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The Society of Malaŵi Journal

Amai,
Amai,
The great Brown Bird on high:
Amai,
Amai watu.
Cruel the Zungus and weird their ways
But for their Brown Bird we have only praise,
Dropping white flowers of food from on high,
Like a trail of stars in an empty sky.

We have known hunger, starvation in peace,
But now, in war, near death, our hungers cease.
God grant the bird be very close at hand
When we are back in our Nyasaland.

Amai,
Amai,
The great Brown Bird on high:
Amai,
Amai,
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Amai watu.

He later described his experiences in Burma with the 13th (NY) KAR as
‘unforgettable’ and his service with Malawian soldiers instrumental in shaping his
future interest in African history. While not strictly a military historian, he was well
aware of the importance of the KAR in the First World War as noted in his greatest
work, Independent African; John Chilembwe and the Origins, Setting and
Significance of the Nyasaland Native Rising, 1915.
The KAR battalions from Nyasaland / Malawi had a heritage that stretched
back to the 1880’s and their reputation for hard-fighting and military success was
forged in many campaigns including both world wars. There was also self-confidence
and pride in the askari songs: from the First World War, it was:

The Nyasas are the lions, eh!
The Nyasas are the lions,
The lions; the lions,
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Of the Europeans

In the Second World War, there was the same spirit:

Akisali Soldiers

Asikali e…e! Soldiers e…e!
Ku nkhondo e…e! At war e…e!
Asikali e…e! Soldiers e…e!
Ku nkhondo e…e! At war e…e!
Amatenga ciwaya, They brought with them a machine gun
Mpani, A knife

10 McCracken, John, ‘Malawi and the Poetry of Two World Wars by George Shepperson’, A Special Millennium
Edition, The Society of Malawi Journal, Volume 53, No. 1/2, (2000), pp. 143-155. Includes Shepperson, George,
‘Malawi and the Poetry of Two World Wars’, The Society of Malawi Journal, Volume 43, No. 2, (1990), pp. 22-
54). "Amai" (mother) "Amai watu" (our mother) are standard Chiregimenti expressions of the 1940s; and
"Zungus" is, of course, a colloquial anglicization of "Azungu"(white men).
11 Professor Melvin Page Archive, Interview 21/7-10, Sydney Chituta Nkanda, 28 August 1972.
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