{"id":30856,"date":"2016-08-29T11:41:15","date_gmt":"2016-08-29T09:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=30856"},"modified":"2016-08-29T11:41:16","modified_gmt":"2016-08-29T09:41:16","slug":"hands-off-traditional-leaders-gawa-undi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2016\/08\/29\/hands-off-traditional-leaders-gawa-undi\/","title":{"rendered":"Hands off traditional leaders\u2014 Gawa Undi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>King of the Chewa, Kalonga Gawa Undi, has asked governments of Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique not to interfere with the affairs of traditional leadership.<\/p>\n<p>Kalonga Gawa Undi made the remarks at Mkaika in Katete, Zambia on Saturday during this year\u2019s Kulamba traditional ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe would like to applaud the three governments for the warm and cordial relationship that exists between them and traditional leadership. This is as it should be as we all look at the welfare of our people though from different perspectives. However, we have noticed that sometimes governments interfere with traditional set-up, which sometimes, unnecessary misunderstandings,\u201d Gawa Undi said.<\/p>\n<p>During Kulamba ceremony, held last Saturday of August every year, Chewa chiefs from Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique pay homage to Gawa Undi.<\/p>\n<p>Gawa Undi, who was speaking through one of his chiefs, highlighted some of the problems traditional leaders face.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTraditional leadership encounters a lot of problems in the discharge of their duties such as succession disputes\u2026. welfare of traditional leaders and resources to run these institutions effectively.<\/p>\n<p>We are appealing to the three governments to look into these issues and have constant dialogue between governments and the chiefs,\u201d said the Chewa King.<\/p>\n<p>He also asked the governments of Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to find a lasting solution to the impact of climate change in the three countries, as the people continue suffering from the food shortages that the change has brought to the countries.<\/p>\n<p>Gawa Undi also encouraged his subjects to send their children to school, especially girls and also to get rid of some cultural practices which fuel the spread of HIV and Aids.<\/p>\n<p>Zambia\u2019s President-elect, Edgar Lungu, underscored the significance of culture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCulture underpins our very life. We consider traditional ceremonies as very crucial. It is for this reason that our countries will promote unity through culture. That\u2019s why \u2026traditional leaders have a mammoth responsibility of promoting peace and unity among our people,\u201d Lungu said.<\/p>\n<p>Malawi\u2019s Minister of Sports and Culture, Grace Chiumia, hailed Gawa Undi for stressing that some cultural practices which violate rights of others must be abandoned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to commend your royal highness, for clearly stating in his speech that we should get rid of some cultural practices [which spread HIV and Aids]. Most victims of such cultural practices are girls. We need to take a leading role in protecting our girls from harmful cultural practices,\u201d Chiumia said.<\/p>\n<p>She said Kulamba ceremony is important as it helps in reminding people, especially the youth of their culture, which they can pass on to the next generation.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from government officials, other people who went to the ceremony are Themba la Mathemba Chikulamayembe, and representatives of Senior Chief Ngolongoliwa of the Lhomwe people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>King of the Chewa, Kalonga Gawa Undi, has asked governments of Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique not to interfere with the affairs of traditional leadership. Kalonga Gawa Undi made the remarks at Mkaika in Katete, Zambia on Saturday during this year\u2019s Kulamba traditional ceremony. \u201cWe would like to applaud the three governments for the warm and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30860,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30856\/revisions\/30860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}