Amazing patriotism of Charles B. Chipofya
A couple of years ago, we featured under this column critical thinking and planning lessons that we can learn from the lectures of the legendary Polytechnic electronics lecturer Charles B. Chipofya. In the article, we shared how Chipofya kept telling his students that to pass his electronics examinations, students needed to think a lot more rather than rushing to answer the questions.
Typically, in engineering, students were required to choose and answer five questions from a list of eight questions in three hours-resulting into an allocation of 36 minutes per question. He used to advise us to spend five minutes reading and fully understanding the question. Chipofya expected the students to then spend a good 15 to 20 minutes thinking through the answer. He said that if a student understood the question clearly and spent quality time thinking of the answer, then within 10 minutes, a student should complete the answer.
Indeed, during revision, most of his answers to tough electronics questions were very short, elegant and succinct! And yet, Chipofya rarely failed his students. Instead, he made sure that he taught and coached his students to fully understand the concepts. To many of us, he was a fatherly figure-always reassuring.
This is what one of Chipofya’s remarkable ‘products’, the industrious founder and proprietor of a leading local Malawian IT Company Sparc Systems, Wisely Phiri said: “Chipofya would always say-do not worry-I am there to make your life easy.” Separately, a very successful Canada-based Malawian electronics engineer Dr. Chatonda Mtika who was an associate electronics lecturer at the Polytechnic in the early 1990s wrote on Facebook: “When I joined the Polytechnic teaching staff as a 24-year-old, Charles Chipofya took me under his wing and mentored me.” Namibia-based Dr. Clement Nyirenda also referred to his being mentored into electronics lecturing by legendary Chipofya. Chipofya died on Friday and was laid to rest at Henry Henderson Institute (HHI) cemetery on Sunday October 11.
To the many of us that he taught, he remains a father figure in our minds. To the nation, Chipofya remains the unsung patriotic hero. He studied electronic engineering in Germany long ago and then he worked in Germany for several years before he came back to Malawi in the 1980s. Chipofya had lectured in electronics at the Polytechnic for nearly 30 years-including five years post-retirement as a replacement could not be identified. It was out of the abundance of his patriotism, passion for electronics and teaching and his love to shape future Malawian engineers and leaders that Chipofya kept to his noble job. He would have worked anywhere in the world but he chose to dedicate the bulk of his life to educating young people at the Polytechnic, where he also held numerous roles, including as Head of Department and Dean of Engineering among others.
Chipofya would coach instead of condemning his students. His demeanour of a father shaped the discipline of many of his students. Like many, I benefitted a lot from his fatherly care. He inspired me to realise my personal academic potential. In particular, when I needed to transition straight from undergraduate studies to advanced studies at Oxford University, Chipofya made me believe that it was possible to make the ambitious journey. He mentored me, he wrote powerful references for me and made me believe. He cleared all my fears during tough moments of campus student politics-n the words of Wisely Phiri, Chipofya told me the same: “Do not worry-it will all be okay.”
We meet a lot of people along the way in life. Some we leave behind completely but others we carry along to every next stage of our life. The fatherly and patriotic Chipofya was evidently one figure you could not afford to leave behind in your life. He continues to rule in us even after his death, because he not only taught our minds but also talked to our souls and touched our hearts. We are because he was! Without him most of the engineers-especially electrical/electronic engineers would not be what they are. As his soul rests in peace, we can all learn from Chipofya’s patriotism and emulate his fatherly figure!
