Poly ‘martyr’ Chasowa buried in solemn ceremony

At exactly a quarter to three in the afternoon, the casket containing the remains of Robert Chasowa   a final year engineering student  and political activist started being lowered into the yawning grave at HHI cemetery in Blantyre on Monday afternoon.

It was a solemn moment not only for the deceased family and friends but also for the hundreds of his mates at Polytechnic, a constituent college of the University of Malawi  the , politicians, academics and thousands of mourners of all walks of life from various areas of Blantyre.

Robert, 25, was found dead early hours of Saturday, September 24, 2011, when his dead body was found lying in a pool of blood within the Polytechnic campus and with a deep cut at the back of his head.

Police have ruled the death as "suicide" but a family member told Nyasa Timeson Monday, Robert may have been forced to write a "suicide note under duress" and then murdered.

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And in a moving funeral ceremony held at the deceased family residence at Gulliver, Kameza, in Blantyre, the mood was sombre. The officiating clergy, led by Everson Munyenyembe of Kabula Seventh Day Adventist in the city, called upon sinners to repent in order to enter the Kingdom of God.

In an apparent reference to the perpetrators of Robert's death, the clergy said "all witches were stupid" as they only enjoy worldly self-fulfilment but that in the eyes of God, they are an embodiment of the devil.

A family member said at the funeral ceremony they had received the news about the death of Robert with "a lot of shock" and "surprise" and that as a family, they were yet to come to terms with it. He said they still expected a better explanation about their son's death from government.

Laid to rest: Robert Chasowa

At the cemetery, mourners that laid their wreaths included the deceased parents, grandma, brothers and sisters, the 'famous' and sacked Chancellor College lecturer, Jessie Kabwila-Kapasula and Dr. Edge Kanyongolo, Poly principal Professor Kululanga, Chanco student union representatives, Poly mechanical engineering lecturer and students, Robert's lawyer Trouble Kalua, among others.

Apart from laying the wreaths, Kabwila-Kapasula also laid a red cloth, the symbol of "discontent" among Malawians against the deteriorating social, economic and political in Malawi under the Mutharika administration.

Lillian White, Robert's companion at the Polytechnic whom she was hours before his fate, was also 'specially' invited to lay her wreath.

Apart from People's Party (PP) director of religious affairs, Reverend Malani Mtonga, other politicians were conspicuously missing at the cemetery.

However, at the residence, politicians included UDF national chairman Dr Cassim  Chilumpha, deputy secretary general Hophmally Makande, UDF second vice president Humphrey Mvula, UDF director of campaign Davies Chester Katsonga and PP's Rev. Mtonga among others.

The civil society was represented by Billy Banda and Peter Chisi of Malawi watch, among others.

Kabwila-Kapasula and Kanyongolo: Time to lay wreaths. Photo by Lusubilo Simwaka/Nyasa Times

Nyasa Times 27 Sep, 2011

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Source: http://www.nyasatimes.com/malawi/2011/09/26/poly-%e2%80%98martyr%e2%80%99-chasowa-buried-in-solemn-ceremony/
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