John Lloyd Chipembere Lwanda (born 1949) is a Malawian medical doctor, writer, poet, researcher, publisher, and music producer. [1] [2] He is a published author and also a publisher of books and music. [3] He was an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow Department of Primary Care until 2005. Lwanda did his history and social science PhD at the University of Edinburgh's Centre of African Studies. [4]
Lwanda was educated in Zimbabwe (1956–1958), Malawi (1958–1969) and Scotland at Anglican, Catholic, and Presbyterian schools and colleges. He spent a politically and musically influential elective year in the US in 1974. Though he had intended to pursue the arts, his father advised him to take up medicine. Graduating in medicine in 1976, he specialised in paediatrics before turning to adult general medicine.
He has worked as a census enumerator for the Malawi National Census 1966 and as a clerk in the Ministry of Education between 1967 and 1968 under Brian McLaughlin. [1] At the University of Malawi (1969–1970) he was a senior laboratory assistant working under Professors Peter Mwanza and Margaret Kalk. He has studied and worked in Scotland since 1970 and, briefly, Malawi as a government doctor and lecturer at the college of medicine. He has also worked in various medical fields since. He is currently a general medical practitioner in Lanarkshire and is an honorary senior research fellow in the institute of health and wellbeing, school of politics and social science, Glasgow University. [1] Although his first article was published in Moni magazine in 1965, he only began working regularly as a freelance writer and journalist from 1981. He, by default, became a music and book researcher and publisher in 1988. [1] Between 1991 and 1994 he was involved in the activism that led to a multiparty dispensation in Malawi [5] Lwanda describes music as his first love [6]
Pamtondo was set up in 1988 by John Lwanda and George Claver with the aim of recording and disseminating Malawi music. [7] It recorded and issued a number of releases of Malawi music, including recordings by Kasambwe, Alan Namoko and Chimvu, Saleta Phiri and AB Sounds, CheChamba, Kamwendo Brothers Band, as well as co-operating on some compilations.
Since 1994 Pamvision has been making Malawian music video recordings and films. The first recording was of Chief Chipoka Band (1994). [7] Over twenty five different acts, ranging from gospel through popular music to traditional, have been video recorded, mostly for academic research. These include the Malawi National Dance Troupe, the Mount Sinai Choir (contemporary urban gospel), Sambangoma Dance Troupe (urban traditional dance and music troupe), Bondo Village Nyau Group (Chewa traditional dance and music), Kwandege Cultural Troupe, Chileka (traditional village ensemble), and the Mchinji Ingoma Troupe (Ngoni traditional dance and music).
Established in 1993, Dudu Nsomba Publications publishes books on Malawi and Africa. Dudu Nsomba supports the Copyright Society of Malawi. The first book was Kamuzu Banda of Malawi (1993). [7]
Lwanda, who sometimes describes himself as a subsistence farmer, has three grand children: Evelyn Onani, Muliko, and Tazilwa.
Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi and formerly known as Nyasaland, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south and southwest. Malawi spans over 118,484 km2 (45,747 sq mi) and has an estimated population of 19,431,566. Malawi's capital and largest city is Lilongwe. Its second-largest is Blantyre, its third-largest is Mzuzu and its fourth-largest is its former capital, Zomba. It was the first capital city of Malawi before being changed to Lilongwe.
Hastings Kamuzu Banda was the leader of Malawi from 1964 to 1994. He served as Prime Minister from independence in 1964 to 1966, when Malawi was a Dominion / Commonwealth realm). In 1966, the country became a republic and he became the first president as a result, ruling until his defeat in 1994.
HIV/AIDS denialism is the belief, despite conclusive evidence to the contrary, that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) does not cause acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Some of its proponents reject the existence of HIV, while others accept that HIV exists but argue that it is a harmless passenger virus and not the cause of AIDS. Insofar as they acknowledge AIDS as a real disease, they attribute it to some combination of sexual behavior, recreational drugs, malnutrition, poor sanitation, haemophilia, or the effects of the medications used to treat HIV infection (antiretrovirals).
The music of Malawi has historically been influenced by its triple cultural heritage of British, African, and American music. Malawians, known for their history as travelers and migrant workers, have contributed to the spread of their music across the African continent, blending it with various musical forms. A significant factor in this musical amalgamation was World War II, during which soldiers transported music to distant lands and brought it back, leading to the popularity of guitar and banjo duos as dance bands by the war's end. Both instruments were imported. Additionally, Malawians working in mines in South Africa and Mozambique influenced the fusion of music styles, giving rise to genres such as Kwela.
The Yao people are a major Bantu ethnic and linguistic group living at the southern end of Lake Malawi. They played an important role in the history of Southeast Africa, notably in the 19th century. The Yao are a predominantly Muslim-faith group of about two million, whose homelands encompass the countries of Malawi, the north of Mozambique, and the Ruvuma and Mtwara Regions of Tanzania. The Yao have a strong cultural identity, transcending national borders.
Dunduzu Kaluli Chisiza (8 August 1930 – 2 September 1962), also known as Gladstone Chisiza, was an African nationalist who was active in the independence movements in Rhodesia and Nyasaland, respectively present-day Zimbabwe and Malawi.
Thomas John Bisika is a social demographer and public health specialist, diplomat, and former health systems specialist at World Health Organization in Nigeria. He is the current Malawi High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
Dr. Hetherwick Ntaba is a Malawian medical doctor and politician, and former Publicity Secretary of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Ntaba was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1994. Later, he was Secretary-General of the DPP.
The Malawi prison system, managed by the Malawi Prison Service, has 23 district prison stations, which are either first class or second class prisons. Zomba Central Prison built in 1935 is the only maximum security prison in the country, holding prisoners with long sentences or serious offences. Severe overcrowding throughout the prison system provides a conducive environment for the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis.
Edward C. (Ted) Green is an American medical anthropologist working in public health and development. He was a senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health and served as senior research scientist at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies for eight years, the last three years as director of the AIDS Prevention Project. He was later affiliated with the Department of Population and Reproductive Health at Johns Hopkins University (2011–14) and the George Washington University as research professor. He was appointed to serve as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (2003–2007), and served on the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council for the National Institutes of Health (2003–2006). Green serves on the board of AIDS.org and the Bonobo Conservation Initiative. and Medical Care Development.
John Dustan Msonthi was a Malawian politician. He served as a Cabinet Minister and translator during the government of Kamuzu Banda.
Steve Bernard Miles Chimombo was a Malawian writer, poet, editor and teacher. He was born in Zomba.
Malawi Washington Association (MWA) was established in 1994 and is the first association in the United States that was organized to promote and retain Malawi and Malawian culture amongst Malawi's diaspora in the United States and Canada. It was founded by Peter Kapakasa, Stafford Chipungu, Jonathan Kamkwalala, and the late Henri Nsanjama. It is a non-political, non-ethnic organization that works to build community amongst the growing number of Malawians in the diaspora. It also works as a social support system to Malawians in the diaspora in order to instill and promote the Malawian values of umunthu. It supports Malawians in the diaspora in various ways whom are living in the United States, including Malawian-Americans and Malawian citizens living in the U.S. It serves to create Malawian identity amongst Malawian-Americans and Malawians in the DC area. This includes hosting social events for a number of Malawians in the diaspora. It works with a number of organization in the DC area and abroad in order to promote Malawian culture and Malawian values and to act as a resource of information on Malawi. As the first organization for Malawians living in the diaspora in the United States, and one of the first organizations for the Malawian diaspora in the world, it has served as a blueprint for other Malawian organizations in the Malawian diaspora to organize in Indiana, Texas, New England and in England.It has also consulted with other Malawian organizations in starting up in the Malawian Diaspora.
The Chilobwe murders were a series of murders, numbering at least thirty killings, which took place over several months starting in November 1968 in the suburbs of Blantyre, Malawi, particularly in Chilobwe. A number of rumours grew up around these murders, and many blamed them on the South African Government which, according to various popular accounts, wanted repayment of loans it had given to the Malawi Government, either in human blood or by the enslavement of Malawians to work in South Africa. These rumours were politically damaging to the government of Hastings Banda, which cultivated friendly relations with South Africa's white minority government, and he treated the murders as a serious issue requiring urgent resolution. The murders were never fully solved. Several men were arrested in connection with the murders in 1969, but acquitted for lack of evidence. This caused popular outrage at the criminal justice system which, at that time, was still based on English law and practice. In 1970 another man, Walla Laini Kawisa, made several confessions admitting to some of the murders. He was condemned to death and probably executed in May 1972. It is unlikely that the murders were the work of a single individual, and various theories have been proposed, some linking them to opposition to Banda. Banda himself blamed the murders on ex-ministers involved in the Cabinet Crisis of 1964, and removed Gomile Kumtumanji, a Member of Parliament cabinet minister for the Southern Region from office and had him tried for treason, allegedly for complicity in them.
Albert Andrew Muwalo Gandale Nqumayo was a prominent politician in Malawi from the 1960s until he was sacked in 1976 and was executed in 1977. He entered politics in the mid 1950s through involvement in a hospital worker's trade union and membership of the Nyasaland African Congress, where his activities led to his detention without trial during the 1959 State of Emergency in Nyasaland. After his release, he joined the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), and became locally prominent in Ntcheu District as district MCP chairman and from 1962 as Member of Parliament for Ntcheu South. In 1963, he became Administrative Secretary of the MCP, and he was a prominent supporter of the then-Prime Minister, Hastings Banda during the Cabinet Crisis of 1964. Muwalo was rewarded for his loyalty with the cabinet post of Minister of Information in 1964, and in 1966 he became Minister of State in the President's Office. His close contact with Banda, both as minister in Banda's office and in the MCP gave him great power and, during the first half of the 1970s he and his relative, the Head of the Police Special Branch Focus Gwede, were heavily involved in the political repression of actual or suspected opponents of the Banda regime. In 1976 he and Gwede were arrested: the reasons for their arrests were unclear, but may have resulted from a power struggle among those around the ageing president or simply because he became too powerful and may have been seen by Banda as a threat. In 1977, the two were tried before a Traditional Court and after a trial whose fairness was in serious doubt, were both sentenced to death. Gwede was reprieved, but Muwalo was hanged on 3 September 1977.
Professor Francis P. B. Moto is a Malawian writer, academic, and diplomat. His home is Golomoti in the Dedza District of Malawi. He attended secondary school in Chichiri in Blantyre and was admitted to the University of Malawi in 1972, obtaining a degree in linguistics in 1977.
Emily Lilly Mkamanga was a Malawian writer and social commentator. She was one of the few well-known female writers in Malawi.
The first case of HIV in a woman was recorded in 1981. Since then, numerous women have been infected with the HIV/AIDS virus. The majority of HIV/AIDS cases in women are directly influenced by high-risk sexual activities, injectional drug use, the spread of medical misinformation, and the lack of adequate reproductive health resources in the United States. Women of color, LGBTQ women, homeless women, women in the sex trade, and women intravenous drug users are at a high-risk for contracting the HIV/AIDS virus. In an article published by the Annual Review of Sociology, Celeste Watkins Hayes, an American sociologist, scholar, and professor wrote, "Women are more likely to be forced into survival-focused behaviors such as transactional sex for money, housing, protection, employment, and other basic needs; power-imbalanced relationships with older men; and other partnerings in which they cannot dictate the terms of condom use, monogamy, or HIV." The largest motivator to become part of the sex trade was addiction, the second largest being basic needs, and the third was to support their children/family.
Susan Cotts Watkins is an American demographer. She has been a professor at Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania. She is now professor emerita at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research has focused on the impact of social networks on cultural change in the demography of the U.S., Western Europe, and Africa.
Isabel Apawo Phiri is a Malawian theologian known for her work in gender justice, HIV/AIDS, and African theology. She has been a Deputy Secretary for the World Council of Churches since 2012.