Page 62 - SoMJ Vol 74 - No 1, 2021

52 The Society of Malaŵi Journal

Obituary

Francis (Frank) Mark Ivan Johnston

Jonathan Waters

2 October 1942 – 23 December 2020
nd
rd

Photographer, publisher, antiquarian book dealer and tourism consultant.

Frank Johnston as he was always known, who has died aged 78, was a
publisher, photographer, antiquarian book dealer and tourism consultant. It was
Frank who, while in a tourism marketing capacity, first coined the slogan “The
Warm Heart of Africa” for his adopted homeland Malawi; an inspired conception
that was rapidly appropriated by the Malawi Department of Tourism. To this day
“The Warm Heart of Africa” remains central to Malawi’s tourism marketing
programme.
Tall, charming, and quietly spoken with a soft Irish brogue, Frank was
the ideal candidate when he arrived in President Kamuzu Banda’s recently
independent Malawi in 1972.
While his practical contribution and dedication to the early development
of tourism in Malawi was probably unmatched at that time, Frank Johnston also
showcased the breath-taking beauty of the country in publishing a number of high
quality ‘coffee table’ books, inevitably featuring Malawi’s greatest asset, Lake
Malawi - “The Lake of Stars”. Many of his publications on Malawi’s tourism,
ornithology, its flora and fauna, featured his own inspired photography; and he
also facilitated the publication of many other volumes under the imprimatur of his