Page 8 - 2021 SoMJ Vol 74 No 2

Guest Editors’ Notes

Welcome to this special edition.
Firstly. We would like to introduce a special project. From the earliest
days of its written history following Dr David Livingstone’s travels in its territory,
1
Malaŵi’s history has been largely written by men. Oral sources tend to be more
balanced and include women and men equally as carriers of oral histories, fables
and songs. However, orality, has its disadvantages as a medium in power
2
discourses outside of political campaigning. In the context of our globalized
world, education, the law, the civil service, and other institutional settings it is
written narratives that prevail. For young girls and women, as well as young boys
and men, easily accessible records of the achievements of women are long
overdue.
This special issue of the Society of Malawi Journal introduces a project
tentatively titled ‘The Women Who Shape Our World’. This project includes this
issue of the Journal and a separate but related on-going book project with the
same title.
This Journal begins this task of recording stories of the often
unacknowledged, under-represented, and under-studied women who have made a
substantial impact on our culture. These women are mothers, sisters, farmers,
politicians, teachers, preachers, artists, journalists, disruptors, human rights
activists, community organisers, engineers, doctors, fundraisers, musicians, and
everything in between. These stories, written by the subjects themselves or by
others will provide opportunities to debate issues surrounding these women and
the way they have broken ground, inspired others and changed the course of
history. Some stories, like one or two in this Journal will provide unique family
perspectives of iconic female figures.
A call for papers and articles for the book is still current. Contributors
are asked to send their contributions to the editors who will forward the papers to
the book project editors.
We open this process with a number of articles. The first by our outgoing
editor, David Stuart-Mogg, who has researched the Chilembwe family extensively
over a period of more than 25 years, is on Ida Chilembwe.
Secondly. We would like to introduce an innovation to the Journal. As
the number of tertiary education institutions in Malawi increases, we would like
the Journal to continue carrying scholarly articles by academics and non-

1 Rebecca Tiessen (2008) Small Victories but Slow Progress, International
Feminist Journal of Politics, 10:2, 198-215,
2 John Lwanda (2008) Poets, culture and orature: A reappraisal of the Malawi
political public sphere, 1953–2006, Journal of Contemporary African
Studies, 26:1, 71-101

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