Malawi’s oldest school gets ‘new’ reads
Educationist Edward Mwase has donated classical books to University of Livingstonia (Unilia), buttressing a body of knowledge at Laws Campus where the country’s education system began.
The university campus, formerly Livingstonia Secondary School, is a centrepiece of the historic Khondowe Mission Station on Livingstonia Plateau where pioneer Scottish Presbyterians founded a school which nurtured early nationalists, including founding president Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
The monumental centre of learning has grown from a primary school to higher learning institution which has collected thousands of books since 2004 when former Rumphi North legislator and teacher Ian Boma Mkandawire presented his collection to its library.
“We had started very humbly although we now boast of stocking 8 000 processed books,” said university librarian Dr Augustine Msiska when he received Mwase’s collection at the CCAP Synod of Livingstonia’s headquarters in Mzuzu last week.
The Church of Central African Presbyterians (CCAP) university’s bulging bookshelves include gifts from local institutions such as National Bank, Reserve Bank of Malawi, World Vision, Adventist Relief Agency (Adra), Dossan Trust as well as the US-based Dickler Family Foundation and Gentralia College of Washington.
However, Mwase’s contribution personifies souvenirs from locals determined to make the library truly a living organ of scholarship—for it is said that bookshelves without complete works of Shakespeare and the Holy Bible are dead.
The private contributions include books and research papers of fallen physical education academic and education minister, Professor Donton Mkandawire, which were handed in by his widow and children early this month. The selection also includes an array of reads handed down from former speaker of parliament Rodwell Munyenyembe who died pacifying militaristic members of Parliament in 2005.
Librarian Msiska thanked Mwase, who worked with University of Malawi (Unima) at Chancellor College in the 1970s, for joining the league of well-wishers by providing two sets of books comprising ‘great books of the Western world’ and ‘great ideas today’.
The volumes included works of Plato, Aristotle, Dante, Hegel, Thomas Aquinas, Francis Bacon, John Locke, Augustine of Hippo, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Nicollo Machiavelli and other legendary philosophers as well as offerings of classical economist Adam Smith, utilitarian ethicist Stuart Mills, Austrian physician Sigmund Freud, English poet John Milton and political scientist Karl Marx.
Presenting the books, Mwase revealed he had requests from Unima and Mzuzu University, a thing which left Msiska waxing lyrical.
“Your donation will not only enrich our collection, but also inspire others to donate books to the library—the heart of the university,” said Msiska.
