[Civsoc-mw] FW: More Postings on Mwanza "War"

Fri Oct 6 17:02:24 CAT 2017

-----Original Message-----
From: Paliani [mailto:palianic2011 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2017 12:19 PM
To: Cuthbert Kachale; Cuthbert Kachale
Subject: More Postings on Mwanza "War"

TRIBUTE TO YATUTA CHISIZA

Chisiza was born in the Karonga district of northern Malawi (then
Nyasaland) in 1926, to Kaluli Chisiza, a Group Village Headman. He was educated at Uliwa Junior Primary School and at the mission school at Livingstonia.

He subsequently worked as an Assistant Inspector of Police in Tanzania (then Tanganyika) and returned to Malawi in 1958. For a short time he, together with his brother Dunduzu Chisiza, attempted to go in business operating a butcher's shop in Blantyre market, but this venture soon failed.

After the historic Nyasaland African Congress convention in January 1959, he was appointed as bodyguard to Hastings Kamuzu Banda, who later became the first premier of Malawi. He was arrested along with hundreds of others (including his brother) in the dawn raids of Operation Sunrise on 3 March 1959, when the colonial administration declared a state of emergency in Nyasaland.

He was imprisoned in Khami Prison near Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia. He was released, some months after Banda, in September 1960.

After the death of his brother, Dunduzu Chisiza, in September 1962, Yatuta was elected to the Legislative Council for Karonga district and Banda appointed him Minister of Home Affairs.

Not long after Malawi had gained independence from Great Britain in July 1964, he was one of several cabinet ministers who, chafing under an increasingly autocratic leadership, parted ways with Dr. Banda in the Cabinet Crisis of 1964. He fled the country and, allegedly after undergoing military training in China, later conducted guerilla operations against the Banda regime from Tanzania.

Chisiza was killed by a single shot to the head during the October
1967 Mwanza War, apparently by Malawian security forces, although rumours have attributed this to security forces of the Ian Smith regime in Southern Rhodesia who had urgently been deployed to fight alongside Malawi Army against Yatuta Chisiza and his group during the October 1967 War in Mwanza.

His body was put on display at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre as a warning to other potential insurgents. It is said a cabnet minister Gwanda Chakuamba (who had been a close friend to Yatuta Chisiza and his brother Dunduzu Chisiza previously) performed dances on top of Yatuta Chisiza's coffin at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in celebration of the death of Yatuta Chisiza and the crushing of his armed insurrection against Dr. Banda.

He was survived by two sons, Vyande Yatuta Chisiza and Kwacha Chisiza, and grandchildren: Millie, Bakalele, Mphikwa, Matebe, Mutale, Lusayo, Atupele, Mbakaya and Chikosa.

In his memoir, Gwanda Chakuamba had this to reveal about Yatuta Chisiza, "Kamuzu had hated Yatuta for rebuking him openly against the role of Cecilia Kadzamira in political activities.

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Sources (not all):

http://ngomamotovibes.com/chiume/CABINETCRISIS1964.pdf

http://malawiyoungpioneers.netfirms.com/article3.htm

http://www.evri.com/media/article?title=Obituary:+Dunduza+Chisiza+-+Arts+%26amp%3B+Entertainment+-+The+...&page=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-dunduza-chisiza-1084771.html&referring_uri=/person/yatuta-chisiza-0x33765&referring_title=Evri

Chakuamba, Gwanda (2016). A Memoir of My Political Life

Power, Joey (2010). Political Culture and Nationalism in Malawi.
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For today, let me end by posting a supreme court judgement for people to read over the weekend and digest it.I will then continue on Monday evening with more postings about the October 1967 Mwanza 'War'

This judgement was on the prisoners of 'war' captured during the October 1967 Mwanza 'War' in which Yatuta Chisiza and Lutengano Mwahimba were shot dead

The supreme court maintained the death sentence on the prisoners of 'war'

The case was registered as MWAKAWANGA VS THE STATE

 👆This is the link to the Supreme Court Judgement on the prisoners of 'war' captured during the October 1967 Mwanza 'War'

The judgement was delivered on 23 October 1968.It was a death sentence by hanging

I would like to give people ample time to download this judgement, study it, digest it, if necessary engage the attorneys which we have in this group for clarity.

Then I will continue with more postings Monday/Tuesday as we draw closer and closer to October that will mark exactly 50 years after the October 1967 Mwanza 'War' and the death of Yatuta Chisiza and Lutengano Mwahima who were shot dead during this 'war'
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REACTION by Dr. Haswell Bandawe

The "war" of Mwanza as you call it was a liberation struggle against a dictator, in much the same way as Fidel Castro (he failed at first and was jailed but later succeeded and Chilembwe who was captured as well as many armed liberation struggles) and other Revolutions that occurred in many countries against an unjust and oppressive regime.

It will be interesting to see the slant that will be given to the airing of this documentary.

It should be remembered that soon after the Cabinet Crisis in 1964 former ministers and others who disagreed with Dr Banda's policies (support for South Africa's Apatheid regime; the nepotism; lack of democratic discussions , etc) left the country to organise an armed struggle.

There was an uprising in Mangochi in support of Masauko Chipembere, many people were killed. There were other uprisings in the north.

This is the background to the Yatuta Chisiza so called "Mwanza" war...

....One wishes that together with the "war" there should also be a documentary of how the other so-called "dissidents" who went into exile were killed: Dr Mpakati, Chipembere and others.
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 'When former Malawian minister of Home Affairs, Yatuta Chisiza, was killed by Malawi armed soldiers following his guerrilla incursion into the country in October 1967,Gwanda Chakuamba stepped and danced on his dead body, which was on display at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital'-Wrote Thom Chiuma, on 26/09/2016 in his article "Saying it as it is on Gwanda: Not quite honourable though, fare thee well"

 ☝🏿Ironically, in his autobigraphy published in 2016, Gwanda Chakuamba testifies that Dunduzu Chisiza was his mentor and he was so close to him and his family till his death in 1962. He particularly mentions that it was actually him (Gwanda) who typed Dunduzu Chisiza's manuscript of the book Africa What Lies Ahead as a service to a close friend. Dunduzu Chisiza, having died, Yatuta Chisiza took over the mentorship role to Gwanda and became a confidant on political matters at personal level though not as much as how Dunduzu was to him. Thats what Gwanda Chakuamba testifies in his autobiography.

EXHIBITED IN COURT: some weapons that Yatuta Chisiza and compatriots used during Mwanza 'War' of October 1967

EXHIBITION IN COURT:Automatic pistol that was found with Yatuta Chisiza

EXHIBITION IN COURT: a sample of campus that were  found with Yatuta Chisiza and the prisoners of 'war' captured during Mwanza 'War'

EXHIBITION IN COURT: A type of grenades that Yatuta Chisiza and compatriots used during the Mwanza 'war'. This one was found with Lutengano Mwahimba who was shot dead along side Yatuta Chisiza

For further details about the October Mwanza 'War', you are invited to study this court judgement (registered as MWAKAWANGA AND SEVEN OTHERS VS THE STATE) on the prisoners of 'war' by the supreme court dated 23 October 1968

The supreme court maintained the death sentence. These prisoners of 'war' were then hanged in 1969 and burried in unmarked graves at Zomba prison just like Yatuta Chisiza and Lutengano Mwahimba

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2mpwJuFfReqU2tOc0NSM05mXzg/view?usp=drivesdk

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A TALE OF 20 MEN WHO WANTED TO OVERTHROW KAMUZU IN OCTOBER 1967

They differed with their leader, Kamuzu Banda, on the ideology that should define Malawi's future. Expelled from their homes because of what they believed in, labelled as rebels and wanted dead or alive, they never lost their cause. Driven by the power of the cause, in 1967, they returned to Malawi with a mission. EPHRAIM NYONDO tells the story.

But what moved Chisiza and 19 others to dare oust an entire Head of State?

Genesis of differences

Jiya, 74, now retired to corner in Chileka, Blantyre, is one of the unsung nationalist heroes and a post-colonial victim of Kamuzu Banda's vicious regime.

As a young man in the late 50s, he quickly recognised himself with the winds of nationalist movements. He got radicalised after attending a number of political meetings, and at 20, he joined the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC).

"The meetings could always be held in bush right here in Blantyre. John Chinkwa used to organise these meetings. When he died, Aleke Banda took over. He was cunning at organising," recalls Jiya, adding that: "I was one the boys who were sent on errands of mobilisation".

It was in these meetings where Jiya first saw Yatuta, an elder brother to Dunduzu Chisiza, who died mysteriously in a car accident in Zomba, 1962.
Yatuta, having just returned from Tanzania where he worked as senior police officer, was NAC's Administrative Secretary.

"He was earmarked to be an Inspector General in Tanzania. Kamuzu Banda, after the return in 1958, relied heavily on Yatuta's security expertise.
Yatuta became more of Kamuzu's personal bodyguard. They were too close to each other. Banda could not do anything without Yatuta's approval," says Jiya.

In fact, Yatuta, Dunduzu and Kamuzu, after the arrest of 3rd March 1959 State of Emergency, were all sent to Gweru Prison in Zimbabwe.

However, though not explicit, Yatuta's relationship with Kamuzu began entered a different note after Dunduzu's death, recalls Jiya.

"I heard Yatuta increasingly complaining of Kamuzu being detached from him.
That Kamuzu always wanted his point of view to be taken. That Kamuzu was always suspicious of him," he says.

These differences grew wide after the granting of independence on 6 July 1964.

"What I noted was that Banda started to distance himself from the African struggle which most of us wanted to be recognised with. I mean he did not want to be associated so much with fellow African leaders and, even worse, us, fellow Malawians.

"For instance, a number of ministers, including Yatuta, complained heavily why he was still having more whites in the civil service," recalls Jiya.

He adds: "Kamuzu, again, begun to associate so much with the Portuguese in Mozambique and the Boers of the apartheid South African regime. This angered a number of his ministers who wanted him to help his fellow African leaders to gain independence."

The disagreements became protracted and irreconcilable leading to what is known as the 1964 Cabinet Crisis. As a result, on 7 September 1964, Banda dismissed three ministers: Augustine Bwanausi, Kanyama Chiumie and Orton Chirwa; a Rose Chibambo, a parliamentary secretary.  The dismissals were followed, on the same day and on 9 September, by the resignations of three more cabinet ministers in sympathy with those dismissed. They were: Yatuta, Willie Chokani and Henry Chipembere. Initially, this only left the President and one other minister in post, although one of those who had resigned, John Msonthi, rescinded his resignation within a few hours.

Things fell apart, the centre could not hold.

Journey into exile

In October 1964, Chokani and Bwanausi, who had refused to re-join the cabinet without their colleagues, left voluntarily for Zambia following Banda's refusal to negotiate. Fearing for their safety, Chiume and Chisiza, too, crossed into Tanzania on 1st October.

"Tension grew in the country. It was a moment of fear. Everyone seen to have been loyal to those 'rebel' ministers who resigned was being targeted," says Jiya.

And Jiya had his moment.

"I was Blantyre District Governor of MCP. The party had ordered me to organise a rally in Nancholi where Banda would denounce the resigned ministers as rebels and dissidents. I protested.

"I went around the city and told people that I had quit though I did not communicate it with the party. So I advised the people against coming to this rally.

"When party officials came to inspect how many people had turned for the rally they found children playing football. There was no nsanja and some communities stoned party officials. There was chaos leading to riot police firing teargas.

"Banda started going around denouncing me as a rebel. The MYP, as a result, started to look for me.

"I left Blantyre for Lilongwe where I hid for seven days. On 21st October, I left Malawi for Zambia," he narrates.

TO BE CONTINUED ON SUNDAY...

This article appeared in the Nation newpaper in 2013
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DISCUSSION FROM ANOTHER GROUP

[07:48, 9/26/2017]‬: The unmarked graves for the people who were hanged may not be at Zomba Prison as such.

There is a place/ field near Zomba Mental Hospital where government trucks used to drop bodies in sucks ( or sacks -forgive my English. In Chichewa matumba a ziguduli), for burial.

My late father and I used to witness these trucks as we lived nearby.
I was a teenager. My father told me those were bodies of prisoners hanged at Zomba Maximum Prison.

It was many years ago. But I  can recognize the place. I used to walk to Zomba Boys Primary School next to Zomba Catholic Cathedral crossing Likangala river from the Mental Hospital side.

[09:05, 9/26/2017] : The field near the mental hospital that you refer to has been turned into a residential area - except for a small patch of land that is understood to be the resting place of one Muwalo.

Personally why I hold Yatuta Chisiza in high esteems is that he resigned the position of a minister with all its luxuries to be an ordinary person...on principle. He was forced to flee to exile when his life was at stake being hunted like a rubbid dog. He then went to Tanzania where Nyerere treated him the same way he treated his own cabinet ministers and stayed in the same suburbs like cabinet ministers in TZ. But he bandoned that and went for military training in China, and came back to lead an armed struggle in the bush leaving all the conforts. He sacrificed his life to die for the liberation of the masses in Malawi from despotic and tyranny of Dr. Banda. In otherwords he sacriificed his life and welfare of his own family for fellow countrymen and women (others). It is these qualities that I see with Jesus Christ who is also praised for giving his own life and dying for the salvation/liberation of others. It is for this that I never cease to be amazed by the Yatuta Chisiza

Angati a ife amene tingausiye unduna ku dziko lako, kupita kunja kumene ukalandilenso ulemelelo wa unduna, koma ndikusiyanso izozo kuti basi ulowe mu tchile ukamenye nkhondo yokapulumutsa anthu a kwanu amene ali pa chiphinjo cha ulamulilo wa nkhaza

COPIED
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Those are responses am getting from some of those who are reading what am posting on whatsapp about Yatuta Chisiza and Mwanza 'War'

 But be reminded that it took the intervention of troops from Southern Rhodesia for these 17 to be stopped at the boundary of Mwanza/Blantyre

And also google how many people started the armed insurrection together with Fidel Castro in Cuba and succeeded in 1959

It's not really about numbers or the size of the battalion but a sense of military tactics, sense of purpose and preparedness.

It's about the motive behind their sacrifice which matters.

Most important of it all is the cause that matters.

Was the cause that moved Chilembwe, Chipembere, Chisiza, Castol justified or not? That should be the question and not necessarily the size of their platoons and what have you

 As much as I admire Yatuta Chisiza and Chipembere for their uprisings, I must lament their seeming disunity (Chipembere's and Yatuta's armies could have mounted a more effective joint effort) - and I also lament their seemingly ineffective military strategies. I am yet to comprehend how Chipembere's rebel army did not anticipate and have contingency plans for the ferry snafu. I am also not entirely convinced that 20 soldiers in Yatuta's army were enough to surmount the combined KAR, Police and Young Pionneer forces fighting for Kamuzu. The pictures of Yatuta's weapons that have been shown here do not suggest to me the 'sophistication' that has been alleged. Please do not take from my commenrs any impression that I despise Chipembere nor Chisiza. To the contrary, I admire them for their courage and convictions. These were people with the courage of their convictions which is more than we can say about many Malawians then and today -especially in the political arena. They deserve national honours and monuments.

COPIED FROM ELSEWHERE
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IDEAS FLOATING ELSEWHERE

We need a museum of Nyasaland/Malawi conflicts. John Chilembwe, Silombera, Yatuta Chisiza and Chipembere uprisings would be a nice collection to start with.

It would also include newspaper cuttings, letters, uniform for both government forces and rebels.

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What meaningful role can Jiya play? There are too many NGOs in Malawi that hardly contribute to the welfare of Malawians. It will not hurt to have Jiya as the curator of Malawi political history. With some help he can be assisted in collecting artifacts, names, memobilia of the people who shaped Malawi. We only hear few names what were the names of the rest of the 30 members. What about the full list of Chipembere insurgents? Muwalo was not alone with Gwede, what were the reasons plot against Kamuzu? Chilembwe group. Only few names of the leadership are known?:How big of the membership of Chilembwe church etc

 My take is that we need to rewrite history based on truth and realities of what Malawi has gone through. Even the syllabus must accommodate such history.MORE IDEAS FLOATING FROM ELSEWHERE

HON FRANK MWENIFUMBO PAYS TRIBUTE TO YATUTA CHISIZA AND LUTENGANO MWAHIMBA

On 24th February 2017, Karonga Central MP Hon. Frank Mwenifumbo delivered a statement in Parliament in which he said Yatuta Chisiza and his colleague Lutengano Mwahimba who were shot dead during the October 1967 Mwanza 'War' had taken up arms with a motivation to fight for democracy in Malawi after the cabinet crisis during one party dictatorship.

Hon. Frank Mwenifumbo went further to say:

“They (Yatuta Chisiza and Lutengano Mwahimba) died and when they died, they were taken to Zomba Central Hospital.  Parents were asked to go and view and verify the bodies.  Yes, they say that those were their sons that were killed, but they did not witness their burial….

After the advent of multiparty democracy, these families took it upon themselves and asked government about the graves of their relatives.
The government gave them all the facilities that were available to identify the remains of these two martyrs.  Unfortunately, of all the graves that were hunted for, no body was found and up to now, the bodies have not been found.  I am particularly making reference to these people but I know that there are many of them…”

REMINDER

The month of October marks exactly 50 years since the Mwanza 'war'
broke out in which Malawi's first Home Affairs Minister Yatuta Chisiza and Lutengano Mwahimba were shot dead.

Every Sunday in the month of October, from 1st October (tomorrow), MIJ FM will be airing episodes on the Mwanza 'war'.

The scheduled time:

Sunday at 6:10pm and repeat on Thursday at 7:30pm

For those who cannot catch MIJ FM, the episodes will be uploaded online for people where ever they can be to download, listen and preserve for posterity