Bishop Bwanali Fined Three Cows For Insulting Chewa Tribe

By Leah Msuku

Lilongwe, Mana: The Chewa tribe authorities has charged Bishop Henry Bwanali of Redeemed Church International three cows for what they term tarnishing the image of their culture.

The punishment has come following Bwanali’s audio that went viral on social media insulting the Chewa Tribe, Assemblies of God, Roman Catholic Church and Church of Central African Presbyterian (CCAP), among others. 

Speaking during a reconciliation meeting held at Lilongwe District Council, Chewa Tribe Coordinator for Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique, Senior Chief Lukwa commended Bwanali for realizing his mistake and coming open to apologise for his mistake.

Chief Lukwa, therefore, called upon all Chewas to open their hearts in forgiving Bwanali and continue working with him in peace.

“We have forgiven the bishop as the President and Kalonga Gawaundi always encourage us to live in peace with one another.

“The bishop has accepted to pay three cows as an apology for insulting the Chewa Tribe and its traditional dance (gulewamkulu),” he said.

He added: “It shows that he has really accepted his mistake. We call upon all church leaders to always preach love and unity, and refrain from preaching words outside the gospel that bring tension and conflicts among people.”

Lilongwe District Commissioner, Lawford Palani, said it was pleasing for their office to organise a reconciliation meeting for the bishop and the chiefs to ensure that peace continues between them.

“Through the Chewa Heritage, the chiefs came to my office to complain about this issue. Looking at the situation, I thought the right way of solving it was calling both parties to reconcile.

“All we want is to have consistent peace between the church and traditional leaders and that is the way we are supposed to live as Malawians. I am happy that we have achieved that today,” he said.

Bishop Bwanali recently apologized to the Chewa tribe, all churches and the entire nation for the offensive words he said as he was preaching in Kasungu and promised never to do such a thing again.

“I am a man of peace, I’m not such a person who speaks such words, I believe anger took over me; I spoke wrongly to the nation of Malawi.

“I made a mistake because as preachers of the gospel, we are ambassadors of love and peace; we have to preach peace and unity,” reads part of Bwanali’s apology.

“I made a mistake and call upon all preachers to encourage peace among us all,” said Bwanali.