Dunstan Ainani
Dunstan Daniel Ainani was a Malawian Anglican bishop and hymnwriter. From 1981 to 1986, he was the bishop of Southern Malawi.
Early life and ordination
Ainani was born 1920–1925. He came from a Muslim background and served in the King's African Rifles in Rhodesia. He also worked as a storekeeper and clerk and ran a fishing business prior to entering ministry in middle age, in the 1960s, after training as a lay catechist in the Anglican church at Mpondas, Mangochi District. Under the leadership of Bishop Donald Arden, Ainani composed and popularized indigenous Malawian hymns.Episcopacy
In 1979, Ainani was elected suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Southern Malawi. He was consecrated a bishop at Chilema, Malosa on 17 June 1979. In 1980, Arden was set to retire as diocesan bishop, and Ainani won the election to succeed him on the first ballot, outpacing future bishops Bernard Malango and Nathaniel Aipa. Ainani was considered the presumptive favorite due to his prior service as suffragan bishop. He was enthroned on 26 April 1981 in Malosa.As bishop, Ainani continued Arden's work of erecting churches, schools, clinics and rectories for the growing diocese. He also followed Arden's evangelical churchmanship, which contrasted with the Anglo-Catholicism of the former Universities' Mission to Central Africa churches in northern Malawi. However, unlike Arden, who translated English Anglican hymns into Chewa, Ainani composed original hymns in Chewa set to popular Malawian tunes. According to church historian Henry Hastings Mbaya, Ainani's hymns outpaced Arden's in popularity and were eventually incorporated into a new Malawian prayer book and hymnal.
The second half of Ainani's episcopate was dominated by a conflict with his diocesan secretary, Andrew Hamisi. Hamisi accused Ainani of "incompetence and maladministration," while Ainani viewed Hamisi as insubordinate. Both parties traded accusations of financial impropriety. Eventually, Ainani fired Hamisi and the conflict came to a head in 1986 with a diocesan standing committee meeting at St. Paul's Cathedral in Blantyre attended by other bishops of the Province of Central Africa. Archbishop Walter Khotso Makhulu prevailed upon Ainani to retire, which he did by the end of 1986.