[2] Charles Matinga had a long career in the civil service, based in Blantyre, and ran a brick-making business on the side.
The Nyasaland African Congress (NAC), formed in 1943/1944 was the first organization that attempted to work at a national level.
[6] When Mumba died in January 1945, Matinga was elected to succeed him as president, with the Reverend Charles Chinula as vice-president.
[1] Matinga surprised the government by raising the issue of land grievances, and demanding African majority representation on the Legislative Council and other administrative bodies.
Banda wrote to Matinga in March 1945 saying that he would support the Congress in England by giving lectures and talking to influential people whom he knew such as Sir Arthur Creech Jones and Rita Hinden.
This was seen as a betrayal by NAC leaders such as Matinga and James Frederick Sangala, who thought the Colonial Office was discarding the principle that African interests were paramount, instead favoring White colonists.
Matinga left for Cape Town to take the ship to the United Kingdom, but took the secretary general of Congress, Andrew Mponda, rather than Chinula.
[12] Under pressure from Congress delegates, Sangala (who had been one of the original prime movers in organizing the NAC), called a conference on 1 January 1950.
Charles Matinga, Andrew Mponda and Orton Ching'oli Chirwa formed the Nyasaland Progressive Association, dedicated to working within the new reality of the Federation.
[14] In 1957 and early 1958 the governor of Nyasaland, Sir Robert Armitage, was attempting to formulate a view of how to evolve the government of the protectorate which he could present to the Colonial Office when he went on leave to London.
[18] In 1973, the exiled "Capricorns" who had sided with white-led pro-federation parties - Matinga, Matthews Phiri and Manoah Chirwa - asked President Hastings Banda to be allowed to return to Malawi.