It is two years since the military plane crash in the Viphya Plantation killed then vice-president Saulos Chilima and eight others.
Connected to the tragedy are the deaths of lawyer Ralph Kasambara and musician-turned-politician Lucius Banda.
The trio of Chilima, Kasambara and Banda represented generational talents. They were to their respective fields what Pele was to football.
Ironically, their lives intertwined until their deaths that cold June in 2024.
Chilima and Kasambara met as students at the University of Malawi (Unima) in the early 1990s, when a young Banda was learning his notes with Alleluia Band at Andiamo in Balaka.
They forged an enduring friendship that united them in death.
Usual upbringing
The three were contemporaries, with Ralph being born in 1969, Banda in 1970 and Chilima in 1973.
While Chilima grew up in relative wealth, all three experienced a typical Malawian childhood, perhaps with only Banda surviving worse hardship.
That was when all children in Malawi went to public primary schools, whether you were from Area 12 or Ntandire slums.
This exposed the three to the brutalities of the one-party regime that forced everyone to chant Zonse zimene n’za Kamuzu Banda [Everything belongs to Kamuzu Banda] whenever the founding president came to town.
To crown it all, they practised the Catholic faith with zest and marched in support of the bishops’ pastoral letter, which greased the switch to democracy.
Chilima’s exploits at Mtendere Catholic Secondary School in Dedza are well chronicled just as Banda’s connection to Andiamo Youth Centre and Ada Ralph’s long-time ties to the pews of St Montfort Parish, also known as CI, in Blantyre.
Catholic ‘big boys’ remain loyal to their church. Among its prominent sons in 137 years of its existence in Malawi, Catholics arguably count the ‘troika’, which rendered their talents and resources to the church.
They all rendered their weight and voices in support of Living Our Faith, the bishops’ epistle which opposed Kamuzu’s draconian rule.
In his debut album, Son of a Poor Man, Banda sung against Kamuzu’s repressive rule. The hit Mabala is a metaphor of the unhealed wounds from physical, emotional and financial trauma the one-party regime inflicted on its citizens.
As the Soldier of the Poor was singing away dictatorship, Kasambara was fighting repressive laws. After his graduation in 1991, he embraced human rights law, bravely representing ‘political dissidents’.
Meanwhile, Chilima was a student leader and Alliance for Democracy (Aford) steward, leading the fight for multiparty politics.
Carving niches
That was in the early 1990s when Malawian musicians were producing music at Imbirani Yahweh Studios, Baptist Media Centre or MBC.
Banda recorded his album at Shandell Music Studios in South Africa, signalling his ambition and intent.
He was under 30 when he established Zembani Music Company, which promoted other stars such as Mlaka Maliro, Billy Kaunda, Nepman, Sam Smack and Lulu.
Banda left behind 20 albums, a music catalogue for all the seasons of a life.
This distinguishes him arguably as the Bob Marley of Malawi and his music will continue to dominate the airwaves even after our grandchildren become great-grandparents.
Similarly, Kasambara had a personal library larger than most downtown private universities own.
He is considered the greatest Malawian lawyer who ever litigated. His clientele comprised of the who is who of society but also numerous have-nots.
And, here is the kicker: Two of his prominent clients were Chilima and Banda.
His most enduring contribution to Malawian law is the case commenced by murder convict Francis Kafantayeni and five others, who successfully challenged the mandatory death sentence for murder.
The Constitutional Court found that death sentence infringed human dignity and fair trial.
The outcome gave rise to the widely studied Kafantayeni Resentencing Project, funded by the European Union and Irish Rule of Law, which accords people condemned to death row a re-hearing.
Most have had their sentences reduced to life imprisonment or less while lucky ones walk free.
Its poster boy, Kasambara, was a teacher. Throwing random tips to newly minted lawyers was his pastime and he nurtured lawyers who have become movers and shakers in their own right.
He lectured at the Unima until 2004 when president Bingu wa Mutharika appointed him as the Attorney General.
He was a trusted legal adviser of Chilima, who served as Airtel Malawi managing director before becoming President Peter Mutharika’s No.2 from 2014 to 2020.
Chilima also served as Vice-President under Lazarus Chakwera’s reign from 2020 to June 2024, when he died in an airplane crash along with the eight others.
Fondly known by his initials, SKC, the two-time vice-president was an achiever well known for his discipline, tenacity, punctuality and attention to detail. If he said you should meet at 6pm, you were late as of 5.59 pm.
Like his two contemporaries, he left a longlist of eminent prominent protégés, including engineer Matthews Mtumbuka, now Rumphi Central parliamentarian.
Those who worked closely with SKC—as did marketers Khwesi Msusa and Wilkins Mijiga—speak of a result-oriented self-starter who had a work ethic to emulate.
No wonder, Airtel Malawi made him its first homegrown chief executive officer—and no other Malawian has served in that position.
You do not rise to head a multinational telecommunications giant by fluke. Similarly, you do not become a two-term vice-president by a stroke of luck. This is the stuff of pacesetters in their chosen industries.
Humour in all its forms
The Igbo of Nigeria say proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten, but I dare say humour is the spice of life that keeps even mourners laughing during funerals.
The three gentlemen embraced humour in all its forms.
On the campaign trail to the 2020 court-ordered fresh presidential election, Professor John Chisi quipped during a rally at Njamba Park in Blantyre that he and SKC used to share the hard drink from their days as Unima Students’ Union representatives.
In typical fashion, Chilima jokingly ‘rebuked’ the good Prof to never make those “timamwera limozi mowa” remarks again.
The fallen VP loved roasting his friends and used humour to drive home important points.
Similarly, Banda suffered no fools. His Facebook page is full of clap-backs he made to people who commented on his posts with the intention of spreading negativity.
In January, 2024, Soldier posted a photo that showed his skin tone had changed due to dialysis that he was undergoing at Mwaiwathu Hospital in Blantyre. When one follower rudely asked which phone he was using to photograph himself, Banda produced a classic reply: “I use a very cheap phone, brother”.
That is how you silence fools. You laugh at yourself while laughing at their folly.
Ironically, these were men of few words when in the midst of people they did not know. But, put them in the sphere of their peers, they would crack jokes that revealed their wit.
They all befriended street hustlers, learning from the street sages and enjoying their jokes.
Ordinary life. That is where they immersed themselves.
We can burn the candle to write about the three sons of Malawi that we lost that cold June in 2024. But as eloquent Mark Antony declares in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the evil that men do lives after them whilst the good is oft interred with their bones.
The author is a lawyer based in Mzuzu.
