D.D Phiri

On status of Mzimba and Land Bill

On Monday, June 3 2013, two well-known Mzimba statesmen who once held key positions in United Democratic Front (UDF) and government asked me what I thought about Hon Emmanuel Bofomo Nyirenda’s remarks in Parliament about Mzimba. By that time, I had not yet seen the copy of The Nation which contained a news item on the Luwelezi Member of Parliament and the amakhosi (chiefs) of Mzimba. So I asked what he had actually said.

Since then, other people, including representatives of the electronic media, have also asked me to say something about the alleged unique status of Mzimba in the history of Malawi.

I advised both the Mzimba statesmen and the media to check-up the history of Mzimba as part of Malawi in books such as From Nguni to Ngoni and History of Malawi Volume I which are being sold by Central Bookshop, Claim, Fegs and Central Africans in Blantyre; Maneno, Dzuka and Nyabufu bookshops in Lilongwe. Also relevant is Robert B. Boeder’s Alfred of Nyasaland. This is the biography of Sir Alfred Sharpe, the governor of Nyasaland who in 1904, signed a treaty whereby Ngoniland became part of Nyasaland.

For starters, this much I know and this much has been recorded in a variety of books dealing with the history of the Nyasaland Protectorate.

On May 14 1891 the British Government declared most of this country as Nyasaland Protectorate after signing treaties with chiefs, I say most of Malawi because the Nyasaland Protectorate of 1891 did not include the present Mzimba and northern Kasungu.

Governors of Nyasaland, Sir Harry Johnstone and Sir Alfred Sharpe, used Church of Scotland missionaries in the North as intermediaries between the Nyasaland Government and Ngoniland. When the governors asked the Ngonis through missionaries to sign treaties with Queen Victoria’s representatives, Ngoni chiefs refused. Johnstone at one time proposed to go and invade Ngoniland, the missionaries advised him not to do so, saying the Ngoni were still too powerful and wild.

By that time, missionaries had built schools throughout Ngoniland. If Johnstone invaded Ngoniland, the Ngoni were going to destroy missionary settlements. “Let us conquer the Ngoni with the Bible,” said Dr Robert Laws. “Their young men are embracing Christian education and are beginning to despise life of pillage and violence”.

At that time, Ngoniland was larger than Swaziland. It was not a tribal state, but a kingdom, with M’mbelwa I and later his son M’balekelwa alias Chimtunga as king, while Mthwalo Mpherembe Mabilabo, Mzukuzuku, Chindi and Mzikubola were chiefs under them.

In 1904, missionaries invited Sir Alfred Sharpe to go to Ngoniland and negotiate the annexation of Ngoniland to Nyasaland protectorate which then became a district called Mombera. The name Mzimba was adopted later.

The negotiations took place at Ekwendeni mission station and lasted a full day. In presenting his terms, Sir Alfred Sharpe told the Ngoni chiefs he had not come to reduce their powers but to strengthen them. The Ngoni insisted to be allowed to govern themselves while accepting allegiance to the British monarch. They demanded the policemen in Ngoniland should be locally recruited.

As Boeder says in his cited book, the Ngoni of Mzimba were granted autonomy and indirect rule until the year 1915 when their paramount chief M’balekelwa Chimtunga refused to supply his men to serve in Nyasaland forces during World War I.

This indirect rule was restored in 1933 when at the same time it was introduced elsewhere in the country. In 1953, a new local government law introduced district councils to supersede native authorities. Memberships of these councils comprised chiefs and prominent commoners. The law stated that every district council was to be chaired by the district commissioner.

In Mzimba, chiefs and councillors rejected the chairmanship of the DC and said that M’mbelwa was the traditional head of the Indaba. After some wrangling, the government granted this special privilege to the M’mbelwa District Council.

Initially, Mzimba or Ngoniland enjoyed the status like that of Barotseland in Northern Rhodesia, a protectorate within a protectorate. But there is no question of Mzimba being different from other districts after the gaining of independence just as Barotseland lost its special status when Northern Rhodesia became Zambia.

Having said this, I assume Hon Bofomo Nyirenda wanted to preserve the rights of the people to their land under the jurisdiction of the chiefs as well as customary laws. Chiefs in other districts have expressed anxiety about the Land Bill. More consultation is needed. The ACB’s assessment of chiefs being very corrupt should not be used as an excuse for introducing absolute rule in the country. Corruption is ubiquitous and endemic in our society. It should not be used as reason for turning chiefs into cyphers. Distribution of land should not be politicised.

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2 Comments

  1. With Hind sight, modernity and Post Modernity so far achieved by the whole of Malawi and Mzimba inclusive, i can not see how we can revert back to Ngoniland Politics while it is acknowledged that Sir Afred Sharpe was invited to Ekwendeni Indaba to endorse that Mzimba (Mombera) Kingdom had accepted to be part of Nyasaland Protectorate!!!!
    The Parallel i draw with Barotse Land is real, in the sense that Barotse Kingdom is there but divided into four and amoungst four Coutries!!! Mzimba and the custodians of our Tradition is well mapped out through mutual agreements so far negotiated and agreed to by our Grand Parents like Inkosi ya Makhosi 1 and Her Majesty’s Government. So why draw water back ku Mkhobwa??? Mzimba is still better off as it is to day unless proven otherwise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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