Signal Ayathu Phiri was born in Tumbwe, Mangochi on 17 April 1931. Though his great grandfather was a chief, both his mother and father were subsistence farmers. Signal was raised as a practising Muslim but did not attend a madrassa - instead he came to South Africa at a very young age and attained his life skills there.
Tales of South Africa were often recounted by elders in Tumbwe, and in 1952 Signal decided to leave with 6 other young men from his village to “come and work”. Travelling in a bakkie driven by a fellow Malawian, “whose business was to drive people to South Africa”, the group was transported through Fort Jameson, Lusaka, Livingstone and Francistown all the way to South Africa. This was a regular route operated by the driver, who drove groups of migrants down to the South African border around once every fortnight. This was a widespread phenomenon at the time, but seen as illegal by the colonial authorities - at night “they used to hide from the cops, so they used to sleep in the bushes.”
After a week and a half on the road, they were dropped off at the border, crossing into South Africa at night. Without official passes, Signal and his companions then walked for two months heading to Johannesburg. Without shoes and carrying bundles on sticks over their shoulders, they initially found work as farm labourers in Tzaneen, earning 50c (one shilling) a week.
While working on the farm, Signal was taken to the famer’s house to do domestic work, and it is here that he started picking up culinary skills. A year later in 1953 he started working as a full-time cook on the farm.
In 1955 Signal’s boss moved back to Britain, and he was then taken to a hotel in Hinesburg, Tzaneen. He worked here as a cook until he moved to work on an avocado farm in West Fallia in 1966. He worked there until 1970, when he moved once more to Roman farm where he worked as a cook.
In 1971 he met Miss Awisa Jane Mokwena Knee Phiri, born in South Africa from Malawian Muslim parents. Signal and Awisa went on to marry on 21 May 1986, and together, they had 6 children - Aluna (born in 1977), Fatima (1980), Mohamed (1981), Mulina (1990), Hajina (1993) and Usain (2001).
It was in 1972 that Signal first came to Pretoria. Using a reference from the hotel in Hinesburg, Signal got a job working as a chef for MR Botha, an Englishman living in Sunnyside.
During this period he worshipped at the Queen Street Mosque, and periodically came in contact with imam and fellow Malawian Yusuf Saidi, “a nice man”. They would socialise together on the way to the mosque, but were two of only a few Malawians within the Pretoria Muslim community, which at the time was predominantly Indian.
Signal changed jobs once again in 1973, when he started work as a chef at the Malawi Embassy in Waterkloof, Pretoria.
After working at the embassy for 6 years, Signal moved to work at the Jewel Street Jummah Mosque, Laudium in 1979, a position he retains until today.
Though heavily involved in the Pretoria Muslim community, family connections in Malawi remained important. Migrating to South Africa meant “he was able to get a job and maintain his family back there.” His work was crucial “to look after his family back home because there wasn't much means of getting income - they would just depend on crops and farms.” During the 1950s, Whitey, Signal's older brother also joined him in South Africa, working on the mines. Signal typically returned to Malawi once a year - the family currently visit every December - but he would also send back money and goods with other Malawians who were returning home.
Though one of only a few Malawians in Pretoria, he was proud of his Malawian identity – “a lot of people who asked him, he told them his origin”. Though he has lived most of his life in South Africa, he would not consider himself a machona, ‘a lost one’, as they are “people who stayed a long time and don't go back.” Nevertheless, Signal was not involved with the Malawian nationalist politics of the late 1950s and did not know much about what was going on in 1964 - his limited involvement in politics however reflects that at the time, the “danger was too much”, Malawians “would just stay indoors.” On 20th August 1996, Signal became a naturalised citizen of South Africa.
Today Mr. Signal Ayathu Phiri has 10 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. At the age of 83 he is still strong and still working as a caretaker at the Pretoria Muslim Trust Sunni School in Laudium.
