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Malawi celebrates independence day, but the first president left his mark

 <https://mg.co.za/author/brooks-marmon/> Brooks Marmon

6 Jul 2020

The historical record shows that Malawi's difficulties under Hastings Banda
were evident at the very moment of the country's founding

 
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Today, July 6, Malawi celebrates 56 years of independence and 62 years since
its founding father,
<https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hastings-Kamuzu-Banda> Hastings Kamuzu
Banda, returned to the British colony of Nyasaland after working and
studying abroad. The country was the first member of the Federation of
Rhodesia and Nyasaland (Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe) to attain independence.

Although the current headlines about Malawi are glowing after the
<https://mg.co.za/africa/2020-06-28-lazarus-chakwera-is-sworn-in-after-winni
ng-malawis-historic-presidential-election/>  recent presidential power
transfer, the fate of independent Malawi during the
<https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137478122_2> Cold War was a
tragic one. Banda was a narcissistic leader. His nickname, Ngwazi (The
Conqueror), reflects his autocratic inclinations.  

Just weeks after independence Banda's cabinet resigned in protest against
his retrogressive leadership. Their bold gesture proved futile. In 1971,
Banda was declared
<https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-11-22-mn-270-story.html>
president-for-life and he stayed in office until democratic elections in
1994. He enjoyed convivial relations with the apartheid government of South
Africa and sparred with the first president of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere.
Short skirts on women and long hair on men were banned.

The historical record shows that the country's difficulties under Banda were
evident at the very moment of Malawi's founding. His obsequious embrace of
Western powers and the presence of the Southern Rhodesian delegation at
Malawi's independence celebrations points to Banda's penchant for coddling
up to superpowers and the region's racist white governments.

Wooing the West

Banda, who had denounced the British decision to federate Nyasaland with
Southern Rhodesia in the early 1950s, forgave all when Malawi became
independent. At a banquet with Prince Philip the day before independence he
announced: "I am bitter no more. Our quarrel with the British government is
over. They are our friends." Determined to show that this was not rhetoric,
Banda left the infant nation just days later to hobnob with world leaders at
the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' conference in London. And the colonial
governor general, Glyn Jones, remained in office in Malawi for two years.   

Banda also embraced the United States, which had originally been diffident
about sending a delegation to the independence celebrations. In a sign of
Malawi's relative inconsequence, the American delegation was led by Rufus
Clement, a university president. This did not stop Banda from pursuing a
fawning correspondence with president Lyndon Johnson and declaring his
support for the Vietnam War, a conflict opposed by the non-aligned nations.

Rhodesian relations

Closer to home, Winston Field, the recently deposed Rhodesian prime minister
(who remained an MP in Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front) had been a friend of
Banda's for several years. They bonded over jokes concerning Field's son,
Simon, who was shorter than the diminutive Banda. Field attended the
independence celebrations but was not the only member of that government to
do so. Smith dispatched his agriculture minister, Lord Angus Graham. Trends
were for the isolation of the Rhodesian government and Banda's decision to
host a delegation provided Rhodesia with considerable propaganda value.

The Rhodesian authorities were also probably pleased by Banda's support for
the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu). Since Zanu's founding the
previous year, Banda had been an overt supporter of the nationalist faction
that broke away from Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (Zapu),
a fracture that weakened the pressure against Smith's government.

Zapu spokesperson William Mukurati reported that Zapu had not even been
invited to the Malawi independence celebrations. He added: "Even if one had
come, we would not have gone where Zanu and the Smith government have also
been invited."

Zanu dispatched a delegation of more than 20 members led by the party's
secretary general, Robert Mugabe.

Mugabe enjoyed congenial relations with Banda after Zimbabwe's independence
- the Malawian leader opened the new Zanu-PF office building in Harare in
1990. But Banda's embrace of Mugabe was not sustained throughout Zimbabwe's
liberation struggle. His enthusiasm for Zanu dimmed when he reached a more
overt accommodation with white supremacy. By the end of the 1960s, Banda had
clearly abandoned Zimbabwe's mainstream nationalist movement and thrown his
lot in with the small black political parties such as the National People's
Union that participated within the framework of constitutional politics.

Ongoing struggles for full and free political participation in Malawi
suggest the country's formative moment continues to shape political conduct.

Brooks Marmon is a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh and incoming
post-doctoral fellow at the department of historical and heritage studies,
University of Pretoria.

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 <https://mg.co.za/author/brooks-marmon/> Brooks Marmon

Guest Author

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