Church Law And Political Transition In Malawi 1992 1994

The year 2020 began in Malawi with a moment of high political drama. On 3 February, the Constitutional Court declared the Presidential election of May 2019 invalid, null and void. Its judgement laid bare the extent of the irregularities that marred the conduct of the election and vindicated the widespread popular view that its result was not valid. The Courts requirement that the election be re-run ignited a flurry of political and parliamentary activity, suggesting that the country might be on the cusp of significant change. It remains to be seen what the eventual outcome will be. Meanwhile there may be value in looking back to an earlier time of dramatic political transition when Malawi shook off the shackles of one-party government and embraced multi-party democracy in 1992-94. In that process too, the courts played an active role, though it was from the witness of the churches that the initial impetus came. In this book theologians and lawyers join forces with other scholars to offer a comprehensive analysis of a turning-point in Malawis political history. This reprint is offered in the hope that lessons learned from the past can help to shape the future as Malawians arrive once again at a decisive moment.

Between 1992 and 1994 Malawi underwent a remarkable transition from dictatorship to democracy. Truly a transformation of power! Yet this period of profound change raised many issues of power and accountability. In this book some of the key questions are explained and addressed from a theological perspective. The work originated as a case study on the World Council of Churches “Theology of Life” programme. It was then presented as a Kachere Monograph in the belief that it will not only contribute to the reconstruction of politic in Malawi but also be an important resource for all those concerned with the formation of a viable theology of power for today’s world. It is now presented here again as a Luviri Reprint. The contributors are all drawn from the University of Malawi Department of Theology and Religious Studies. Kenneth Ross has written on “The Transformation of Power in Malawi 1992-94: the Role of the Christian Churches” and “A Practical Theology of Power for the New Malawi”; Felix Chingota on “The Use of the Bible in Social Transformation”; Isabel Apawo Phiri on “Marching, Suspended and Stoned: Christian Women in Malawi 1995”; James Tengatenga on “Young People: Participation or Alienation? An Anglican Case”; J.C. Chankanza and Hilary Mijoga on “Muslim Perspectives on Power”; Hilary Mijoga on “Christian Experience in Malawi Prisons”; and Klaus Fiedler on “Power at the Receiving End: the Jehova’s Witnesses’ Experience in One-Party Malawi” and “Even in the Church the Exercise of Power is Accountable to God”.

"Kusadziwa Nkufa Komwe"(Lack of Knowledge is as Being Dead) is a Nyanja maxim, African Philosophy that is true the world over. A person who lacks knowledge is as good as dead, inactive and insensitive. A dead person does not contribute to good life. Lack of knowledge leads to destruction, but having knowledge leads to informed decisions and freedom. Setting the Record Straight is about correction wrong understanding and replacing it with liberating knowledge, to the benefit of both church and society.

The vote in favour of multi-party politics at the National Referendum of 1993, and the subsequent General Election of 1994, heralded the advent of a democratic system of government in Malawi. lt soon became apparent, however, that there remained many obstacles to overcome before Malawi would be a truly democratic country. In this volume, a multi-disciplinary approach has been employed to examine both the progress and the pitfalls of the democratization process. Political scientists, lawyers, historians, theologians, literary critics, linguists, economists, and educationalists apply the tools of their respective disciplines to take stock of democratization in Malawi. This book is an indispensable guide to anyone seeking to understand the social and political situation in Malawi in the early years of the Second Republic.

Concerning themselves with the problematic nature of African Christian identity, the contributors to this book adopt various cultural, historical, national and educational perspectives in order to reflect on the problem of African identities in a world dominated by Western ideological and religious systems.

Missionary history in Africa asserts that political history on the continent cannot be understood without an in depth understanding of the workings of the missions: missionary activities and ideologies were central to political consciousness. The Anglican Church was involved in society, education, health and politics right from its first foray into Malawi. This study considers the nature of the involvement of that Church in society, and how it engaged with the State from its genesis in the colonial period through the post-independence period to the new post-Banda political dispensation in 1994. It illustrates how the Church was involved on both sides of the independence struggle; and interrogates why it fell conspicuously silent thereafter.

The volume constitutes Klaus Fiedler's crowning contribution to scholarship. Essays in the first half of the book focus on Malawian Christianity and how contrasting Powers, Gospel and Secular, engage each other, creating social, political and cultural conflict in the process. In the second half, Fiedler examines general missiological themes. These essays provide a broader missiological background, offering a theoretical framework necessary for appreciating the essays in the first half. He concludes with a chapter that reviews selected seminal books on themes under study. Throughout the volume Fiedler applies the "restorationist revival theory" he constructed in The Story of Faith Missions, an earlier 1994 work putting emphasis on non classical missions and churches, not systematically covered in earlier scholarship. This volume, the first of its kind on Malawian Christianity, will long remain an indispensable text for those interested in Missiology and Malawian Christianity.

Reading Contemporary African Literature brings together scholarship on, critical debates about, and examples of reading African literature in all genres – poetry, fiction, and drama including popular culture. The anthology offers studies of African literature from interdisciplinary perspectives that employ sociological, historical, and ethnographic besides literary analysis of the literatures. It has assembled critical and researched essays on a range of topics, theoretical and empirical, by renowned critics and theorists of African literature that evaluate and provide examples of reading African literature that should be of interest to academics, researchers, and students of African literature, culture, and history amongst other subjects. Some of the essays examine authors that have received little or no attention to date in books on recent African literature. These essays provide new insights and scholarship that should broaden and deepen our understanding and appreciation of African literature.