As Malawi commemorates one of its greatest sons, Reverend John Chilembwe, some commentators have said subsequent political leadership has failed to emulate the virtues and ideals that the fallen hero stood for.
\nBorn in 1871, Chilembwe led the 1915 uprising against colonialism to attain equal rights for native blacks and promote the upholding of Christian values.
\nChilembwe set the tone for Malawi\u2019s freedom and independence which was fully realised in 1964 following the return of Malawi\u2019s first president Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
\nLeader of pressure group Transformation Alliance, Moses Kunkuyu, said on Friday that Malawian leaders have not done enough in lighting Chilembwe\u2019s candle since modern leaders are motivated by values different from those held by Chilembwe.
\nKunkuyu said the man-of-the-collar stood and fought for a people and not his family or a particular tribe as is the case today.
\n\u201cWe are more into what is there for me as opposed to Chilembwe\u2019s philosophy of what is there for us. If he rose from the grave today, he wouldn\u2019t be happy to see what he believed in being discarded,\u201d Kunkuyu said.
\nHe bemoaned the rising culture of tribalism which has engulfed the country, arguing that Chilembwe\u2019s cause was for a unified Malawi.
\n\u201cWe, as a county, need to deal with leadership deficiency and develop true leaders for the next generation; [leaders] who should promote unity and honesty,\u201d Kunkuyu added.
\nYouth activist Wazamazama Katatu, who was leader of the students body at Mzuzu University, concurred with Kunkuyu, saying current leaders do not inspire confidence in the citizenry.
\nHe said Malawi is faced with the challenge of neo-colonialism, which, he said, is a manifestation that Malawians are failing to honour the liberation struggles of people like Chilembwe.
\n\u201cYoung people have blocked the political spaces and, yet, they are the game changers. They are the innovative and creative minds that should be given the opportunity to incite change and liberate Malawi from the fragile hands of our aged leaders who have messed the vision of our fallen heroes like Chilembwe,\u201d Katatu said.
\nRevamp Aford [Alliance for Democracy] Movement chairperson, Owen Mumba, said modern leaders have fared badly in upholding land rights for the people; a cause which, he said, was dear to Chilembwe\u2019s heart.
\nBut government spokesperson, Nicholas Dausi, said the Democratic Progressive Party administration is reliving Chilembwe\u2019s legacy by promoting the spirit of integrity, entrepreneurship and hard work which he cherished the most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Malawi commemorates one of its greatest sons, Reverend John Chilembwe, some commentators have said subsequent political leadership has failed to emulate the virtues and ideals that the fallen hero stood for. Born in 1871, Chilembwe led the 1915 uprising against colonialism to attain equal rights for native blacks and promote the upholding of Christian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59078","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\/59078","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=59078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59079,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59078\/revisions\/59079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}