Rodwell

 ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL SONS OF MABIRI

Summarizing can never be the best way, to paraphrase the summarized biography of one of Mabiri's influential sons.

Patience has been one of the corner stones governing his personality. His never ending smile has been his weapon to defeat the enemy. Mixing up with all age groups has been his strategy to expose his dramatical character. Seeing him in company with Mr Gologodiyo Banda, Mr Kamoto Chirwa also known as Mr Small Fire as he used to call him, one could not wonder. 

In terms of feud (beef and diss) he never lost one. His tongue has always been sharp enough to scatter opponent's trash. But at the same time he always knew trash has its limit. This made him able to contain those who could think of any violence with him. 

Though he never showed off his struggle to get a better position in the society, his experience was enough to expose his challenges. Such one notable challenge was government's way of enrolling students into its

Institutions for tertiary education. Quota system  

was what they used instead of merit. He happened to be one of those who finished there high school at a youngest age. Though with grades worthy getting a place in government tertiary institutions, lucky never fell into his plate. 

His humbleness, made it easy for him to comfortably live in the village with no complaint s. Like any other child he participated in all activities taking place at family level to community level. At family level, he helped the parents with farming from ridge making to harvesting. In times of grazing cattle he was also there. Especially when cows produced milk. Milk was source of income for most of the boys in his village. Grazing cattle is one of the boring art in the village but at times like this it became a favourite. During his time of active grazing it was only those who knew how to sleep early that could get a chance to graze,simply because they were able to wake up early. If you are late you won't find the cattle in the kraal .Some could go to the kraal as early as 2 am and sit on the door waiting for the dawn. Hitting the door post was the sign to let another person know that there is already someone. If the one coming hears the sound of the door post, he simply turned back knowing someone had already carried the day. 

Money realized after the sales of the milk, mostly could be used at wedding(magolowazi) ceremonies for buying fried cassava(gado), paying for a dancing partner (mhando), gambling (bojo) and buying tea(kantini).These were the kind of weddings that reached its climax at night. Most times they could reach up to one week 24 hours every day. 

In absence of these weddings most guys spent their milk profits on movies(vidiyo) which came once every two weeks at Mabiri. 

The other activity which never spared him ,was playing games like bawo and draft. He rarely lost to the challengers for he was most of the times a champion. During mango season you couldn't see a swamp of boys, from mdirila without him. They could go all the way from Thaza to Guduza collecting mangoes. After harvest it was not a mystery to see him with his dawgs in Fason and Vivo's fields collecting ground nuts. That is how Boys of Mdilira spent their time. 

Despite all these activities, football was at his heart. He never wanted to miss training. He was a hard worker in the field of play. A mild fielder. A ball distributor indeed. He played for his home team Mabiri United 

formerly known as Mabiri Medicals before the hospital ceased its sponsorship. His co midfielder, Suzgo Nation Banda(late) made them strongest attacking and distributing midfield in Mabiri's football history. 

One would wonder, who is this amazing, attention grabber guy? Some be like, is he not that tall, ever smiling handsome guy? And others start guessing the name. I say yes. If your guess fell on none other than Rodwell Ngulube, the son of a Legendary footballer, Mr Mbesha Ngulube(late) and Mary not the vigirn but Mbambo Ngulube, then your guess is as good as mine. He is exactly the one. 

Rodwell's second challenge was the way his peers treated his unemployment situation. They used it as an excuse for their failure at school. They could say even if they finish school its for nothing. Citing Rodwell as their example who had stayed home for  

almost three years without getting a job. For it was a taboo that the purpose of education is that one day one would get a job that will make him go stay in town, Blantyre being the most targeted city by northerners. Though this was annoying situation but Rodwell managed to defeat them. He could tell them that his main aim of going to school was not to get a job but to know how to read and write a letter to a girl. This could broke everyone into laughter and forget the sentiments made by those peers. Inspite of all these scolds Rodwell never gave a cold shoulder to peers who seek his help on school matters. He kindly helped them especially on English lessons at which he was best. 

Three years down the line, Rodwell is a teen no more. He has now quited most of teen hood stuff .No more ground nuts collection in harvested fields, no more mango picking, no more gambling(bojo) at over night wedding ceremonies any many others. His concentration was now on foot ball, his in born career, taking after his father who once played for the national team during his time.Not only Rodwell took after him, but all his children be it a boy or a girl. They all played football. 

Now that Rodwell has more spare time apart from that he spend at bawo and football ground, he had to find something to replace the quited activities. During his youthful time it was abomination to see youths drinking or smoking excessively. For those who did they never showed to the public. Instead many of them belonged either to choir groups or youth clubs. 

On his side, Rodwell chose to join youth club. By then it was under Mabiri Hospital but facilitated by Mr Njikho the Development Officer. Rodwell's coming to the club brought a positive impact as he was another bang on the theatre wing of the club. At this time the club already had a membership of big names like Alick Mbewa(late), Monnica Banda, Junior Sankhani and Seleman Searches Milanzi who became Rodwell's Duo in theatre. The two were not new to each other as they both cracked laughter breaking jocks together at the football ground where seleman was nicknamed Tungwa. They called him this name because of his speed which was compared to a certain bush animal called Tungwa. They together performed numerous stage dramas around mabiri at different events organised by the hospital in conjunction with some NGOs like NAPHAM, PSI and many others. Some of their notable performances were during public awareness on HIV/AIDS stigima and discrimination awareness campaign. The two were later elected on key positions of the club. Rodwell was elected secretary while Seleman , Treasure. They worked hand in hand to achieve the goals for the club which targeted at increasing the membership so they could save the youths who had started involving themselves in different malpractices like alcohol and drag abuse. Seeing this, Mr Njikho became so energized to support the ideal. He helped them to write many proposals so that they could conduct training workshops in order to Equip them. Some of the most notable training workshops being Theatre for Development and Leadership training. These two saw many youths joining the club as the sponsors demanded a huge number of attendance. Some of the beneficiaries of the mentioned training workshop included ;IsaacNdhlovu, Progress Jonazi, Charles Banda, Toga Ndhlovu, Cecilia Banda just to mention but a few. Now that the club had grown in numbers, it became more productive in all sectors. It started raising its own funds through piece works(ganyu).These funds could be used to buy assorted items when its time to visit the sick, elderly and orphans. A garden was also opened at Gologodiyo Farm which produced a lot of field crops. These crops were sometimes given to the needy or sold to increase the funds of the club. Under Rodwell Secretariat the club also managed to build a youth recreation center which became their club house before the church turned it to orphan care centre.

On the other side of his other main tallent, as a footballer, he contributed a lot to his beloved club, Mabiri United. It is during his time as a midfielder that the club won more than five trophies in a row plus uncountable bonanzas. The trophies included the infamous Banda Trophy which was being sponsored by Mr Victor Banda and then later Mr Balunji Banda before Mlenga Mvula carried it on. It is that same period that Mabiri saw more than five players being spotted by football scouts from Embangweni Medicals FC. Rodwell his  three brothers, namely Zondwayo Ngulube-order, Chiza Ngulube-younger (late) and Wongani Ngulube -youngest,were joined by Paul Ndhlovu to 

have their trials at Embangweni Medicals FC where they all succeeded. They played for the team in Simama League for the north. And for the first time the team won the north based league which was a token to get into the national Super league sponsored by TNM one of the network providers on the land. While in the super league several Embangweni Medicals FC Players,which changed its name to Embangweni United FC, due to turn down of sponsorship by the hospital, store the spotlight. As a result the scouts from big teams fell in love with them which saw players like Paul Ndhlovu(defender), Wongani Ngulube(Sticker) and Dan Lusale(sticker) being taken for trials to Mafco FC, Blue Eagles FC and Silver Strickers FC respectively. They all succeeded. It didn't take long that Dan and Paul found themselves in the national team squad. 

While still playing for Embangweni United, Rodwell and his order Brother Zondwayo enjoyed the advantage of 

being educated as they got employment at Embangweni Hospital despite the hospital cutting its sponsorship to the Football club. Despite being staff member at the hospital, Rodwell never ceased his theatre abilities. Him and other theatre guruz of the 

same facility performed numerous stage plays organised by the hospital in conjunction with different non governmental  organizations at different events. One of these organizations was The Centre for Social research under University of Malawi. They saw Rodwell as he store the spotlight at one of the events. They approached him and offered him a job to conduct a survey on the Impact of HIV/AIDS on Malawi population. 

This was the turning point of his life. As now he was too much engaged with survey things,he decided to resign the chairmanship  of the Youths organizations in Mzimba under TA Mzukuzuku where he comes from. 

At the end of HIV/AIDS impact on population Survey, he saw himself being hired by the Belgium based organization, The Medicines San Frontiers to conduct same survey as previous one. The only difference was that the previous one covered the whole country while this one covered the Lower Shire only, Nsanje district in particular. In four months time it was done. 

Now working for the Malawi counseling and Resource Organization(MACRO) at Polytechnic private Clinic, as HIV testing and Counseling Service Provider. Rodwell a fan of 2Pac Amaru Shakur(All eyes on me,Me and My girlfriend and runing the streets)in terms of Music and Nyasa Big Bullets and Manchester United local and international respectively in terms of football,is proud to quote one of William Shakespeare Sayings which says"IT IS NOT IN THE STARS TO HOLD OUR DESTINY BUT IN OURSELVES. 

compiled by KingKunta Magazine 

Email :tobbyelefunt@gmail.com