Background
He was born on June 20, 1926, at Ndola on Zambia’s copperbelt where his father was clerk at a mine.
He was born on June 20, 1926, at Ndola on Zambia’s copperbelt where his father was clerk at a mine.
Educated at primary and secondary schools in Ndola until 1946. Took correspondence courses for two years which enabled him to go to the Jan Hofmeyr School of Social Welfare in Johannesburg, South Africa, until December 1950.
On his return to Ndola he had appointed a welfare officer to the Municipal Council from January 1951. He stayed there until 1953 when he went to Kitwe as a probation officer. After six years he moved to Malawi to take up welfare work in Zomba in 1959.
After independence on July 6, 1964, he became Malawi’s first Ambassador to Ethiopia. During emergency sessions of the Commonwealth and the Organisation of African Unity over Rhodesia’s rebellion on November 11, 1965, he took a strong stand against calling upon Britain to use armed force, which he regarded as mere histrionics, impossible to carry out.
In August 1966 Dr Banda assigned him to the United Nations, where he earned a high reputation as a vigorous advocate of pragmatic solutions to problems. His next posting in August 1967 took him to Bonn, where he used his free time to study for an external Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Chicago. He stayed in West Germany until he was given his country’s no. 1 diplomatic assignment — to London in January 1971. After 16 months he left London on April 27, 1972, handing over the High Commission to his younger brother and return- ln8 home to his first love, social studies, at one of the most important permanent secretaryships in Malawi.