Albert,
Thanks for your Every Woman interview of 16th January 2011 in which you covered Gogo Nyasulu-the composer of more than 300 religious hymns. I really enjoyed the write-up.
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However, I would like to inform you about one other person with a similar story. This is the late Mawerera Tembo, a Ngoni from Mzimba. I learnt of this man from my history lessons (Central Africa History…missionaries) during my secondary school days.
It was said he was the first Ngoni convert to Christianity when the Livingstonia Mission opened a station in Ngoniland. He became a member of the church and later composed a lot of hymns which were adopted by the CCAP Church in the country.
Today, you might hear Tumbuka songs in CCAP churches across the country because some were/are being translated from either Tumbuka/Ngoni to Chichewa. If you are interested, you can do some research by consulting the likes of Kholiwe/Gertrude Mkandawire. This family is somewhat related to the late Mawerera Tembo, St. Andrews CCAP Church in Mzuzu.
Please do not refer to my name!
Via email
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Ed’s response
Hello,
Thank you very much for your contribution; Albert will definitely do a bit more research on Mawerera Tembo and write on him for one of the paper’s other sections since we, unfortunately, focus on women.
Malawi has a lot of unsung heroes, legends that we are yet to celebrate. It is unfortunate that we will learn of Mawerera in his death, though acknowledging the contribution he made to this country is a great start.
Fortunately, Gogo Nyasulu is receiving accolades for her work while she is still alive and able to enjoy the fruits of her labour. We hope that, through readers such as yourself, we will ably find a lot more of Malawi’s heroes!
