Working with White Missionaries

When Rev Chienda was General Secretary of Nkhoma Synod, there was a sizeable white community at Nkhoma Mission, and at other centres within the Synod.

His Vice General Secretary was Rev C Human, a quite, organised man with good temperament. He used to live on the hill above Mr Honde's house. One day, during the rainy season, the Honde boys and the Chienda boys decided to make life a little tougher for Rev Human by beating up the mud (with bare feet) on the road to his house. When he came along, his vehicle swerved in all directions, but he never lost his cool and still proceeded home, albeit with great difficulty.

It appears Rev Human possessed some music literacy. In the seventies, the tonic-solfa edition of "Nyimbo za Mulungu" (a Chichewa Hymnal) was developed. It was eventually printed by the Petro Van Wyk Press (now Nkhoma Press). During the proofing process, copies were sent to both the General Secretary and his vice. My father would simply keep the proofs on his shelf, but Rev Human painstakingly went through them, correcting any mistakes he would find.

The Treasurer of the Synod was Mr Reynecke. He had a passion for nature and used to keep an extensive woodlot behind his house. Within the woodlot he kept a flock of guinea fowl, which were left to roam freely. Mr Reynecke used to fly into a rage if anybody dared kill one of his fowl.

Rev Burger used be the Liason Officer. He was the linkman between the Synod of Nkhoma and the missions office in South Africa. He later got into trouble with Dr Banda's government and was deported.

Mr Gideon Retief was briefly Principal of william Murray Teacher Training College, succeeding Mr Honde. In the early seventies a serious incident happened at one of Nkhoma Synod's institutions, Robert Blake Secondary School, where a student tampered with Dr Banda's portrait by drilling holes through the eyes and writing on on the portrait, "You are a great fool." This incident naturally led to the closure of the entire school, and on reopening, a year or so later, the government demanded that Nkhoma Synod should send a strong disciplinarian to become headmaster. The task fell squarely on Mr Retief; so he left Nkhoma for Kongwe, and was succeeded by Mr Van Rensburg.

Other heads of department within the Synod were Dr Blignaut, a renown eye specialist, who headed Nkhoma Mission Hospital; Mr Vilejon, who was in charge of the Mission Garage and the Water/Electricity Departments; Mr De Wet headed Petro Van Wyk Press; and Mr Decock was head of the Building Department. Mr Decock used to be a man of peculiar tastes. He used to wear bell bottomed trousers long before bell bottoms were introduced to Malawi.

My father used to get along very well with all these, and others that were working for institutions that were not directly under the Synod such as the Theological College. Because of the cordial working relationships that flourished, the Synod lacked nothing in terms of basic services and utilities.

There were about fifteen white South African families living at Nkhoma at that time. The population warranted a special school for the children of the missionaries right at Nkhoma. Once or twice a year the school would stage an athletic tournament where events like sack racing, relay race, pole vault and others were featured. The white adults had a huge tennis court and they too would stage tennis tournament every now and then.

Mr Van Rensburg used to own a bee hive. Some boys one day decided to ransack the bee-hive, with a view to collecting some honey. I was among them. As it turned out, the activity was badly organised and although we managed to overturn the wooden box, we were chased by the angry African killer bees. One of us, James Levi (popularly known as Dala) had a special tough time with one bee that never left him. He ran and ran and ran, shouting, "Anyamata, tandiphani! (Colleagues, please kill the insect for me)." Somehow Mr Van Rensburg noticed that among the mischievous boys were the two sons of the General Secretary. He did not hesitate to let Rev Chienda know about it. Surprisingly, my father handled the issue without any extreme emotionalism. He simply asked us to go get everyone of the boys involved and go back to put the box in its proper place. It was at night, but we obliged.