Samuel Mpasu

Sam Mpasu (17 September 1945 – 15 February 2018

Early life Mpasu was a student at Dedza secondary school and went to University of Malawi's Chancellor College.

Career

Mpasu served as a diplomat in the foreign service for the Malawi mission to Germany. While in Germany he wrote a book in 1975 entitled Nobody's Friend, which got him arrested because the Kamuzu Banda regime thought that it was written about Kamuzu Banda. In 1991, while working for Xerographics, he joined a secret group headed by Bakili Muluzi whose aim was to build up opposition to Banda. When the United Democratic Front was voted into government in 1994, Mpasu was elected Member of Parliament for Ntcheu Central, and appointed Minister of Education and Government Chief Whip in Parliament. The court attempted to block President Bakili Muluzi from posting him to this position. He was hit in the jaw. However, his incarceration was received with ambivalence after having been tried prior to the 2008 court case while he was Minister as a gesture to clear his name. D.D. Phiri, a prominent historian and writer in Malawi, wrote in the Nation on October 13, 2009: "In its 1994 manifesto, UDF pledged to introduce free primary education in Malawi. When he won the presidency, Bakili Muluzi appointed Sam Mpasu as Minister of Education. The Minister of Education was more anxious than most people that exercise books and pencils be made available in time, otherwise the free primary schooling programme was going to fail." Mpasu was released from jail in 2010 instead of 2014 due to good behaviour.

Death

Mpasu was found dead in his house on 15 February 2018.

Books

Nobody's Friend (1975). (Republished by African Publishing Group, 1995) Political Prisoner 3/75 of Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda of Malawi (1995). African Publishing Group, Harare. The Hare and Other Folktales (2015).

Movies Black Gold, as self Lifecycles: A Story of AIDS in Malawi (2003), as self, Speaker of the House