Wambali Mkandawire, Ethel Kamwendo to receive honorary degrees

Tom Sangala July 21, 2015

1,189 1 minute read

Legendary musician Wambali Mkandawire and gospel songbird Ethel Kamwendo Banda will on Saturday receive an honorary PhD and masters in musicology respectively to be conferred by Cyprus International Institute of Texas in USA.

Cyprus International Institute Second Vice Chancellor Professor Gusto Tuweh Gadama confirmed the development yesterday, saying the two will be honoured during a graduation ceremony to be held at Bingu International Conference Centre in Lilongwe.

Gadama said apart from Wambali and Kamwendo Banda, there are also other Malawians, who will be conferred with honorary degrees and they include veteran politician Gwanda Chakuamba, Pastor Steven Banda and Rose Chibambo.

“This will be a colourful and historic graduation which will see students from 15 different countries graduating and on top of that we have two who will be getting their professorship, one is Dr Salama from Egypt and is the Head in the Department o f Mathematics and Computer Science,” he said.

Gadama said Cyprus International Institute has satellites in different countries and that Malawi was selected as the major satellite for Africa, hence hosting the graduation.

“We had another graduation last year and so this is the second and we I just want to ask Malawians to come and grace this occasion,” he said.

Gadama said the school decided to honour Wambali and Kamwendo Banda as well as other people for contributing a lot to the development of the country.

“As for Wambali and [Ethel Kamwendo] Banda they have contributed a lot to music in the country,” said Gadama.

Kamwendo Banda confirmed yesterday that she will be receiving an honorary masters degree in musicology.

“It’s true, I have been told and I am among the group. I just want to thank God for all this, there are lots of musicians who have done more for the country but to be selected is something great. I didn’t know that there are people out there who see what we do,” she said.

Wambali could not be reached for his comment yesterday but this has simply come at the right time as on the same day the old-timer will also be launching his afro jazz album titled Calabrash Breath at the same venue.

The veteran musician alongside Kamwendo Banda have in the past years also been recognised by the government for their contribution to music and in 2013, the two were also part of the artists who received Lifetime Achievers Awards during the now known as Music Malawi ( Muma) Awards.

The Muma Awards are spearheaded by Media Corp and Trocadero Consulting in partnership with Musicians Union of Malawi (Mum).