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Sadly, we had to report that CUNIMA has ended the Archaeology Programme. Kingsley Pamanda will, with assistance of Mlambe Foundation, be the last to graduate in the programme in September this year. What follows is his story, as told by himself.
The journey to Catholic University began in August 2008 where I was meant to study Social Work from which I changed to Anthropology within the first semester of the first year. I changed to Anthropology, majoring in Archaeology, due to my passion in the reconstruction, conservation and preservation of the cultural materials of my country and world at large, which is the work done by archaeologists. However, this would have been impossible if it was not by the financial assistance from Mlambe Foundation. They really came in at a time when I needed them most and it is from their assistance that the dreams I had are now coming true. I have managed to be one of the four locally trained archaeologists of this country. Thanks to Mlambe Foundation.
It has been a wonderful experience to be trained as an archaeologist under the lecturers Justin Pargeter, Menno Welling, Leslie Zubieta, Simon Makuvaza and other lecturers from other departments from which I had complementary courses. I have been trained on Artefact
Treatment and
Analysis and Treatment, Rock Art Studies, African Historical Archaeology, Heritage of Malawi, Archaeology of Malawi, African Prehistory and many other courses. Such studies were complemented with field school sessions which I have participated in each and every year since the end of my first year of study. After finishing the course work, I am now doing an attachment and field work for my thesis which I am to submit by June this year. I am writing a thesis on Iron Smelting among the Nyanja of Zomba. My attachment is African Heritage -Research and Consultancy for one month.
I would love to have more students trained as archaeologists, however, this is impossible now due to the Catholic University’s decision to stop offering Archaeology as a degree programme. Students who had passion for archaeology have been forced to study Socio-Cultural Anthropology instead. This is a worrying situation as there are very few archaeologists in the country. This means that the big task of reconstructing the history of the country is left in the hands of few individuals and having people not properly trained as archaeologists doing the job. I hope the CUNIMA management will reconsider its decision and start offering the course as it did.
Kingsley Pamanda, fourth-year Archaeology Student at CUNIMA
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