Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Malawi Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
He wrote both the words and the music of Mlungu dalitsani Malaŵi, and every Malawian has sung it since 1964.
Michael-Fredrick Paul Sauka was a teacher and civil servant who entered the competition held before independence to find a national anthem for the country that was about to stop being Nyasaland.
He submitted both the words and the tune, which is unusual — most anthems are the work of two people — and his entry was chosen. Mlungu dalitsani Malaŵi, God Bless Malawi, was adopted at independence in July 1964 and has been sung at every state occasion, school assembly and football international since. He wrote it in Chichewa; the English version is his own translation.
He died in 1976, at forty-two, and the anthem survived both the thirty years of one-party rule that followed and the democracy that replaced it without a word being changed.
He submitted both the words and the tune, which is unusual — most anthems are the work of two people — and his entry was chosen. Mlungu dalitsani Malaŵi, God Bless Malawi, was adopted at independence in July 1964 and has been sung at every state occasion, school assembly and football international since. He wrote it in Chichewa; the English version is his own translation.
He died in 1976, at forty-two, and the anthem survived both the thirty years of one-party rule that followed and the democracy that replaced it without a word being changed.
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