Part 11 (2/2)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT. Malawi is divided administratively into four regions-northern, central, eastern, and southern-and, during the Hastings K. Banda government's one-party system, each was headed by a cabinet minister. The regions are further divided into districts, each headed by a district commissioner (DC), who is a civil servant and is answerable to the president in Lilongwe. Local government is carried out in 26 districts. In addition to the district a.s.semblies (formerly district councils), there are city and town a.s.semblies (formerly councils), all of which are supervised by the minister of local government. Although councils are elected and act as vehicles for development at the local level, the national government is able to exert control over them by its budget approval and the allocation of national monies for regional needs.

As part of the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, the local government system has been strengthened by, among other measures, granting it more financial autonomy. Although DCs retain their position as the representatives of the central government, the district administrative system also has been reorganized.

LOMWE. This ethnic group inhabits mostly Mulanje, Phalombe, Thyolo, Blantyre, Chiradzulu, and parts of Zomba district. For a number of reasons, including drought, famine, and the hards.h.i.+p of living under Portuguese authority, the Lomwe emigrated from southern Mozambique at various stages between the 1880s and the 1920s. Many of them became victims of thangata, and a significant number joined John Chilembwe's Providence Industrial Mission and supported his uprising. Many Lomwe also joined the police and the army. In late 2008, that is, in the period leading up to the 2009 presidential elections, some Lomwe started the Mulhako wa Alhomwe, an a.s.sociation that not only organized support for President Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika, a Lomwe, but also worked to preserve and promote Lomwe culture and language.

LONDON & BLANTYRE SUPPLY COMPANY. See KANDODO.

LONGWE, REV. AARON (?1997). Human rights activist, vocal advocate of political reform, and member of the Public Affairs Committee (PAC), Aaron Longwe was trained as a pastor in Malawi and worked in the synod of Livingstonia. He studied further in Scotland and, on his return, became one of a new generation of politically aware church ministers and, later, helped to establish the Foundation for Justice and Peace through which he promoted human rights. Several times in 1992, Longwe was arrested and released, and, when the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) was formed, he became one of its spokesmen. Later, he left the party because of disagreements with its leaders.h.i.+p.

LONGWE, BAGEYA. A female witch finder from Mphongo in Lundazi district, Northern Rhodesia, Bageya Longwe, whose fame spread to the Nyasaland side of the border, was particularly active during World War II. Hundreds of people in the two colonies went to her with their ailments, and she was also invited away from her home to cure the sick and detect sorcerers. In 194243, she cured nyaGama, the inkosikazi ya Makhosikazi (princ.i.p.al wife) of M'mbelwa II, after she had returned from a Western hospital still ill. The result was that more people flocked to Longwe, and M'mbelwa gave an unofficial green light to her presence in his area. Disturbed by her popularity, the district commissioner (DC) at Mzimba summoned M'mbelwa and accused him of aiding disorder and unlawful activities. In the magistrates court, the paramount chief, advised by Charles Chinula, successfully argued that, even though some thought that Bageya was not a genuine witch finder, he was convinced that she was a legitimate healer. M'mbelwa was acquitted but Bageya was sent to Zomba Central Prison for one year.

LONGWE, JANET. Nkhata Bay district chairman of the League of Malawi Women from 1961 to 1968, Longwe attended primary school in the district and worked as a medical attendant for some time before becoming a full-time Malawi Congress Party (MCP) activist. In 1968, she became a member of Parliament for Nkhata Bay South, but left the National a.s.sembly a few years later.

LONRHO. Short for London and Rhodesia, Lonrho was established by Roland ”Tiny” Rowland, an English businessman of Polish origins, who, although based in England, had earlier worked in Southern Rhodesia. Lonrho grew into a major commercial empire with interests in the United Kingdom, the Middle East, and Africa. In Malawi, Lonrho became involved in engineering, car dealers.h.i.+ps, and agrobusiness, mainly in sugar production at Nchalo in the Lower s.h.i.+re and at Dw.a.n.gwa in Nkhotakota. Rowland became particularly close to Dr. Hastings Banda, with a direct line to the president, and this made him and his companies particularly powerful in Malawi. In the early 1990s, Lonrho began to withdraw from Malawi and sold its sugar interests to a South African firm based in Durban.

LOUDON MISSION. Located at Embangweni, near the seat of Inkosi Mzukuzuku, the mission was established in 1902 with the aid of 1,000 donated by the widow of Dr. Loudon of Hamilton, a friend of David Livingstone. This became one of the two major Ngoni-based Church of Scotland missions in Ngoniland, and the mission, headed in its formative years by the liberal Donald Fraser, produced distinguished Malawians, such as Charles Chinula and Lazalo Mkhosi Jere. The station has a hospital and had a teachers college, which, in the early 1980s, was converted into the Robert Laws Secondary School.

LOVEDALE MISSIONARY INSt.i.tUTE. Later known as the Lovedale College, and usually referred to simply as Lovedale, this major educational center in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, was established by the Free Church of Scotland in the 19th century. Dr. James Stewart, the first head of the Livingstonia Mission in the 1870s, was the princ.i.p.al of Lovedale during the last quarter of the 19th century. Livingstonia was partly modeled on Lovedale, and in the 1880s and 1890s some of the students who had distinguished themselves at Livingstonia and even at Blantyre were sent for further training at Lovedale. In the early 1900s, Lovedale was headed by James Henderson, formerly of the Overtoun Inst.i.tute at Khondowe.

LUBANI, LALI (?1966). This prominent Blantyre businessman and politician was, from the 1940s to his death in July 1966, a strong supporter of the nationalist cause. With little Western education, Lubani worked for the Central Africa Transport Company (CATCO) as a driver and mechanic, and, in 1946, he and his friend Lawrence Makata and others in the employ of transport firms formed the Nyasaland African Drivers a.s.sociation. By 1960, the organization, which later became the Transport and Allied Workers Union, was one the largest and most influential a.s.sociations of workers in Nyasaland. In 1948, he resigned to become a full-time businessman, mainly as a transporter and brick maker. Always generous with his money, Lubani, a devout Muslim, used some of his profits to establish a school where children of African Muslims could receive Islamic and Western education. He also gave, regularly, financial a.s.sistance to Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) leaders to ease administrative and transport problems. In 1960, he became one of the most respected members of the National Executive Committee of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP); he also held important positions in local and national Islamic organizations.

LUBWA. Located in Bemba country on the western sh.o.r.es of Lake Bangweulu, northern Zambia, this was the site of the Livingstonia Mission station initially headed by David Julizya Kaunda, father of Kenneth Kaunda, first president of Zambia. Kenneth Kaunda was born and brought up at Lubwa.

LUCHENZA. Located in the center of the tea-growing area, Luchenza sits on the border of Thyolo and Mulanje districts, and has an important railway station and commercial center. In August 1953, it was the scene of a conflict between Basil Tennent, a planter, and African employees and a local chief. The underlying cause of the problem lay in longstanding land issues, but the incident reached national importance partly because it coincided with the introduction of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and unpopular agricultural and conservation measures. Luchenza is also widely known as the home of the Luchenza Flying Club, which was established in 1933.

LUGARD, FREDERICK DENHAM (18581945). One of the major empire builders in the 19th and 20th centuries, Lugard's initial serious contact with Africa was the Lake Malawi area, which he visited in 1887 while on sick leave from his Norfolk Regiment based at Gibraltar. While on a brief stop in Mozambique, Lt. H. E. O'Neill, the British consul there, convinced him to go to the Lake Malawi area to help fight the Swahili-Arabs at Karonga. Although two years later, Captain Lugard left the region without subduing Mlozi bin Kazbadema, the Swahili-Arab leader, the British army officer had begun to develop an interest in the subject of British imperial expansion in Africa. He left military service and devoted the next 50 years to imperial issues, establis.h.i.+ng himself as the foremost theorist in British colonial policy. He would serve in Hong Kong and in other parts of Africa, including Uganda and Nigeria, the structure of which he created. Lord Lugard died in 1942, after becoming a baron. Among the books he wrote are The Rise of Our East African Empire (Vols. I & II, 1893), Political Memorandum (1906), and the Dual Mandate (1929).

LUNDU. Dynasty of Mang'anja chiefs located in the Lower s.h.i.+re, tracing their origins to the original Kalonga, the founder of the Maravi state. Like other dynasties a.s.sociated with the expansion of the Maravi in the 16th century, Lundu belonged to the Phiri matriclan. Much a.s.sociated with the M'bona religious order, the original Lundu headquarters were at Mbewe-ya-Mitengo, from where, in an attempt to control the ivory trade, they expanded southward toward the Zambezi River and westward to the Lolo and Makua regions.

LUNGU, MORDECAI MALANI (19301993). Born near Euthini, Mzimba district, Lungu graduated from Domasi Teacher's College, became a member of Parliament for Mzimba North in 1966, and, three years later, was a.s.signed to the Ministry of Education. In July 1977, he was appointed regional minister for the north and, in the early 1980s, he was appointed speaker of Parliament, a position he held until his death. A loyal party man, he resisted change to multiparty democracy and became an active spokesman for the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) during 199193, as the country moved toward the first free elections in over 30 years.

LUNGUZI, MACWILLIAMS (?1997). Born in Dedza district, where he also went to school before attending the police training school, after regular duties he joined the Special Branch (security), and for some time was attached to Malawi emba.s.sies abroad. He had a meteoric rise in the police force and, in 1990, he was promoted to inspector general. He remained in that position until the United Democratic Party (UDF) formed a new government in July 1994. Lunguzi, who had already been identified with the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), now became a full-time official of the party and was considered an effective organizer. He died in a car accident on the KasunguLilongwe road.

M.

MABILABO. The southernmost Ngoni chiefdom under the M'mbelwa and his area, bordering with Kasungu district, is also known as Mabilabo. The area is now the site of the Kanyika mine where large deposits of uranium have been confirmed.

MACDONALD, REV. DUFF. After serving as minister of the Pultenytown parish near Caithness, Scotland, since 1852, Duff Macdonald arrived in the s.h.i.+re Highlands in July 1878 to a.s.sume the heads.h.i.+p of the Church of Scotland Mission, which Henry Henderson had established at Blantyre two years earlier. Under him, the mission became involved in the civil administration of the mission station, leading to abuses, such as the burning of villages and corporal punishment. The mission did not have a large budget and had to depend on lay missionaries, such as George Fenwick, who were unfit for missionary work. In 1881, Macdonald and other missionaries, including Fenwick and John Buchanan, were dismissed from mission service after a Foreign Mission Committee inquiry showed that the Blantyre Mission had been badly managed. In the year of his dismissal, Duff Macdonald published Africana, a two-volume work dealing with the early history of the mission and with the customs of the African peoples among whom he had worked.

MACDONALD, SIR MALCOLM JOHN (19011981). Son of Ramsay Macdonald, British prime minister in the early 1930s, Malcolm Macdonald was a Labour Party member of Parliament and in the 1930s became secretary of state for the colonies. He accepted that decolonization was inevitable and opposed the amalgamation of the Rhodesias and Nyasaland because he feared it would not be in the best interests of Africans. In the early 1960s, Macdonald became the governor of, and high commissioner, to Kenya.

MACHEL, SAMORA MOISES (19331986). First president of Mozambique, Samora Machel was born in the Gaza region and attended Catholic schools before training as a nurse. In 1963, he went into exile in Tanzania where he became an active member of the Liberation Front of Mozambique (FRELIMO), gradually rising up its ranks until 1970 when he became head of the liberation movement. In June 1975, he became president of the newly decolonized Mozambique, but, by the end of the 1970s, his country was at war with Resistencia Nacional Mocambicana (RENAMO), the antigovernment guerrilla movement, which was at first supported by Rhodesia and, later, by South Africa. Machel accused Dr. Hastings Banda's government of giving logistic a.s.sistance to RENAMO and threatened to bomb important installations in Malawi. On October 1986, Machel died when his plane crashed into the Libombo Mountains, on the South African side of the Mozambique border.

MACHINGA. Formerly known as Kasupe, this district was once a division of Zomba district. Machinga boma, the district headquarters, is the most scenic, being located on the southern slope of the Zomba range of mountains facing the Rift Valley where the s.h.i.+re River flows southward. Machinga boma was originally established as a post to guard against the Yao chiefs Kawinga and Liwonde.

MACKENZIE, BISHOP CHARLES FREDERICK (18251862). Bishop Mackenzie, head of the first Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) party, was educated at Caius College, Cambridge, where he also taught for a brief period. In 1852, he was ordained in the Church of England, after which he worked as a minister in the Cambridge area. Two years later, he became an archdeacon of Natal, South Africa. His return to England in 1859 coincided with efforts to a.s.semble the first UMCA mission party. The UMCA was a response to David Livingstone's famous speech at Cambridge University in December 1857, appealing to the British to follow up on his work in Africa. The universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Durham, and Dublin set up a joint mission, which became the UMCA. Mackenzie was appointed its head and, in 1860, the party set off for Africa via Cape Town where, on New Year's Day 1861, Mackenzie was consecrated bishop ”To the tribes dwelling in the neighborhood of Lake Nyasa and the River s.h.i.+re.” From Kongone the Pioneer carrying the UMCA group traveled up the Zambezi River and then the s.h.i.+re until they reached a group of Mang'anja villages under Chief Mankhokwe who ruled the area as far north as Lake Chilwa. As the chief would only allow them a brief stay in his area, they moved on to the more friendly Chibisa's country farther north, and then finally to Magomero, which they reached on 19 July, and made it their headquarters.

Magomero was then at the center at the slave trade in which the Mang'anja were the main subjects of Yao raiders. Mackenzie saw it as his duty to intervene whenever occasion called. Soon Magomero became a home for refugees escaping from the slavers, and Mackenzie and his colleagues even engaged in battles with the Yao who viewed the mission as interfering in their business. In January 1862, Mackenzie accompanied his colleague, Henry Burrup, to the Lower s.h.i.+re where they would meet the latter's sister. By the time they got to the mouth of the Luo, both were ill with diarrhea and malaria, which they could not treat, having lost their medicine chest on the way. Mackenzie died there on 31 January and was buried at Chiromo on the left bank of the s.h.i.+re River. Three weeks later, Burrup died at Magomero. Mackenzie's body was later exhumed and transferred to the Blantyre church named after him.

On 25 April, the remaining UMCA party left Magomero for Chibisa's area and, when William Tozer arrived in June the following year to take over as the new bishop, the mission moved farther south to Mount Morambala. The new site was no better than Magomero and, in 1864, the UMCA moved to Zanzibar where it trained most of the Africans who would take part in the renewed mission efforts in the Lake Malawi region 20 years later. See also AMBALI, AUGUSTINE; EDUCATION; KILEKWA, PETRO.

MACLEOD, IAIN NORMAN (19131970). M. H. Macmillan's secretary of state for the colonies from early 1959 to October 1961, Macleod ordered the release of Dr. Hastings Banda from prison in Gwelo (Gweru), Southern Rhodesia, and met him in Zomba on 1 April 1960. He then arranged for the Lancaster House Const.i.tutional talks, set the timetable for the first general elections in 1961, and replaced Sir Robert Armitage as governor with Sir Glyn Jones, thereby creating a more friendly atmosphere for political change in the colony.

MACMILLAN, MAURICE HAROLD (18941986). British prime minister from January 1957 to October 1963, he appointed Iain Macleod as colonial secretary, appointed the Devlin Commission and the Monckton Commission and, in his famous 1960 ”winds of change” speech during his visit to South Africa, advised the South African government to accept the inevitability of change. In February of that year, he stopped briefly in Nyasaland and, while attending a luncheon at the Ryalls Hotel, Malawi Congress Party (MCP) protestors reacted to police action, leading to a minor scuffle, which in turn led to the Southworth Commission of Inquiry. In 1963, Macmillan retired from active politics, and in 1984 he became the first Earl of Stockton.

MAFINGA MOUNTAINS. Lying in a northsouth direction, this range of mountains forms part of the border between northeastern Zambia and Malawi and is an important source of water for many people in northern Malawi, especially those in Chitipa district.

MAGOMERO. Located in north Chiradzulu district, Magomero features prominently in the history of 19th- and 20th-century Malawi as the site of the first Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) mission, as the home of the A. L. Bruce Estates, and, from the 1960s to the early 1990s, as the location of the Nasawa Young Pioneer training base. See also CHILEMBWE, JOHN; MACKENZIE, CHARLES.

MAGUIRE, CECIL. Brother of Rochfort Maguire, Cecil Rhodes' private secretary, Captain Maguire was the first commander of the military force that Harry Johnston established in 1891. The force consisted of 71 Indian soldiers, over half of whom were Sikhs, a few Zanzibar citizens, and, later, some local people. Maguire became central to Johnston's plans of establis.h.i.+ng the Pax Britannica in the Lake Malawi region and, in December 1891, he was killed in action against the Yao chief, Makanjila. The British built a fort in the area, named it after him, and used it as a staging post to subdue Makanjila and Makandanji in 1894.

MAIZE. Maize remains the staple food crop in Malawi as well as the princ.i.p.al crop of the smallholder sector. Hybrid varieties are grown mainly for sale to the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) and other markets, but increases in fertilizer prices tend to reduce the acreage devoted to high-yielding maize types. Export was relatively easy and profitable in 1983 and 1984 when drought visited a number of neighboring countries; maize exports peaked in 1984 but, in the next year, affected by excessively heavy rains, production was 3 percent below the 1984 record crop. A hot spell affecting the 1987 maize harvest forced the government to import a quant.i.ty of the grain, not an easy decision considering the nation's campaign for food self-sufficiency. To meet the widespread shortages, especially in Nkhata Bay, Chikwawa, and Nsanje districts, the government began a free food distribution program in late 1987.

Weather problems (drought, heat, dry spells, flooding) continued to plague the nation's main staple. In 1990, maize production had again fallen and the severe shortage had to be met with government distribution of tons of relief maize. The Nsanje district was without sufficient food, although the government denied its people were starving. In addition to the vagaries of nature, maize production is hampered by the fact that 60 percent of Malawi's smallholders have insufficient land on which to grow maize. They have to survive by wage employment and depend on the market for their food. Additionally, 80 percent of all smallholders have no access to credit and only a quarter have access to or use fertilizer. With ma.s.sive devaluations of the Malawi kwacha in the 1990s, the price of fertilizer has increased, making it more difficult to purchase.

In the 1990s, there were two droughts that adversely affected the production of maize, forcing the government to import from South Africa and Zimbabwe. In 199899 and 19992000, maize production was good. However, in the 20002001 season, parts of the country experienced floods, which had an impact on harvests, the shortfall amounting to 237,000 metric tons. Although some Malawian families experienced a food shortage in 2005, generally maize production has been consistently good since 2004 when the government embarked on the Agricultural Inputs Subsidy Programme (AISP) through which coupons were given to smallholder farmers to buy fertilizers and maize seed at reduced prices. In the 20056 season, 1.1 million tons were produced, of which 4,000 tons were exported to Zimbabwe, and in the 20078 season, the harvest was the best in 10 years. The improvement continued in the 20089 season. The year 200910 witnessed erratic rains, and it was feared that this would result in poor harvests. See also AGRICULTURE; ECONOMY.

MAJERE-HENGA. See MHANGO, KAMBONDOMA.

MAKAMO, NG'ONOMO (?1907). A zansi-Ngoni of Thonga origins, Ng'onomo was the most powerful induna (counselor) of the M'mbelwas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Ng'onomo was a key policy formulator and, after the M'mbelwa, the most dominant person in Ngoni country. Generally considered an uncompromising hawk, he was the mastermind of continued raids into the Nyika-Karonga area and eastward into the Luangwa region, long after the Ngoni had ceased their warlike tendencies. Ng'onomo was suspicious of Western influence, strongly resisted British authority, and was prepared to send Ngoni warriors to a.s.sist other Africans, including Mpezeni and Mwase Kasungu, in staving off European rule. Missionaries found him difficult to deal with, and on several occasions he warned them not to interfere with the Ngoni way of life, which he was determined to protect.

MAKANDANJI. This was one of the Yao chiefs who strongly resisted British rule in the 19th century. In 1894, he and Zarafi went to the a.s.sistance of Makanjila, but the British, led by Captain Edwards and fighting from nearby Fort Manguire, defeated them.

MAKANJILA. Mountainous area in northeastern Mangochi district, named after its Yao ruling family. Of the Masaninga section of the Yao, the Makanjila of the 1880s and 1890s mobilized his people and strongly resisted the extension of British authority in the region. In turn, he and several other chiefs became subjects of British punitive expeditions, and it was during one such action in 1991 that Makanjila's men killed Captain Cecil Maguire, the British commander. In 1894, Makanjila was defeated and his subjects were forced to accept British rule.

MAKATA. Of the Mangoche section of the Yao, this chief and his people settled in the Blantyre area in the 1860s.

MAKATA, LAWRENCE (?1962). This very successful Blantyre-based Yao businessman, was a political activist and member of the central executive of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). For most of the 1940s, Makata was a driver and mechanic in the employ of Hall's Garage, and he and his friend Lali Lubani founded the Nyasaland African Motor Transport Workers Union (NAMTWU), one of the first labor union organizations for Africans in Nyasaland. In 1948, he left Hall's and became an independent businessman, making bricks and becoming a leading transporter. He maintained close links with nationalist politicians and regularly supported the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) financially, and was a political detainee during the State of Emergency in 1959. Makata died in a car accident.

MAKHUMULA, JAMES LEANERD (19322005). One of Malawi's most successful businessmen, Makhumula was born and raised in Zomba district and worked for the government as a mechanic and motor vehicle examiner before retiring from the civil service in the 1970s. In the early 1980s, he started the Yanu Yanu Bus Company, which was the first nationally operated transportation business owned by a Malawian. In the 1990s, he became active in the political reform movement, was a founding member of the United Democratic Front (UDF), and in 1994 was elected to Parliament and appointed to the cabinet. In 1999, he was reelected to the National a.s.sembly as a member for the Zomba Nsondole const.i.tuency. This time he did not become a government minister but remained national treasurer of the UDF and an influential member of the central executive of the party. He fell out of favor of the leaders.h.i.+p of the party.

MAKHUMULA-NKHOMA, PEARSON (19331998). Former minister for the southern region, Makhumula-Nkhoma was born in Zomba district and educated at the Henry Henderson Inst.i.tute and Zomba Catholic School. He qualified as a teacher at Domasi Teacher's College and later attended Bristol University for one year. As a teacher-education officer he taught in the south, served as an educational attache at the Malawi Emba.s.sy in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., and, in 1971, entered the National a.s.sembly as a member of Parliament for Zomba. In the following year, President Hastings Banda appointed him minister of local government. In 1977, he became minister for the southern region but, in the early 1980s, he fell out of favor with the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), losing his positions in the party and government. He became a director of the Yanu Yanu Bus Company, one of the most successful indigenous enterprises in Malawi.

MAKWAKWA, HENRY. Born in Makwakawa village, Inkosi Mpherembe's area, Mzimba district, Henry Makwakwa went to the Overtoun Inst.i.tution where in the 1940s he was ordained as a minister in the Livingstonia synod. During World War II, he served as a chaplain and, upon demobilization, he served in several areas of the northern province before being posted to Kalambwe Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) in Nkhata Bay district. A politically active minister, his church received wide publicity in 1958 when, while Dr. Hastings Banda was on his introductory tour of the country, and prior to his formal takeover of the presidency of the Nyasaland African Congress at the organization's convention at Nkhata Bay, Makwakwa invited him to preach on Sunday. This was the first such occasion for Banda since his return, and he and Makwakwa agreed that the sermon should focus on the story of the prodigal son as narrated in the Bible and in Luke 15:1132. As Banda explained it, the significance of the sermon was that he had lived outside the country for over 40 years, and that humility, courage, and honesty were important guidelines as he embarked on the leaders.h.i.+p that would lead the country to decolonization.

On 3 March 1959, Makwakwa was arrested at Ekwendeni where he was on a political engagement, and the security forces sent him to detention at Kanjedza camp in Limbe. After the general elections in 1961, he was appointed as one of the government public relations officers for the northern province, and when the position was abolished in 1968, he retired to his village in Mpherembe.

MAKWINJA, ABITI DOROTHY. Chair of the League of Malawi Women in Zomba district from the early 1970s to the early 1980s when she died. With Mrs. Tsamwa of Blantyre and Hilda Manjamkhosi of Lilongwe, Makwinja was one of the most powerful women in Malawi. Like the two others, she had direct access to President Hastings Banda, who valued her views, and took action accordingly. Abiti Makwinja was a recipient of housing built for some Women Leaguers at the direction of Banda.

MAKWINJA, ALEXANDER. Early Seventh-Day Baptist Church convert and student of Joseph Booth, Makwinja was a Yao born near Blantyre. He met Booth in the 1890s and, in 1909, was one of the first students at a school Booth had established at Park Hotel in Pretoria, South Africa. When he returned to Nyasaland in 1910, he became a member of the Watch Tower movement and an a.s.sociate of Eliot Musokwa Kamwana Chirwa. He headed the Watch Tower office at s.h.i.+loh near Blantyre. In 1915, he was arrested on suspicion of being an a.s.sociate of John Chilembwe. In 1925, he began to preach again but the Seventh-Day Baptists in the United States rejected his attempts to work with them, and by the time they changed their mind in the 1940s, he had decided to work independently of external support.

MALAMULO. Located in Thyolo district, this is the home of the first and largest station of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Malawi. Established in 1902 as the Plainfield Industrial Mission, Malamulo became the major center for Seventh-Day believers, training African teachers, religious leaders, and hospital workers. It is from here that the local church workers left to establish outstations such as Matandani and Mwanza in the south and Mombera, Luwazi, and Chambo in the northern province. In all these rural areas, schools and health clinics were opened. Malamulo has a large hospital, which remains one of the best-equipped health facilities in the country. See also HEALTH SERVICES.

MALAWI. Etymologically meaning ”fire flames,” the term has been a.s.sociated in history with the southwestern lake region. Malawi or Maravi also has an ethnic designation referring to peoples who inhabited an area north of the Zambezi River and south

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