Adamson S. Muula1 & Wakisa Mulwafu2
- Head, Department of Community and Environmental Health, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences & Editor in Chief, Malawi Medical Journal
- Executive Dean, School of Medicine and Oral Health, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety
Excerpt from My Heart Leaps up by William Wordsworth- 1802
The Malawi medical and higher education fraternity lost Professor Robert Lumb Broadhead, OBE, MBBS, Dip Obst, FRCPCH on the morning of 19th April 2026. Born in the United Kingdom on 3rd May 1943, Robert (fondly called and mostly known as Robin), was the Foundation Head of Department and Professor at the (Malawi) College of Medicine at its inception in September 1991. The College of Medicine at the time was part of the federal and collegiate system of the University of Malawi. In 2026, the three schools of the former College contribute to the new Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS).
With his fellow Heads of Departments, namely Professors Anthony Harries (Tony) in Internal Medicine, Adelola Adeloye (Surgery), Tim Cullinan (Community Health), Laban Mtimavalye (Obstetrics and Gynaecology), John David Chiphangwi (Director of Medical Studies and Coordinator of the Medical School Project), and Geoffrey Dahlenburg (Principal and Executive Dean) a paediatrician, and under the administrative guidance of Thouse O’dala as the College Registrar, the College of Medicine (CoM) started off with 5th Year MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery Students) who were returning home from London. After his tour of duty as Head of Paediatrics (now the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health), Broadhead handed the baton to Prof Elizabeth Molyneux while he proceeded to becoming the Dean of Medicine and later Principal until his retirement. As Principal, he was deputised by Prof Boniface Msamati (Anatomist), Prof Ndalama George Liomba (a pathologist) and Dr Emmanuel Kafulafula (Obstetrics and Gynaecology), in that order.
Robin Broadhead integrated poetry and painting in medical education and training. He always maintained that in medical training, humanity often takes second place to scientific achievement. The realization that there is production of less humane doctors has troubled both medical educators and clinicians. Professor Broadhead argued that reading literature in medical training helps doctors to be more humane and is one way of creating physicians that are more caring and perhaps alleviate the burnout that occurs among the overworked staff and awed medical students. Professor Robin Broadhead hailed poetry as a nice respite from medical mundane. He said that it allows you to explore yourself, your feelings; and it reminds you that you are human have different sides to yourself other than just the academic side. Poetry reading allows physicians to share their life and emotional experiences. He introduced poetry reading in the Paediatrics department. It was done every Monday morning during clinical handover meetings.
Apart from reading poems, he also wrote some in his spare time, reflecting on decisions he had made and where they had eventually led him.
It is a futile exercise to list the numerous personal and professional contributions and achievements that Robin experienced over almost 83 years. Broadhead was a painter. He painted portraits of CoM Principals: Geoffrey Dahlenburg, John Chiphangwi, Himself, Kenneth Maleta and Mwapatsa Mipando. Most of the buildings at Mahatma Gandhi Campus of Kamuzu University of Health Sciences had his inspiration and personal input. He impressed on the Anadkat Family in Blantyre to build a students’ hostel. It was during Broadhead’s tenure as principal that the majority of buildings were constructed and mostly through his resource mobilisation. The Department of Research, the School of Global and Public Health and the ICT Department at KUHES are all housed in Chimutu Building (Chimutu is the Chichewa version of a Broadhead). Robin was not loud. He was a master strategist. He was a mentor to many. He looked after his children (patients and students) so very well so that they became the fathers of men.