Leadership in Times of Political Tension (Part 1)

The 1970s were characterised by high political tension in Malawi as the sole and ruling party, the Malawi Congress Party, was in the process of consolidating its grip on power, following the 1964 cabinet crisis.

The Kongwe incident has already been mentioned in an earlier post. Apat from resulting in the closure of the school, the incident also led to the firing of some local academic staff and the redeployment of South African missionary staff: Mr CA Loots was posted to William Murray Teacher Training College, Dr JK Louw to Malingunde, and Rev MH Daneel to Lilongwe, where he was to continue his work as youth chaplain. Rev Chienda was at the helm of the Nkhoma Synod team that worked tirelessly, amid many fears, to bring order to Kongwe, in particular and to Nkhoma Synod in general.

In February, 1973, Dr CJ Blignaut and Rev M Pauw were suddenly deported from Malawi, following an incident where somebody (probably Rev Pauw) brought an injured dog into the Nkhoma Hopspital, and Dr Blignaut went ahead to treat it. Dr Blignaut, an eye specialist, was the Administrator of the Nkhoma Mission Hospital and Rev Pauw was a lecturer in the Theological College. The latter had a 'hybrid' motorcycle, fitted with pedals like a bicycle. The pedals were meant to be used to manually propel the bike in case of a breakdown or on running out of fuel. He also had a small pack of tiny dogs. It may well be that it is one of his dogs that got injured and was taken to the hospital for treatment.

A Malawian who learnt about the dog's treatment at a facility meant for humans was offended and proceeded to report the matter to the political authorities. As a result, a deportation order came from the President's office to the effect that the two South Africans were to leave Malawi by 17th February, 1973.

This distressed Rev Chienda so much that he requested an audience with His Excellency, the Life President, Dr Kamuzu Banda, to appeal for the reversal of the deportation order. The audience was granted, but Kamuzu never bulged, and went ahead to implement the order. Consequently, Malawi lost its premier eye specialist with the deportation of Dr Blignaut. However, Rev Chienda's plea was not in vain, for in 1974, Dr Banda actually granted permission for Dr Blignaut to come back to Malawi to continue his work at Nkhoma Mission Hospital.

Because he was involved in academic work, Dr Blignaut could not return immediately. In March, 1975, the eye specialist came back to Nkhoma where he continued to work until his retirement in the 1990s. Shortly after the return of Dr Blignaut, Rev Pauw also mnaged to come to Malawi for a short visit.