Stanley Kachipeya, The man who lived for radio

A few years into democracy, Malawi warmed up to the media. Airwaves were opened up and, in 1997, Malawians saw the birth of another radio station, MBC Radio 2.

Although being a State broadcaster, the coming of the channel presented a major shift from what people were used to. The following year, a first independent radio station was opened and today, there are over 60 radio stations in Malawi.

MBC Radio 2 was opened on July 17 1997 with the aim of entertaining the nation 24 hours, educating and informing with a well packaged mix of programmes.

There were brains that laid the foundation of the radio, saw it stagger along the way and stand be where it is today.

One such individual was the late Stanley Kachipeya.

Born on September 9 1944, Kachipeya went to Mlanda Mission Primary School and, in 1967, he was selected to Blantyre Secondary School where he completed his Cambridge studies. He then acquired a T2 Teachers’ Certificate at Domasi Teachers Training College which saw him teaching at St Martins Primary School in Malindi Mangochi, Domasi Demonstration School and Nkhoma in Lilongwe.

He later joined MBC in 1976, 12 years after the State broadcaster was established.

“My father was privileged to work for the then only radio station MBC during the MCP regime because at that time, the station preferred professional teachers to become radio announcers, news editors and producers. This was due to the absence of journalism schools and the radio solely depended on in-house training and attachments to BBC and Deutsche Welle in Germany.

“The recruitment process was rigorous under the Kamuzu leadership; intelligence team was sent to your home village to check if you don’t have any bad record and traced your family background. So, it took so long before you were hired by the corporation,” recollects his son Austin, who followed in his father’s footsteps to become a TV broadcaster with MBC-TV.

Passion was the driving force behind Kachipeya’s resilience at his stay at MBC.

“His journey was so marvellous and interesting because he was one of the broadcasters who had great passion to work even during the oppressive one party system. He was detained in 1992 during the transition period to the multiparty system of government, because he was one of the people who advocated for change,” said Austin.

One of the attributes of the late Kachipeya had was that, as a broadcaster, he was strict on the quality of news bulletins, pronunciations, articulation, voice diction and delivery of news and current affairs programmes.

“Although their news bulletins were heavily censored, they strived to communicate to the audience. And there was also healthy competition among news editors and staff could critique each other’s work. This helped him to sharpen his skill as a broadcaster.

“He admired some of his colleagues who he rated highly in terms of quality and delivery, the likes of Charles Chikapa, Aitkin Mtawali, Maxwell Kasinja, the late Thengo Chirombo, the late Patrick Masala, the late Boardington Kaimila, John Asani, Baxton Chikanda and the late Jonathan Kuntambira,” remembers Austin.

He was also known for his analytical writing skills on news comment or ndemanga, an opinion piece expressing the stance of the station or network on topical subject matter.

“It was aired soon after the 6 pm news bulletin in English and 7 pm Chichewa bulletin and it would come every Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. At that time there were few editors who could write and translate into Chichewa, because of high sensitivity ratings. As such, one tasked to do this job needed to be very analytical, with good command of English, versed with so many issues be it politics, economy, environment, culture, religion and foreign affairs and also required to read widely,” affirms Austin.

As one of the middle managers at the corporation, the late Kachipeya was in the committee that set-up MBC Radio 2 in 1997.

His son is delighted with his contribution to Malawi.

“I feel he was one of the people who wanted to give the youth the platform to express their dissenting views. So I feel great that he was one of the veterans who moulded the future of young generation through radio programming,” explains Austin.

The 25 years that the late Kachipeya worked with MBC saw him rise to the position of assistant news editor and then controller of news and current affairs.

“And his duties were to coordinate and supervise day to day news productions in collaboration with duty editors and producers, giving direction to stories, news angles and maintaining discipline and ethical standards in the newsroom. He disliked being a parrot that is why he enjoyed working in the newsroom because he was always tasked to think and come up with different news angles that could captivate listeners’ interest,” recalled Austin.

When he retired from MBC in 2001, government then entrusted him with another responsibility as deputy chief editor of the now defunct Weekly News which was under the Ministry of Information.

Says the son: “Apart from that he impacted many journalists including broadcasters living in Blantyre and surroundings by setting up a resource centre in Lonhro Building in Limbe where he was the coordinator. This was a place where journalists were doing research on their stories, browsing on the internet and reading relevant materials to enhance their professionalism.”

Kachipeya died on July 20 2005 while he was working for the Ministry of Information.

“My father played a crucial role in fighting for the media freedom, and he was in media taskforce that wanted a change from single party to pluralism so that journalists would not be intimidated or harassed when doing their job.

“I will live to remember my father as an open-minded person, honest, cheerful, and humble and very hardworking. He did not mince words and because of this, some did not like his character at work. He was also a God-fearing man,” he says.

Kachipeya is survived by two children, Austin and his sister Uppieh.

“Surely, I am following into his footsteps because I have also written news comment or ndemanga which have been aired on both channels Radio One and Two. Sometimes I have been in MBC newsroom at Chichiri Broadcasting House assisting on Chichewa Desk and reading Chichewa News Bulletins on Radio 1 and 2. I was really inspired by my father to become a journalist,” he said.