Rose Chibambo

Rose Lomathinda Chibambo (8 September 1928 – 12 January 2016) was a prominent politician in the British Protectorate of Nyasaland in the years leading up to independence as the state of Malawi in 1964, and immediately after.

She organised Malawian women in their political fight against the British as a political force to be reckoned with alongside their menfolk in the push for independence. She was arrested on 23 March 1959, two days after giving birth to a girl, and taken to Zomba prison. Her fellow freedom fighters, including Hastings Banda were arrested earlier, on the morning of 3 March when governor Robert Armitage declared a state of emergency. After Malawi gained independence in 1964, Rose Chibambo was the first woman minister in the new cabinet. When she fell out with Hastings Banda she was forced into exile for thirty years, returning after the restoration of democracy.

Background Rose Lomathinda Chibambo (Ziba maiden name) was born in Mzimba District to a Tumbuka family on 8 September 1928 The country became independent as Malawi later in the year.

Dismissal and later career On 7 September 1964 there was a cabinet crisis, in which Chibambo and others opposed Hastings Banda. Issues included Banda's decision to charge for health services and to move slowly in Africanization of the civil service. This was coupled with a general feeling that Banda was becoming increasingly autocratic. Chibambo was dismissed from the cabinet the next day. Banda declared that the rebel leaders were traitors to the state and threats to national security. Chibambo and the others were suspended from the party, which prevented them from attending party meetings and prevented members of the party from attending their meetings, giving Banda full control of the MCP. She and her husband faced constant harassment until they fled to Zambia in 1965, where they faced the challenge of starting a new life.

Rose Chibambo returned to Malawi in 1994. She became a businesswoman in Mzuzu, and was prominent in politics and church activities. She was a member of Church Action Relief Development, which assists the orphans of victims of HIV/AIDS, the Christian Service Committee, the Malawi Council of Churches and the Interdenominational Support Group for Prisoners.

She died on January 12, 2016, in Mwaiwathu Private Hospital in Blantyre at age 86.

Legacy In 2009 the President Bingu wa Mutharika met Rose Chibambo and honoured her, naming a street in Mzuzu City after her. Joey Power who was a history academic in Toronto and her 2010 book, Political Culture and Nationalism in Malawi: Building Kwacha, has been credited with trying to correct the history devised by Hastings Banda. The book describes the development of the Malawi Congress Party and unravels the notion that Hastings Banda was the sole reason that the country achieved independence. The book mentions Rose Chibambo as well as Ceciwa Khonje and her brother Augustine Bwanausi, Henry Masauko Chipembere, Kanyama Chiume, Orton Chirwa, Dunduzu Kaluli Chisiza, Yatuta Chisiza, Willie Chokani and Attati Mpakati as important figures who should have been credited by historians for their role in the nation's birth.