Jessie Kabwila | |
|---|---|
 in 2017 | |
| Born | Jessie Kabwila-Kapasula |
| Nationality | Malawian |
| Education | Binghamton University |
| Occupation(s) | politician and academic |
| Employer | University of Malawi |
| Known for | Union organiser and Minister of Higher Education |
Jessie Kabwila-Kapasula is a Malawian academic, feminist, educator and activist. [1] Her scholarship focuses on African feminism. She was chair of the Malawi Parliamentary Women's Caucus and in 2025 she became the Minister of Higher Education.
Kabwila-Kapasula was the acting president of the Chancellor College Academic Staff Union that was fired during the standoff to ensure academic freedom at the University of Malawi that hasn't been resolved. [2] She is one of the fired lecturers at the center of the standoff for academic freedom that occurred at University of Malawi (UNIMA) that resulted in her dismissal. This prompted protests from the UNIMA students and faculty that stood in solidarity with Kabwila-Kapasula and the eventual closure of the university. It led to a standoff between President Bingu wa Mutharika and the lecturers. Her dismissal centering academic freedom was also one of the events that led to the July 20th, 2011 protests. [2]
Kabwila earned a doctorate in comparative literature from Binghamton University, where she served as President of the Graduate Student Organization in 2008-2009. [3]
The standoff began when Blessings Chinsinga, an associate political science professor, was interrogated by Peter Mukhito, Malawi’s Inspector General of Police, about a parallel he drew in a lecture between Malawi’s fuel crisis and popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt during the Arab Spring. [4] He was eventually fired for drawing comparisons between the economic conditions in Egypt and Malawi in a political science class. This prompted protests from the UNIMA students and faculty that stood in solidarity with Chisanga including Kabwila. It also led to the eventual closure of the universities at Chancellor College and Polytechnic. As a condition to return to class, the academics asked for an official apology from the police chief, Peter Mukhito and assurances of respect for academic freedom. [4] Mukhito declared that academic freedom had to be balanced with issues of national security. This statement was backed by President Bingu wa Mutharika who urged him not to apologize. [5] Mutharika ordered them to return to work but the lecturers refused since there was no grantee of freedom. [6] The government was unable to provide this under the leadership of The Minister of Education, Peter Mutharika. The students stood in solidarity with the fired faculty which resulted in the use of teargas to disperse students. The failure to resolve this matter and a standoff occurred between lecturers and students on one side, and the President of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika.
Since the incident she has reported that she has been denied a passport renewal by the government and has received harassing phone calls and death threats.[ citation needed ]
In 2017 domestic violence was in the news when seven women were killed or wounded in attacks. Protests and a petition were organised in Lilongwe, and Kabwila, who was a member of parliament and the chair of Malawi Parliamentary Women's Caucus was there is support of the protests. [7] During Kabwila's time as chaor of the caucus the age of consent in Malawi was raised to eighteen toptecent child marriage. [8]
The lecturers have taken the government to court in order to ensure academic freedom and non interference by the police in academia. [6]
Many Malawian organizations are showing their support to guarantee academic freedom including the Malawi Law Society and Malawi Congress oTrade Unions. [6] Students at Binghamton University (SUNY), Kabwila's alma mater, have urged Amnesty International to take up this case.[ citation needed ]
She attended the funeral of Polytechnic student Robert Chasowa, a Malawian student at the same university that was an active student activist Youth for Freedom and Democracy (YFD), a student activist group. Kabwila-Kapasula dressed in red clothes with a red cloth around his mouth to symbolize the silencing of students under the Bingu wa Mutharika administration.
She was the member of parliament for Salima North west constituency under Malawi Congress Party before 2021. [9]
In 2025 she became the Minister of Higher Education. She was appointed by President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera. On the same day others were also appointed including Joyce Chitsulo became the Deputy Minister of Local Government and Patricia Nangozo Kainga became Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. [10]
Politics of Malawi takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Malawi is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. There is a cabinet of Malawi that is appointed by the President of Malawi. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Bingu wa Mutharika was a Malawian politician and economist who was President of Malawi from May 2004 until his death in April 2012. He was also President of the Democratic Progressive Party, which he founded in February 2005; it obtained a majority in Malawi's parliament in the 2009 general election.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a political party in Malawi. The party was formed in February 2005 by Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika after a dispute with the United Democratic Front (UDF), which was led by his predecessor, Bakili Muluzi.
The University of Malawi (UNIMA) is a public university established in 1965 and until 4 May 2021, when the university underwent a delinking, was composed of four constituent colleges located in Zomba, Blantyre, and Lilongwe. Of the four colleges, the largest is Chancellor College in Zomba. It is part of the Malawian government educational system. The last Vice-Chancellor was Professor John Kalenga Saka.
Joyce Hilda Banda is a Malawian politician, who served as President of Malawi, from 7 April 2012 to 31 May 2014. Banda took office as President following the sudden death of President Bingu wa Mutharika. She is the founder and leader of the People's Party, created in 2011. An educator and grassroots women's rights activist, she was the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2009 and the Vice-President of Malawi from May 2009 to April 2012. She has served in various roles as a member of Parliament and as Minister of Gender and Child Welfare before she became the President of the Republic of Malawi.
Ethel Zyauya Mutharika was the First Lady of Malawi and wife of the President of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika. Mutharika was born in Zimbabwe. As First Lady, wa Mutharika was known for her charitable work and had established the Ethel Mutharika Foundation in an effort to help the poor of Malawi. Wa Mutharika died in Lilongwe after a long battle with cancer at the age of 63.
Madame Callista Chapola-Chimombo is a Malawian politician and the widow of President Bingu wa Mutharika. She served as the First Lady of the Republic of Malawi from 2010 to 2012. Chimombo was a member of the Cabinet of Malawi as a National Coordinator of Maternal, Infant and Child Health and HIV/Nutrition/Malaria and Tuberculosis.
Brown Chimphamba is a Malawian academic, civil servant and diplomat. He is the former Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He was also the chairman of the commission which ran the 1993 referendum which ended the rule of Hastings Banda's Malawi Congress Party. He was also the Vice Chancellor of the University of Malawi.
The history of human rights in Malawi during recent decades is complicated, and the situation at present is in a state of dramatic, and positive, transition.
Arthur Peter Mutharika is a Malawian politician and lawyer who was President of Malawi from May 2014 to June 2020. Mutharika has worked in the field of international justice, specialising in international economic law, international law and comparative constitutional law. He informally served as an adviser to his older brother, President Bingu wa Mutharika, on issues of foreign and domestic policy from the onset of his election campaign until the President's death on 5 April 2012.
The 2011 Malawi protests were protests aimed at winning political and economic reforms or concessions from the government of Malawi. On 20 July, Malawian organisations protested against perceived poor economic management and poor governance by President Bingu wa Mutharika and his Democratic Progressive Party. After the first two days of protests, 18 deaths, 98 serious injuries and 275 arrests had been reported. Further demonstrations were organised on 17 August and 21 September The first protest was later cancelled due to the intervention of a UN representative in initiating a dialogue; however, the talks broke down with more protests planned for Red Wednesday through a national vigil.
Nancy Gladys Tembo is a Malawian politician and serves as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Malawi Government since 2022. She is also a Member of Parliament (MP) representing Lilongwe City South West constituency in the National Assembly of the Republic of Malawi.
Robert Chasowa was a University of Malawi engineering student and political activist. Chasowa was the chair of a student activist group, Youth for Democracy (YFD). The YFD printed a weekly pro-democracy and anti-Bingu wa Mutharika administration newsletter called the Weekly Political Update that has circulation around the UNIMA campus. His mysterious death made international headlines but was ruled a suicide under the Bingu wa Mutharika administration. In October 2012, the results of a commission of inquiry led by President Joyce Banda's administration ruled his death as a murder.
Professor Blessings Chinsinga is a Malawian lecturer at the centre of the Malawi Academic Freedom Stand off and eventual protests. He was a Senior Lecturer in Development Administration, Public Policy Analysis and Institutions, and Development at University of Malawi's Chancellor College.
Peter Mukhito is the former Inspector General of Police in Malawi. He comes from Chiradzulu District. He has gained notoriety for his involvement in interrogating Blessings Chinsinga which began the stand off for academic freedom in Malawi between Chinsinga and President Bingu wa Mutharika. He was also involved in the investigation in the death of Robert Chasowa. Mukhito was also the Inspector General during the 2011 Malawian national protest against President Bingu wa Mutharika, that saw 19 Malawians killed.
Raphael Kasambara was a Malawian lawyer, jurist, academic and convicted criminal who served as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General. He served twice as Attorney General under the administration of Presidents Bingu wa Mutharika and Joyce Banda, before being removed from office following allegations of involvement in the 2013 Malawi Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal. He was convicted and sentenced to 13 years in jail in 2016 for conspiracy to murder a civil servant and had been on bail at the time of his death.
The 2012 Malawian constitutional crisis occurred from April 5, 2012 - April 7, 2012 after senior members of the Democratic Progressive Party-led cabinet failed to notify the public of the death of the sitting president, Bingu wa Mutharika on April 5. Instead, cabinet ministers held a series of meetings in Lilongwe, Malawi without vice-president Joyce Banda with the aim of undermining the constitution and Banda's succession to Presidency. News confirming his death had, however, quickly spread across the country through word of mouth, cellphone text messages, Malawian bloggers, Twitter, Facebook, and on listservs by the end of the day on April 5, 2012. Therefore, the failure to announce his death resulted in speculation over the real health of the president and over whether the succession procedures would be followed as outlined in the constitution. According to the constitution, the vice-president takes over but there had been no official word on a successor or communication with the vice-president. Amidst growing speculation, the Cabinet announced that the president's brother, Peter Mutharika, the foreign minister, was the new President of the party on April 6. The Cabinet only announced his death two days after his death, after which Banda became Malawi's first female President.
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