Professorial Pride

This pride is motivated mainly by the twin inaugural lectures held over the past weekend by Professors Wapulumuka Mulwafu and Edrinnie Kayambazinthu. 

Although the function was marked as a celebration by the entire University of Malawi, we wish to claim the lion’s share of that pride (no pun intended). To us, the inaugural lectures are not only an ancient university tradition, but, perhaps more importantly, aglimpse at the academic prowess of the person bearing that title. It therefore stands as a testament to the quality of lecturing at Chancellor College, that we are able to produce individuals who leave nobody in doubt as to the caliber of their excellence. 

It was one thought that professorial titles are merely dished out like political handouts. The inaugural lecture serves to shred that assumption, as we have witnessed. 

While on the subject of professors, we cannot fail to extend congratulations to the Principal, Professor Richard Tambulasi, for joining this cadre of the elite. 

The professor is more than just an astute academic. He or she is also a leader. It is therefore no surprise that the positions of leadership at Chancellor College and the University of Malawi are held by professors. They stand as leaders and models for the rest of us academics, exemplars of academic freedom, and living legends of the college. Our professors are not creatures of a different species. They are not hermits, enshrined in little epistemological cocoons, ignorant to the goings-on of the rest of the world. They can humble themselves, bring themselves down to our level, in order to lift us up, to give us a taste of what it is like to live in their world. In so doing, they show us that there is indeed a potential professor in all of us, waiting for a chance.