FW: The Professor John Lupenga Mphande Story
Cuthbert Kachale
This is forwarded from my writings on Malawi Past Testimonies, a debating forum administered by Ba Paliani Chinguwo.
Mzee
From: Paliani [mailto:palian...@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2016 11:36 AM
To: Cuthbert Kachale
Subject: The Professor John Lupenga Mphande Story
[10:58, 2016/08/03] Cuthbert Kachale:
The following is a story of the ordeal, my friend Ba Prof John Lupenga Mphande, Prof of African History at the Ohio State University, as told to me by Prof Lupenga himself.
You are unlikely to read it or read about it in any book or literally works, unless from the memoirs of Prof Mphande, should he opt to write any.
The question to ask is he was a lecturer at the Poly why and how did he become an exported brain during the Bandastan.
My answer is very simple. We owe it to God and Divine Intervention that Prof Lupenga is still with us on the planet earth today.
He and I have met and interacted in Harare as exiles only three during the past 35 years. The last time we met again in Harare is about three years ago when he brought a round 20 students from the University of Ohio on a whirlwind tour of Zimbabwe. Just imagine we could interact for a very brief while and off he went.
The first was just over 20 years ago when he stopped over in Harare en route from an international conference at the University of Zambia.
He told me he could smell his home village and beginnings in Mzimba District as he was about to land at Lusaka International Airport.
It was so near, yet so far away. All the rumblings and pangs of the desire to set his foot on home soil were outpouring on him and around him. He desired but could not dare.
He was among the undesired intellectuals by the Bandastan back home.
Even Prof Thandika was in the group of hunted intellectuals, carrying a prize tag on his head since he had his citizenship withdrawn while in Ecuador on a his American university research programme. He was in the company of now his friend, Ba late Professor Guy Mhone. They suddenly found the world crumbling under their feet. They then went from Embassy to Embassy being denied asylum and o protection.
Finally there was a bolt from the blue, the Swedish Embassy accepted them. And offered them alternative scholarship to Sweden. This is why they became Swedes.
In 1983, soon at the assassination of Dr Mpakati in Harare, Prof Thandika had coincidentally come to establish and open The Zimbabwe Institute of Development Studies, ZIDS, now a fully fledged department of the University of Zimbabwe.
Prof Thandika attended the funeral of Dr Attati Mpakati in March 1983, but was on 24/7 guard by Interpol in collaboration with the Zimbabwe Republican Police. Dr Mpakati was abducted from an Hotel in Harare, Park Lane Hotel, now the HQ of the Grain Marketing Board, GMB at the corner of Samora Machel and Enterprise Road. According the the A Zimbabwe Republic Police, ,Dr Mpakati was shot dead in the Harare g Gardens and then the body was dumped in a drain opposite Park Lane Hotel. “He died of gunshot wounds”. The police statement said.
Having hosted at my house much of the funeral delegation from Lusaka, Zambia, HQ of LESOMA (League of Socilsilists in Malawi --the party Attati led) I was advised by LESOMA intelligence service agents NOT to attend the funeral, lest they buried two people in a row, with me being a LESOMA sympathiser. Prof Alifeo Chilivumbo and Ba APM were LESOMA activists. Prof Chilivumbo attended the funeral in Harare, not sure if Ba APM attended..
Harare is again the place I met with Prof Jack Mapanje and with Prof Paul Tiyambe. Zeleza both of whom had come to launch their books at the Harare Pnternational Book Fare, where Prof Jack Mapanje was the Guest of honour.
Prof Mphande, then Mr Mphande, was about to leave for PhD studies at Ohio State.
The Training Office asked him to come to Lilongwe to finalise paper work so that he leaves for the PhD programme at Ohio.
On an agreed day Mr Mphande was supposed to leave early in the morning direct to Lilongwe via Lunzu/Lilangwe.
However just before departure, the Poly Registrar received a call from the University Office to the effect that Mr Mphande, chauffeur driven, was asked to pass through the University Office in Zomba.
The driver and Mr Mphande, then a Poly lecturer left Blantyre en route to their 'imagined' Lilongwe via Zomba route.
They got to the University Office in good shape and in high spirits. After sone discussion, Prof Mphande told me that he was surprised to see that the car and driver were changed.
He smelt a rat. Why the different car and why the different driver,both from the University Office. Why leave behind the Poly driver and car.
Theese questions found answers later.
Prof Mphande left Malawi for Ohio not fully conscious and on a stretcher in a plane after being smuggled out of the country to the safety of the US by American agents.
He later discovered he was at an Ohio hospital where he was recuperating from fractures including broken ribs.
According to Prof Mphande as he narrated the story to me, he remembered they had a good journey through Liwonde, Balaka, Ntchru, Dedza, Linthipe. Beyond that he could not remember anything.
He told me that legend has it that as soon as they got to Nathenje, 16 miles or 24 km, a truck rammed into the car he was being driven in, killing the driver instantly, leaving Prof Mphande with fractures including broken ribs and was in a comma.
He was being awaited at the Training Office and the official who who was expecting him, Mr Mangulama, then a very senior officer at the Training Oftice, heard of an accident involving a truck and a university office car.
In Malawi cars have a disc on the windscreen that shows the name of the owner and the address.
Mr Mangulama rushed to the scene of the accident only to see a dead driver and an unconscious Mr Mphande, bleeding profusely.
He smelt a rat. He quickly decided to take Prof Mphande to a private clinic and immediately contacted the American Embsay in Lilongwe.
The accident occurred under very suspicious circumstances.
The American Embassy teamed up with Mr Mangulama under some shroud of secrecy to urgently do the paper work and then arranged with the private clinic for stretcher exeat Prof Mphande under diplomatic cover and get him flown out of Malawi to the States, accompanied by doctors and American agents.
Hence to an Oho hospital where he was hospitalised for 6 months and recovered enough to embark on his PhD programme.
He is now Professor of African History of many years standing there.
When I asked him what kind of medicine made him recover that quick.
He told me with a broad smile that the hospital used sports medicine.
Here concludes a milestone story of a world renowned intellectual.
Like most of them, what Malawi lost, the rest of the world gained.
The Babdastan killed intellectuals and drove many into exile.
The great brain drain of the Malawi think tank was induced by the Bandastan suspicion, dislike and distaste and distrust of intellectuals and the intelligentsia at large.
Malawi may take many decades to recover from the brain drain and brain gap caused by the Triumvirate of the Bandastan.
Mzee