Sunday, January 27, 2008

Correction on article titled 'When a Pan-Africanist Library Burns: Kanyama Chiume, 1929-2007'

I wish to make a correction regarding the first paragraph of my article on the late Kanyama Chiume, posted on November 27, 2007, titled 'When a Pan-Africanist Library Burns: Kanyama Chiume, 1929-2007'. In the article I wrote that according to a response I had received to my query on Nyasanet about Mr. Chiume's whereabouts in 2003, Mr. Chiume had reportedly sold all his property and had "left Malawi for good, announcing that he would never be back in Malawi again, unless 'in a coffin.'" It has since come to my attention that Mr. Chiume never said those words. I have learned that contrary to leaving Malawi out of frustration in 1996, he in fact left in 2002, and it was due to illness, so he could be with his family in New York.

During all the time he was ill, according to Mr. Nathan Chiume, son of the late Chiume, "every single day he was impatient on going back home…"

I sincerely regret the statement, and wish apologize to the memory of the late Mr. Kanyama Chiume, and to his family, for the pain that the statement caused.

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