Downs Theka one of Malawi’s first Surveyors has died according to News reports from Family Members reaching the Maravi Post.
Lands Surveyor Downs Theka is known for Suggesting to the late president Bingu wa Mutharika that ‘Chikwawa’ was a corruption of the name ‘Chikhwawa’.
The surveyor told Bingu ‘Chikhwawa’ means ‘a deep, vast valley’ but the combination of ‘kh’ was too much on the tongue of the British colonialists, so they corrupted the name to ‘Chikwawa’.
So Bingu, without an Act of Parliament, re-named the district ‘Chikhwawa’.
Funeral arrangements are yet to be revealed
