By Micheal Goba Chipeta Snr, Facebook
The demise of the Honourable John Tembo constitutes an occasion of such import that it commands a pause—a halt in the clockwork of our mundane pursuits—that we may reflect upon and duly extol a life so eminently worthy of adulation.
The existence of such an individual evinces unequivocally that the fair realm of Malawi, our maternal entity, harbours the latent faculties requisite for the genesis of statesmen of preeminent distinction.
It reveals, as if in irrefutable testament, that this very Nation is indelibly endowed with the autogenous machinery for cultivating, unveiling, and mobilising its intrinsic virtues; virtues indispensable for its moral and political ascendancy into a more ennobled condition.
The Nation, moreover, subsists not as a lifeless configuration of borders and institutions, but as a vital, pulsating organism; capable of bequeathing to its succeeding generation an immortal aspiration, kindled and fuelled by the deeds and thoughts of its venerable predecessors.
This reality challenges and subverts the oft-unspoken yet pernicious supposition that Malawi, or indeed any Nation of this terrestrial globe, resides in a state of abject stasis or despair.
Honourable John Tembo, an individual whose legacy evokes varying degrees of reverence and animadversion across the diverse strata of the populace, serves to remind us of the immutable condition that besets the lot of all mortals.
Even the most venerated archetypes of our species—the sages and prophets that have imprinted indelibly upon the annals of human history, be they Christ, Buddha, Muhammad, Zarathustra or Hermes Trismegistus—were not exempt from such existential vicissitudes.
However, it is the aspect of his earthly sojourn that emanated rays of moral and political virtue upon the tapestry of Malawian society which demands our keenest scrutiny.
Those, whether contemporary or of future lineage, endowed with the perspicacity to discern this radiance, shall not merely stand in awe but shall seek to incorporate such luminance into their own character and deeds, thereby advancing the welfare and honour of both individual and Nation.
In such a light should we, thus, perceive the commemoration of Honourable John Tembo’s life; not merely as a ceremonial obligation but as an exercise in philosophical and ethical contemplation.
He was, and in our collective memory shall continue to be, a Statesman of noteworthy calibre; one whose existence validates and reinforces the grand potentialities latent within our cherished homeland of Malawi.