Statecraft & Independence
Peerless
Henry Masauko Chipembere
1930 – 1975
Organised the campaign that broke colonial Nyasaland — and called Banda home
Peerless is level 1 of 4 in the Malawi Hall of Fame: changed the field itself. Tell the country's story without them and the story breaks. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
From 1958 he ran the civil disobedience campaign that forced the governor to declare a state of emergency across the whole protectorate. He was one of the young men who fetched Hastings Banda back from abroad to lead it, and one of the first Banda turned on.
Henry Masauko Blasius Chipembere was born on 5 August 1930 and was among the foremost nationalists in the struggle to free Nyasaland from colonial rule.
From 1958 he orchestrated the campaign of civil disobedience that led the governor to declare a state of emergency over the entire protectorate in March 1959, under which he, Banda and the other leaders of the Nyasaland African Congress were arrested and the party banned. Malawi was independent by 6 July 1964, in significant part through his organising, and he became Minister of Local Government and Education in the first government — before the Cabinet Crisis of that year set Banda against the men who had brought him back. He died in 1975.
From 1958 he orchestrated the campaign of civil disobedience that led the governor to declare a state of emergency over the entire protectorate in March 1959, under which he, Banda and the other leaders of the Nyasaland African Congress were arrested and the party banned. Malawi was independent by 6 July 1964, in significant part through his organising, and he became Minister of Local Government and Education in the first government — before the Cabinet Crisis of that year set Banda against the men who had brought him back. He died in 1975.
- Wikipedia — Henry Masauko Blasius Chipembere
- Harvard Magazine — Brief life of Malawian nationalist Masauko Chipembere
- Wikipedia — Nyasaland emergency of 1959
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