Month: April 2020

Dear Friends, Sisters and Senior Sisters, Brothers and Senior Brothers, Our dear Thandika Mkandawire was laid to rest this Wednesday, 15 April 2020. As you know, he passed away in Stockholm on Friday 27th March 2020 at 4am. We have lost a brother, a friend, a man of great integrity, and a true citizen of Africa…

I do not like funeral orations. They announce, with brutality and despair, the disappearance of a loved one who has marked his time and left a mark. They strive to tell a story, to unearth a remarkable contribution, to bear witness to its closure, even if we claim continuity. Notwithstanding our efforts, funeral orations signal…

Je n’aime pas les oraisons funèbres. Elles annoncent, avec brutalité et désespoir, la disparition d’un être cher qui a marqué son temps et laissé une marque. Elles s’évertuent à tracer une histoire, exhumer une contribution remarquable, pour attester de sa clôture, même si l’on clame la continuité. Nonobstant nos efforts, l’oraison funèbre signale la mort ;…

I first met Thandika Mkandawire in 1989, alongside Mahmood Mamdani, Micere Mugo, and Ibbo Mandaza. The occasion was the Rockefeller Reflections on Development Fellowships induction for new laureates of which I was privileged to be one. The fellowships were the highest honours in African social sciences at the time and had had Peter Ekeh, Mamdani…

Dear Dr Murunga, Greetings from South Africa, during a difficult time for our continent and the world. As we all deal with the health, social, economic, and political challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, I want to take this opportunity to wish you, your family and CODESRIA family great health and peace. On behalf of…

‘One important lesson I learnt from the likes of Mkandawire in their analysis of the experiences of Southern Africa with the structural adjustments programmes imposed by the International Monetary Fund, IMF, and World Bank, post-1973, was that not a single developing country has ever been rescued from poverty, inequality and unemployment by the IMF or…

By Professor Ntombizakhe Mpofu Mlilo A number of obituaries have been written about Professor Thandika Mkandawire focusing on his work life. Family in Malawi thought it important to have an obituary from Zimbabwe focusing on his mother’s side of the family. His mother was Dedani Esther Siziba from Gwanda District in Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe. She…

On Friday, 27 March, the world heard of the passing of an icon, Professor Thandika Mkandawire, who died at the age of 80. He was a man from a working-class background who lived in exile and who eventually rose to make a profound impact on the world. He was one of the most influential African…