Alumni of the Month

Lady Judge Tujilane Rose Chizumila of Malawi is an alumna of the University of Dar es Salaam, of the graduating class of 1977.  To begin with, one cannot fully appreciate her link with this University without an awareness of a background story concerning her beloved father, ‘Mzee’ George P. [Gomo] Michongwe.  She was herself born on 14^th May 1953 in Zomba, Malawi, obtaining her primary education at Chileka and CI Primary School in Zomba. Her father, Mr Michongwe, was a senior civil servant in the Malawi government, who, upon the country’s independence in 1964, was appointed to the Malawi Delegation at the United Nations (UN) in New York as Consul General. He served there for two years until 1966.

Back home in Malawi, the autocratic style of the government of President Hastings Kamuzu Banda led to a Cabinet Crisis in 1964, when barely two months after independence in July 1964, a majority of the ministers—e.g. Mr. Yatuta Chisiza, Blasius Chipembere, Orton Chirwa and others—who defied his style or tried to air alternative views just resigned, or were dismissed, exiled or hunted down by the state machinery. The crisis engulfed senior officials as well, such as Mr Michongwe far away at the UN. In 1966, along with his family, he had to escape from the wrath (via London and Lusaka) to refuge in Tanzania, where he was given protection. In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Mr Michongwe was offered a teaching position at the University College of the-then University of East Africa. His past students testify that he was an excellent senior lecturer in Education and History. He worked there until the early 1980s, when he decided “to repay” Tanzania’s generosity by teaming up with a few Tanzanians in staffing a private-sector secondary school at Mpechi in Njombe (which was founded by the Njombe District Development Trust in 1983). He is also remembered to have been a hard-working teacher – jovial, gregarious and kind. In 1984, in collaboration with like-minded fellows, Dr Michongwe helped draft and inaugurate the constitution for a maiden Tanzanian professional teachers’ association for Tanzania—the Tanzania Professional Teachers’ Association (TPTA)—or CHAKIWATA = Chama cha Kitaalamu cha Walimu Tanzania. [It was unfortunately dissolved ten years later (in 1994) upon replacement by a teachers’ trade union]. He finally returned home to Malawi in the late 1980s or 90s.

So, Tujilane Rose, after her birth in 1953 and after her primary education in Malawi, had her secondary education in Tanzania (either in Kilimanjaro or in Dar es Salaam, or in both). After her Ordinary and Advanced-level secondary education—with high-level passes, she joined the-then Faculty of Law of the University of Dar es Salaam for a four-year degree programme in law. After her graduation at UDSM in 1977, she was employed by the Tanzania Legal Corporation (TLC) as a Counsel for a total of ten years until 1988. During her tenure with the TLC, she had an opportunity to undertake a postgraduate certificate course in legislative drafting at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London (1982), as well as another longer-term postgraduate training in Germany for a master’s degree in International Law and Legal Studies.

Tujilane returned home to Malawi in 1988, after more or less 23 years of “physical absence from home in Malawi”. Once in Malawi, she first worked for an NGO, the ‘Save the Children Fund’, for 1½ years while waiting for a security clearance because at that time she would still be considered “child of a rebel”. After clearance, she was formally assigned a position of a State Advocate under the Ministry of Justice in Lilongwe, a position she held for a little less than a year before securing a two-year appointment by the UNHCR (1991-93) as an Officer for Refugee Women and Children, based in Blantyre. For seven years, from 1995 to 2002, she was Founder and Advocate of Chizumila and Company, a private law firm.

For the four years from 1999 to 2003, Tujilane was appointed by President Bakili Muluzi—the next Head of State after Dr. Banda—for a diplomatic position of Malawi's High Commissioner Plenipotentiary to Zimbabwe and the SADC [Southern African Development Community (SADC)] in Gaborone, Botswana. This appointment was, in a sense, a cardinal base from which a string of further ‘winner cards’ followed. For instance, she was next appointed Judge of the High Court of Malawi (2003); Senior Lecturer, Institute of Peace, Leadership and Governance at Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe, where she taught human rights and governance at a master’s degree level (2005-2006); Child Rights Analyst at UNICEF (2008-2009); Malawi's first female Ombudsman in Lilongwe (serving from 2010-2014); as well as elected Judge to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (January 2017, along with Bensaoula Chafika of Algeria). For quite a long time since 2007, Judge Chizumila had served as the Executive Director for Women in Partnership Trust (WIPT) in Harare and Lilongwe. It is thus not surprising that, with that wide experience, she has frequently been called in ‘anywhere’ to serve on various occasions as an international arbitrator and an etiquette consultant.

She has written on a number of issues dear to her heart and to her professional concerns. The writings include:

• Chizumila, Tujilane with Chanda, Cosmas. "Promotion of Refugee Women Participation in Leadership Roles and the Management of Relief Items in Nyamithuthu Refugee Settlement". Lilongwe: UNHCR (1992, November);
• Chizumila, Tujilane. "A widow's perspective: A personal experience" (n.d.); and
• Chizumila, Tujilane. "Rule of Law in Malawi: The Road to Recovery". International Bar Association (2012).

Apart from her own native Chichewa, Hon. Chizumila is a good speaker of English, Kiswahili, German and French. The University of Dar es Salaam, her alma mater, is truly excited about her achievements and does wish her all the best.