Page 57 - Number 2 2021 Volume 74

Catherine Chipembere 45

educated Nyanjas became mwalimus (teachers), anamwino (nurses), asing’anga
2
(medical assistants), or padres (priests). Catherine did well with her secondary
3
education at Blantyre Secondary School, and wanted to become a teacher,
probably inspired by having a father who was a teacher who also taught
4
community development.
Catherine met the young Henry Masauko Chipembere in the early 1950s
during her secondary school education at Blantyre Secondary School and, despite
various cultural, class and other problems, their friendship survived as each
5
pursued further education outside Nyasaland. Henry Chipembere was sent to
Goromonzi Secondary School in Southern Rhodesia and later to Fort Hare College
in South Africa whilst Catherine eventually got awarded a scholarship to study
community development at Bath Domestic Science College, Bath, England in
1954. They finally got married in 1957.
When Catherine got married, she realised the importance of supporting
her husband’s political career, sacrificing hers. She went on to encourage local
women in Zomba near where the Chipembere’s lived to start their own small
businesses. Getting local women involved in entrepreneurial activities was a way
of empowering the locals to learn some independence. She went on to teach
women how to make their own clothes. These ‘community development
activities’, apart from raising a young family, became her main job. Catherine and
Henry had four children by 1961 when Henry Chipembere was jailed for agitating
6
for a stronger ruling party. Her fourth child was born at Zomba General Hospital
7
while Henry was, literally, incarcerated in Zomba Central Prison across the road.
They had seven children altogether.

2 From the Portuguese for ‘priest’. Most Niassa and Likoma Nyanja were
Anglicans.
3 Only one of four Malawian girls admitted to Blantyre Secondary School that
year. See Gordon-Chipembere, Natasha 2013 ‘Catherine Mary Ajizinga
Chipembere: living an extraordinary life’, In Marion Rohrleitner and Sarah E
Ryan (eds) Dialogue Across Diasporas: Women Writers, Scholars and Activists
of Africana and Latina Descent in conversation. New York: Lexington Books,
page 213.
4 Chipembere, H. M. (Edited and introduced by Rotberg, R. I.) 2002: Hero of the
nation, page 157.
5 Chipembere, H. M. (Edited and introduced by Rotberg, R. I.) 2002: Hero of the
nation, page 20.
6 McCracken, John 2012 A History of Malawi: 1859 – 1966 Woodbridge:
James Currey, page 374 - 376.
7 Gordon-Chipembere, Natasha 2013 ‘Catherine Mary Ajizinga Chipembere:
living an extraordinary life’, In Marion Rohrleitner and Sarah E Ryan (eds)