Rose Chibambo

Rose Lomathinda Chibambo (8 September 1928 – 12 January 2016) was a prominent politician in the British Protectorate of Nyasaland in the years leading up to independence as the state of Malawi in 1964, and immediately after. thumb|Rose Chibambo She organised Malawian women in their political fight against the British as a political force to be reckoned with alongside their menfolk in the push for independence. She was arrested on 23 March 1959, two days after giving birth to a girl, and taken to Zomba prison. Her fellow freedom fighters, including Hastings Banda were arrested earlier, on the morning of 3 March when governor Robert Armitage declared a state of emergency. After Malawi gained independence in 1964, Rose Chibambo was the first woman minister in the new cabinet. When she fell out with Hastings Banda she was forced into exile for thirty years, returning after the restoration of democracy. Quotes In most cases, our singing, like in the woman's league, we would take some of the songs sung in the villages, then we put in political words to suit the occasion... There wasn't any particular person at that time, that this was the one who composed those songs for us to sing. No, it was just general singing. Just as we are here. You could start a song, and our songs in most cases, our African songs, they are traditional. They are not difficult to sing. We could easily pick it up, and then we would all sing I had this feeling ... women should be part and parcel of the whole movement, even of running the country. Women should be involved in decision making. That was my aim. You know, we are the mothers. We are the ones who bring out children and these children are employed by Wenela [in South Africa] at that time. They go to Wenela and most of them die there. They don't come back alive. And then there's a lot of oppression. There's this thangata and with that federation, unfortunately for them, that time, they had already started removing people in the areas where they thought it was best for Europeans or it was best for farming ... They wanted to make room for Europeans to settle. I said, you can see all these things. Now, we are being removed in our rural areas. We are being pushed here and there. And the women understood. They said, oh yes, then we must do something. I became interested but I asked myself why women did not attend such meetings …I set to organise my fellow women. That’s how the Women’s League was born. … I was only 24 and had to talk to bigger ladies Rose Chibambo: Life of a lionessThe Times(Jan 13, 2016) All I cared for was a free Nyasaland Rose Chibambo: Life of a lionessThe Times(Jan 13, 2016) Kamuzu surrounded himself with people from outside the Nyasaland African Congress executive and the fear of the unknown made him take us as threats, maybe he thought we would stage a coup or something, but we really just wanted to develop Malawi Rose Chibambo: Life of a lionessThe Times(Jan 13, 2016) I wish I gave my children a proper education; you know nobody can replace a mother’s love Rose Chibambo: Life of a lionessThe Times(Jan 13, 2016) I don’t see anybody who can express their real feelings. Politics of today is still that of praising the leader. People don’t seem to think. All they are thinking about is what I can say to praise the leader. Rose Chibambo: Life of a lionessThe Times(Jan 13, 2016) I do not dabble in appeasement. Speaking your mind is not being disrespectful. Malawian tradition has that flaw and it affects women a lot. I believe that nobody should hesitate to speak what they feel. Rose Chibambo: Life of a lionessThe Times(Jan 13, 2016) I am now tired, my dear. I used to rear chickens but stopped in 2010. I sometimes go to the women fellowship and we have a prison group, we go to prison to give them soap, sugar, bread and things they don’t usually have. Rose Chibambo: Life of a lionessThe Times(Jan 13, 2016) You journalists must be strong, nobody wants to hear the truth, and you have to be strong because you are speaking for the silent. There are so many people whose chests are full but have nowhere to complain and when you write they feel relieved and hope that someone somewhere might have listened. Rose Chibambo: Life of a lionessThe Times(Jan 13, 2016) I believe that we all have a destiny in life. If you follow it, God will always reveal things that you should do. Also, never deviate from doing what is right. Rose Chibambo: Life of a lionessThe Times(Jan 13, 2016) The book contains Rose Chibambo’s story in her own words. But that is not all. The book also contextualises that story by giving information about that particular historic period From the grave, Rose Chibambo speaksThe Nation(December 13, 2019) These earlobes were a sign of identity that you are a Ngoni. After piercing, you had to put in something. They used to put in a reed. The man who used to do it would cut some small reeds to put into the earlobe, because blood would be coming out. So you put the reeds in so that the lobe doesn’t close. The reeds would stay in until the lobe heals. Then the hole remains. So when the hole gets smaller, you change reeds, put in a bigger reed. You keep on changing, to make the hole bigger. Because the idea was that it must be big. At the end of it, you put in a….nyanga ya njobvu…an ivory bracelet. Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) They used to shape it in such a way that it would fit here (gestures to the ear) and make you beautiful. Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) Boys didn’t put in reeds, it was only girls. Boys would use  what was known as vikono, more like a bracelet. The cutting was very painful. Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) He used ka knife…a very sharp knife; mxamati. So that was the reason my father didn’t want me to do it. He said, ‘No, you should not cut it.’ Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) I had to sneak out of the house. I did it secretly. My friends were laughing at me. My age-mates had all done it, and they were laughing at me.  Without kuboola[piercing], they would mock you. But that was beauty in those days. Very important. So because my friends kept on laughing at me, I said, ‘Ah, why should I remain alone? Then I sneaked out, early in the morning with others. Because the man was not at our village; it was quite at a distance, and you had to be there early in the morning, when it’s still cold. My father didn’t know. Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) I went with my friends, then they cut me. I came back. And now blood was oozing. Mother  saw it, ‘Where did you go? Who did it? How did you go alone? But you know what Dad said about this. Oh, you will see.’ Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) And when my dad saw it, he said,  ‘Who did this?’ And he knew the man. Said, ‘I’m going to scold him. I told you not to do this. Now why did you do it?’ Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) I said, ‘My friends were laughing at me.’ So then he kept quiet. He didn’t go to the man to scold him. My father understood that it was really just me…that man was innocent. Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) So that’s how I had these piercings. My father said, ‘Don’t put in anything,’ he wanted them to close up. I said no. I didn’t want them to close up. Ya. So it used to be real beauty. You could only do it, say, from ten up to…round about twelve. If you were older than that, they would refuse. Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) My relationship with my grandmother  was quite good…the women used to eat together, we used to go to Grandma, all of us. We would sit together with Grandma, my mother and us, the children. We would eat together. In my time, that’s how it was. Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) My grandmother was not very much a story-teller. But where you go wrong, she would only give you instructions. She would only give you instructions that that’s not the way how we do things, we do things this way. One strange thing that happened: at that time, I think I was about…I must have been around eight years old or so.  I was coming from my mother’s house, it was now late in the evening. Coming to sleep at my grandma’s. Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) I was walking from my from my mother’s house, going  to my grandfather’s house…because the village was so big, and my grandmother’s house was in  the middle. So I would walk from my mother’s house, which was at the end of the…sort of at the corner of their whole village, because in Ngoni, you would live here…we used to build our homes in circles, really a circle; the first row, second row, third row, and according to the families. So that in the right end, …the kraal would be there. Where the kraal is, the gates of the kraals would be facing the bush, so that when they [the cows] come out, they just go. And then, the kraal…of course it wouldn’t be far from the people’s home…but whereever it ends..the kraal, there are no houses this side. Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) But on the end of the right-hand side  there are people who are izinduna. And on the left too, it’s the izinduna. So that at the middle are the owners of the village. Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) The role of the izinduna is to give advice to the village headman. Whenever anything happens , if there’s anything that has happened, or someone wants to reach the village headman, he has to go through these people. He will have to explain to them what has happened, they are the ones who will explain to the village headman. So one day I was walking from my mother’s house, going up to my Grandma.  As I was walking, right in the middle, from the east, there came….It was dark…I saw something like a big ball, very large, and it went with a sound, du-du-du-du, it went. The whole area was just light. The light went round and I ran. I just exclaimed, ‘We-e-e!’ I ran, went into my grandmother’s house.  But I saw it moving , going up, going up, until to the east, west. And it went with a big sound. Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) I went and…I just went in the house. I ran…fell down, just said , ‘Ah.’ After some time, then my grandmother said, ‘What has happened? ‘ I couldn’t talk. She said ‘Hey, wena, what has happened?’ Then I explained, I said, ‘I’ve seen a big light, a big ball, but it gave a great light. I don’t know whether it is the moon, it’s falling, I don’t know what it is.’ I was so surprised. Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) So the following day, some people said…they were talking about it other villages too, they were talking about it. They said, ‘Ah, yes, we saw the…something like a light.’ I don’t know what it was… it was like something had dropped from somewhere. Up to this day I can’t explain what it was. But this was one of the miracles that I saw during my time. Said, ‘Ah, it is dark, now what is this here?’ So I thought kuti ah, I don’t know. But it frightened me. Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) You know, I would also say that my father instilled the sense of education in the children of his brothers. And he made sure… he was paying school fees for them.  He was actually the second-born  in his family. He came from a family in which his father  had married extra wives―and there were children in those families. So even after he had gone for his education and he had come back, my father made sure that his brothers, even though they were married,  must also go to school, so that they can learn how to read the Bible and write. Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) It was a village. It was  such a big village…. you have never seen… we were from the Ngoni clan. So in those days the Ngonis, the villages were so big. His father had six wives. So in all these families, there were children.  My father took these children as his responsibility. Now, with my mother, my mother was just a very good housewife, but she was also able to read and write. She could understand English. She  had lived with an uncle who was a cousin of her father. That uncle of hers was one of the people who also had early education, and he used to work in the Mandala shops. So she used to live with him, and he made sure that she went to school and she was able to read and write. Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) Eh! She was. (Laughs). My mother was a disciplinarian. That is very true. She was. Very strong. (Laughs) In most cases, you know, as girls in the villages, we would…sometimes… in the areas, we used to have dams. Natural dams.  Then it was a habit of girls that some certain times, we would like to go and swim, go and bath…then we would all be there, swimming and so on. But in most cases, my mother would not allow me to go and join a group of my fellow girls to go  and do that. She had her own ideas why she didn’t want me to go there. But once she sees me, because by the time we come back from there, our eyes are red, and with the drips of water (Laughs) we never used to have towels to wipe ourselves. It means you are coming out of the water…the water is dripping…(laughs) Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) Although you try (laughs) so that by the time you get home everyone could see kuti ah ah, this one has been to the river, to a dam. So by the time I got home then I would pretend  I hadn’t been anywhere. She would say, ‘Ah, why are your eyes red?’ Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) Then I wouldn’t answer, because she had warned me before not to go to these natural dams. Then I would keep quiet. And sometimes she would whip me.  Mmm. She was very…she never stood any nonsense. No. Very strong character, so I had to follow her instructions. I would say…I listened, I obeyed.(Laughs) Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) ‘Everybody used to have those piercings; my parents, my grandparents. You know how we missed it? In 1949, I was only five, so they said no. They sent us back, they said, ‘You’re too young.’ They used to have a very sharp knife; mxamati. But I had vikono; those were like iron bracelets, although you could bend them, unlike iron. People would wear vikono on their arms, and sometimes around their necks. It was beautiful. Some weeks ago, we were laughing at how some men would actually use fuko, a snuff box…they would fit it into the earlobe and be moving around, especially if the man had no place in which to keep the snuff. Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) ‘In contrast with the neighbouring peoples, the Ngoni had no  facial or body markings, and it was the pierced ears which showed that they were true Ngoni. In the days of warfare, captives, especially boys and men, were forcibly made to have their ears pierced…. Women in Malawi’s history: Rose ChibamboMakewana's Daughters(June 9, 2015 ) External links Category:Women politicians in Malawi Category:Political activists Category:Women activists from Malawi Category:1928 births Category:2016 deaths Category:Women born in the 1920s