical services became government controlled through the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. He became the a.s.sociation's spokesman and increasingly was drawn into national politics. Muwalo was detained during the State of Emergency in 1959. In 1962, he was elected chairman of Ntcheu district council and a member of the Central Committee of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). After a three-month tour of Ghana studying the manner in which Kwame Nkrumah's Convention People's Party (CPP) was organized, Muwalo became administrative secretary of the MCP. In September 1964, Dr. Hastings Banda appointed him as minister of information, and, two years later, he became minister of state in the president's office, where he remained for a decade. This placed him in a particularly strong position in the Malawian power structure and, with Martin Focus Gwede, he virtually controlled matters of national security from the late 1960s and into the early 1970s. In September 1976, the two were arrested and charged with treason and, in 1977, Muwalo was found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed.

MUWAMBA, ERNEST ALEXANDER (18921970). This distinguished public servant and first African member of the Legislative Council (LEGCO) was born in Nkhata Bay in 1892. Son of Yakobi Msusa Muwamba and a cousin of Clements Kadalie, Alexander Muwamba completed his education at Livingstonia and, in 1913, went to Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) where he worked as a civil servant and became a head clerk, the highest position obtainable for an African. He was a founding member of the Ndola Native Welfare a.s.sociation and, upon his return to Nyasaland in 1944, he maintained his interest in African nationalist activities. In 1949, he was nominated to the LEGCO, becoming one of the two Africans to join the body, the other African being Ellerton Mposa. In 1952, Muwamba was on the African delegation to the Federal conference in London where he made his antiFederation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland views known. After independence in 1964, the Malawi government appointed him to the Public Service Commission, which he would chair.

MUWAMBA, ISAAC CLEMENTS KATONGO (c. 18901953). Highly respected civil servant and political activist, Isaac Muwamba, son of Chief Chiweyu Muwamba, was born in Nkhata Bay district, went to Bandawe and to the Overtoun Inst.i.tution where he completed primary school. In 1912, he went to Northern Rhodesia, where he distinguished himself as an efficient clerk, rising to the position of head clerk and high court interpreter. During World War II, many Europeans in the Northern Rhodesia colonial service joined the war effort, enabling Muwamba to act as a district commissioner, a very rare occurrence for an African in those days. An active member of the Lusaka Native Welfare a.s.sociation, of which he was a founding member, Muwamba returned to Nyasaland in 1949 and, like his cousin, Ernest Muwamba, he became involved in the political well-being of Africans at home.

MUWAMBA, THOMSON JACOB "JAKE" XANDER (19252008). Social welfare officer, and one of the most distinguished public servants in postcolonial Malawi, Jake Muwamba, son of Ernest Alexander Muwamba, was born in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) in 1925, educated there and in South Africa, where he trained in social welfare work at the Jan Hofmeyr School of Social Work in Johannesburg. After 10 years of employment in South Africa's AngloAmerican Corporation as a group social welfare worker, he returned to Malawi in 1962, upon which he joined the civil service as a social welfare officer. In 1969, he was appointed as director of tourism, and in 1975, he became amba.s.sador to the United Nations, returning to Malawi and retiring in 1981. He started a consulting firm, Messrs. International Marketing and Promotion Services Ltd., which would lead to his appointment as head of an advisory team on tourism in the Southern Africa Development Community area; he was also appointed chairman of the Designated Schools Board of Malawi. In the early 1990s, he was a founding member of the United Democratic Front (UDF), campaigned for change, and, after the general elections of 1994, he returned to the diplomatic service, this time as Malawi's high commissioner to Great Britain. In 1999, he returned to private business in Malawi but soon afterward agreed to become vice chairman of the Commission for the Establishment of the University of Livingstonia. He was also chairman of its fundraising committee. He died on 6 January 2008.

MUWAMBA, YAKOBI MSUSA. Born into an influential clan in the Chithechi area of Nkhata Bay district, Yakobi Muwamba was one of the first students at the Bandawe and, with Charles Domingo, was also the first student to complete the theological course at the Overtoun Inst.i.tution, Khondowe, in 1900. Pa.s.sing the course with credit, Muwamba had earlier obtained a teacher's certificate at the inst.i.tution but was never ordained, as he died before he could start his probationary period. His son, Ernest Alexander Muwamba, would become one of the most distinguished public servants in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and in both colonial and postcolonial Malawi.

MVERA. This major educational center located in Dowa district was the first mission station for the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC). At the advice of the Livingstonia missionaries, Rev. Andrew C. Murray, a.s.sisted by Rev. T. C. Vlok, set up operations at Mvera in 1888, primarily because it was the home of chief Chiwere Ndhlovu, the Ngoni who had earlier split from M'mbelwa's main party and established his own authority in Chewa country. From Mvera, the DRC mission was to extend to various parts of central Malawi, including Kongwe, Nkhoma, and Mlanda.

MWAKASUNGULA, PETER Mw.a.n.gALABA, NTEMI KYUNGU (?1966). Peter Mwakasungula was the traditional ruler (kyungu) of the Ngonde from 1927 to 1966. After basic mission education in Karonga, Peter was employed by the African National Congress (ALC) and by other Europeans operating in his home area. He himself became a major cotton grower, a successful retail trader, and an owner of large herds of cattle, making him a very wealthy individual. His brother Fw.a.n.galubilo Mw.a.n.galaba was the kyungu from 1904 to 1926, but Peter was the effective ruler for most of the 1920s. In 1927, he was installed kyungu and, when the North Nyasa Native Reserves Commission visited Karonga, he presented a strong case against the claims of the British South Africa Company to land in his domain. Under the Native Authority Ordinance of 1933, his office changed from princ.i.p.al headman to Native Authority, giving him power of jurisdiction of customary matters over most of the old Karonga district, with the exception of the area under the Mwafulirwa. Rather cool to nationalist aspirations in the late colonial period, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) government tended to ignore him, preferring Joseph Mwanjasi, Chief Kilupula.

MWAKASUNGULA, RAPHAEL KAPOTE (c. 19182001). Musician, politician, and broadcaster, and kyungu (ruler), son of Rev. Amon Mwakasungula, Raphael Kapote was born in Karonga and educated there and at the Overtoun Inst.i.tution. Although he worked in various capacities, his love was always music, and he composed many songs, some of which were featured on local radio. In the 1950s, he became active in the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) and was one of the princ.i.p.al gra.s.sroots organizers in Karonga in the period leading to the State of Emergency in March 1959. In 1961, he became a social and community affairs official, but within two years, he went to England on attachment to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) African Service. On his return, he joined the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) as a producer and announcer. In 1967, he became kyungu, the senior ruler of the Ngonde, which office he occupied until the 1972 Malawi Congress (MCP) convention, when he was deposed because he supported the return to Malawi of Wellington M. Chirwa. See also CHAWINGA, TIMOTHY THEMBA KATUMBI.

MWAKASUNGULA, UNDULE DOUGLAS (1964 ). One of the founders of the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), Mwakasungula became the executive director of the center in 2005. Like many other originators of the CHRR, Mwakasungula lived in exile for many years during Dr. Hastings Banda's rule, and during that time he studied and received an MA in peace studies and conflict resolution. A policy a.n.a.lyst, regular commentator on human rights, and government critic, in 2005 he succeeded Ollen Mwalubunju as the executive director of the CHRR. In 2010, Mwakasungula was one of the few voices in Malawi that advised caution and understanding in the case of the gay couple Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, at a time when many in the country, including some churches, were in support of the decision to imprison the two. He and the CHRR argued that h.o.m.os.e.xuality was an issue concerning minorities, making it a human rights matter, and therefore, that it had to be treated as such.

MWALARE, FRED NDICHE. This disabled banjo and guitar player was one of the icons in Malawi popular culture in the 1950s and 1960s. Ndiche, as he was fondly called, played music from his wheelchair, his lyrics commenting on the life of Malawian immigrant workers in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), the urban social scene in Malawi, and clashes between custom and modernity in rural areas. In the 1960s, Ndiche worked for the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) as a records librarian.

MWALUBUNJU, OLLEN (1963 ). Founding executive director of the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), one of the main human rights organizations in Malawi, Mwalubunju lived in exile during Dr. Hasting Banda's rule. He holds a BA in political science from Makerere University, Uganda, and an MA from the Southern African Regional Inst.i.tute for Policy Studies (SARIPS), and he worked as a research a.s.sistant at the Pan-African Movement and at the Centre for Basic Research, both in Kampala, Uganda. He has also served as codirector of the Presidential and Parliamentary Election Civil and Voter Education Project of the Church/Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) consortium of Malawi and as Malawi's coordinator of the Southern African NGO's Electoral Support Network. Upon his appointment in 2005 as a commissioner of Malawi Human Rights Commission, Mwalubunju relinquished the heads.h.i.+p of the CHRR, but he continued to work on human rights matters in the southern African region. In July 2010, it was announced that Mwalubunju would become program coordinator of the South African Human Rights Defenders Trust (SAHRDT) in Johannesburg, South Africa, an organization that is affiliated with the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA). Later, he became the senior manager of the Conflict Intervention and Peacebuilding Support and Mediation and Training Services Projects at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

MWAMULIMA, PATRICK RUTHERFORD. Mwamulima was a cla.s.smate of Charles Chinula at Khondowe, delegate to a meeting in Blantyre that led to the formation of the Church of Central African Presbyterian (CCAP), and member of the special presbytery that met at Loudon on 2 November 1930 to consider the future of Charles Chinula after allegations of adultery. Mwamulima was also a prominent member of the North Nyasa Native a.s.sociation, the first African Welfare a.s.sociation to be formed in colonial Malawi.

MWANJASI, JOSEPH, NTEMI KILUPULA. Traditional ruler of Ngerenge, northern Karonga, from the 1940s to the early 1980s, Chief Kilupula attended local mission schools before briefly working in Tanganyika. He was a very progressive ruler, keen to modernize his area, a major rice and cotton grower, and a key factor behind the formation in 1952 of the Kilupula Rice Growers Co-operative Union, one of the most successful cooperatives in the country. Joseph Mwanjasi was the union's chairman throughout its life (195268). Highly respected by his people, he was a strong supporter of the nationalist cause and, when the traditional courts system was established, he became a member of the National Appeals Court.

MWANZA. District west of Blantyre through which the BlantyreHarare Road via Tete pa.s.ses in Mozambique. It is also a major orange-producing area. A few miles south of Mwanza boma was the site of the 1983 Mwanza Accident of three cabinet ministers and one member of Parliament.

MWANZA, NELSON PETER. First Malawian princ.i.p.al of Chancellor College, University of Malawi, Mwanza was born in northern Mzimba and educated locally at Zomba Catholic Secondary School and Goromodzi High School in Southern Rhodesia. He studied at the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and proceeded to Ohio State University, which awarded him MSc and PhD degrees in botany. In 1966, he joined the faculty at Chancellor College and became its princ.i.p.al in 1971. In July 1975, Mwanza was dismissed from his job and, later that year, was arrested and detained without trial. Released in 1977, he joined the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya; a few years later he became an employee of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In the 1980s, he retired to Mzuzu where he chaired the committee preparing the groundwork for the new University of Mzuzu. In July 2000, he was appointed vice chancellor of the university, retiring in 2008. In 2009, he was elected on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ticket as a member of the National a.s.sembly for Mzuzu, and in June that year, he was appointed minister of lands, housing, and urban development. In August the following year, he became minister of agriculture and food security.

MWANZA ACCIDENT AND TRIALS. On the night of 18 May 1983, four leading Malawian politicians were murdered in Mwanza district: d.i.c.k Matenje, member of Parliament for Blantyre, secretary general of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), and minister in the office of the president; Aaron Gadama, member of Parliament for Kasungu and minister for the central region; Twaibu Sangala, member of Parliament for Dedza and minister of health; and David Chiw.a.n.ga, member of Parliament for Chikwawa. On the previous day, they had been arrested near the Likangala Bridge on the ZombaBlantyre Road as they drove to the latter city after attending Parliament. They were taken to the eastern division's police headquarters in Zomba, and then to Mikuyu Prison for the night. On the following day, the four were taken to the MCP offices at Chichiri, and then to the Special Branch center in John Abegg House, Limbe, where they were interrogated and, in the evening, transported in a blue Peugeot to the Thambani Road in Mwanza district where they were murdered.

The killing squad, led by Aaron Mlaviwa, head of the police mobile force, deliberately executed their mission in a manner indicating a road accident. The bodies were placed in the car, which was then overturned. Directing the entire exercise was Macpherson Itimu, head of the Special Branch, who, according to evidence provided to a commission of inquiry into the incident, had been authorized by the then inspector general of police Mac J. Kamwana. The government issued press releases to the effect that the politicians had died in a road accident while escaping to Mozambique. Meanwhile, their burials, supervised by the police, were restricted to family members only, causing more suspicion among the general public.

The matter was never discussed in public until 199293 when freedom of expression was beginning to return to Malawi. In 1994, the new United Democratic Front (UDF) government appointed Judge Harris Mtegha of the Malawi Supreme Court to head a commission of inquiry into the Mwanza incident. Evidence was heard in camera but the report was made public in January 1995. The government followed this by prosecuting former President Hastings Banda, John Tembo, and the government "official hostess," Cecilia Kadzamira, on grounds that as a powerful "inner circle," they had to have been aware of the plans to murder the four politicians. The government team was led by the director of public prosecutions, Kamudoni Nyasulu, whereas the defense's lead lawyer was Clive Stanbrook QC, whom the MCP had hired in England. The judge was Maxon Mkandawire of the High Court. Banda never appeared in court in person because a medical report indicated that he was unfit to do so; Kadzamira was also not required to go to court in person. Things were different for Tembo. He had been arrested earlier and had spent some time in prison before being bailed out. He had to be present in court in person. The trial was attended by international observers, including the vice president of the World Council of Churches, Benjamin Masilo of Lesotho, and Craig Baab of the American Bar a.s.sociation. Toward the end of 1995, Banda, Kadzamira, and Tembo were all acquitted because of insufficient evidence to incriminate them. The government said it would appeal, but it never did. See also MTEGHA COMMISSION.

MWASE, GEORGE SIMEON (c. 18801962). Civil servant, political activist, and author, Mwase was born near Chintheche and educated at the Free Church of Scotland School at Bandawe. In 1905, the colonial government hired him as a postal clerk at Chiromo. He resigned a year later and moved to Northern Rhodesia where he worked for the government until 1920. Upon returning to Nyasaland, he was employed as a tax clerk before becoming a store manager and politician. He organized the Central Province Native a.s.sociation in 1927. During 1931 and 1932, he wrote A Dialogue of Nyasaland Record of Past Events, Environments and the Present Outlook within the Protectorate, an account of the Chilembwe uprising and life in Malawi. This typescript was discovered in the Malawi archives in 1962 by Robert Rotberg and subsequently published as Strike a Blow and Die (1967). Mwase played an active role in the Nyasaland African Congress, serving on its executive committee. Later, he became alienated from his Congress friends and, in the late 1950s, fell out of favor with the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

MWASE KASUNGU. Mwase Kasungu's Chewa kingdom developed in the 18th century as the influence of the Kalonga declined. The Mwase dynasty, centered at Kasungu, grew in power reaching its zenith between 1830 and 1890. Its salt was exchanged for cotton and iron hoes, and its active role in the ivory and slave trade with the Portuguese resulted in Mwase's considerable prosperity and influence in the 19th century. Mwase's territory bordered the Luangwa Valley, a major elephant region and, therefore, a favorite of Swahili-Arab traders. The most convenient route for the latter to the east coast via Nkhotakota pa.s.sed through Mwase's area. He established good commercial relations with the Swahili-Arabs, and bought guns from them to ward off Ngoni raids. However, when these trading partners tried to avoid the fees charged for pa.s.sing through his domain, Mwase quickly isolated them. He made a defensive pact with the Ngoni, who disliked the Swahili-Arabs and were not interested in trading with them. Soon the Swahili's attempt to bypa.s.s the shrewd Mwase failed. In 1863, David Livingstone visited Mwase and, in 1890, Karl Wiese, in the service of the Portuguese, also visited the Chewa chief. Mwase resisted British rule until 1895, when they defeated him.

The occupant of the office between 1937 and 1972 was one of the most remarkable traditional rulers in 20th century Malawi. In 1939, Chief Mwase spent some time at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, as research a.s.sistant in ciNyanja, and it was during this time that he met his distant relative, Dr. Hastings Banda, who had been in Great Britain for two years. When the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) was formed in 1944, Mwase became a member, and, with chiefs such as Zintonga Philip Gomani, Mkhosi Lazalo Jere (M'mbelwa II), and Kuntanja, came to be identified with African political aspirations. In 1952, he became founding president of the Nyasaland Chiefs Union and, through it and the NAC, campaigned against the establishment of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Throughout the 1950s, Mwase remained a strong supporter of the NAC, siding with the radical wing of the party led by Henry Chipembere and Kanyama Chiume. In 1961, he attended the Lancaster House Conference as a representative of the chiefs. When the traditional courts system was inst.i.tuted in postcolonial Malawi, Chief Mwase was appointed chairman of the Traditional Court of Appeal, the highest court in that particular system. In 1972, Mwase was deposed and replaced by Chief Kaomba because he and a few other traditional authorities supported the return to Malawi of Wellington Manoah Chirwa.

MWASI, YESAYA ZERENJI (c. 18691955). One of the first three Africans to be ordained church minister in the Livingstonia Mission and founder of Mpingo wa Afipa wa Africa, Yesaya Zerenji Mwasi was born in Nkhata Bay, educated at Bandawe and the Overtoun Inst.i.tution, Khondowe, where by 1901 he was the session clerk. Bright and articulate, Mwasi completed the theological course in Khondowe in 1902, was licensed five years later, and in 1910 was a delegate to the Blantyre meeting that discussed the formation of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP). In May 1914, he, Jonathan Chirwa, and Hezekiah Tweya became the first Africans to be ordained pastors in the Livingstonia Mission. A highly independent thinker, one who was prepared to challenge the superiority complexes of some European missionaries, Mwasi was initially a.s.signed to Bandawe where in February 1915, Dr. William Y. Turner suspended him for insubordination. Eighteen months later, the Sanga congregation, just north of Bandawe, invited Mwase to be its minister. In 1918, he was elected moderator of the presbytery, the first African to hold the position and, three years later, became temporary clerk.

Mwasi's conviction that the missionaries applied double standards in their relations with the African clergy and African Christians never changed. He argued that all people should be treated equally and different opinions had to be discussed even if they did not please European missionaries. From 1932, he began to threaten that he would resign if the Scottish missionaries did not change their att.i.tudes and, in September 1933, he executed his threat, announcing the formation of his Mpingo wa Afipa wa Africa or Blackman's Church of G.o.d. He detailed all his ideas for an African-based church in his My Essential and Paramount Reasons for Working Independently, proceeded to organize his new church, taking with him many from his Sanga congregation. Influenced by Garveyism, Mwasi emphasized African self-reliance, which he argued could be partly attained through the opening of independent African schools and colleges. He hoped to obtain financial a.s.sistance from Tonga immigrant workers in other parts of southern Africa. He also established working relations with Charles Chinula of Eklezia Lanangwa. Mwasi was a founder of the West Nyasa Native Welfare a.s.sociation (WNNWA) in 1920 and, in the 1930s and 1940s, became active in Nkhata Bay politics, which would contribute to the demise of the Atonga Tribal Council. Mwasi died on 17 July 1955.

MWAVI. Poison ordeal used in many African societies to establish a person's guilt or innocence. According to this, the guilty party does not survive it, whereas an innocent person vomits the poison.

MWAYA. Located on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Malawi in Nyakyusa country, Mwaya has for a long time served as the northern terminus of the transportation system on the lake. For a long time, it was the main entry into Tanganyika (Tanzania).

MWENIWANDA. Located in the Ulambya plains in Chitipa district, in 1881 the Ncherenje section of Mweniwanda became the first site of the Free Church of Scotland Mission north of Cape Maclear. Chosen because it was on the road connecting Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika, Mwaniwanda was headed by Rev. J. Alexander Bain. In 1886, he was joined by Hugh Mackintosh, Dr. Kerr Cross, and, soon afterward, by the latter's wife, Christina. On 31 December 1888, Mrs. Kerr Cross died, followed a day later by Mackintosh. Dr. Kerr Cross abandoned the Mweniwanda mission and moved to Lutenganyo in Unyakyusa and then to Ngerenge in Ngonde country.

MWENISONGOLE, REV. ARAM NDOLEZI (19031958). Educationist and church minister, Mwenisongole was born in Chitipa and attended local schools before going to the Overtoun Inst.i.tution, Khondowe, where he pa.s.sed the standard six examinations and then qualified as a teacher. Around 1940, he completed the inst.i.tution's theological course and, after ordination, worked in the Karonga lakesh.o.r.e area. In the late 1940s, he was appointed manager of schools and minister in charge of Karonga Mission (Old Mission), the first African to head this station. In 1950, he transferred to Ulambya but, four years later, he was defrocked. He left the services of the Livingstonia Mission and became a teacher at Edingeni, the seat of the M'mbelwa Ngoni authority. In 1958, he fell ill, sought medical a.s.sistance at Mbeya, Tanganyika, and died there.

MWENZO. Located in Nanw.a.n.ga country in northeastern Zambia, in 1894 Mwenzo became one of the stations of the Livingstonia Mission. The first missionary there was Rev. Alexander Dewar, a.s.sisted by a Tonga evangelist, Yohane Afwenge Banda, whose stipend was paid by the Bandawe congregation and who would work at the mission until after World War I, establis.h.i.+ng himself as the longest-serving missionary at Mwenzo.

MZEMBE, REV. PATRICK C. Born in Nchenachena, Rumphi district, and educated at Livingstonia, Rev. Mzembe became the first African and Malawian secretary general of the Livingstonia synod. Throughout the 1960s and for most of the 1970s, Mzembe was, with Jonathan Sangaya and K. G. Mgawi, one of the most prominent churchmen in Malawi, and he commanded much respect, including that of Dr. Hastings Banda. a.s.suming this office in 1961, as Malawi was moving toward independence, Mzembe had to guide the churchstate relations very diplomatically, especially during and after the Cabinet Crisis, because some of the leading rebellious politicians, including Orton Chirwa, Rose Chibambo, and William M. Kanyama Chiume, came from his synod's strongholds. During the numerous political detentions a.s.sociated with Albert Muwalo and Focus Gwede in the mid-1970s, Rev. Mzembe acted equally cautiously when discussing the matter with President Banda. In the late 1970s, he retired to his village near Nchenachena.

MZIKUBOLA. Mzikubola is a Ngoni chiefdom located south of Mzimba boma and ruled by the house of the same name, with their headquarters at Emchakachakeni. The original Mzikubola was the son of M'mbelwa I and thus grandson of Zw.a.n.gendaba. Chifwede Jere, the Inkosi Mzikubola of the later part of the 20th century, was educated in Ghana, graduating with a BA, and worked as a civil servant in Malawi and, for over 10 years, was a diplomat attached to the Malawi mission in the United States. Chifwede Jere died in 2000, and his son, Masabani, succeeded in an acting capacity while waiting to retire from his full-time employment in the Malawi civil service.

MZIMBA. Mzimba is the boma of the largest district in the northern region of Malawi. The district covers the area under the Ngoni paramount rulers, M'mbelwa, who originally established themselves in the region in the 1860s. Mzimba boma was the administrative headquarters of the northern province until 1954, when Mzuzu took over this position.

MZUZU. With a population of just under 100,000, Mzuzu, the northern region's administrative headquarters and princ.i.p.al commercial center, lies on the Mzimba side of the border of Nkhata Bay and Mzimba districts. Its origin dates back to 1945, when the colonial government decided to establish a major tung growing area in the Viphya Highlands and appointed Charles Boardman as tung development officer. Two years later, Boardman identified a site on the Mzuzu stream as the nucleus of the tung project, which would develop under the full auspices of the Colonial Development Corporation (CDC). As the number of expatriate staff increased, and as many Africans moved to the area to seek employment, Mzuzu grew into a small urban center. In 1954, the provincial administrative headquarters moved from Mzimba boma to Mzuzu, increasing its population and size even more. The Catholic Church also transferred offices of the diocese from Katete in southern Mzimba to Katoto on the periphery of the new town. In 1958, Mzuzu Government Secondary School opened on the Nkhata Bay road and, in the early 1960s, the Catholic Church built the Mary Mount Girls Secondary School, the Mzuzu Technical School, and St. Luke's Hospital, which, until 2000, was the only such health facility in the city. In the late 1970s, the headquarters of the Livingstonia synod moved from Khondowe to Mzuzu.

In 1986, Mzuzu became a city and today boasts hotels and numerous motels and rest houses and is accessible via paved roads. It has an airstrip and is the location of Moyale Barracks, home of the Third Battalion of the Malawi Defense Forces. It is also the home of Mzuzu University and a large modern hospital built by the Taiwanese government.

MZUZU UNIVERSITY. Mzuzu University opened in 1997 and, like the University of Malawi, is a government-financed inst.i.tution. The university concentrates on information sciences and communications, education, environment, and health sciences, and on tourism and hospitality management. In 2010, there were 1,700 students enrolled at the university, and all were studying on a full-time basis. In May the following year, the university closed because of a large operational deficit, but it reopened two months later.

N.

NAMADZI. Located on the Namadzi stream on the ZombaBlantyre road, this small retail trading center was until the 1970s dominated by Asian businessmen who were forced to move to the larger urban areas because of Africanization. Adjacent to Magomero, Namadzi is inhabited by the Mang'anja, Yao, and Lomwe and is surrounded by tobacco estates, most of them owned by Europeans planters.

NAMALAMBE, ALBERT "DON" (1860s1908). This Mang'anja teacher and preacher has the distinction of being the first African convert of the Livingstonia Mission. Namalambe first went to the mission at its Cape Maclear base in the late 1870s as a servant of one of Ramakukan's sons, who was a pupil at the school. He became a student and an a.s.sistant at the mission, was baptized in March 1881, and, that year, moved to the new mission headquarters at Bandawe, where he became a teacher and preacher. In 1884, he returned to Cape Maclear to take charge of the school and station, and would remain there until 1908 when he died. Namalambe played a major role in improving relations between the Maseko Ngoni ruler, Chikusi, and the Scottish missionaries, and in convincing the Ngoni to allow the establishment of a mission station at Livulezi.

NAMb.u.mA. This area in Lilongwe district is one of the leading tobacco- and maize-producing areas in Malawi, and in the colonial period it was part of the share-cropping region dominated by European planters such as A. Francis Barron, Roy W. Wallace, and Ignaco Conforzi. The area is also a major center of the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC).

NAMITETE. Located on the LilongweMchinji border, Namitete is a tobacco-growing region of Malawi, a station of the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC), and a major Roman Catholic mission station, with a large school and a hospital.

NAMIWAWA, BLANTYRE. This low-density suburb of Blantyre is located on the western side of the city, between the city center and Mitsidi. Namiwawa is a common place name in Malawi, and it refers to a stream lined with mahogany trees.

NAMOKO, ALAN. This singer, popular mostly in the 1970s and 1980s, is famous for his compositions with messages of a social nature. See also MUSIC.

NAMw.a.n.gA. Cultivators and cattle keepers, the Namw.a.n.ga live in northeastern Zambia and in precolonial times were famous as iron smelters and smiths, trading with other peoples, including the Nyiha and Lambya in today's Malawi. Groups of them would settle in the Chitipa area.

NANGALEMBE, JOSEPH. A popular singer in the 1970s and 1980s, mainly because of the satirical nature and social content of his songs, Nangalembe was raised in Mulanje district. See also MUSIC.

NANKHUNDA. This major Roman Catholic mission station, located on the western side of the Zomba mountain, was established in 1912 by Bishop Louis Auneau. In February 1928, the Montfort priests left Nankhunda in order for the first Minor Seminary to be established there, the initial 50 students coming from the Nguludi Normal School in Chiradzulu district. Before the seminary at Kachebere was established in 1930, most of the early Catholic clergy went to the Kipalapala Major Seminary in Tanganyika to complete their studies.

NAPOLO. According to Malawian belief, Napolo is a python that resides below the Zomba mountain from which it occasionally travels subterraneously to Lake Chilwa via the Mulunguzi River, which flows from the mountains into the Likangala, a main supplier of water to the lake. It is further believed that Napolo's movements can be detected by certain environmental changes, including the sudden drop in lake levels, which could indicate its migration back to the mountain.

In recent times, the name Napolo has been much a.s.sociated with the powerful cyclone, which, while blowing westward from the Indian Ocean through Mozambique, stalled over the Zomba area, bringing much rain and causing death and considerable damage to property and roads. The cyclone hit Zomba on Friday afternoon on 13 December 1946, and did not blow eastward until Sunday, 15 December, during which 20 inches of rain had been recorded in the town. Landslides had demolished two villages on the western side of the mountain, killing 20 people; water overflowed the Mulunguzi and other streams, bringing with it ma.s.sive boulders and trees; nearly all bridges and culverts in Zomba town were destroyed; and the water supply and the electricity generating plant on the slopes of the mountain were disrupted for some days.

Napolo has been immortalized by, among others artists, the Paseli Brothers in their popular composition "Napolo Wachabe," and by Steve Chimombo in his collection of verse Napolo Poems and Napolo and the Python.

NASAWA. This site in the northern part of Chiradzulu district was once part of the A. L. Bruce Estates but, from the 1960s to the early 1990s, it was famous as the main training base of the Malawi Young Pioneers (MYP). Nasawa was also the home of the MYP Technical College, where the more able youth leaguers were trained in vocational fields such as masonry, joinery, and motor mechanics.

NATION, THE. One of the leading newspapers in the postHastings Banda Malawi, The Nation was founded by Aleke Banda in 1992 as a voice for political reform in the country. In the period leading to the 1994 elections, the paper championed strongly the United Democratic Front (UDF) Party, Aleke Banda's political affiliation, which formed the new government in June that year. After Aleke became a cabinet minister, his family took charge of The Nation and, although at times it was critical of government's actions, it supported them generally. From the beginning of the 2000s, the newspaper adopted an independent position, and it has become a highly respected newspaper of wide national circulation.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF MALAWI (NAM). Located in Zomba and established in 1947 as part of the Central African Archives, the archives were reorganized under the National Archives and Publications Act of 1974. The NAM's princ.i.p.al function is that of a main depository and manager of government records and any other literature concerning Malawi. Many other records and ma.n.u.scripts, including those of private individuals, major and minor firms, and those of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA), the Livingstonia Mission, and the Blantyre Mission are deposited at the NAM. The National Archives Library is the national library of Malawi and the main collector, recorder, and preserver of literature pertaining to Malawi. It has branches in Lilongwe and Mzuzu, and from the mid-2000s, it began to modernize, including moving toward digitalization.

NATIONAL a.s.sEMBLY. This is the elected parliament of Malawi, and it has 193 members who, according to the Malawi Const.i.tution of 1995, must face direct adult suffrage elections every five years. Following the 2009 elections, there were 114 members of the Democratic People's Party (DPP), 25 of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), 17 of the United Democratic Party (UDF), and 32 independents. The following parties had one member each: Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), Maravi People's Party, and Malawi Forum for Unity and Development (MAFUNDE). There was a vacant seat due to the death of a candidate.

The Const.i.tution allows for a bicameral system, with a second chamber, the senate of 80 members representing traditional rulers and interest groups such as the disabled and the youth. However, there is no senate as of yet, and the one chamber National a.s.sembly has continued to be the only law-making body in the country, and through its deliberations it influences the manner in which government formulates and executes policy. Deliberations are broadcast on radio and television and, regularly, members ask cabinet ministers or their deputies questions on public affairs and on matters affecting their const.i.tuencies. Through the various parliamentary select committees, the National a.s.sembly has oversight powers over various government ministries and, unlike in the time of Hastings Banda's era, the National a.s.sembly or its committees have to approve some of the major appointments made by the executive wing of the state, including amba.s.sadorial positions. The a.s.sembly