Wona Collective is a woman-led arts collective and communications consultancy, but about 10 years ago, before we were Wona, a number of us were students, dressed in white and blue, walking up the Bishop Mackenzie fields every day.

Bishop Mackenzie was our playground, our classroom and our stage. We can not emphasise enough how much it meant to us to have been nurtured by this school into the women we are today. As students of the school, we weren’t always aware of its history, of what shaped it and how we became who we are as BMIS. It is very easy to go through the motions day by day, unaware of where you came from, which is why it was so important for us to be the ones to tell the story of our school.

We have curated the story of BMIS in different places, and we invite you to journey through all of them. On the Bishop Mackenzie campus you will find a history museum in the upper hall that takes you through the different eras that the school has moved through. On the Bishop Mackenzie Legacy podcast on Spotify, you will find a collection of interviews with different people that have made a mark on BMIS’ legacy throughout the years. And finally, on the Bishop Mackenzie Legacy website, you will find everything we have gathered over months of research: alumni interviews and messages, interviews with former staff and students, pictures, videos and memories from the different eras.

We hope that as you experience the story of this school and its people, you are as moved as we were. This school has sculpted many beautiful minds and many beautiful minds have sculpted this school, it has been a symbiotic relationship that is now embedded in Malawi’s history.  

We are aware that there might be gaps in some stories and memories, please think of all of this work as live and in progress. As BMIS continues, so does its legacy, so please feel free to send us any memories, stories or alterations that you would like us to take into consideration as the museum, the website and the podcast grow.

Thank you for allowing us to be the curators of BMIS’ legacy.

With gratitude and nostalgia,