Emily Mkamanga

Emily Lilly Mkamanga (27 December 1949 – 28 November 2021) was a Malawian writer and social commentator. She was one of the few well-known female writers in Malawi.

Early life Emily Lilly Mkamanga was born in Chilumba, Nyasaland, on 27 December 1949. She was educated at Livingstonia, Uliwa, Lilongwe Girls' Secondary School and the University of Malawi, where she studied in the Bunda College of Agriculture

Mkamanga's retirement from the bank in 1993 coincided with the end of Dr. Hastings Banda's 30 years in power. In 2000, her account of those years was published by John Lwanda's publishing firm Dudu Nsomba. Titled Suffering in Silence: Malawi women's thirty year dance with Dr Banda, the book has been described as "an analysis of the obsessive psyche of a modern tyrant" While the dancing had once been associated with female activists, it came to be required of all women and controlled through the Malawi Congress Party leadership. Many people in Malawi would describe the dancing as a traditional part of their culture, an idea promoted by Banda, In the same year that Suffering in Silence appeared she also co-authored Road to Democracy: role of the media in the 2000 Malawi local government elections: final report.

Mkamanga was a regular columnist for the Nyasa Times, and also wrote political and social opinion pieces elsewhere. She has been called a "social historian" the others were Walije Gondwe and Janet Karim.

Death Emily Mkamanga died on 28 November 2021 at the age of 71 in Wezi Medical Centre in Mzuzu.