Editors note

In three days time, we will celebrate Malawi’s 47th year of independence. What comes to mind when you hear of 6th July?

This year, I am thinking of the brave women that helped fight for independence. I am also thinking of all the women who suffered for the sake of Malawi during the one-party era, especially the 1964 cabinet crisis. Some of them set out on their missions (to kick out the ‘stupid’ Federation or reclaim human rights during Kamuzu Banda’s rule) with intense passion. Most, though, were pulled into the whole thing by their spouses and had no choice but to bear it out.

It is one thing to suffer for what you have a firm belief in. It is an entirely different issue to lose everything you have, including your family and dignity, for the sake of someone else’s’ dream and yet remain strong through the ordeal. This is what these women did and for that, I salute them.

A few names come to mind. Top of the list is Ida Chilembwe, of whom not much is known, but who held her own during the Chilembwe Uprising.

And then there is lawyer and human rights activist Vera Mlangazua Chirwa, who fought for Malawi democratic rule and became a political prisoner. She and her husband went into exile in Tanzania and later went to Zambia, where they were captured on Christmas Eve in 1981. She spent 12 years on death row under the Kamuzu Banda regime. She endured sleeping on the cement floor and was denied visitors, letters from her husband and the right to go outside. I salute you Vera.

Next on that list is Rose Lomathinda Chibambo, a prominent politician in the years leading up to this country’s independence in 1964, and immediately after. Rose organised Malawian women alongside their menfolk in  their political fight against the British. She was imprisoned in 1959, while pregnant with her 5th child. She gave birth while imprisoned and released a year later.

I also reflect on Catherine Mary Ajizinga Chipembere’s life story. Even though Catherine was not inclined to politics at the time that her husband was an active participant, she kept her family together during the Cabinet Crisis. While her husband Masauko was in hiding, she took up the children and fled, walking all night long with no shoes on and none of their possessions to get to safety in Likoma.

There are a lot of other women who suffered and fought during this era; some whose stories have never been told and others whose stories cannot fit into this tiny space. I salute each one of them and acknowledge the contributions they each made towards establishing Malawi as we know it.

May God bless us as we celebrate our Independence Day and may we all survive this frustrating fuel and forex shortage (and all others!) threatening to darken our appreciation of this beautiful country that those before us gave up so much for.