Gems from the Society of Malawi Journal

Volume 66 of The Society of Malawi Journal is quite a banquet and buffet for those who love history, biography and general knowledge.

It has been published to commemorate the bicentenary of the birth of Dr David Livingstone, the one mzungu who came to Africa and Africans love to remember.

The first article is a reproduction of the paper the Rt Reverend James Tengatenga, PhD, Bishop of Southern Malawi (Anglican) gave at the University of Edinburgh on March 16 2013.

A good deal of a research must have been undertaken in producing this paper. Even those who already have read several profile and biographies of Dr David Livingstone will find themselves intellectually refreshed. As a devotee of Ngoni history and culture, I was delighted to read the Bishop intokoze (epic) stating Halala James Tengatenga. It radiates Zulu and Swazi poetry.

The bishop’s article is followed by another captivating article titled ‘Computers, Culture and Music: The History of the Recording Industry’, by John Lwanda and Chipi Kanjo. Lwanda, a Malawian medical specialist resident in Scotland is a prolific writer. His works have been widely cited by other authors. Those who love African traditional music are welcome to this monograph.

I was delighted to be reminded of the Englishman who in the nineteen forties and early fifties was known as an authority of African music. His name was Hugh Tracey. I saw him twice, first when he visited the Blantyre Secondary School in 1949 accompanied by well known African personalities from Zambia, Alick Nkhata and Shadreck Soko. Familiar names of course, Alick Nkhata’s father was from Nkhata Bay but he was not born there. He was fluent in chiTonga, chiNyanja, chiBemba and spoke English impeccably. Shadreck Soko was a Ngoni from Chipata.

Alick Nkhata’s songs in chiNyanja and chiBemba were enjoyed all over central Africa. I remember in particular the chiNyanja song ‘Ndikapita kumsika amati ndipatseni fodya ndifuna kukoka’ (when I go to the market they give me tobacco to sniff) and a chiBemba song ‘Ndafwa fwaya ulanda’ (I am not sure of its meaning though the word ulanda makes it sound like the cry of helpless wanderer).

There is the inevitable reference to the Paseli Brothers song Napolo Ngwachabe (Napolo is abominable) but I am missing reference to a chiNyanja song school children in Lusaka sang lamenting the suffering of African slaves as they were being taken away from their homes makolo athu anavutika (our ancestors suffered a lot).

I would love to hear that song again in this year when we commemorate the second anniversary of Dr David Livingstone, the anti-slave trade campaigner.

Also not mentioned are Ndebele singers Josiah Hadebe Ngubani’s wakhataza inyama ya adhlovu (who is harassing elephants) and George Sibanda’s Ngiyakuthana ntombi mnyama (I love you black girl). These were hits those days.

Several books and many articles have been written about John Chilembwe but hardly any made much reference to his private life especially marriage. Both Professor George Shepperson’s An Independent African and D.D Phiri’s Let us die for Africa have made reference to Ida as Chilembwe’s mixed blood wife.

It has been left to the editors of The Society of Malawi Journal to print a photocopy of a page in a marriage register that shows that Chilembwe married a girl called Idah Zuao on 11th May 1904 and that her mother’s name was Ndulaga but her father by that time had died. The surname apparently is a corruption of a Portuguese name which other Africans write as Juao or Juwao.

This confirms the information that Ida’s father was Portuguese. The registrar of marriages possibly had the title of magistrate which those days referred to what later came to be known as district commissioner.

The serendious discovery whets an appetite for knowledge as where Chilembwe was buried. Government officials were fond of keeping diaries. It was the District Commissioner of Mulanje who buried Chilembwe. If his descendants or descendants of his relatives have kept his private papers, we may find reference to Chilembwe’s burial place then.

Towards the end of the journal is a highly favourable review of John Mc Cracken’s book A History of Malawi 1859-1966 by Kenneth Ross, former Professor of Theology at Chancellor College. From what the reviewer says, reading this book must be quite engrossing.

The review starts with a statement ‘for the first time a comprehensive history of modern Malawi has become available’. Those readers who know that in the year 2004, a book tittled History of Malawi from earliest to 1915 was published and that its sequel History of Malawi volume 2 which ends with the year 2009 was published in 2011 will be surprised by this assertion.