Remembering Dunduzu Kaluli Chisiza, The Genesis of Assassinations in Nyasaland

Born on 8th August 1930, Dunduzu chisiza came from Chitimba, Florence Bay (now Chiweta or Chitimba) in the Northern Malawi. He attended his primary school at Uliwa Junior Primary School and later, to the rough equivalent of sixth grade level, as a boader at Livingstonia. He left school in 1949, having failed the Nyasaland Standard VI examination.

He first worked in a number of different jobs in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) before moving to Salisbury (Harare), Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) from where he was deported back to Nyasaland (Malawi) in August 1956 on account of his political activities.

Later that year, he went to England to study Economics, sociology and political science at Fircroft College in Birmingham, where he began a correspondence with Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda (Later the first President of the Republic of Malawi). He was, it is thought, first commended to Banda in letter (dated 6 July 1957) from Henry Masauko Chipembere.

In August 1958, at Banda’s request, Du returned to Nyasaland and, at a meeting of the Congress in Nkhata Bay on 1 August, was nominated as Secretary General of the Malawi Congress Party. He together with his brother, Yatuta, Kanyama, Chiume and Henry Chipembere, worked tirelessly to promote Banda’s image as saviour of the native peoples of Nyasaland.

African Congress and part of the inner circle met on 24-25 January 1959 to discuss a change of approach from non-violence to violence where necessary. Chisiza was arrested, along with other high profile African dissidents, in the dawn raids of Operation Sunrise on 3 March 1959, when the colonial administration, responding to incidents of rioting in various areas of the country, declared a state of emergency in Nyasaland. He was imprisoned in Gwelo, Southern Rhodesia, in the European wing of the jail together with Banda, Chipembere and his brother Yatuta, (and separately from many other africans jailed after operation sunrise).

Chisiza died on the night of Monday, 3 September 1962, while driving back to Zomba from Blantyre. His cream-coloured Mercedes was found in a small steam bed beside a bridge at Thondwe, on the road to Zomba. A commission of enquiry established that he had died from a fracture at the base of his skull.

He left a wife and three sons. One, Du Chisiza Jnr, was born subsequent to his death and became Malawi’s best playwright of all times.

To be continued.