Part 15 (1/2)
NATIVES ON PRIVATE ESTATES BILL, 1928. This law dictated that Africans living on private estates had to pay rent to the estate owner or work for wages. If he chose the former, the landlord could a.s.sign him a plot of land on which to grow crops, which the landlord would then buy to generate the income needed for the rent. Default in payment of rent or behavior deemed to be unacceptable by the landlord could, according to the ordinance, result in eviction after six months' notice. Although the ordinance also authorized the government to reserve more land for those evicted, the problem of land in the s.h.i.+re Highlands would remain unresolved until the postcolonial period. See also ABRAHAMS COMMISSION.
NCHALO. This area south of Chikwawa boma has been a.s.sociated with sugar production since the mid-1960s. Originally a joint partners.h.i.+p between the Malawi government and Lonrho, the sugarcane plantations were privatized in 1997 and sold to a consortium dominated by the Ilovo company of Natal, South Africa. See also PRIVATIZATION.
NCOZANA, REV. SILAS. General secretary of the synod of Blantyre of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) from 1985 to 1995, Ncozana spent his early life in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), holds an MA in theology from the University of Toronto, and a PhD in the same subject from the University of Aberdeen. At the height of the agitation for political reform in the early 1990s, Ncozana played a significant role behind the scenes and through the Public Affairs Committee (PAC), thus ensuring a smooth transition from dictators.h.i.+p to democracy in Malawi. He served as Malawi's amba.s.sador to Germany and taught at the University in KwazuluNatal for a time before returning to Malawi to lecture at the Theological College in Zomba.
NDALI. Name of a people and language spoken by people in the Misuku Hills in Chitipa district. The Ndali migrated from Undali in southern Tanganyika, settling amongst the indigenous Sukwa. CiNdali, the language of the Ndali, and, ciSukwa, spoken by the Sukwa, are mutually intelligible.
NDEMA, G. E. This former minister of local government was born at Naisi in Zomba district. After elementary education, he worked in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) from which he was deported in 1959 because of his involvement in African politics. Back home he became an activist in the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), and in 1964 was elected to Parliament, later becoming minister of local government. In 1970, he was imprisoned without trial because he was suspected of being in league with Gomile k.u.mtumanje, who was accused of being behind the Chilobwe murders. Ndema lost his property, which was not returned to him after his release in 1977. In the early 1990s, the MCP unsuccessfully attempted to persuade him to rejoin the party so he could help stem the tide of reform in Zomba district.
NDHLOVU, CHIWERE. Former induna (counselor), Chiwere Ndhlovu broke away from the main M'mbelwa Ngoni group after the death of Zw.a.n.gendaba, taking with him two princes, Msakambewa Jere and Vuso Jere, and settling near Mvera in Dowa, heartland of the Chewa. He a.s.sumed political authority in his new area, and it was he who gave permission to the missionaries of the Dutch Reformed Church to establish their presence in the region.
NDIRANDE. High-density area below Ndirande Mountain, one of the elevations in the BlantyreLimbe area, Ndirande was originally inhabited by the Mang'anja before the area was conquered by the Yao in the early 1860s. When the Blantyre Mission was established in 1876, the area had several Yao-led villages, including those of the Mataka, Masangano, and Mlanga, all under the jurisdiction of Chief Kapeni. As Blantyre Mission and Blantyre itself grew into a major town, attracting labor into the area, many African newcomers went to live in Ndirande. Although, technically, Ndirande fell under the African Trust Land, it was subject to the authority of the town and country planning section of the munic.i.p.ality of Blantyre. Today, Ndirande falls within the city of Blantyre and is regulated by its bylaws; however, there are sections that can best be described as dominated by informal and unregulated building structures. Residents of Ndirande fondly call their towns.h.i.+p ”republic of Ndirande,” mainly because of its ”wild” nature and independence of action. During the State of Emergency in 1959, the area was particularly hostile to colonial authority and was the hiding place for many activists; during the Cabinet Crisis of 1964 and for months after the event, Ndirande was noted for its antigovernment opinion; and in the early 1990s it was much identified with the political reform movement.
NDOVI, RABAN PEMBA (?1973). This politician and first organizing secretary general of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) was born at Chilumba, Karonga district, and after basic education, left Nyasaland in the early 1950s, finally arriving in England. There he became interested in the politics of decolonization and, soon after the MCP was formed in 1959, he returned home, where Orton Chirwa appointed him national organizing secretary of the new party. Ndovi adopted a very militant approach to Malawian nationalist politics, often advocating the burning of bridges and an uncompromising att.i.tude toward the government and Europeans working in Malawi. When Hastings Banda was released from prison in Gweru in April 1960 and took over leaders.h.i.+p of the party, he dismissed Ndovi from his position. Ndovi formed his own Convention of African National Union, which tended to attract only a few left-wing people. By 1964, Ndovi had left Malawi to live in exile in Zambia. He died in a car accident.
NENO. This area in Mwanza district is known for producing some of the best oranges in Malawi. Neno is also one of the earliest Roman Catholic mission stations in the country, dating to 1906.
NESS, J. R. Chairman of the Settlers' and Residents' a.s.sociation of Nyasaland (SARAN), Ness was the son of a former chairman of the Imperial Tobacco Company who had been part of the hunt for John Chilembwe following the rebellion in 1915. Educated in South Africa, a country of which he became a citizen, until 1947, when he returned to Nyasaland, Ness was active in European settler politics, especially in the determination to maintain European authority in the area. In 1961, he and others founded SARAN, which sought to fight const.i.tutional changes in Malawi; upon decolonization, he left the country.
NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY. See CHAKUAMBA, GWANDANGULBE ”GWANDA.”
NEWSPAPERS. The first news-oriented periodical in Nyasaland and the Zambezia region to be published at regular intervals was Life and Work, started by Rev. Clement Scott in 1888, and produced at the Blantyre Mission Press. The initial production staff of Scott and his students, led by Mungo Chisuse, a.s.sembled the printing press with the help of manuals and, in a similar way, taught themselves to operate it. Life and Work contained articles covering a variety of fields, including mission work, botany, agriculture, and anthropology. Almost invariably it also contained news of a political nature, especially the process of the establishment of British authority in the area. In 1892, Life and Work changed its name to Life and Work in British Central Africa; at about that time, Dr. Robert Laws of the Livingstonia Mission, farther north, started a similar magazine, the Aurora. At a later stage, some Christian missions published weekly newspapers, and they included the Presbyterians' Kuanika, issued in chiChewa, and the Catholic Church's Moni and The African, published in chiChewa and English.
In the meantime, anxious to counteract the influence of Blantyre missionaries, whose consistent criticism of his policies and style of rule did not please him, Sir Harry Johnston, head of the British administration in the Lake Malawi area, established his own publication, the British Central Africa Gazette (BCAG). Financed by the government ostensibly to communicate its ideas and programs, the BCAG tried to promote disunity within the Blantyre Mission and between the latter and other mission societies in the region. As time progressed, the BCAG reverted to the role of public notices and announcing legislature and government notices.
In 1895, R. S. Hynde, a former Blantyre Mission layworker based at Domasi who had become a businessman and planter, started the first real newspaper, the Central African Planter, which championed imperialism and European settler business in the country. Two years later, Hynde changed the newspaper's name to the Central African Times, appearing fortnightly; in 1909, it became the Nyasaland Times, a name it retained until 1964 when it changed to the Malawi Times; by this time, it was appearing twice a week. Throughout the colonial period, the Nyasaland Times supported the government, as long as it protected the interests of Europeans in the country. On the other hand, until the 1960s, the newspaper always opposed African aspirations for independence from colonial authority. Its owners.h.i.+p changed at various times. At one stage, it was part of the chain of newspapers owned by Lord Thompson of Fleet Street, but major changes began to take place to the paper in April 1969, when President Hastings Banda personally bought 49.7 percent of shares in the Blantyre Printing and Publis.h.i.+ng Company (BP&PC), owners of the newspaper. From then onward, the Malawi Times toed the government line and, by the early 1980s when Banda had a much greater control of the BP&PC, the newspaper had became completely identified with the views of the government. It became a daily newspaper and increased its coverage of international news.
In 1959, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) founded the Malawi News and, by the 1980s, the newspaper was also printed by BP&PC and published on Sat.u.r.days. This meant that the only national newspapers in the country were controlled by the MCP and its government. During the agitation for democratization of Malawi, both newspapers campaigned for a status quo. However, by the end of 1992, the pro-democracy organizations had established their own newspapers. The Malawi Financial Post, edited by Alaudin Osman, a journalist of wide experience, was the first to appear. It was followed by many others: the Malawi Democrat, which was the Alliance for Democracy's (AFORD) official newspaper; others included the Nation, the UDF News, the Monitor, the Michiru Sun, the Financial Observer, the New Express, the Citizen, and the Tribune, all of which supported the United Democratic Front (UDF). The Guardian leaned toward the MCP and, while committed to political reform, the Independent, edited by Janet Karim, lived up to its name. Some of these newspapers were printed by the BP&PC, an uncomfortable arrangement in view of the fact that the firm was owned by Banda and it also published the Malawi News and Daily Times.
The Malawi Democrat, the Michiru Sun, and the Malawi Financial Post, among others, folded within a few years of the defeat of the MCP government. The Nation became stronger and, with the Daily Times, emerged as Malawi's established daily newspaper; others, such as the Chronicle and the Malawi News, remained weekend newspapers. By 2005, however, there were two regular daily newspapers, the Daily Times and The Nation, and three weekend newspapers, the Malawi News, the Weekend Nation, and the Sat.u.r.day and Sunday Times.
Also typical of the era of political reform was the emergence of fearless cartoonists such as Brian Hara and Richard Mwale, whose sketches expressed serious or satirical commentaries of a political, social, and economic nature. Among the cartoons that began to appear at this time are Zabweka, Pewani, Takataka, Country Rat and Town Rat, Che Maliosi, and Gossip Computer. Freedom of expression was beginning to be accepted in Malawi. However, this new freedom remained under threat from the government. In February 2011, the government amended Section 26 of the Penal Code to empower the minister of information to censor any publication and circulation of publications determined to be against ”public interest.” This tightening up was widely rejected at home and abroad.
NGAMWANE, CHIEF. In August 1953, this chief in Thyolo district was arrested and briefly detained in Blantyre following a conflict between some of his people and Basil Tennet, a planter at Luchenza. He was released only after his subjects rioted, damaging property belonging to the government and European planters and barricading roads leading to Thyolo boma. The commission of inquiry set up by the governor, Sir Geoffrey Colby, to establish the cause of the riots concluded that the instability of the ”Native Administration” in the district was to blame for the unrest, exacerbated by the increasing shortage of land in the area. See also NTONDEZA, CHIEF.
NGEMELA, ISWANI BEN. Of Nyakyusa and Ngonde parentage, Ben Ngemela was an early convert to the Last Church of G.o.d and His Christ and became one of Jordan Msumba's main pastors in Karonga. In the 1920s and 1930s, Msumba and Tigone Munthali were largely responsible for spreading the church's beliefs in the Karonga district and across the Songwe in Unyakyusa. In both areas, the Last Church of G.o.d and His Christ is often referred to as Ichalichi cha Ngemela (Ngemela's church).
NGERENGE. This Ngonde area in north Karonga, traditionally ruled by the Kilupula, is one of the major rice-producing areas in Malawi. Ngerenge, home of the Kilupula Rice Growers Co-operative Union, is also a noted cotton-growing region. Much earlier, in 1892, Dr. David Kerr Cross opened a station at Ngerenge, thereby establis.h.i.+ng a Livingstonia Mission presence in the border region of British Central Africa and German East Africa.
NGONDE. The Ngonde are the inhabitants of the northwestern sh.o.r.e of Lake Malawi and related by language (Kyangonde) and customs to the Nyakyusa of southern Tanganyika. Around 1600, the kingdom emerged in the area between the Songwe River and Chilumba, and it was in existence when the British colonized the area at the end of the 19th century. The traditional rulers still use the t.i.tle Kyungu. A major cattle-keeping people, the Ngonde are better known as producers of rice; the Kilupula Rice Growers Co-operative Union was based in northern Ungonde, as the Ngonde country is called. The Ngonde are also a.s.sociated with cotton production.
NGONI. Deriving from the South African term Nguni, this word is used to refer to the descendants of Zw.a.n.gendaba and Mputa Maseko and their followers. Those led by the former would settle mainly in Mzimba and in Chipata, Mchinji, and Dowa districts. The ones in Mzimba const.i.tuted the main group of Zw.a.n.gendaba's followers and were led by Mhlahlo Jere who took the name M'mbelwa, which became the t.i.tle of the rulers of the Ngoni in this region. M'mbelwa's people came to be known as M'mbelwa Ngoni. Those who went to Chipata and Mchiji are called the Mpezeni Ngoni. Mputa Maseko's group, usually referred to as the Maseko Ngoni, settled mainly in Ntcheu and Dedza districts; a small section moved to Thyolo district.
NGULUDI. Located in Chiradzulu district, this was one of the main sites of Donald Malota's enterprise, which in 1903 was sold to the Montfort Marist Catholic missionaries. The mission developed it into a major educational and health center. It is also the home of the Catholic University of Malawi, established in 2006.
NGUNANA, SHADRACH. Ngunana was one of the first a.s.sistants from Lovedale Missionary Inst.i.tute who joined the Livingstonia Mission at Cape Maclear in 1876. His work at the mission involved mostly teaching at the school, which he headed until he died of consumption in 1877. He was buried at the site of the first Livingstonia Mission station.
NGWIRI, JOHN JAMES (19301992). Secretary to the president and cabinet (SPC) from 1975 to 1985, John Ngwiri came from Ntcheu district but spent most of his early life in East Africa, first in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika, where his father worked and, later, in Uganda and Kenya, where he worked for the East Africa Community. He returned to Malawi in the early 1960s and at independence joined the foreign service, serving in Malawi missions abroad. In 1975, he became princ.i.p.al secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, and five years later he replaced George Jaffu as SPC and head of the Malawi Civil Service. An astute man who mixed easily with all ranks of the civil service, he was instrumental in establis.h.i.+ng the Civil Service Club, of which he became an active member. Ngwiri also rose to be a very influential advisor to President Hastings Banda. In 1985, he fell out of favor with Banda and was replaced by Sam Kakhobwe. He retired to his farm in Ntcheu where he died. His name would feature prominently in the Mtegha Commission Report and in the Mwanza trials because the death in Mwanza of the four politicians took place in 1983 during his tenure as SPC, and there was much speculation as to the role he played in the chain of events leading to the murders.
NHLANE, CHIPATULA. An influential and hardliner Ngoni induna (councillor) during the Ngoni settlement in northern Malawi, Chipatula Nhlane was a.s.signed by Mhlahlo Jere (M'mbelwa I) to the eastern section of their new domain, which at that time was supervised from Kaning'nina, just east of Mzuzu. In this capacity, he was in charge of the Tonga who had been forced into Ngoni jurisdiction. Soon after his death in 1877, the Tonga revolted and returned to their homes. In September 1878, Chipatula's successor was the first notable ”northern” Ngoni to be contacted by the Livingstonia missionaries, namely Dr. Robert Laws, William Koyi, Fred Zarakuti, and James Stewart, and he was also the person who in turn established firm links between the missionaries and the rest of the Ngoni hierarchy. Although the Nhlane village moved westward to Hoho in central Mzimba, the Chipatula Nhlane family continued to play a major role not only in the consolidation of the Ngoni rule in the northern Lake Malawi area but also in the development of the often difficult relations.h.i.+p between the Ngoni and the Europeans.
NHLANE, DANIEL (?1917). Son of Chipatula Nhlane, Daniel was one of the early M'mbelwa Ngoni converts to Christianity. In 1887, he and Andrew Mkochi opened the first school at Chimtunga Jere's village, a step regarded as a major advance in missionary efforts in the area, especially in that Chimtunga himself would attend cla.s.ses. Nhlane's involvement in the William Zeil incident in 1899 shows the extent to which he had become committed to missionary work but also demonstrates his determination to protect Ngoni paramountcy in the area. In 1902, Daniel Nhlane, his brother, Simon, and Andrew Mkochi were appointed as evangelists and, two years later, they attended the new evangelist course at Khondowe, the headquarters of the Livingstonia Mission. A great preacher and composer of church hymns, Daniel completed the theological course at Khondowe but served a long period of probation while waiting to be ordained. He pleaded with the mission to relax its unnecessarily strict ordination rules for Africans so that he and others could become ministers. In 1915, he implored, ”Let us be ordained before we die,” but that was not to be, for he died two years later, still not a minister.
NJILIMA, DUNCAN. A businessman and planter in Chiradzulu who was one of the most committed followers of John Chilembwe. Njilima was educated at Blantyre Mission and, sometime between 1892 and 1894, was a house servant of Bishop Wilfred Hornby, Nyasaland's head of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA). He briefly worked at Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia, and, on his return to Nyasaland, became a major planter at Nsoni, Chiradzulu district. There he had two estates, one of well over 100 acres, and the second, which he jointly owned with Hugh and Gordon Mataka, was also 100 acres. On his larger holding, he had a labor force of about 30 people, who helped him grow cotton, maize, and tobacco. Njilima also had general stores at Nangundi, Chiradzulu district, and at Ntumbi, Ntcheu district; he also owned property in Blantyre. Like other African businessmen of the time, Njilima felt that the labor laws discriminated against him in that, unlike his European counterparts, his employees could not transfer money from the unpopular labor tax. As a consequence of the law, labor costs were high for African entrepreneurs.
On the night of 22 January 1915, Njilima's party of mainly house servants and overseers, working for Europeans in Blantyre, would meet at a rendezvous with other rebelling groups led by David Kaduya, Stephen Mkulitchi, and John Gray Kufa. Kaduya, Mkulitchi, and Njilima and their men met as arranged and, together, they attacked the Mandala General Store in the town. Njilima was arrested within a few days and executed. His two sons, Fred and Matthew, were given an education in the United States, where they had been taken by Landon Cheek. Frederick later became active in the Southern Province a.s.sociation. See also AFRICAN WELFARE a.s.sOCIATIONS; DELANY, EMMA; NJILIMA, FREDERICK.
NJILIMA, FREDERICK (c. 1897?). Frederick Njilima, son of Duncan Njilima, was a businessman, soldier, and intrepid adventurer. In 1907, his father requested Landon Cheek, who was returning to the United States, to take his two sons, Frederick and Matthew, with him so that they could receive advanced education in that country. Financed by the Negro National Baptist Convention, John Chilembwe's affiliate organization, they attended the Natchez College High School in Mississippi; Frederick went on to study at Lincoln Ridge College, Lincoln, Kentucky, and, in 1915, he entered Kentucky State Industrial University.
When their father was executed following his part in the Chilembwe uprising, Matthew felt bitter and wanted nothing to do with the Nyasaland under colonial rule. However, Frederick was interested in pursuing his education at St. Johns College, Cambridge University, and in furthering his father's business interests. Bishop Wilfred Hornby, formerly of Nyasaland and for whom his father had worked as a house servant in the 1890s, advised Frederick that he had to atone for his father's role in the Chilembwe uprising before he could recommend him to St. John's, and that the best way was to join the British army. Frederick duly volunteered as Frederick Gresham, trained in the Irish Rifles, and then was posted to the Machine Gun Corps at Ypres, where he would serve bravely in France for three years. Wounded on 27 May 1918, he was repatriated to the Cambridge Hospital, Aldershot, England, and received the Military Medal for Bravery and a letter of commendation from the British Crown.
In October 1919, Njilima returned to Nyasaland. The government followed his movements, opened his letters, and was uncooperative in all his endeavors aimed at reviving his father's business. In the following year, Frederick unsuccessfully applied to lease 150 acres of Crown land in Lilongwe where he could grow tobacco. He farmed in Chiradzulu but also turned his attention to local politics. In 1922, he became an active member of the Southern Province Native a.s.sociation and, in the late 1920s, was a founding member of the Chiradzulu Native a.s.sociation, headed by Dr. Daniel Malekebu. Although he had an army pension of eight s.h.i.+llings a week, Frederick took up a job as a tutor at the Native Service School and, at a later stage, became a clerk in the Treasury Department. In the early 1930s, he left the country again, and after a brief stay in Southern Rhodesia and Mozambique, he went to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika, where he taught at a school and became actively involved in the Tanganyika African Civil Servants a.s.sociation. Later he taught at three of the leading African schools in that colony: Tabora Secondary School, Malangali Secondary School, and Lorenza Girls School, Mbeya.
NJULI. Located in Chiradzulu district on the BlantyreZomba Road, Njuli, a mainly Mang'anja and Lomwe area, was in the European planter zone, and at various times cotton, coffee, and tobacco were grown. Thangata was practiced here, and many supporters of John Chilembwe came from this area. It continues to be known for its coffee.
NJUYU. Located in the west central part of Mzimba district, this was one of the early capitals of the M'mbelwa Ngoni before they finally settled at their present seat at Edingeni. It was also one of the first Livingstonia Mission stations in M'mbelwa Ngoni country. In 1882, the mission posted William Koyi to Njuyu, where he was joined by other missionaries, including James Sutherland and Peter MacCallum. Three years later, Rev. Dr. Angus Elmslie arrived to take charge of the station; in the 1930s and 1940s, Njuyu was under the charge of Rev. Peter Zimema Thole.
NKHAMANGA. Plains immediately northwest of Rumphi boma and usually identified as the center of the Chikulamayembe power. It is one of the major maize and beans producing areas of Malawi.
NKHATA, ALICK (19221978). Leading broadcaster and one of the cultural icons of the Northern Zambezia region, Alick Nkhata was born in Kasama, Zambia, of a Malawian father from Nkhata Bay district and a Bemba mother. After attending local schools in Nkhata Bay, he qualified as a teacher, saw service during World War II, and, upon demobilization, became a full-time musician, composing and playing music that commented on everyday life of the peoples of Zambia and Malawi. In 1950, he was part of the Hugh Tracey team that toured the area from Kenya to South Africa recording African music. After this project, Nkhata founded a quartet and the Lusaka Radio Band with whom he recorded many popular songs in ciBemba and ciNyanja. At the same time, Nkhata became an announcer in the vernacular division of the Central African Broadcasting Services. In the early 1960s, Nkhata, a close friend of Kenneth Kaunda, wrote and played songs in support of the United National Independence Party, which was campaigning for decolonization. In 1964, he became director of broadcasting and cultural services and, on his retirement 10 years later, went to farm in Mkus.h.i.+ where in 1978 he was killed by the Rhodesian Air Force during its raid on a camp of the Zimbabwe African People's Union located in the area. His records remain popular in Malawi and Zambia.
NKHATA BAY. This district west of Mzimba is the home of the Tonga of Malawi and was visited by Dr. David Livingstone in 1859. The boma, also called Nkhata Bay, is one of the most picturesque district headquarters in Malawi, with one of the deepest natural ports on Lake Malawi. In the early period of colonial Malawi, the district was called West Nyasa and its boma was at Chintheche farther south. In 1958, Nkhata Bay was the site of the conference of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC), which chose Dr. Hastings Banda as the organization's president and, on 3 March 1959, it was the scene of considerable violence as over 20 political activists were killed by security forces in one day.
In the early 1950s, the Colonial Development Corporation (CDC) embarked on a major scheme to grow rice in the Limpasa Dambo in Nkhata Bay district. The project failed. The district is also known for other major agricultural endeavors, in tea and rubber production. From the 1950s to the 1980s, Nkhata Bay was one of the main tea-growing areas in Malawi. The tea estate has now been replaced by rubber trees following the African Lakes Company's (ALC) revival of this activity in the area. Nkhata Bay district is the home of some influential people who have played a prominent role in the politics, economy, and culture of Malawi, including William M. K. Chiume, Orton C. Chirwa, Wellington Manoah Chirwa, Ernest A. Muwamba, Thomson ”Jake” Muwamba, Thamar D. T. Banda, and Aleke Banda.
NKHOMA MISSION. See MISSIONS.
NKHOTAKOTA. Called Kota Kota by Europeans and located on the western sh.o.r.e of Lake Malawi, Nkhotakota was a princ.i.p.al Swahili-Arab commercial center in the second half of the 19th century. Ivory and slaves were traded here and, in the 1870s, nearly 10,000 slaves are reported to have pa.s.sed through Nkhotakota annually on their way to the East Coast of Africa. Salim bin Abdalla, the Jumbe of Nkhotakota, established a trading post there in the 1840s and came to enjoy immense political and economic power. Later, Nkhotakota became a major center of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA); it also became the headquarters of the district of the same name. The district is in one of the major rice-producing areas in Malawi, and it was the location of Kota Kota Rice Trading Ltd. and the Kota Kota Rice Growers Co-operative Union (see COOPERATIVES).
As a successful trading and UMCA center, Nkhotakota came to attract people from the east coast of Africa, Mozambique, and the Luangwa Valley in the west. The immigrants lived among the indigenous inhabitants of this area, the Chewa and Tonga, turning the district into a complex mixture of African peoples. According to the 2008 population census, the population of Nkhotakota district is about 300,000.
NKHWAZI, DENNIS GRESHAM SIMPHAWAKA (19391996). Founding member of the Phwezi Education Foundation and of the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), Nkhwazi was born in Rumphi and received primary and secondary schooling in Malawi before going to Germany, where he studied political science. Upon the attainment of his doctoral degree in 1971, he returned to Malawi, joined the civil service, and was posted to Lilongwe as a.s.sistant district commissioner. However, in 1972, he was arrested and detained without trial. Upon his release in 1977, he became a tobacco grower in Rumphi. In the early 1980s, Nkhwazi and Morton Mughogho established the Phwezi Education Foundation. Ten years later, Nkhwazi became active in the politics of reform, and in 1992 he helped to found AFORD, becoming its secretary general. In 1994, he was elected to Parliament as the AFORD member for Rumphi East, and in the coalition arrangement later that year, he was appointed minister of transport and civil aviation.
NKONJERA, ANDREW. This Karonga-based Livingstonia Mission employee was one of the first to record and publish the history of the Chikulamayembe dynasty of the Nkhamanga area in Rumphi district. He also recorded the oral traditions of the peoples whom the Chikulamayembe ruled. The last section of Nkonjera's history deals with the tense relations between the Ngonde, the Swahili-Arabs, the Tumbuka-speaking peoples, and the Europeans at the end of the 19th century, as witnessed by the author. All this was published in two parts as History of the Kamanga Tribe of Lake Nyasa: a Native Account.
NKOPE BAY. This bay in the fis.h.i.+ng area located on the southwestern tip of Lake Malawi is site of many holiday cottages that belong to firms and wealthy people in Malawi. The rocky section of Nkope is a major archaeological site, the pottery from it indicating that it was inhabited by iron-working people between the third and fifth centuries. The ceramics from Nkope are similar to those found at sites in eastern Zambia and northern Mozambique, which date to between the 3rd and 10th centuries, and this type of ware is now officially referred to as the Nkope Group. Archaeologists have determined that this early Iron Age group is contemporaneous with the Kalambo group of Northern Zambia.
The Nkope also falls in a region where the Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) was active from the late 19th century and today is still much identified with the Anglican church.