Arthur Rawlings
The Building Department was created by Arthur Rawlings a UMCA layman who arrived in 1937 with the job of Diocesan Builder responsible for maintaining buildings and creating new ones.
When I arrived Arthur was living at Nkhotakota concentrating on teaching young men how to build.
Writing in Ecclesia in 1962 he spoke of the need for social centres where Christians of all denominations could meet together. Putting words into action he went with twelve of his builders to Lilongwe to build a community hall next to St Peter’s church.
Next on his list was to build the new diocesan headquarters at Malosa with its office and houses. This included improving the water scheme from the river which also supplied the secondary school and leprosarium. With the increasing demand for new buildings in different parts of the diocese Arthur recruited local contractors whom he oversaw to maintain his high standards.
I wrote in Ecclesia in November 1964, “Arthur Rawlings is returning to England. The news was not unexpected, three years ago he had planned to work in England but stayed on with his usual unselfishness to build the new diocesan centre and to organise a building team that would carry on after he had gone. Many young men remember his patient teaching with gratitude, and many fellow-workers remember with affection one who was never too busy to listen to their troubles. Thank you Arthur for your twenty-seven creative and dedicated years of service in Malawi.”
Walter Fagan
Walter and Norma Fagan, together with their three children arrived from Texas in June 1965. Walter to look after the Building Department and Norma to help me with correspondence. Walter was given the title ‘Master of Works’, with responsibility not only for buildings but also for maintaining water and electricity supplies to Malosa Secondary School, Leprosarium, Chilema Ecumenical Lay Training Centre, Diocesan Headquarters and St Luke’s Hospital.
The backbone of the Building Department were the builders who had been trained by Arthur Rawlings, the chief of whom was Dunstan Mzokomera. Alongside them were electricians, plumbers and mechanics trained at Malindi by Francis Bell, the gifted UMCA engineer who served there for thirty-eight years.
Working closely with Dunstan Mzokomera, who usually accompanied him, Walter travelled throughout the diocese checking on the three or more contractors building health centres.
Having been a colonel in the army Walter was a good organiser but more importantly was quick to develop genuine friendships with people, especially the staff of the Building Department. He was always good at asking questions and listening to advice. After three years hard work and making a huge contribution the Fagans returned to Texas.
Jane Arden
Jane succeeded Walter as ‘Master of Works’ assisted and guided by her deputy Dunstan Mzokomera, she had been drawing plans for the Building Department since 1965.
All non-government architects, concerned by the killings in the Congo following its independence in 1963, had left the country before Malawi became independent in 1964. Jane was guided by the people who would be using the buildings and had lessons from a friendly Government architect seventeen miles away in Zomba. Some of the fruits were operating theatre, wards and staff houses for the new St Luke’s Hospital, the ‘Aertex’ buildings for St Thomas’ Hostel for secondary school students in Mangochi – so named because of the open-brickwork providing ventilation and light.
Later buildings have included the new larger outpatients block at St Luke’s and Kaphiridzinja, the diocesan cottage on the lakeshore. The latter was largely funded by Christian Aid and friends of the diocese and planned to provide somewhere for diocesan staff to rest and recuperate. One of the first and regular users was Justus Kishindo, our tireless Education and later, Diocesan Secretary and his family.
Oxfam, German and Dutch agencies kept Jane busy with her drawings and buildings for hospitals and health centres. Dr Maurice King, the author of the medical bible for the tropical world, had been visiting Malawi and recommended to the Ministry of Health that they build outpatient departments to Jane’s St Luke’s design at all government hospitals. He published her plan in the next edition of his book.
Dunstan Mzokomera as deputy Master of Works played a key role in coordinating the work of the four or more different contractors, ensuring their work met high standards. None of the buildings could have been completed without him.
Dunstan Mzokomera succeeded Jane after we left. One of the first jobs he was given was to build a new Church of the Ascension at Malosa, replacing the one earlier destroyed by fire for which he received universal praise.