Hastings Kamuzu Banda (1896?
– 25 November 1997)
was the leader of Malawi
and its
predecessor state, Nyasaland, from 1961 to
1994. After receiving much of his education overseas, Banda
returned to his home country (then British
Nyasaland) to speak against
colonialism and help lead the movement towards
independence. In 1963, he was formally appointed Nyasaland’s
prime minister, and led the country
to independence as Malawi a year later. Two years later, he
declared Malawi a republic with himself as president. He quickly
consolidated power and eventually declared Malawi a
one party state under the
Malawi Congress Party. In 1970, the
MCP declared him the party’s
President for Life. In 1971, he became
President for Life of Malawi itself.
A leader of the pro-Western bloc in Africa, he received support
from the West during the
cold war. He
generally supported women’s rights, improved the country’s
infrastructure, and maintained a good educational system relative
to other African countries. On the debit side, however, he presided
over one of the most repressive regimes in Africa. He also faced
scorn for maintaining full diplomatic relations with
apartheid-era
South
Africa.
By 1993, facing international pressure and widespread protest, a
referendum ended his one party state, and a special assembly
stripped him of his title. Banda ran for president in the
democratic elections which followed, but was soundly defeated. He
died in South Africa in 1997. His legacy as ruler of Malawi remains
controversial, some hailing him as a national and African hero,
some denouncing him as a political tyrant.
Early life
Kamuzu
Banda was born near Kasungu
in Malawi
(then British Central Africa)
to Mphonongo Banda and his wife Akupingamnyama Phiri. His
date of birth is unknown, and as it took place at a time when there
was no birth registration, it is impossible to state a precise
year. (His biographer, Philip Short, gives February 1898 as the
most likely date). His official birthday is stated as May 14, 1906
and this date is contained in some biographical guides. However,
his death certificate states him to have been 99 years old and it
was rumoured that he was actually 101. There is no proof the report
of his age was accurate. He took the Christian name of Hastings
after being baptised into the Church of Scotland in around 1905.
Around 1915-16, he left home and went with Hanock Msokera Phiri, an
"uncle" who had been a teacher at the nearby Livingstonia mission
school, on foot to Hartley in Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia) and
then, in 1917 and again on foot, to Johannesburg in South Africa.
He worked in various jobs at the Witwatersrand Deep Mine on the
Transvaal Reef for several years. During this time, he met Bishop
W. T. Vernon of the African Methodist Church (AME), who offered to
pay his tuition at a Methodist school in America if he could make
his own passage. In 1925, he left for New York.
Life abroad (1925–1958)
Banda
studied in the high school section of Wilberforce Institute, a
black AME college (now Central
State University) in Wilberforce, Ohio
, and graduated in 1928. With his financial
support now ended, Banda earned some money on speaking engagements
arranged by the Ghanaian educationalist, Kweyir Aggrey, whom he had
met in South Africa. Speaking at a Kiwanis club meeting, he met one
Dr Herald, with whose help he enrolled as a premedical student at
Indiana University, where he
lodged with Mrs W.N. Culmer.
At Bloomington, he wrote several essays about
his native Chewa tribe for the folklorist Stith Thompson, who introduced him to
Edward Sapir, an anthropologist at the
University of
Chicago
, to which, after four semesters, he
transferred. During his period here, he collaborated with
the anthropologist and linguist, Mark Hanna Watkins, acting as an
informant on Chewa culture. In Chicago, he lodged with an
African-American, Mrs Corinna Saunders. He majored in history,
graduating with a B Phil in 1931. During this time, he enjoyed
financial support from a Mrs. Smith, whose husband, Douglas Smith,
had made fortunes in patent medicines and in
Pepsodent toothpaste; and also from a member of
the Eastman Kodak board. He then, still with financial support from
these and other benefactors (including Dr. Walter B.
Stephenson of the
Delta Electric Company), studied medicine at Meharry Medical College in Tennessee
, from which he graduated in 1937. In order
to practice medicine in territories of the
British Empire, however, he was apparently
required to get a second medical degree; he attended and graduated
from the School of Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians and
Surgeons of the
University of
Edinburgh in 1941. His studies there were funded by stipends of
300 pounds per year from the government of Nyasaland (in order to
facilitate his return there as a doctor) and from the Scottish
Presbyterian Kirk; neither of these benefactors being aware of the
other. (There are conflicting accounts of this, however. He may
still have been funded by Mrs Smith). When he enrolled for courses
in tropical diseases in Liverpool, the Nyasaland government
terminated his stipend. He was forced to leave Liverpool when he
refused on conscientious grounds to be conscripted as an Army
doctor.
Between 1942 and 1945 he worked as a doctor
in North
Shields
near Newcastle on Tyne. He was a tennant of
Mrs Amy Walton at this time in Alma Place in North Shields and sent
a Christmas card to her every year right up to her death in the
late 1960's.
In 1948 he worked as a doctor in Renfrew
. A
resident, Bill Johnston remembers the time when, as a lad, Dr.
Banda came to his home to see his father who had a nasty boil on
the back of his neck. His father was a respected church elder in
the town. Dr. Banda took a small bottle from his case, asked for
some boiling water and poured some into the bottle. Emptying the
water out, he quickly placed the open end on Bill’s father’s boil
where of course it stuck as the steam condensed. With a cry of
anguish his father leapt to his feet and chased the doctor round
and round the kitchen table with the bottle fastened to his neck.
Bill was dumbfounded at hearing his father use language that he had
never heard before!
Banda originally worked at a mission for
coloured seamen before moving to a general practice in the London
suburb of Harlesden
. Reportedly, he avoided returning to
Nyasaland for fear that his newfound financial resources would be
consumed by his extended family back home.
In 1946, at the behest of Chief Mwase of Kasungu, whom he had met
in England in 1939, and other politically active Malawians, he
represented the Nyasaland African Congress at the fifth Pan African
Congress in Manchester. From this time he took an increasingly
active interest in his native land, advising the Congress and
providing it some financial support. With help from sympathetic
British, he also lobbied in London on their behalf. He was actively
opposed to the efforts of Sir
Roy
Welensky, premier of Southern Rhodesia, to form a federation
between Southern and Northern Rhodesia with Nyasaland, a move which
he feared would result in further deprivation of rights for the
Nyasaland blacks. The (as he famously called it) "stupid"
Federation was formed in 1953. It was rumored with some excitement
that he would return to Nyasaland in 1951, but in the event he
moved instead to the Gold Coast in West Africa. He may have gone
there partly because of a scandal involving his receptionist in
Harlesden, a Mrs French: Banda was cited as correspondent in the
divorce of Major French and accused of adultery with Mrs French,
who went with him to West Africa. (Mrs. French died penniless in
1976). Several influential Congress leaders, including
Henry Chipembere,
Kanyama Chiume,
Dunduzu Chisiza and T.D.T. Banda (no
relation) pleaded with him to return to Nyasaland to take up
leadership of their cause, and on 6 July 1958 he did eventually
return home after an absence of about 42 years. In August, at Nkata
Bay, he was acclaimed as the leader of the Congress.
Return to his homeland
He soon began touring the country, speaking against the
Central African Federation (also
known as the
Federation of Rhodesia and
Nyasaland), and urging its citizens to become members of the
party. (Allegedly, he was so out of practice in his native Chichewa
that he needed an interpreter, a role which was apparently
performed by John Msonthi and later by
John
Tembo, who remained close to him for most of his career). He
was received enthusiastically wherever he spoke, and belligerence
among the Malawians became increasingly common. By February 1959,
the situation had become serious enough that Rhodesian troops were
flown in to help keep order and a state of emergency was declared.
On March 3rd, Banda, along with hundreds of other Africans, was
arrested in the course of "Operation Sunrise". He was imprisoned in
Gwelo (now Gweru) in Southern Rhodesia, and leadership of the
Malawi Congress Party (the Nyasaland African Congress under a new
name) was temporarily assumed by
Orton
Chirwa, who was released from prison in August 1959.
mood in Britain, meanwhile, had long been moving toward
relinquishing the colonies. Banda was released from prison in April
1960 and was almost immediately invited to London for talks aimed
at bringing about independence. Elections were held in August 1961.
While Banda was technically nominated as Minister of Land, Natural
Resources and Local Government, he became de facto Prime Minister
of Nyasaland--a title granted to him formally on February 1, 1963.
He and his fellow MCP ministers quickly expanded secondary
education, reformed the so-called Native Courts, ended certain
colonial agricultural tariffs and made other reforms. In December
1962,
R. A.
Butler, British Secretary of State for
African Affairs, essentially agreed to end the Federation. On July
6, 1964 -- exactly six years after his return to the country --
Nyasaland became the independent Commonwealth of Malawi.
It was Banda himself who chose the name "Malawi" for the former
Nyasaland; he had seen it on an old French map as the name of a
"Lake Maravi" in the land of the
Bororo, and
liked the sound and appearance of the word as "Malawi".
President of Malawi
Barely a month after independence, Malawi suffered a cabinet
crisis. Several of Banda's ministers presented him with proposals
designed to limit his powers. He'd already been accused of
autocratic tendencies. Banda responded by dismissing four of the
ministers, and two others resigned in sympathy. The dissidents fled
the country.
Malawi adopted a new constitution on July 6, 1966, in which the
country was declared a republic. Banda was elected the country's
first president for a five-year term; he was the only candidate.
The new document granted Banda wide executive and legislative
powers, and also formally made the MCP the only legal party.
However, the country had been a de facto
one-party state since independence. In 1970,
a congress of the MCP declared Banda its president for life. In
1971, the legislature declared Banda
President for Life of Malawi as well. His
official title was
His Excellency
the Life President of the Republic of Malaŵi, Ngwazi Dr Hastings
Kamuzu Banda. The title
Ngwazi means "chief of
chiefs" (more literally, "great lion", or, some would say,
"conqueror") in Chicheŵa.
Banda was mostly viewed externally as being a benign, albeit
eccentric, leader, an image fostered by his English-style
three-piece suits, matching handkerchiefs and
fly-whisk. In June 1967 he was awarded an honorary
doctorate by the University of Massachusetts with the
encomium "...pediatrician to his infant
nation".
Within Malawi, views on him ranged from a cult-like devotion to
fear. While he portrayed himself as a caring
headmaster to his people, his government was
rigidly
authoritarian even by African
standards of the time. Although the constitution guaranteed civil
rights and liberties, they meant almost nothing in practice, and
Malawi was essentially a
police state.
Mail was opened and often edited. Telephones were tapped. Needless
to say, overt opposition was not tolerated. Banda actively
encouraged the people to report those who criticized him, even if
they were relatives. Telephone conversations were known to be cut
off if anyone said a critical word about the government. Opponents
were often arrested, exiled (like
Kanyama
Chiume) or died suspiciously (like
Dick
Matenje or Dr
Attati
Mpakati).
Banda was the subject of a very pervasive
cult of personality. Every business
building was required to have an official picture of Banda hanging
on the wall, and no poster, clock or picture could be higher than
his picture. Before every movie, a video of Banda waving to the
people was shown while the anthem played. When Banda visited a
city, a contingent of women were expected to greet him at the
airport and dance for him. A special cloth, bearing the president’s
picture, was the required attire for these performances. Churches
had to be government sanctioned. All movies shown in theaters were
first viewed by the Malawi Censorship Board and edited for content.
Videotapes had to be sent to the Censorship Board to be viewed by
censors. Once edited, the movie was given a sticker stating that it
was now suitable for viewing, and sent back to the owner. Items to
be sold in bookstores were also edited. Pages, or parts of pages,
were cut out of magazines like
Newsweek and
Time. The press and radio were tightly
controlled, and mainly served as outlets for government propaganda.
Television was banned.
His government supervised the people's lives very closely. Early in
his rule, Banda instituted a dress code which was rooted in his
socially conservative predilections. For example, women were not
allowed to bare their thighs or to wear trousers. Banda argued that
the dress code was not instilled to oppress women but to encourage
honour and respect for them. For men, long hair and beards were
banned as a sign of dissent. Men could be seized and forced to have
a haircut on the discretion of border officials or police. Kissing
in public was not allowed, nor were movies which contained
depictions of kissing. Pre-Banda history was discouraged, and many
books on these subjects were
burned.
Banda also allegedly persecuted some of the northern tribes
(particularly the Tumbuka), banning their language and books as
well as teachers from certain tribes. Europeans who broke any of
these rules were often "PI'ed" (declared Prohibited Immigrants and
deported).
All adult citizens were required to be members of the MCP. Party
cards had to be carried at all times, and had to be presented in
random police inspections. The cards were sold, often by Banda's
Malawi Youth Pioneers. In some cases, these youths even sold cards
to unborn children.
Even foreigners were subjected to Banda's dress code. In the 1970s,
prospective visitors to the country were met with the following
requirement for obtaining
visas:
Female passengers will not be permitted to enter the
country if wearing short dresses or trouser-suits, except in
transit or at Lake Holiday resorts or National parks.
Skirts and dresses must cover the knees to conform with
Government regulations.
The entry of 'hippies' and men with long hair and
flared trousers is forbidden.
Nonetheless, Banda was very supportive of
women's rights compared to other African
rulers during his reign. He founded Chitukuko Cha Amai m'Malawi
(CCAM) to address the concerns, needs, rights and opportunities for
women in Malawi. This institution also motivated women to excel
both in education and government and encouraged them to play more
active roles in their community, church and family. The
foundation's National Advisor was Cecilia Tamanda Kadzamira, the
official hostess for the former president.
Banda did much for the country's infrastructure. This included the
establishment of major roads, airports, hospitals and schools in
Malawi.
He
founded Kamuzu Academy, a school
modeled on Eton
, at which
Malawian children were taught Latin and
Ancient Greek by expatriate classics
teachers, and disciplined if they were caught speaking Chichewa.
During Banda's rule, it is believed that he accumulated at least
US$320 million in personal assets, believed to be invested in
everything from agriculture to mining interests in South Africa.
The most controversial part of this is the suspicion that his two
grandchildren, who currently reside in the US and South Africa, are
the heirs to the Banda fortune. One of the grandchildren graduated
from law school and left for the US, while the other remains in
South Africa. They may now learn about the existence of these
anonymous grandchildren, but most importantly; 'who and where are
Banda's children?', most Malawians would like to know. Equally
important is the identity and the whereabouts of their
mother.
He was
also the only African ruler to establish diplomatic ties with
South Africa during apartheid and on one occasion he paid a state
visit to South Africa where he met his South African counterparts
at Stellenbosch
. While many southern African nations traded
with South Africa out of economic necessity, Malawi was the only
African nation that recognized South Africa and exchanged embassies
with it. He only became partially rehabilitated in the eyes of
other African leaders after the demise of the apartheid regime in
South Africa.
Electoral defeat and death
Banda's one-party state was dismantled by a 1993 referendum. Soon
afterward, a special assembly stripped him of his title of
President for Life, along with most of his powers. The British
government and the Queen also stopped their financial support. As
has always been the norm with their colonies and their dictator to
the present day.
After some questions about his health, Banda ran in Malawi's first
truly democratic election in 1994. He was roundly defeated by
Bakili Muluzi, a
Yao from the Southern Region of the country whose two
terms in office were not without serious controversy. Banda died in
a hospital in South Africa in November 1997, reportedly aged 101.
The party he led since taking over from Orton Chirwa in 1960, the
Malawi Congress Party,
continued after his death and remains a major force in Malawian
politics.
References
- The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart
of Despair, by Martin Meredith, PublicAffairs, 2005
- Africa After Independence: Realities of Nationhood, by
Godfrey Mwakikagile,
Johannesburg, South Africa: Continental Press, 2006
- The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa, by Robert
I. Rotberg, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965
- Banda, by Philip Short, London: Routledge & Kegan
1974
- Malawi, the Politics of Despair, by T. David Williams,
Cornell Univ Press, 1978
- Kamuzu's legacy: the democratization of Malawi, by Jan
Kees van Donge, African Affairs, Vol 94, No 375, 1995
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