Historical Dictionary of Malawi Part 13

MISSIONS. It would be difficult to overestimate the influence of missionaries, especially the Scottish, who entered Malawi in the late 19th century. They preceded the establishment of the British Protectorate in Malawi and, as expected, supported the advent of British rule. Three societies, responding to David Livingstone's plea for Christianity and commerce, had sent delegations by 1875: the Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA), the Free Church of Scotland (Livingstonia Mission), and the Established Church of Scotland (Blantyre Mission). Three other Protestant missions were established between 1889 and 1892: the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), the Zambezi Industrial Mission, and Nyasa Industrial Missions (NIM). The Catholic Church did not establish permanent missions until the early 20th century. The Montfort Marist Fathers arrived in 1901 and the White Fathers reestablished in 1902 what they had failed to do in the 13 years before.

The UMCA was set up in England in 1859. This Anglican mission, headed by Bishop Charles F. Mackenzie, chose Magomero in 1861 to be its main base but, from the beginning, it faced immense problems arising from its location. Magomero was in the midst of a region in which the Yao looked for slaves, and the missionaries became involved in local politics, including anti-Yao activities. When Mackenzie died in January 1862, the rest of the missionaries moved farther down the s.h.i.+re Valley where they were joined by the new head, Bishop William Tozer. In 1864, it was decided to transfer the whole operation to Zanzibar, where it remained until 1885 when Likoma Island was chosen as the new UMCA headquarters. At the urging of William P. Johnston, the mission acquired a steamer to service the missions situated along Lake Malawi. By the end of the century the mission had a string of schools along the lake and, in 1899, it established St. Michael's College to train local teachers. In 1911, the impressive Likoma Cathedral was finished.

In 1875, the Livingstonia Mission of the Free Church of Scotland, headed by Dr. James Stewart and Robert Laws, established its base at Cape Maclear but, in 1881 it relocated to Bandawe farther north. In addition to the Christian message, the Livingstonia Mission concentrated on formal Western education, including technical and commercial training. In 1894, Laws founded the Overtoun Inst.i.tution at Khondowe, where teachers, clergymen, bookkeepers, clerks, masons, and carpenters were trained. The most active mission in education, by 1900, the Livingstonia schools taught most postprimary students and well over 50 percent of Malawi's primary pupils.

In 1876, Henry Henderson and his guide/interpreter Tom Bokwito began to build the Blantyre Mission of the Established Church of Scotland at a site given to him by Kapeni, the local Yao chief. In 1878, he was joined by other Scottish missionaries, including Rev. Duff Macdonald, who became its leader. The mission started badly, mainly because it adopted a civil administration policy that led to excessive behavior, including flogging, of Africans. In 1881, a Foreign Mission Committee commission of the church led to the dismissal of Macdonald and other missionaries. A different approach was adopted by the new head, David C. Scott and his a.s.sistant, Alexander Hetherwick. Scott preferred working with African evangelists, and three of his African colleagues became deacons in 1893: Joseph Bismarck, Rondau Kaferanjila, and Donald Malota. Scott found little support for his "radical" views among European settlers. In 1898, he was forced to resign his post for health reasons, and Hetherwick a.s.sumed the leaders.h.i.+p. In 1909, the Blantyre Mission opened the Henry Henderson Inst.i.tute (HHI), which became an important educational facility, training Africans in the same areas as the Overtoun Inst.i.tute. In 1924, the Blantyre and Livingstonia presbyteries agreed to form the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP), a move originally suggested by Laws and later revived by Hetherwick. In 1926, the DRC presbytery joined the CCAP. The formation of the CCAP led to the appointment of African clergymen to various committees; for example, in 1933, Rev. Harry K. Matecheta became the first African moderator of the Blantyre presbytery.

Although Mvera (1889) in Dowa district was the first mission station of the DRC of South Africa, Nkhoma, in Lilongwe district, became the main center of this missionary society. Established by William H. Murray in 1896, Nkhoma developed into a major educational and health center, where teachers, church ministers, and health care workers were trained. From Nkhoma, the DRC expanded to other parts of central Malawi, including Mlanda and Mchinji, and had stations in Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

In 1889, the White Fathers order became the first Roman Catholic missionary group to arrive in Malawi, setting up a base at Mponda on the southern tip of Lake Malawi. After two years, they left for northern Zambia but returned in 1902. By 1904, the White Fathers had three permanent stations at Kachebere, Likuni, and Mua, and the Montforts had two missions, at Nguludi and Nzama. In the late 1930s, the White Fathers established stations in the northern province, starting with Katete in Mzimba district. Most of the White Fathers were French and, among the early leaders, were Bishops Louis Auneau, Joseph Dupont, and Mathurin Guilleme. It was not until 193738 that the first Malawi priests were ordained: Cornelio Chitsulo, Alfred Finye, and Andrea Makoyo.

There were some differences between the Catholic missions and the Protestant ones, the former being more hierarchical and authoritarian than most of the latter. There was not much movement among African priests to break away and form independent churches, such as happened at Livingstonia and Blantyre. At Roman Catholic missions, women were used more successfully, with nuns working full time with Malawi women and children, not just occasionally as the limited time of wives of Protestant missionaries allowed. Although the Roman Catholic missions were noticeably less able to recruit African males to the celibate priesthood, the convent life offered by the sisterhood had its appeal to Malawi women. Female recruits enjoyed status, a good education, and more independence than was allowed in a male-dominated secular society. The Scottish missionaries, more than other missionaries, were early in encouraging African aspirations and, in this way, greatly contributed to nationalism.

In the postcolonial period, missionaries representing different Christian denominations have increased in number and have come from North America, Europe, and African countries, such as Nigeria. Muslim missionaries have also increased in number, especially after the demise of Dr. Hastings Banda's government. See also BOOTH, JOSEPH; CHILEMBWE, JOHN; MALAMULO; RELIGION.

MITSIDI. Located just northwest of Blantyre, Mitsidi became the headquarters of Joseph Booth's Zambezi Industrial Mission (ZIM). Today, Mitsidi is part of greater Blantyre.

MKANDA. Located east of the Luangwa Valley and southwest of Mwase Kasungu, Mkanda was one of the more powerful Chewa chiefdoms in the 19th century. A century earlier, Mkanda, also the t.i.tle of the ruler, was subordinate to the Undi dynasty but had managed to gain autonomy. The military genius who was responsible for the growth of the chiefdom was Mkanda Chapongolera Mbewe, whose main reputation was a result of his ability to protect people by, among other things, housing them in large stockaded settlements. Mkanda directly controlled the center of the kingdom, but he a.s.signed adjacent areas to other groups, allowing them to collect tribute from Tumbuka, Chewa, and Nsenga populations. The ivory trade was also a factor in the growth of the Mkanda chiefdom.

MKANDAWIRE, DONTON (1939 ). Educationist and politician, Donton Mkandawire was educated at Zomba Secondary School, Domasi Teacher's College and the University of Western Australia, Perth. After teaching at Soche Hill Secondary School, he went to the University of Pittsburg, where he completed a PhD in educational testing. Upon his return in 1984, he joined the Malawi Examinations and Testing Board (MCTB), which he soon headed. When the Kamuzu Academy was established in 1981, Mkandawire was appointed to its board and became its chairman. In 1987, he was removed from the directors.h.i.+p of the examination board and, after a year, he left for the University of Botswana; three years later, he was appointed professor of education at the University of Namibia.

In 1993, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) government recalled him and offered him a cabinet position, minister of information and broadcasting. Not long after the elections he joined the United Democratic Front (UDF) and briefly became minister of education; later he would head a government-sponsored educational research organization. In June 1999, he unsuccessfully stood as UDF candidate for a Mzimba const.i.tuency, in the following year he replaced Mtembo Nzunda as chief executive of the Lilongwe city a.s.sembly. In 2009, he was elected member of the National a.s.sembly for Mzimba Central.

MKANDAWIRE, FRANK MAYINGA. Mayinga Mkandawire was a founding member of the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) Party and, with Mapopa Chipeta, its princ.i.p.al organizer while it was based in Lusaka, Zambia. Raised in Rumphi district, he went to local schools and to the University of Malawi, but went into political exile in Zambia, completing his studies at that country's main university in Lusaka. In 199193, he became actively involved in the movement for political reform; he and Mapopa Chipeta clandestinely sent literature into Malawi, demanding change. Through a newsletter, the Malawi Democrat, which later became AFORD'S organ, they further articulated the need for immediate reform. In 1993, Mayinga Mkandawire returned to Malawi, was elected to Parliament a year later, and, under the coalition arrangements between the United Democratic Front (UDF) and AFORD worked out in late 1994, Mkandawire was appointed minister of forestry, fisheries, and environmental affairs. In 1996, he was one of the AFORD officials who refused to leave government when requested to do so by his party and, in 1999, stood as an independent candidate in the Rumphi Central const.i.tuency but lost to Chakufwa Chihana, the leader of AFORD. Mkandawire died in the early 2000s.

MKANDAWIRE, GRANT MIKEKA (19231995). One of the leading Blantyre-based African businessmen, active member of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC), and cabinet minister, Mikeka Mkandawire was born at Mkombezi in the Chikwawa area of the Nkamanga plains of Rumphi district. His father, a Livingstonia-trained teacher, sent him to local schools and to Ekwendeni where he met future colleague in the NAC, Rose Chibambo, and where he completed primary school. He joined the King's African Rifles and saw service in East Africa. Upon demobilization, Mkandawire traveled south with a view to work in South Africa, but returned in Salisbury (now Harare), Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Back in Nyasaland in mid-1947, he worked for the bus company, the Nyasaland Transport Company (NTC), which had earlier employed Hartwell Solomon, who would soon be a close friend of Mkandawire.

In 1949, the two resigned from the firm and joined Trevor Construction, a business establishment with South African connections. In the following year, Mkandawire became an independent businessman, building a grocery store at Chichiri where some of his a.s.sociate businessmen, including Lali Lubani, Lawrence Makata, and James Mpunga, also operated. When Africans were forced to move out of the Chichiri area in the period 195657, Mkandawire established his business at Kanjedza, not far from where the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) stands today. This time, he added a hotel to his grocery enterprise. Mkandawire, like most other African entrepreneurs, was actively involved in nationalist politics. a.s.sociated with the radical wing of the NAC, he was, in the mid-1950s, president of the s.h.i.+re province of the party and was opposed to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and to Wellington Manoah Chirwa's and Clement k.u.mbikano's nomination to and entry into the federal Parliament. The Mikeka Hotel served as a venue for numerous NAC gatherings and was patronized by many African nationalist activists. In 1953, Mkandawire also became the founding secretary of the African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which aimed at protecting the interests of African businessmen and women. In the same year, Mkandawire became the secretary and publicist of the Supreme Council, a joint organization of the Council of Chiefs and the NAC.

Like many NAC activists, Mikeka Mkandawire was arrested and imprisoned without trial in 1959. Then at the 1916 general elections, he was elected to Parliament on the higher roll as a representative of the northern province. He was appointed minister without portfolio but resigned before independence in 1964 to study in Scotland. He returned a few years later and lived quietly in northern Malawi.

MKANDAWIRE, HARRY (1953 ). A Mzuzu-based businessman and politician, Mkandawire was active in the United Democratic Front (UDF) Party before joining the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2005, becoming its northern region's governor (administrator) and its deputy director of political affairs. In 2009, Mkandawire wrote to President Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika criticizing him for promoting the quota system in the country. He repeated the criticism at a public meeting on 14 November, noting the president's involvement in Mulhako wa Alhomwe, an ethnic cultural organization of his people. Later that month, Harry Mkandawire was arrested and charged with encouraging violence and attempting to destabilize the government. When released, Mkandawire remained unrepentant. He was expelled from the DPP and, in March 2011, Mkandawire formed a political organization, the People's Development Movement.

MKANDAWIRE, JIMMY BILLY MPONDA (1942 ). Once an influential Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) member of Parliament for Karonga north and son of the late Billy Mponda Mkandawire, a prominent local businessman, and rice and cotton farmer, Jimmy was born in 1942 at Kaporo, Karonga, and attended the Mwanjasi Primary School and Blantyre Secondary School. In 1963, he went to the United States to study civil engineering. Unable to return to Malawi because he had become identified with opposition politics, Mkandawire worked in the United States and continued with his studies, graduating with a PhD degree. A committed supporter of political reform, he joined forces with AFORD and, in 1993, returned to Malawi to campaign for the party. In the following year, he was elected to Parliament and, under the coalition arrangement with the United Democratic Front (UDF), he was appointed minister of works. When the working arrangement between the two parties broke down, Mkandawire left government but has remained an AFORD member of Parliament. In 1999, he was reelected to the National a.s.sembly but lost his seat in 2004. In 2009, he stood unsuccessfully as an independent candidate.

MKANDAWIRE MATUPI. Born in Nkamanga in Rumphi district, where he educated up to the primary level, village headman Matupi Mkandawire worked in Southern Rhodesia for most of the 1940s and early 1950s. In 1955, he was deported back to Nyasaland because of his involvement in politics. He continued with political activism and, in 1956, was elected to the Rumphi District Council as a representative for Nkhamanga ward. Mkandawire worked hard to set up branches of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) in Rumphi district, and became a close ally of Kanyama Chiume, the member of Parliament representing the northern province. He was briefly detained during the State of Emergency in 1959, and after the const.i.tutional changes two years later, he became one of the north's public relations officers for the Farmers Marketing Board. Within two years be became a member of Parliament for Rumphi West but, following the Cabinet Crisis of 1964, he supported the expelled ministers, was taken as a political prisoner, and died in detention, apparently soon after receiving the news that his twin brother had pa.s.sed away at home. As a village chief, Mkandawire had traditional authority and the respect that went with it. He was also an active member of the African National Church.

MKANDAWIRE, SIMON KAMKHATI. Founder of the African National Church, Mkandawire was born at Chitimba, Rumphi district, educated at the Overtoun Inst.i.tution up to the Standard 6 level, before going to work in the Belgian Congo. In 1928, he, Robert Sambo Mhango, and Paddy Nyasulu, also originally a.s.sociated with the Livingstonia Mission, founded the African National Church, which retained all the characteristics of a Presbyterian church, except for their lack of tolerance of polygamy. The African National Church strongly supported the aspirations of the African Welfare a.s.sociations. Today the church is known as the International African Church and has adherents in, among other countries, Zambia, Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania.

MKANDAWIRE, THANDIKA. One of Malawi's and Africa's leading social scientists and public intellectuals, Mkandawire spent his early years in Northern Rhodesia where his Mzimba-born father worked. He went to Zomba Catholic Secondary School and, in 195960, became an activist in the youth wing of the new Malawi Congress Party (MCP). He, Aleke Banda, and others founded the party's organ, The Malawi News, becoming a member of its editorial staff. Later he went to study at Ohio State University, completing his graduate studies in Sweden, where he earned his PhD. From the time of the Cabinet Crisis to 1993, Mkandawire was a wanted man in Malawi, primarily because the government and the MCP regarded him as a sympathizer of the exiled ministers. Dr. Hastings Banda personally denounced him as a dangerous person, forcing Mkandawire to remain abroad. He taught at universities in Europe, Africa, and the United States and for some time worked at the Zimbabwe Inst.i.tute of Development Studies. From the mid-1980s to late 1996, he headed the Council for the Development of Economic and Social Research in Africa (CODESRIA) in Dakar, Senegal. In 1997, Mkandawire became head of research at the Inst.i.tute of Economic and Social Research in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2009, it was announced that Mkandawire, one of the most respected African economists and African intellectuals, would become the first chair in African Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London.

MKANDAWIRE, YAPHET. Upon his ordination in 1918, Yaphet Mkandawire worked at Khondowe directly under Dr. Robert Laws. In 1927, he attained the distinction of being the first African treasurer of the presbytery and, in the following year, became minister to the Hara and Mlowe congregations, in the border region of modern Karonga and Rumphi districts. In July 1932, the hierarchy of the mission was informed that Mkandawire had been administered mphemba, a medicine that was believed to protect one from poison or bewitchment. Later that year, a committee that was set up to inquire into the report concluded that he had indulged in an evil act. Despite his good record as a minister and, although some advised that he only be reprimanded, Mkandawire was defrocked and suspended from the church. He reacted by resigning from the church and by establis.h.i.+ng his own church, which he called the African Reformed Presbyterian Church.

MKOCHI, REV. ANDREW. One of the leading Ngoni teachers, evangelists, and pastors in the Livingstonia Mission, Mkochi was the first person, in 1897, to open a school at M'mbelwa Chimtunga Jere's headquarters, with the new Ngoni leader as one of its students. In 1902, he was among the initial group of Ngoni-based evangelists appointed by Rev. Donald Fraser and, in the same year, he represented Hora at the north Livingstonia presbytery. In 1914, he finished theological training at the Overtoun Inst.i.tution and was licensed a year later and posted to Chinsali in Northern Rhodesia. Mkochi returned in 1917 and was ordained at Loudon in November that year. In 1924, he was a member of the Livingstonia delegation to the Blantyre synod, leading to the establishment of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP). Five years later, he was called to the Milala congregation at Engalaweni, just west of Mzimba boma. He would be the moderator of the extraordinary presbytery that suspended Charles Chinula from his ministry.

An influential member of the M'mbelwa Administrative Council, Rev. Mkochi suggested the t.i.tle Inkosi ya Makosi (kings of kings) for the Ngoni paramount ruler.

MKULITCHI, STEPHEN. A close a.s.sociate of John Chilembwe, planner of the uprising and, with David Kaduya, attacked the African Lakes Company (ALC) stores on Sat.u.r.day evening 23 January 1915. It was to his house that the European women and children from Magomero were taken to spend the night before they were rescued by the King's African Rifles (KAR). Mkulitchi hid in the Lake Chilwa area but was caught and shot.

MLANDA. Located almost halfway between Dedza and Ntcheu, not far from Lizulu, this became one of the major outstations and educational centers of the Dutch Reformed Church, training many future leaders of Malawi.

MLANGA, HARVEY (19281979). Born in Blantyre, Mlanga attended Henry Henderson Inst.i.tute (HHI) and Blantyre Secondary School. In the mid-1950s, he went to Salisbury (now Harare, Zimbabwe) where he joined the African Newspapers Group and became editor of African Weekly. He transferred to Blantyre and, in the 1960s, he worked for the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). In 1972, he joined the Blantyre Newspapers where he rose to the position of managing editor. Mlanga died in February 1979.

MLANGA, MARGARET JEAN NANYONI (1927?). She was born near Blantyre and was educated in local schools and the Women's Teacher Training College at the Blantyre Mission. A teacher and politician, Mlanga led the League of Malawi Women from the mid-1960s to 1975 when she was dismissed from the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and imprisoned for some time. Mlanga also served as a member of Parliament for Blantyre West and as parliamentary secretary in the office of the president.

MLELEMBA, PETER (?1945). Peter Mlelemba, generally known as Haya Edward Peters, was one of the most successful African entrepreneurs in colonial Malawi. Born in Blantyre, he was educated at the Blantyre Mission and the Mitsidi headquarters of the Zambezi Industrial Mission (ZIM). In 1905, Eugene Sharrer employed Mlelemba in one of his establishments but he left to become an independent businessman. First, in a joint venture with Mr. Ryalls, he tried to mine mica in the Kirk Mountains but, when the enterprise failed, he became a farmer, leasing land at Nangafungwe Estates of the British and East Africa Company, just on the northern side of Ndirande hill. Although his main occupation there was the timber business, Mlelemba also planted tobacco and chilies. He called his new firm, the PT Company. He bettered himself by registering at a correspondence college in London, and urged other Nyasalanders to also improve their education. In 1909, he was a founding joint secretary (with Mungo Chisuse) of the Native Industrial Union, formed to help the emerging African entrepreneurs in the area. Among the members were Joseph Bismarck, John Gray Kufa Mapantha, Harry K. Matecheta, and Thomas Maseya.

A close friend of John Chilembwe, Mlelemba, also an ivory trader, was out hunting elephants in Mozambique when the 1915 uprising broke, and, realizing that his a.s.sociation with its leader would not spare him from trouble, he fled to South Africa. Deported from the latter country on charges of political activism, he returned to Nyasaland in 1933. Mlelemba could not resume his businesses at Nangafungwe because they had been confiscated in his absence. For a brief period during the war, he worked at the Blantyre boma as a military head clerk, but he remained a poor man. Always politically aware, he was present at the initial Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) in 1944; he died on 24 June 1945.

MLONYENI. This is the t.i.tle of the Ngoni chief in the area of the same name in Mchinji district. The original Mlonyeni was the son of Somfula, a kinsman of Zw.a.n.gendaba, and had accompanied Mpezeni to the Luangwa Valley region; he was a.s.signed the area south of the Bua River, Mchinji, on the MalawiZambia border, which he ruled as Mpezeni's junior. It was in this area that the British built a fort, called Fort Manning, from which they launched an attack on Mpezeni. It was in Fort Manning that Mpezeni was imprisoned for over a year. Although traditionally the office of Mlonyeni remains junior to Mpezeni, in practice they are independent of each other, the former living in Malawi and the latter in Zambia.

MLOZI BIN KAZBADEMA. A Swahili-Arab, Mlozi achieved fame as the main adversary of the British in the Arab-Swahili War fought at Karonga. In 1879, Mlozi's partners in the Luangwa Valley asked him to set up operations in the Ngonde country on the Karonga lakesh.o.r.e from where they could transport their merchandise across Lake Malawi to the east coast of Africa. Initially, his relations with the Ngonde were cordial, but the situation became complicated when the British began to establish their presence in the region and, by the late 1890s, conflicts between the Swahili-Arabs, on the one hand, and the British and Ngonde, on the other, started. On 6 December 1894, the British defeated Mlozi and executed him.

MLUMBE. This is an area on the western side of Zomba Mountain ruled by Yao chiefs of the same name. The original Mlumbe settled in this Mang'anja region in the 1860s after he and Malemia had run away from the more powerful and combative Kawinga whose seat of power was in Chikala hills.

M'MBELWA. t.i.tle of the rulers of the Ngoni of northern Malawi, adopted after Mbalekelwa Chimtunga Jere succeeded his father, Zw.a.n.gendaba.

M'MBELWA AFRICAN ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL. Born out of the Jere Chiefs Council, the M'mbelwa Administrative Council was established in 1933 and was chaired by the paramount Ngoni ruler M'mbelwa II. One of the most successful Native Authorities in colonial Malawi, the council consisted of the M'mbelwa, the six Ngoni chiefs (amakosi), and five councillors (iziduna). The council had its own treasury, school system, and, within the provisions of the Native Courts Ordinance of 1933, a judicial system. It also developed business interests in commercial, agricultural, cattle, and the ghee industry. The M'mbelwa Administrative Council existed until 1961 when it was replaced by the M'mbelwa District Council.

M'MBELWA NGONI. See JERE, MHLAHLO, M'MBELWAI, INKOSI; NGONI; Zw.a.n.gENDABA.

MNTHABALA, AUGUSTINE. Educationist, founding member of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), and first vice president of the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), Augustine Mnthabala was educated in and taught at Kongwe Secondary School, Dowa district, before he was arrested and imprisoned without charge. Upon his release, he worked for the United States emba.s.sy in Lilongwe and, in 1992, became a founding vice president of the AFORD. Later he left the party and was appointed high commissioner to Namibia and transferred to the Malawi Mission in Paris, where he became amba.s.sador.

MOANO. Located on the Kapoche River, a tributary of the Zambezi, this was the headquarters of the Undi state.

MOIR, FREDERICK AND JOHN. Scottish brothers who were joint managers of the Livingstonia Central African Company, which arrived in the Lake Malawi area in 1878 and set up its headquarters about a mile from the Church of Scotland Mission in Blantyre. The Scottish company had been formed in response to David Livingstone's emphasis on Christianity and Commerce in Africa. The company and its headquarters came to be known as Mandala, which means spectacles, because John wore them; it changed its name to African Lakes Company and, later still, to African Lakes Corporation.

MONCKTON COMMISSION. This was a commission of inquiry appointed by the British government to review the future of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Chaired by Sir Walter Monckton, the 26 commissioners, including five Africans, had spent the period February to May 1960 gathering evidence in different areas of the Federation. Most Africans boycotted the commission because they a.s.sumed that the white majority on it would turn in a report favorable to the Federation. In fact, the opposite occurred. The Monckton Report noted the longstanding and widespread opposition to the Federation, and added that the union could not work without some measure of goodwill. The report recommended that, since the Federation was so disliked in its existing form, the British government should retain control over the future of the union, including the possible secession of any of its territories. This latter point sounded the death knell for the Federation.

MONKEY BAY. Known for its abundance of monkeys and located near the southern tip of Lake Malawi, this scenic bay is the main dry dock and operations headquarters of the princ.i.p.al lake transport system in Malawi. To its southeast and southwest are found many traditional fis.h.i.+ng villages, holiday resorts, and lakeside cottages.

MOXON, PETER MAJOR. A British farmer and supporter of African nationalist aspirations in Nyasaland, Moxon visited Dr. Hastings Banda in Ghana in 1957 and was one of the people who convinced the doctor to return to Nyasaland to lead the struggle for decolonization. After completing school at Malborough College, England, Moxon went to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, where he was commissioned into the British army. He saw service in World War II and, after retiring from the army, he began farming at Thondwe in Zomba district. Opposed to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, in 1961 he stood unsuccessfully as a higher roll Malawi Congress Partybacked independent candidate for s.h.i.+re North. Following the Cabinet Crisis in 1964, Major Moxon left the country for Zambia because he became a.s.sociated with the dismissed members of the cabinet.

MOYALE. Located on the EthiopiaKenya border, this was the site of a major Italian siege of a King's African Rifles (KAR) contingent consisting mainly of a detachment of the Nyasaland battalion. The Nyasa soldiers distinguished themselves during the siege (115 July 1940), and it is in honor of this battle that Moyale Barracks, Mzuzu, the home of the Third Battalion of the Malawi Rifles, is named. See also ARMY.

MOZAMBIQUE. The AngloPortuguese Treaty of 1891 established the boundaries between Great Britain's claim on British Central Africa and Portugal's "province" of Mozambique. As a result of the agreement, nearly half of Malawi is surrounded by Mozambique, and many Malawians have families across the border. As the gateway to Nyasaland by sea, Mozambique would play an important role in the transportation system of Malawi throughout the 20th century. Beira, on the Mozambique coast, became the major port of Malawi when the Trans-Zambesia Railway was completed in 1922. As Malawi approached independence from British rule, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) policy was to attack Portuguese colonialism in Mozambique, particularly when it became clear that decolonization was not on Portugal's agenda.

This intense hostility against the Antonio Salazar government in the early 1960s was ameliorated by Jorge Jardim, an envoy of the Lisbon government, who began meeting with Dr. Hastings Banda on a regular basis. In 1962, Banda announced that although the Portuguese system was to be abhorred, he considered a policy of coexistence possible, much like that tolerated between the British and Americans with the Soviet Union. By 1964, Banda had appointed Jardim as Malawi's honorary consul at Beira. The Portuguese responded by negotiating a mutual trade pact and by permitting the construction of the Nacala railway, which was set to open in June 1970. These activities between Banda and Portugal were condemned by several of Banda's cabinet ministers and were a factor in the Cabinet Crisis in 1964.

As cooperation between Zomba and Lisbon grew, so too did Portuguese investment in Malawi, particularly in the banking and petroleum fields. In 1967, the Malawi government sold its shares in the Trans-Zambesia Railway and its rights to the Zambezi bridge to the Portuguese government for nearly US$3.4 million. Three years later, the Portuguese provided a US$2.5 million loan to build a highway.

The Frente de Libertacao de Mocambique (FRELIMO), the Mozambican liberation movement, was allowed to have an office in Blantyre, but it was admonished not to use Malawi as a base of operations for raids into Mozambique. However, in 1972, the Malawi army could neither stop FRELIMO units nor pursue Portuguese forces from trespa.s.sing on Malawi soil. Although relations with Lisbon were often strained, Portugal did not press Banda. When FRELIMO won the war of independence in 1974, Malawi applauded the change and supported Mozambican independence. Relations between Malawi and Mozambique became tense throughout the 1970s and for most of the 1980s because of the suspicion that Banda's government was supporting the guerrilla activities of the Resistencia Nacional Mocambicana (RENAMO). Originally supported by the former Rhodesian white regime, the RENAMO forces came to be dependent on Pretoria and former Portuguese colonialists. Aiming to overthrow the FRELIMO leaders.h.i.+p of President Samora Machel of Mozambique, the RENAMO was responsible for the closure of the railway to Beira in 1983. This line carried 60 percent of Malawi's exports and, subsequently, Malawi had to reroute its traffic through South Africa and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. Malawi drew the ire of Mozambique as well as Zambia and Zimbabwe when it refused to take a stand against RENAMO. Instead, Banda chose to walk a tightrope with Mozambique and not make his neighbor's rebel troubles his business. Even when Malawi argued that it never sanctioned or a.s.sisted RENAMO troops, it was accused of being lax and unable to properly police its borders.

The ill will that had grown out of the RENAMO guerrilla activities worsened in 1986. When President Machel died in an airplane crash in October that year, demonstrations against Malawi occurred in both Harare and Maputo. Student demonstrators, presuming South African complicity in Machel's death and noting Malawi's warm relations with South Africa, damaged Malawi property, mainly emba.s.sies, in both Mozambique and Zimbabwe. However, Malawi went on to establish a firm basis of cooperation with the new president, former Foreign Minister Joachuim Chissano. A high-powered MalawiMozambique committee was established to discuss matters of mutual interest, and Mozambique refrained from openly making allegations against Malawi, which agreed to send some of its troops into Mozambique to protect the Nacala railway.

Malawi also bore the brunt of a million Mozambique refugees resulting from the civil war. Beginning with a few thousand who filled the refugee centers, such as Mankhokwe camp in the Lower s.h.i.+re Valley, within a short time, other camps mushroomed on the Malawi side of the border. Relief measures came from many quarters, such as the Red Cross, Save the Children, Oxfam, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and, in 1988, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) established an office in Malawi. When the conflict between FRELIMO and RENAMO ended in 1992, the process of repatriation, which was already in operation, was accelerated.

MozambiqueMalawi relations continued to normalize throughout the 1990s and the 2000s. The cessation of the civil war in Mozambique in the early 1990s greatly a.s.sisted in promoting the cordiality between the two countries, so much so that when a group of Young Pioneers hid in Mozambique following Operation Bwezani, the two governments immediately cooperated in resolving the problem. The election of a new government in Malawi in July 1994 further improved MozambiqueMalawi relations. Joint security and trade commissions under the umbrella of the MozambiqueMalawi Joint Cooperation Commission have continued to meet regularly. Presidents Joachim Chissano and Bakili Muluzi also met regularly, mainly through their active partic.i.p.ation in meetings of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

Their successors have continued with the same policy of friendly neighborliness, and more recently attention has turned to, among other things, sharing electricity from the Cahora Ba.s.sa hydro turbine and to improving the MalawiMozambique transport corridor. A transmission line was to connect Cahora Ba.s.sa and the Malawi grid, adding 300 megawatts to it, but, by early 2011, the project had not made significant advances. It was reported that the Malawi government was concerned with the high monthly levies that Mozambique was to charge. The delay caused some tension between the two neighboring states. On 3 October 2010, Malawi opened an inland port at Nsanje on the s.h.i.+reZambezi waterway, in the hope of improving the export and import abilities of the country. The Malawi government expected the cooperation of Mozambique authorities in facilitating boats and barges that would transport goods between Nsanje and Chinde on the Indian Ocean.

MPAKATI, ATTATI. Chiradzulu-born and Scandinavian-trained political scientist, academic and leader of the Socialist League of Malawi (LESOMA), Attati Mpakati was a.s.sa.s.sinated during a visit to Harare, Zimbabwe, in March 1983 by agents of the Malawi government. Three years earlier, a parcel bomb blew off his hands. Grey Kamuyambeni replaced him as head of LESOMA.

MPASU, SAMUEL LEMMOTH (1945 ). Leading United Democratic Front (UDF) politician and speaker of the National a.s.sembly from May 1999 to May 2004, Mpasu was born in Ntcheu district and educated at Dedza Secondary School before going to the University of Malawi, graduating with a BA in 1969. He joined government service and became a diplomat serving in Ethiopia and Germany. In the mid-1970s, he worked for the Viphya Pulpwood Scheme but, in 1975, he was arrested for publis.h.i.+ng a novel, n.o.body's Friend, which the special Branch of the police viewed as political and anti-Hastings Banda. He was taken to Mikuyu detention camp, where he stayed until released in 1977. Unemployed for a year because the government blocked many job offers, he joined Lever Brothers (see UNILEVER SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA) in Limbe in February 1978. In 1988, Lever Brothers seconded him to the Malawi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which in 2000 changed its name to Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) of which he became general manager. In the latter organization, he met, among other businessmen, Harry Thompson and Bakili Muluzi, respectively chairman and vice chairman of the MCCI; he was also introduced to Patrick Mbewe, a prominent member of the chamber. All three became leaders in post-Banda Malawi.

In the early 1990s, Mpasu was among the leading advocates of political reform and a founding member of the UDF party. In 1994, he was elected to Parliament as member for Ntcheu Central, becoming government chief whip and minister of education; later he was transferred to the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting Post and Telecommunications. Despite his ministerial work, Mpasu wrote another book, Political Prisoner 3/75 of Dr Kamuzu Banda of Malawi, in which he described his experience as a political detainee. In 1999, he was returned to the National a.s.sembly as a member for Ntcheu Central, became speaker of the National a.s.sembly, and one of the main spokespersons of the UDF. He lost his Ntcheu Central seat in 2004 but for some time continued to be a leading member of his party. In 2005, Mpasu was indicted on corruption charges relating to his dealings with a Great Britainbased supplier of school stationery in 1994 when he was minister of education. In April 2008, he was convicted in the Field York International case, as it has come to be known, and was to serve a six-year prison term, but after an appeal he was released on 9 August 2010.

MPEZENI. Also known as Ntuto, Mpezeni was the eldest son of the Ngoni leader, Zw.a.n.gendaba, by his once favored wife, Soseya Nqumayo. Born in 1833 in today's Zimbabwe, Mpezeni was 15 when his father died in 1848 and, following a succession dispute, he and his brother Mpherembe parted from the main group in southern Tanganyika and moved westward toward Bemba country. Mpherembe rejoined the main group, now settled in the region west of Lake Malawi, but Mpezeni proceeded southeastward, finally settling in the Chipata area, east of the Luangwa River, in about 1866. From there he extended his authority to include most of present-day Mchinji district, where he placed his subordinate, Mlonyeni. In 1885, Mpezeni granted a mining concession to a German adventurer, Karl Wiese, who in 1896 sold it to the North Charterland Exploration Company, a division of the British South Africa Company. Mpezeni did not like the de facto extension of British rule; he resisted it and, in December 1897, his eldest son, Nsingu, rose against the increasing presence of the British in his father's territory. The British sent troops of the British Central African Rifles (later King's African Rifles) to subdue Mpezeni, his son, and supporters. After a month of fighting, Nsingu was captured, court-martialed, and shot on 5 February 1898; his father surrendered four days later, and was imprisoned at the new Fort Manning where he remained until 1900. He died that year. His successors maintained relations with their cousins, the M'mbelwa Ngoni, in northern Malawi, and attended each other's installation ceremonies.

MPHEREMBE. Area located in northwestern Mzimba district, which derives its name from Mpherembe, the Ngoni ruling family. The original Mpherembe was a son of Zw.a.n.gendaba and brother of Mpezeni. After leaving the main Ngoni party to go westward with his brother, he rejoined M'mbelwa and other children and followers of Zw.a.n.gendaba and was allocated the area south of Lake Kazuni and northwest of Mtwalo's area. This is also the Ngoni area where ciNgoni, a version of Zulu, is still the major language.

MPINGANJIRA, BROWN (1950 ). Journalist, member of the United Democratic Front's (UDF) Central Committee, member of Parliament for Mulanje, and influential cabinet minister in the postHastings Banda government, Mpinganjira was the Malawi government's deputy chief information officer until 1986 when he was arrested and imprisoned without charge at Mikuyu. He remained in detention until the momentum for political reform began to gain pace, and he became a leading ally of Bakili Muluzi. After the 1994 elections, he was appointed minister of transport, communications, and information, but in a cabinet reshuffle he was transferred to the Ministry of Education. In 1999, he was reelected to the National a.s.sembly as a member of Parliament for Mulanje Central, retained his position as national organizing secretary of the UDF, and was appointed minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation. Later, he became minister of public works but, in a cabinet reshuffle in November 2000, Mpinganjira was dropped, following a report of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee that detailed cases of mismanagement of finances in some government departments. He and Muluzi disagreed on party matters, and he formed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), becoming its presidential candidate in the 2004 elections. With 8.7 percent of the vote, he was in fourth place to the winner, Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika. In the 2009 presidential elections, Mpinganjira was John Tembo's running mate, but they lost to Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika of the Democratic Progressive Party. In April 2011, Mpinganjira became the founding treasurer of Joyce Banda's People's Party.

MPINGO WA AFIPA. See MWASI, YESAYA ZERENJI.

MPONDA. This is t.i.tle of Yao chiefs who, since the early 1860s, have ruled the area around the southern tip of Lake Malawi. The first Mponda (186686), son of Msamala the founder of the lineage, gave permission to the Free Church of Scotland to establish the Livingstonia Mission station at Cape Maclear in 1875. A convert to Islam, Mponda actively engaged in the ivory and slave trade with contacts with the east coast of Africa. Mponda II had tense relations with the African Lakes Company (ALC) but, in 1889, allowed the White Fathers to set up a station near his village. He did not give them much freedom of action, and he continued with his trading activities, which the Catholic missionaries did not approve of; five years later, the missionaries left the area for Northern Rhodesia (Zambia). Mponda, like many other chiefs, resisted British rule but was finally defeated in 1896.

MPONDA, ANDREW JONATHAN. Former secretary general of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC), Mponda was a founding member of the organization and, earlier, of the Blantyre Native a.s.sociation. In 1948, he accompanied Charles Matinga to England where, with Dr. Hastings Banda, he made representations to the British government on the conditions of Africans in Nyasaland. Within two years of their return, Mponda and Matinga lost their senior positions in the NAC because of charges of financial mismanagement and ineffective leaders.h.i.+p.

MPOSA, J. ELLERTON. Appointed to the Legislative Council (LEGCO) in 1949, Mposa and Ernest Muwamba became the first Africans to sit in that body. Active in African nationalist politics, Mposa was a founding member of the Blantyre Native a.s.sociation and of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC). A critic of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Mposa, allying himself with the NAC, consistently spoke against its establishment.

MPUNGA, JAMES. Originally from Zomba, Mpunga was a Blantyre-based businessman, politician of the 1940s and 1950s, and a close a.s.sociate of Lali Lubani, Hartwell Solomon, Lawrence Makata, Grant Mikeka Mkandawire, Chester Katsonga, Kinross Kulunjiri, among others. Besides being part of a group of Nyasaland African Congress members who opposed totally the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and were therefore against sending representatives to the Federal Parliament in Salisbury, Mpunga was also a founding member in 1953 of the African Chamber of Commerce and Industry whose princ.i.p.al aims were to bring together African businessmen and businesswomen, and to take care of their interests, especially in view of the increasing power of European businessmen and the government.

MSAKAMBEWA. This son of Gwaza Jere accompanied Chiwere Ndhlovu to the Kongwe area not far from the Lingazi River in present-day Dowa district. There Msakambewa established political authority, becoming one of the very few northern Ngoni to become chief in a Chewa area. The Dutch Reformed Church would establish a station and a school in his jurisdiction.

MSIMBI. This was a colonial government weekly published by the Department of Information in English and ciNyanja. Besides covering news favorable to the government, the publication sought to explain policy and acted as a major propaganda vehicle for issues such as the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Many Malawians remember Msimbi for its cartoon character, Njolijo. See also CHAWINGA, DUNCAN "GOODNEWS."

MSISHA, MORDICAI RONNIE, SC (1950 ). One of Malawi's leading lawyers and human rights activist, Msisha was born in 1950 in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) where his Malawian parents worked. He went to primary school there prior to attending Chaminade Secondary School at Karonga, northern Malawi, and studied law at the University of Malawi. Upon graduation in 1975, he joined the Ministry of Justice as a legal aid counselor. From 1977 to 1979, he read for a master's of law degree at the University of Toronto, Canada, and on his return to Malawi worked briefly as a prosecutor, before joining the law firm Savjani and Company. Since 1990, he has been a partner in Nyirenda & Msisha legal practice. Msisha's name is closely identified with political reform in Malawi; in 199194, he was actively involved in the struggle for multiparty democracy. As a member of the Law Society of Malawi and the Public Affairs Committee (PAC), he played a major role, including campaigning outside Malawi, in the events leading to the general elections in 1994. Originally identified with the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), he fell out of favor with Chakufwa Chihana, the party leader, and, just before the elections, withdrew from active politics and concentrated on his legal work.

MSISKA, REV. STEPHEN KAUTA (c. 19142005?). Theologian, scholar, and former princ.i.p.al of the united Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) Theological College at Nkhoma, Kauta Msiska was born near Mhunju, Rumphi district. He completed his education at the Overtoun Inst.i.tution, Khondowe, trained as a teacher, and afterward returned to Khondowe to train for the church ministry, graduating in 1945, also the year of his ordination. He served in many parishes and was minister of the Livingstonia congregation and also moderator of the Livingstonia synod during the State of Emergency when foreign missionaries voted not to accept the government's recommendation that they be evacuated from the area. He spent the 196162 academic year at the Divinity School of the University of Edinburgh and, upon his return, was appointed tutor at the Theological College, Nkhoma, of which he would become princ.i.p.al, the first African to hold the position. However, in 1974, he offended the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) when he advised his students to dress plainly during their conduct of wors.h.i.+p, which also meant that they had to avoid wearing the MCP badge with the image of Dr. Hastings Banda's head, a permanent feature of the outfit of most party loyalists. For this, he was dismissed unceremoniously from his position, threatened with death, and banished to his village in Rumphi, marking his retirement from active church duties. A keen student of local history and customs, in 1997, Msiska published Golden b.u.t.tons: Christianity and Traditional Religion among the Tumbuka.

MSISKA, SUZGO. Leader of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) in the early 1960s, Suzgo Msiska was also an active and radical member of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). In 1962, Rumphi-born Msiska, like Chakufwa Chihana, resisted the efforts of the new MCP-dominated government to control the labor unions, resulting in his suspension from the party and the loss of his position as head of the TGWU.

MSONTHI, JOHN DUNSTAN (19221982). Teacher, politician, and former cabinet minister, John Msonthi was born in Kayoyo, Ntchisi district. Son of a priest in the Anglican church, Msonthi attended Likuni Catholic School before proceeding to Zomba Catholic Secondary School in 1945. Three years later, he wrote and pa.s.sed the Cambridge School Certificate examinations (O levels), achieving the distinction of being one of the first two Nyasalanders to sit for this type of examination. In the early 1950s, he won the government of India cultural scholars.h.i.+p, which enabled him to study at St. Xavier's College and at the University of Bombay where he was awarded BA and BEd degrees, respectively.

Msonthi returned home in 1958 and taught at his old school in Zomba. He also became active in the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC), and, in March 1959, he was detained; upon his release, he taught at St. John's Teacher's College in Lilongwe. In 1961, he was elected as a member of Parliament for Ntchisi (Visanza) and, a year later, he was appointed minister of trade and industry. In 1964, Msonthi became minister of transport and communications and in the early 1970s served as minister of education. Throughout this time, Msonthi was also Dr. Hastings Banda's interpreter at political rallies held in the Chewa/Nyanja-speaking areas of Malawi. In 1973, he fell out of favor with Banda and was banished to his home in Ntchisi. Five years later, he was rehabilitated and appointed chairman of the Grain Milling Corporation, a position he held until his death.

MSOSA, ANASTASIA. First female High Court judge and chairman of the Electoral Commission of Malawi from 1993 to 1998, Anastasia Msosa graduated from the University of Malawi and served as a magistrate in several courts before she was promoted to the High Court. In 1998, the government removed her from the Electoral Commission and replaced her with Judge James Kalaile. In 2004, Justice Msosa returned to the Election Commission as its chairman. See also WOMEN.

MSUMBA, JORDAN. Founder of the Last Church of G.o.d and His Christ, Jordan Msumba was born at Usisya, Nkhata Bay district and, by the early 1900s, had attended local Livingstonia Mission schools. Between 1907 and 1909, he was converted to Eliot Kamwana Chirwa's Watch Tower Society. In 1909, he followed Kamwana to South Africa where he also met Joseph Booth, under whom he would study while also holding regular employment. He became a Baptist but returned to the Watch Tower Society. In 1920, he was forced to return to Nyasaland, probably because of his a.s.sociation with activists such as Clements Kadalie. Back at home in Usisya he began to meddle in chiefly politics, leading to his deportation in 1924 from the Nkhata Bay district.

A year earlier, he had been excommunicated from the Watch Tower and had founded the Last Church of G.o.d and His Christ. Like the Watch Tower, his adherents were baptized, by immersion, soon after confessing their sins, making it a faster process than that of the Livingstonia Mission. Unlike Livingstonia or even the Watch Tower, polygamy was allowed in the Last Church. In August 1925, he officially inaugurated his church and went to Karonga to win more converts. There he met Iswani Ben Ngemela and Tigone Munthali, both of whom became pastors of his new church. In December that year, Msumba proceeded to Tanganyika, working in Mwanza and s.h.i.+nyanga, where he was not very successful in converting people to his denomination. In 1934, he returned to Nkhata Bay only to find that Isaac Kaunda, whom he had left to organize the Last Church in the district, had started his own church, the Messenger of the Covenant Church (Chipangano Church), taking many people with him. From that time onward, Msumba and Kaunda engaged in a war of words and compet.i.tion for adherents, resulting in a major erosion of the followers.h.i.+p of the Last Church.

MTAFU, ANDREW GEORGE, NGA. For a long time, Malawi's only neurosurgeon, Mtafu was born at Likoma and trained at a medical school in Germany. In the 1980s, he returned to Malawi and was based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre. In February 1989, Mtafu was arrested and imprisoned without trial for making a statement disagreeing with President Hastings Banda's p.r.o.nouncements. Upon his release in 1991, he became active in reform politics, later a.s.sociating himself with the new United Democratic Front (UDF) Party. In 1994, he was elected to the National a.s.sembly as a member for Nkhata Bay East (Likoma), and was appointed minister of health. In 1999, Mtafu was reelected to Parliament and became minister of tourism, national parks, and wildlife; in November 2000, he was appointed minister of education, science, and technology. After the 2004 elections, he became leader of the UDF in the National a.s.sembly. In 2009, he lost his Likoma Islands seat to Olivia Anita Thundu of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

MTAWALI, BRAIN. Agriculturalist, diplomat, and politician, Brain, son of Ernest Mtawali, was educated at Livingstonia and at Zomba Catholic Secondary School before going to India where he graduated with a BSc in agriculture. On his return, he joined the civil service, where he rose to the position of princ.i.p.al secretary. Upon his retirement, Mtawali was appointed high commissioner to Canada and, in the early 1990s, became speaker of the Malawi Congress Party-dominated National a.s.sembly. By 1994, he had retired from politics and settled at Mzuzu, where he later died.

MTAWALI, ERNEST M. Member of the Executive Council from 1959 to 1961, Ernest Mtawali was born at Mlowe, Rumphi, and educated at Overtoun Inst.i.tution where he trained as a medical a.s.sistant. He worked at various health centers, establis.h.i.+ng himself as one of the most experienced, efficient, and popular clinical officers. In 1959, he was appointed to the Executive Council, in effect the cabinet of the colonial governor. African nationalists were much against his accepting the new position during the State of Emergency and at a time when most activists were under arrest; they felt betrayed, and Mtawali became a target of their anticolonial propaganda. After the 1961 elections, he went to live in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).

MTEGHA COMMISSION. Appointed by the new United Democratic Front (UDF)led government to inquire into, and report on, the 1983 Mwanza Accident, this commission was headed by Justice Michael Harris Mtegha of the Supreme Court of Malawi. From 11 July to 14 December 1994, the commission heard evidence on camera to protect witness confidentiality, and in January the following year, it released its two-part report: The Republic of Malawi Commission of Inquiry, Mwanza Road Accident Report, Limbe, December 1994; and the Republic of Malawi Commission of Inquiry, Mwanza Road Accident: Verbatim Report of proceedings (not dated). The report established that the four politicians, David Donasiano Chiw.a.n.ga, Aaron Elliot Gadama, John Twaibu Sangala, and d.i.c.k Tennyson Matenje, were a.s.sa.s.sinated. It also traced the chain of events from their arrest at a road block on the ZombaBlantyre Road following the Easter session of Parliament in 1983, but found it difficult to identify the person or persons responsible for issuing the order for the murders. However, on the basis of the report, the government proceeded to prosecute Hastings K. Banda, Cecilia Kadzamira, and John Tembo on the grounds that, since they were the ultimate decision makers in Malawi, they must have known of the plans to kill the four politicians.

MTEKATEKA, JOSIAH (19031996). First Malawian to become a bishop in the Anglican Church, Mtekateka was born on Likoma Island where he completed his primary education before entering the St. Michael's College in 1921 to train as a teacher. He taught at Likwenu and several other schools in southern Malawi before deciding to prepare for the priesthood. In 1936, he commenced training as a deacon and, three years later, he was ordained as one. For the next two years, he worked in Tanganyika (Tanzania) and, in 1941, he returned to Likoma to study for the priesthood at St. Andrew's College. Upon graduation in 1943, he was posted to Chiuli, Tanganyika, but also worked at several other parishes in the diocese of southwest Tanganyika, including Manda, where in late the 1950s he was appointed as archdeacon. In December 1964, both the dioceses of southwest Tanganyika and of Malawi elected Mtekateka as suffragan bishop, and he chose to return to Malawi. In January the following year, he was consecrated as bishop at Likoma. When, in 1971, the diocese of Malawi was divided, the diocese of Lake Malawi with its then headquarters at Nkhotakota, and the diocese of southern Malawi centered at Likwenu, Mtekateka became head of the former. He retired in 1976.

MTEWA, MEKKI (19462000?). Academic and politician, Mekki Mtewa was born in Mangochi district. He was educated in Malawi and the United States where he obtained a PhD in political science. In the 1970s, he became one of the most reviled Malawians in exile, mainly because of his a.s.sociation with the views of Henry Chipembere. The government imprisoned his father without trial, and Mekki Mtewa's name was the subject of many songs of the League of Malawi Women. Mtewa taught in colleges in the United States, and for a time he served as the executive director of the a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Policy, Research and Development in the Third World. In the early 1990s, he was a founding member of the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), becoming one of the party's leading theorists. However, before the elections in 1994, he fell out of favor with the leaders.h.i.+p of the party and crossed over to the United Democratic Front (UDF), whose new government appointed him as a roving amba.s.sador. In 1999, he was elected as a member of Parliament for Mangochi and was appointed deputy minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation in the UDF government. He died shortly thereafter.

MTIKA, EFFIE FUYIWE (1931?). Born in Mzimba district, Effie Mtika joined the Malawi Civil Service in 1964 as a community development officer. Two years later, she went to the United States where she trained further in community development from the University of Missouri. In June 1971, Mtika was nominated to Parliament as a member for Mzimba and, in the following year, she became parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Community Development and Social Welfare. She left Parliament after a few years. See also WOMEN.

MTUMBUKA, MARTIN ANWELL (1957 ). Martin Mtumbuka was born on 5 August 1957, in Majimbula village in Rumphi district, and educated at local schools before going to St. Patrick's Minor Seminary in the same district, St. Anthony's Major Seminary, Kachebere, and St. Peter's Major Seminary, Zomba. He was ordained a priest of the Catholic Church on 31 July 1988, after which he served in the Mzuzu diocese. From 1993 to 1997, Father Mtumbuka studied for a master of arts degree in religious science and, in the latter year, became a student at the University of London's Inst.i.tute of Education, which in 2002 awarded him a PhD in education. When the Catholic University of Malawi started in 2004, he became its dean of academics.

On 21 July 2010, Mtumbuka was appointed as the founding bishop of the newly established diocese of Karonga, and, four months later, he was consecrated bishop at St. Mary's, Karonga. The new diocese consists of three parishes in Karonga district: St. Anne's at Vinthukutu in Chilumba, St. Mary's at Karonga boma (also the location of Bishop's Cathedral), and St. Steven's at Kaporo. The other parishes are in Chitipa district: St. Michael's at Chitipa boma and St. Matthias's in Misuku. Until its creation, the diocese of Karonga housed the Northern Deanery of Mzuzu.

MTUNTHAMA. Located west of Kasungu boma, this is the site of the first school Hastings Kamuzu Banda attended, in commemoration of which the Kamuzu Academy was built. The official residence of Hastings Banda in Lilongwe was known as Mtunthama House.

MTWALO I. See JERE, MTWALO I, INKOSI.

MTWALO II. See JERE, MUHABI AMON, MTWALD II INKOSI.

MUA. This major Catholic station is located in the eastern section of Dedza district, just below the escarpment that descends into the Rift Valley of which Lake Malawi is part. When the White Fathers missionaries returned to the Lake Malawi region in 1902, Mua became the main center from which they spread their activities to parts of the central and northern regions. Mua is also the home of a large cultural and arts center, the KuNngoni Arts and Crafts Center, established in the 1980s.

MUGARA, WAZINGWA. See SICHINGA, KALUMWENZO.

MUGHOGHO, MORTON CHIPIMPHA (19222009). This national chairman of the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), from its inception, was born on 22 August 1922, in Nthalire, Chitipa district, and went to local schools before qualifying as a teacher at the Overtoun Inst.i.tution, Khondowe. He taught at home and then for several years in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Back in Malawi he became headmaster of Nthalire Primary School, and in 1956 was promoted to a.s.sistant inspector of schools. After serving in Mzimba and Karonga districts, he spent the 195960 academic year at Bristol University, England, and on his return, he became inspector of schools for Zomba district. In 1962, he became inspector of primary education for the central region but during the Cabinet Crisis of 1964, he was detained without trial. Upon his release, two and a half years later, he became headmaster of Rumphi Secondary School and then joined the inspectorate division at the Ministry of Education headquarters. He spent another brief period in detention and, after his release, became a tobacco farmer in Rumphi. In 1981, he became chairman of the Pwezi Education Foundation and headmaster of the Pwezi Secondary School in Rumphi district.

In the early 1990s, he was a founding member of AFORD and, in 1994, was elected as a member of Parliament for Chitipa South. Al