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Rose Chibambo 29

liberation movement was characterised by a patriarchal order. She served as the
sole woman in the cabinet and remained defiant amidst attempts to silence and
diminish her voice.
On the stylistic offerings of this book, interludes are strategically placed between
chapters, in which Lipenga interjects historic and anthropological vignettes
drawing on key works on Malawi for example on Ngoni history, social relations,
culture and key political events. The accounts are amusing, often heart-warming
and compel the reader to further investigate these topics.
However, a few of these vignettes are misplaced and the misplacement
confuses the tone of the book at some points. The summaries carry through well
in the early chapters, but the structure is inconsistent and ultimately disappears
towards the end of the book.
Political activism
Lipenga sets a powerful tone recounting some of Chibambo’s traumatic
experiences including imprisonment days after giving birth to a daughter, the
premature death of her husband and being separated from some of her children
whilst in exile.
Amid tumultuous political tensions and complexities at the genesis of the
postcolonial state, Rose and her family fled Malawi in exile to Zambia following
confrontations between cabinet members who had highlighted Kamuzu Banda’s
exclusive policies. The Nyasaland African Congress, the party that she fought for,
disavowed her. Lipenga includes a transcript of Rose Chibambo’s powerful
speech during the 1964 Cabinet Crisis but does not contextualise the importance
of her words within the contemporary setting of their interviews. Chapters 15 to
17 illuminate the horrors of the Banda regime but do not interrogate the emotional
tensions and, decades after the events, fails to address the issue of Banda’s
personality. This may be due to discomfort at unpacking the horrors of Kamuzu
Banda’s authoritarian regime and sadly we only get a partial reflection of the roots
of the brutality many freedom fighters were subjected to.
Chibambo emerged strong beside these dark times and in the interviews, her hopes
for a bright future for Malawi reveal her unrelenting spirit and reminds Malawians
to keep fighting for a better country.

A story for the future
The book sits well in the emerging canon of works, Vera Chirwa’s
autobiography for example, on remarkable African women who fought for
independence from colonial domination. To have this book about the remarkable
life of a woman written by a woman is important in setting the standard for the
corpus of works on Malawian history and social life yet to be written. Malawi
owes much gratitude to this seminal work which will ensure Rose Chibambo’s
enduring legacy continues to be celebrated. By learning more about her, one can
appreciate the significance of her commemoration on the MK200 banknote and