‘Kamuzu’s son’ Jumani buried in Mzimba with ashes of his mum ex-Miss Malawi

Jumani Johansson, a man who claimed to be the son to Malawi’s founding President Hastings Kamuzu Banda, was on Saturday  laid to rest at Chawuluma village, T/A Kampingo Sibande in Mzimba.

He died last Saturday at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (Qech) in Blantyre, leaving unanswered questions regarding his paternity.

Ashes of Jumani’s late mother Mirriam Kaunda – Miss Malawi 1976 – were also brought all the way from Sweden to Malawi to be buried together with Jumani side by side.

Hundreds of people gathered in their mourning mood paid their final respect to Jumani,  including his adopted father Mr Johanson, his sister Amanda, wife and relatives, politicians Edgar Tembo, Kamuzu Chibambo and legislator Olipa Myaba.

Delivering his eulogy,  Mr Johanson said he is sad to lose Jumani whom he took as his son.

“I am deeply sad to lose him,” he said.

“When I was marring my late wife Mirriam in 1978, he and his sister Amanda were so young and that time we were in Lilongwe before we left to Sweden in 1979 and I managed to send him to school and he did everything to complete his studies,” said Johanson.

Jumani made healines in 2010 when he claimed that he was Kamuzu’s son and filed for change of name from Jim Jumani Johansson to Jim Jumani Immanuel Masauko Kamuzu Banda. This put him at loggerheads with the Kamuzu family which has always maintained the founding father had no child.

His claim also sparked a frenzy in Malawi, with a number of people saying he could have been a legitimate son of the fallen president while others dismissed him as a gold-digger out to inherit Kamuzu’s wealth.

Among those who dismissed this claim was Jumani’s biological mother, Mirriam Kaunda-Johansson.

The mother claimed Jumani’s father was Muhammad Jogee, a Malawian of Indian descent and a chartered accountant who moved to England years ago.

Jumani’s uncle, James Kaunda said his sudden death leaves them with “a lot of questions than answers.”

He was born on 2 May, 1973 and is survived by three children, first born son Jumani junior who is 18 and his sister aged 14 from a Swedish mother and  wife, a mother of four-month-old Ceceliaa.