And now it is Prince Shonga's Turn to say Goodbye

In my final year in college, I took part in a national short story competition organized by the Malawi Writer's Union (MAWU). I sent my entry - titled The Mistake - and forgot all about it.

I was surprised, months later, to hear that I was being invited to a prize-giving ceremony. The then President of MAWU personally insisted that I must attend without fail.

I went to the Alendo Hotel, owned by the Malawi Institute of Tourism, off Hannover Street in Blantyre. After speeches from Manganya (whose real name is Michael Usi, then Director of the Adventist Relief Agency, sponsors of the competition) and Dr Ken Lipenga, then Minister of Education, the announcement of the winners began. They started with number three, who went to read an excerpt. Then number two, at which juncture I thought everybody had wasted my time. Finally, they announced number one: and it was me.

The judge then was Prince Shonga. Now he has passed away.

I was no stranger to winning first prize at national level then. When I was in Form 3, my essay, Problems of the Malawian Youth Today, won first prize in a UNESCO-sponsored national essay writing competition. The Prize - a scholarship for my last two years in secondary school - was personally handed to me by Mrs Catherine Chipembere, then Deputy Minister of Education, wife to Malawi's renegade hero, Henry Masauko Chipembere (deceased), after whom the most famous highway in Malawi is named.

It was at the Alendo Hotel event I got to know Prince Shonga. He was charismatic. His remarks encouraged me tremendously. He sang a song in praise of what he termed my writing 'prowess,' though at that time, I knew very little about writing. He was a wonderful man, was Prince Shonga.

A little about Prince Shonga: he was one of Malawi's prominent veteran journalists. He worked for Moni magazine for many years. Those that grew up in Malawi during the draconian Hastings Kamuzu Banda rule, Moni was the only magazine that one could read for something different. In the Daily Times and the Malawi News, everything started with Banda and ended with Banda. As my friend, exceptionally gifted US-based Malawian journalist Idriss Ali Nassah would say, "During those years, on the basis of personal pique, those in power—so the story goes—wanted the newspaper to write and print what they wanted written and printed: President goes. President comes. President is at a funeral. President is at a wedding. President is smiling. Minister opens Mangochi workshop. Minister closes Mangochi workshop. Malawians are happy and thank God [for the Ngwazi, the President-for-life]. Rain is falling. Vegetation is green. The weather is good. The opposition is [not welcome in Malawi, not now, not ever, because the President is for life and the Malawi Congress Party will rule forever]." (All the parts in brackets are my own addition).

It was in Moni we read something different. We read about Chatsalira and other cartoons. We read some news analyses that did not end with praise for the Ngwazi. It was for this magazine Prince Shonga worked. He made it even more interesting, upholding the legacy of a publication that redeemed many of us who were fed up with endless government propaganda.

Later, Prince Shonga moved to The Nation. He has worked there for many years. Our paths kept crossing. When The Nation embarked on the now doomed project to start publishing a magazine called Inspiration that saw no more than a single edition's publication before folding up, Prince Shonga contacted me to contribute an article. At the time of his death, he was editor of Fuko which, as we all know, means "nation." His work still mirrored what he was doing at Moni. Fuko is published in Chichewa, targetting the millions that live in rural areas, those to whom the President congratulating the national football team is not front page news. Rather the victory of the national football team is the front page news, with the congratulations as a "by the way."

Let me conclude the write up with a slightly altered last stanza of the poem of WH Auden, In Memory of WB Yeats:

Earth, receive an honoured guest:
[Prince Shonga] is laid to rest.
Let the [Malawian] vessel lie
Emptied of its poetry.
In the nightmare of the dark
All the dogs of [Africa] bark,
And the living nations wait,
Each sequestered in its hate;
Intellectual disgrace
Stares from every human face,
And the seas of pity lie
Locked and frozen in each eye.
Follow, [scribe], follow right
To the bottom of the night,
With your unconstraining voice
Still persuade us to rejoice;
With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress;
In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.