NATIVES ON PRIVATE ESTATES BILL, 1928. This law dictated that Africans living on private estates had to pay rent to the estate owner or work for wages. If he chose the former, the landlord could a.s.sign him a plot of land on which to grow crops, which the landlord would then buy to generate the income needed for the rent. Default in payment of rent or behavior deemed to be unacceptable by the landlord could, according to the ordinance, result in eviction after six months" notice. Although the ordinance also authorized the government to reserve more land for those evicted, the problem of land in the Shire Highlands would remain unresolved until the postcolonial period. See also ABRAHAMS COMMISSION.
NCHALO. This area south of Chikwawa boma has been a.s.sociated with sugar production since the mid-1960s. Originally a joint partnership between the Malawi government and Lonrho, the sugarcane plantations were privatized in 1997 and sold to a consortium dominated by the Ilovo company of Natal, South Africa. See also PRIVATIZATION.
NCOZANA, REV. SILAS. General secretary of the synod of Blantyre of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) from 1985 to 1995, Ncozana spent his early life in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), holds an MA in theology from the University of Toronto, and a PhD in the same subject from the University of Aberdeen. At the height of the agitation for political reform in the early 1990s, Ncozana played a significant role behind the scenes and through the Public Affairs Committee (PAC), thus ensuring a smooth transition from dictatorship to democracy in Malawi. He served as Malawi"s amba.s.sador to Germany and taught at the University in KwazuluNatal for a time before returning to Malawi to lecture at the Theological College in Zomba.
NDALI. Name of a people and language spoken by people in the Misuku Hills in Chitipa district. The Ndali migrated from Undali in southern Tanganyika, settling amongst the indigenous Sukwa. CiNdali, the language of the Ndali, and, ciSukwa, spoken by the Sukwa, are mutually intelligible.
NDEMA, G. E. This former minister of local government was born at Naisi in Zomba district. After elementary education, he worked in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) from which he was deported in 1959 because of his involvement in African politics. Back home he became an activist in the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), and in 1964 was elected to Parliament, later becoming minister of local government. In 1970, he was imprisoned without trial because he was suspected of being in league with Gomile k.u.mtumanje, who was accused of being behind the Chilobwe murders. Ndema lost his property, which was not returned to him after his release in 1977. In the early 1990s, the MCP unsuccessfully attempted to persuade him to rejoin the party so he could help stem the tide of reform in Zomba district.
NDHLOVU, CHIWERE. Former induna (counselor), Chiwere Ndhlovu broke away from the main M"mbelwa Ngoni group after the death of Zw.a.n.gendaba, taking with him two princes, Msakambewa Jere and Vuso Jere, and settling near Mvera in Dowa, heartland of the Chewa. He a.s.sumed political authority in his new area, and it was he who gave permission to the missionaries of the Dutch Reformed Church to establish their presence in the region.
NDIRANDE. High-density area below Ndirande Mountain, one of the elevations in the BlantyreLimbe area, Ndirande was originally inhabited by the Mang"anja before the area was conquered by the Yao in the early 1860s. When the Blantyre Mission was established in 1876, the area had several Yao-led villages, including those of the Mataka, Masangano, and Mlanga, all under the jurisdiction of Chief Kapeni. As Blantyre Mission and Blantyre itself grew into a major town, attracting labor into the area, many African newcomers went to live in Ndirande. Although, technically, Ndirande fell under the African Trust Land, it was subject to the authority of the town and country planning section of the munic.i.p.ality of Blantyre. Today, Ndirande falls within the city of Blantyre and is regulated by its bylaws; however, there are sections that can best be described as dominated by informal and unregulated building structures. Residents of Ndirande fondly call their township "republic of Ndirande," mainly because of its "wild" nature and independence of action. During the State of Emergency in 1959, the area was particularly hostile to colonial authority and was the hiding place for many activists; during the Cabinet Crisis of 1964 and for months after the event, Ndirande was noted for its antigovernment opinion; and in the early 1990s it was much identified with the political reform movement.
NDOVI, RABAN PEMBA (?1973). This politician and first organizing secretary general of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) was born at Chilumba, Karonga district, and after basic education, left Nyasaland in the early 1950s, finally arriving in England. There he became interested in the politics of decolonization and, soon after the MCP was formed in 1959, he returned home, where Orton Chirwa appointed him national organizing secretary of the new party. Ndovi adopted a very militant approach to Malawian nationalist politics, often advocating the burning of bridges and an uncompromising att.i.tude toward the government and Europeans working in Malawi. When Hastings Banda was released from prison in Gweru in April 1960 and took over leadership of the party, he dismissed Ndovi from his position. Ndovi formed his own Convention of African National Union, which tended to attract only a few left-wing people. By 1964, Ndovi had left Malawi to live in exile in Zambia. He died in a car accident.
NENO. This area in Mwanza district is known for producing some of the best oranges in Malawi. Neno is also one of the earliest Roman Catholic mission stations in the country, dating to 1906.
NESS, J. R. Chairman of the Settlers" and Residents" a.s.sociation of Nyasaland (SARAN), Ness was the son of a former chairman of the Imperial Tobacco Company who had been part of the hunt for John Chilembwe following the rebellion in 1915. Educated in South Africa, a country of which he became a citizen, until 1947, when he returned to Nyasaland, Ness was active in European settler politics, especially in the determination to maintain European authority in the area. In 1961, he and others founded SARAN, which sought to fight const.i.tutional changes in Malawi; upon decolonization, he left the country.
NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY. See CHAKUAMBA, GWANDANGULBE "GWANDA."
NEWSPAPERS. The first news-oriented periodical in Nyasaland and the Zambezia region to be published at regular intervals was Life and Work, started by Rev. Clement Scott in 1888, and produced at the Blantyre Mission Press. The initial production staff of Scott and his students, led by Mungo Chisuse, a.s.sembled the printing press with the help of manuals and, in a similar way, taught themselves to operate it. Life and Work contained articles covering a variety of fields, including mission work, botany, agriculture, and anthropology. Almost invariably it also contained news of a political nature, especially the process of the establishment of British authority in the area. In 1892, Life and Work changed its name to Life and Work in British Central Africa; at about that time, Dr. Robert Laws of the Livingstonia Mission, farther north, started a similar magazine, the Aurora. At a later stage, some Christian missions published weekly newspapers, and they included the Presbyterians" Kuanika, issued in chiChewa, and the Catholic Church"s Moni and The African, published in chiChewa and English.
In the meantime, anxious to counteract the influence of Blantyre missionaries, whose consistent criticism of his policies and style of rule did not please him, Sir Harry Johnston, head of the British administration in the Lake Malawi area, established his own publication, the British Central Africa Gazette (BCAG). Financed by the government ostensibly to communicate its ideas and programs, the BCAG tried to promote disunity within the Blantyre Mission and between the latter and other mission societies in the region. As time progressed, the BCAG reverted to the role of public notices and announcing legislature and government notices.
In 1895, R. S. Hynde, a former Blantyre Mission layworker based at Domasi who had become a businessman and planter, started the first real newspaper, the Central African Planter, which championed imperialism and European settler business in the country. Two years later, Hynde changed the newspaper"s name to the Central African Times, appearing fortnightly; in 1909, it became the Nyasaland Times, a name it retained until 1964 when it changed to the Malawi Times; by this time, it was appearing twice a week. Throughout the colonial period, the Nyasaland Times supported the government, as long as it protected the interests of Europeans in the country. On the other hand, until the 1960s, the newspaper always opposed African aspirations for independence from colonial authority. Its ownership changed at various times. At one stage, it was part of the chain of newspapers owned by Lord Thompson of Fleet Street, but major changes began to take place to the paper in April 1969, when President Hastings Banda personally bought 49.7 percent of shares in the Blantyre Printing and Publishing Company (BP&PC), owners of the newspaper. From then onward, the Malawi Times toed the government line and, by the early 1980s when Banda had a much greater control of the BP&PC, the newspaper had became completely identified with the views of the government. It became a daily newspaper and increased its coverage of international news.
In 1959, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) founded the Malawi News and, by the 1980s, the newspaper was also printed by BP&PC and published on Sat.u.r.days. This meant that the only national newspapers in the country were controlled by the MCP and its government. During the agitation for democratization of Malawi, both newspapers campaigned for a status quo. However, by the end of 1992, the pro-democracy organizations had established their own newspapers. The Malawi Financial Post, edited by Alaudin Osman, a journalist of wide experience, was the first to appear. It was followed by many others: the Malawi Democrat, which was the Alliance for Democracy"s (AFORD) official newspaper; others included the Nation, the UDF News, the Monitor, the Michiru Sun, the Financial Observer, the New Express, the Citizen, and the Tribune, all of which supported the United Democratic Front (UDF). The Guardian leaned toward the MCP and, while committed to political reform, the Independent, edited by Janet Karim, lived up to its name. Some of these newspapers were printed by the BP&PC, an uncomfortable arrangement in view of the fact that the firm was owned by Banda and it also published the Malawi News and Daily Times.
The Malawi Democrat, the Michiru Sun, and the Malawi Financial Post, among others, folded within a few years of the defeat of the MCP government. The Nation became stronger and, with the Daily Times, emerged as Malawi"s established daily newspaper; others, such as the Chronicle and the Malawi News, remained weekend newspapers. By 2005, however, there were two regular daily newspapers, the Daily Times and The Nation, and three weekend newspapers, the Malawi News, the Weekend Nation, and the Sat.u.r.day and Sunday Times.
Also typical of the era of political reform was the emergence of fearless cartoonists such as Brian Hara and Richard Mwale, whose sketches expressed serious or satirical commentaries of a political, social, and economic nature. Among the cartoons that began to appear at this time are Zabweka, Pewani, Takataka, Country Rat and Town Rat, Che Maliosi, and Gossip Computer. Freedom of expression was beginning to be accepted in Malawi. However, this new freedom remained under threat from the government. In February 2011, the government amended Section 26 of the Penal Code to empower the minister of information to censor any publication and circulation of publications determined to be against "public interest." This tightening up was widely rejected at home and abroad.
NGAMWANE, CHIEF. In August 1953, this chief in Thyolo district was arrested and briefly detained in Blantyre following a conflict between some of his people and Basil Tennet, a planter at Luchenza. He was released only after his subjects rioted, damaging property belonging to the government and European planters and barricading roads leading to Thyolo boma. The commission of inquiry set up by the governor, Sir Geoffrey Colby, to establish the cause of the riots concluded that the instability of the "Native Administration" in the district was to blame for the unrest, exacerbated by the increasing shortage of land in the area. See also NTONDEZA, CHIEF.
NGEMELA, ISWANI BEN. Of Nyakyusa and Ngonde parentage, Ben Ngemela was an early convert to the Last Church of G.o.d and His Christ and became one of Jordan Msumba"s main pastors in Karonga. In the 1920s and 1930s, Msumba and Tigone Munthali were largely responsible for spreading the church"s beliefs in the Karonga district and across the Songwe in Unyakyusa. In both areas, the Last Church of G.o.d and His Christ is often referred to as Ichalichi cha Ngemela (Ngemela"s church).
NGERENGE. This Ngonde area in north Karonga, traditionally ruled by the Kilupula, is one of the major rice-producing areas in Malawi. Ngerenge, home of the Kilupula Rice Growers Co-operative Union, is also a noted cotton-growing region. Much earlier, in 1892, Dr. David Kerr Cross opened a station at Ngerenge, thereby establishing a Livingstonia Mission presence in the border region of British Central Africa and German East Africa.
NGONDE. The Ngonde are the inhabitants of the northwestern sh.o.r.e of Lake Malawi and related by language (Kyangonde) and customs to the Nyakyusa of southern Tanganyika. Around 1600, the kingdom emerged in the area between the Songwe River and Chilumba, and it was in existence when the British colonized the area at the end of the 19th century. The traditional rulers still use the t.i.tle Kyungu. A major cattle-keeping people, the Ngonde are better known as producers of rice; the Kilupula Rice Growers Co-operative Union was based in northern Ungonde, as the Ngonde country is called. The Ngonde are also a.s.sociated with cotton production.
NGONI. Deriving from the South African term Nguni, this word is used to refer to the descendants of Zw.a.n.gendaba and Mputa Maseko and their followers. Those led by the former would settle mainly in Mzimba and in Chipata, Mchinji, and Dowa districts. The ones in Mzimba const.i.tuted the main group of Zw.a.n.gendaba"s followers and were led by Mhlahlo Jere who took the name M"mbelwa, which became the t.i.tle of the rulers of the Ngoni in this region. M"mbelwa"s people came to be known as M"mbelwa Ngoni. Those who went to Chipata and Mchiji are called the Mpezeni Ngoni. Mputa Maseko"s group, usually referred to as the Maseko Ngoni, settled mainly in Ntcheu and Dedza districts; a small section moved to Thyolo district.
NGULUDI. Located in Chiradzulu district, this was one of the main sites of Donald Malota"s enterprise, which in 1903 was sold to the Montfort Marist Catholic missionaries. The mission developed it into a major educational and health center. It is also the home of the Catholic University of Malawi, established in 2006.
NGUNANA, SHADRACH. Ngunana was one of the first a.s.sistants from Lovedale Missionary Inst.i.tute who joined the Livingstonia Mission at Cape Maclear in 1876. His work at the mission involved mostly teaching at the school, which he headed until he died of consumption in 1877. He was buried at the site of the first Livingstonia Mission station.
NGWIRI, JOHN JAMES (19301992). Secretary to the president and cabinet (SPC) from 1975 to 1985, John Ngwiri came from Ntcheu district but spent most of his early life in East Africa, first in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika, where his father worked and, later, in Uganda and Kenya, where he worked for the East Africa Community. He returned to Malawi in the early 1960s and at independence joined the foreign service, serving in Malawi missions abroad. In 1975, he became princ.i.p.al secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, and five years later he replaced George Jaffu as SPC and head of the Malawi Civil Service. An astute man who mixed easily with all ranks of the civil service, he was instrumental in establishing the Civil Service Club, of which he became an active member. Ngwiri also rose to be a very influential advisor to President Hastings Banda. In 1985, he fell out of favor with Banda and was replaced by Sam Kakhobwe. He retired to his farm in Ntcheu where he died. His name would feature prominently in the Mtegha Commission Report and in the Mwanza trials because the death in Mwanza of the four politicians took place in 1983 during his tenure as SPC, and there was much speculation as to the role he played in the chain of events leading to the murders.
NHLANE, CHIPATULA. An influential and hardliner Ngoni induna (councillor) during the Ngoni settlement in northern Malawi, Chipatula Nhlane was a.s.signed by Mhlahlo Jere (M"mbelwa I) to the eastern section of their new domain, which at that time was supervised from Kaning"nina, just east of Mzuzu. In this capacity, he was in charge of the Tonga who had been forced into Ngoni jurisdiction. Soon after his death in 1877, the Tonga revolted and returned to their homes. In September 1878, Chipatula"s successor was the first notable "northern" Ngoni to be contacted by the Livingstonia missionaries, namely Dr. Robert Laws, William Koyi, Fred Zarakuti, and James Stewart, and he was also the person who in turn established firm links between the missionaries and the rest of the Ngoni hierarchy. Although the Nhlane village moved westward to Hoho in central Mzimba, the Chipatula Nhlane family continued to play a major role not only in the consolidation of the Ngoni rule in the northern Lake Malawi area but also in the development of the often difficult relationship between the Ngoni and the Europeans.
NHLANE, DANIEL (?1917). Son of Chipatula Nhlane, Daniel was one of the early M"mbelwa Ngoni converts to Christianity. In 1887, he and Andrew Mkochi opened the first school at Chimtunga Jere"s village, a step regarded as a major advance in missionary efforts in the area, especially in that Chimtunga himself would attend cla.s.ses. Nhlane"s involvement in the William Zeil incident in 1899 shows the extent to which he had become committed to missionary work but also demonstrates his determination to protect Ngoni paramountcy in the area. In 1902, Daniel Nhlane, his brother, Simon, and Andrew Mkochi were appointed as evangelists and, two years later, they attended the new evangelist course at Khondowe, the headquarters of the Livingstonia Mission. A great preacher and composer of church hymns, Daniel completed the theological course at Khondowe but served a long period of probation while waiting to be ordained. He pleaded with the mission to relax its unnecessarily strict ordination rules for Africans so that he and others could become ministers. In 1915, he implored, "Let us be ordained before we die," but that was not to be, for he died two years later, still not a minister.
NJILIMA, DUNCAN. A businessman and planter in Chiradzulu who was one of the most committed followers of John Chilembwe. Njilima was educated at Blantyre Mission and, sometime between 1892 and 1894, was a house servant of Bishop Wilfred Hornby, Nyasaland"s head of the Universities" Mission to Central Africa (UMCA). He briefly worked at Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia, and, on his return to Nyasaland, became a major planter at Nsoni, Chiradzulu district. There he had two estates, one of well over 100 acres, and the second, which he jointly owned with Hugh and Gordon Mataka, was also 100 acres. On his larger holding, he had a labor force of about 30 people, who helped him grow cotton, maize, and tobacco. Njilima also had general stores at Nangundi, Chiradzulu district, and at Ntumbi, Ntcheu district; he also owned property in Blantyre. Like other African businessmen of the time, Njilima felt that the labor laws discriminated against him in that, unlike his European counterparts, his employees could not transfer money from the unpopular labor tax. As a consequence of the law, labor costs were high for African entrepreneurs.
On the night of 22 January 1915, Njilima"s party of mainly house servants and overseers, working for Europeans in Blantyre, would meet at a rendezvous with other rebelling groups led by David Kaduya, Stephen Mkulitchi, and John Gray Kufa. Kaduya, Mkulitchi, and Njilima and their men met as arranged and, together, they attacked the Mandala General Store in the town. Njilima was arrested within a few days and executed. His two sons, Fred and Matthew, were given an education in the United States, where they had been taken by Landon Cheek. Frederick later became active in the Southern Province a.s.sociation. See also AFRICAN WELFARE a.s.sOCIATIONS; DELANY, EMMA; NJILIMA, FREDERICK.
NJILIMA, FREDERICK (c. 1897?). Frederick Njilima, son of Duncan Njilima, was a businessman, soldier, and intrepid adventurer. In 1907, his father requested Landon Cheek, who was returning to the United States, to take his two sons, Frederick and Matthew, with him so that they could receive advanced education in that country. Financed by the Negro National Baptist Convention, John Chilembwe"s affiliate organization, they attended the Natchez College High School in Mississippi; Frederick went on to study at Lincoln Ridge College, Lincoln, Kentucky, and, in 1915, he entered Kentucky State Industrial University.
When their father was executed following his part in the Chilembwe uprising, Matthew felt bitter and wanted nothing to do with the Nyasaland under colonial rule. However, Frederick was interested in pursuing his education at St. Johns College, Cambridge University, and in furthering his father"s business interests. Bishop Wilfred Hornby, formerly of Nyasaland and for whom his father had worked as a house servant in the 1890s, advised Frederick that he had to atone for his father"s role in the Chilembwe uprising before he could recommend him to St. John"s, and that the best way was to join the British army. Frederick duly volunteered as Frederick Gresham, trained in the Irish Rifles, and then was posted to the Machine Gun Corps at Ypres, where he would serve bravely in France for three years. Wounded on 27 May 1918, he was repatriated to the Cambridge Hospital, Aldershot, England, and received the Military Medal for Bravery and a letter of commendation from the British Crown.
In October 1919, Njilima returned to Nyasaland. The government followed his movements, opened his letters, and was uncooperative in all his endeavors aimed at reviving his father"s business. In the following year, Frederick unsuccessfully applied to lease 150 acres of Crown land in Lilongwe where he could grow tobacco. He farmed in Chiradzulu but also turned his attention to local politics. In 1922, he became an active member of the Southern Province Native a.s.sociation and, in the late 1920s, was a founding member of the Chiradzulu Native a.s.sociation, headed by Dr. Daniel Malekebu. Although he had an army pension of eight shillings a week, Frederick took up a job as a tutor at the Native Service School and, at a later stage, became a clerk in the Treasury Department. In the early 1930s, he left the country again, and after a brief stay in Southern Rhodesia and Mozambique, he went to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika, where he taught at a school and became actively involved in the Tanganyika African Civil Servants a.s.sociation. Later he taught at three of the leading African schools in that colony: Tabora Secondary School, Malangali Secondary School, and Lorenza Girls School, Mbeya.
NJULI. Located in Chiradzulu district on the BlantyreZomba Road, Njuli, a mainly Mang"anja and Lomwe area, was in the European planter zone, and at various times cotton, coffee, and tobacco were grown. Thangata was practiced here, and many supporters of John Chilembwe came from this area. It continues to be known for its coffee.
NJUYU. Located in the west central part of Mzimba district, this was one of the early capitals of the M"mbelwa Ngoni before they finally settled at their present seat at Edingeni. It was also one of the first Livingstonia Mission stations in M"mbelwa Ngoni country. In 1882, the mission posted William Koyi to Njuyu, where he was joined by other missionaries, including James Sutherland and Peter MacCallum. Three years later, Rev. Dr. Angus Elmslie arrived to take charge of the station; in the 1930s and 1940s, Njuyu was under the charge of Rev. Peter Zimema Thole.
NKHAMANGA. Plains immediately northwest of Rumphi boma and usually identified as the center of the Chikulamayembe power. It is one of the major maize and beans producing areas of Malawi.
NKHATA, ALICK (19221978). Leading broadcaster and one of the cultural icons of the Northern Zambezia region, Alick Nkhata was born in Kasama, Zambia, of a Malawian father from Nkhata Bay district and a Bemba mother. After attending local schools in Nkhata Bay, he qualified as a teacher, saw service during World War II, and, upon demobilization, became a full-time musician, composing and playing music that commented on everyday life of the peoples of Zambia and Malawi. In 1950, he was part of the Hugh Tracey team that toured the area from Kenya to South Africa recording African music. After this project, Nkhata founded a quartet and the Lusaka Radio Band with whom he recorded many popular songs in ciBemba and ciNyanja. At the same time, Nkhata became an announcer in the vernacular division of the Central African Broadcasting Services. In the early 1960s, Nkhata, a close friend of Kenneth Kaunda, wrote and played songs in support of the United National Independence Party, which was campaigning for decolonization. In 1964, he became director of broadcasting and cultural services and, on his retirement 10 years later, went to farm in Mkushi where in 1978 he was killed by the Rhodesian Air Force during its raid on a camp of the Zimbabwe African People"s Union located in the area. His records remain popular in Malawi and Zambia.
NKHATA BAY. This district west of Mzimba is the home of the Tonga of Malawi and was visited by Dr. David Livingstone in 1859. The boma, also called Nkhata Bay, is one of the most picturesque district headquarters in Malawi, with one of the deepest natural ports on Lake Malawi. In the early period of colonial Malawi, the district was called West Nyasa and its boma was at Chintheche farther south. In 1958, Nkhata Bay was the site of the conference of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC), which chose Dr. Hastings Banda as the organization"s president and, on 3 March 1959, it was the scene of considerable violence as over 20 political activists were killed by security forces in one day.
In the early 1950s, the Colonial Development Corporation (CDC) embarked on a major scheme to grow rice in the Limpasa Dambo in Nkhata Bay district. The project failed. The district is also known for other major agricultural endeavors, in tea and rubber production. From the 1950s to the 1980s, Nkhata Bay was one of the main tea-growing areas in Malawi. The tea estate has now been replaced by rubber trees following the African Lakes Company"s (ALC) revival of this activity in the area. Nkhata Bay district is the home of some influential people who have played a prominent role in the politics, economy, and culture of Malawi, including William M. K. Chiume, Orton C. Chirwa, Wellington Manoah Chirwa, Ernest A. Muwamba, Thomson "Jake" Muwamba, Thamar D. T. Banda, and Aleke Banda.
NKHOMA MISSION. See MISSIONS.
NKHOTAKOTA. Called Kota Kota by Europeans and located on the western sh.o.r.e of Lake Malawi, Nkhotakota was a princ.i.p.al Swahili-Arab commercial center in the second half of the 19th century. Ivory and slaves were traded here and, in the 1870s, nearly 10,000 slaves are reported to have pa.s.sed through Nkhotakota annually on their way to the East Coast of Africa. Salim bin Abdalla, the Jumbe of Nkhotakota, established a trading post there in the 1840s and came to enjoy immense political and economic power. Later, Nkhotakota became a major center of the Universities" Mission to Central Africa (UMCA); it also became the headquarters of the district of the same name. The district is in one of the major rice-producing areas in Malawi, and it was the location of Kota Kota Rice Trading Ltd. and the Kota Kota Rice Growers Co-operative Union (see COOPERATIVES).
As a successful trading and UMCA center, Nkhotakota came to attract people from the east coast of Africa, Mozambique, and the Luangwa Valley in the west. The immigrants lived among the indigenous inhabitants of this area, the Chewa and Tonga, turning the district into a complex mixture of African peoples. According to the 2008 population census, the population of Nkhotakota district is about 300,000.
NKHWAZI, DENNIS GRESHAM SIMPHAWAKA (19391996). Founding member of the Phwezi Education Foundation and of the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), Nkhwazi was born in Rumphi and received primary and secondary schooling in Malawi before going to Germany, where he studied political science. Upon the attainment of his doctoral degree in 1971, he returned to Malawi, joined the civil service, and was posted to Lilongwe as a.s.sistant district commissioner. However, in 1972, he was arrested and detained without trial. Upon his release in 1977, he became a tobacco grower in Rumphi. In the early 1980s, Nkhwazi and Morton Mughogho established the Phwezi Education Foundation. Ten years later, Nkhwazi became active in the politics of reform, and in 1992 he helped to found AFORD, becoming its secretary general. In 1994, he was elected to Parliament as the AFORD member for Rumphi East, and in the coalition arrangement later that year, he was appointed minister of transport and civil aviation.
NKONJERA, ANDREW. This Karonga-based Livingstonia Mission employee was one of the first to record and publish the history of the Chikulamayembe dynasty of the Nkhamanga area in Rumphi district. He also recorded the oral traditions of the peoples whom the Chikulamayembe ruled. The last section of Nkonjera"s history deals with the tense relations between the Ngonde, the Swahili-Arabs, the Tumbuka-speaking peoples, and the Europeans at the end of the 19th century, as witnessed by the author. All this was published in two parts as History of the Kamanga Tribe of Lake Nyasa: a Native Account.
NKOPE BAY. This bay in the fishing area located on the southwestern tip of Lake Malawi is site of many holiday cottages that belong to firms and wealthy people in Malawi. The rocky section of Nkope is a major archaeological site, the pottery from it indicating that it was inhabited by iron-working people between the third and fifth centuries. The ceramics from Nkope are similar to those found at sites in eastern Zambia and northern Mozambique, which date to between the 3rd and 10th centuries, and this type of ware is now officially referred to as the Nkope Group. Archaeologists have determined that this early Iron Age group is contemporaneous with the Kalambo group of Northern Zambia.
The Nkope also falls in a region where the Universities" Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) was active from the late 19th century and today is still much identified with the Anglican church.
NKRUMAH, FRANCIS KWAME (19001972). First president of Ghana and onetime friend of Hastings Banda, Nkrumah was born in Nkroful, Western Ghana (then the Gold Coast). He attended Catholic mission schools before proceeding to Achimota College, where he trained as a teacher, qualifying in 1930. He taught in primary schools until 1935 when he left for Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where, four years later, he graduated, having majored in economics and sociology. Nkrumah went on to graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1945, registered at the London School of Economics, University of London. In London, he became active in Pan-African politics and was a joint secretary at the Fifth Pan-African Conference in Manchester in 1945. While in London, he also became friends with many future African leaders who were studying or working in England, among them Dr. Hastings Banda.
When Banda became angry because of the establishment of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1953, he left England for Ghana and lived there for five years. By 1953, Nkrumah"s Convention People"s Party was the majority party in the Legislative Council (LEGCO), and in 1957 Ghana became independent, followed by republican status within the British Commonwealth three years later. In 1966, Nkrumah was overthrown by a military junta. He died in exile in Romania in April 1972. But even before his death, Nkrumah"s relations with Banda were no longer warm because of differences on foreign policy, particularly Banda"s close relations with the settler colonies of southern Africa. Nkrumah, a strongly committed Pan-Africanist, went to the extent of advocating the formation of an African military force to help the African peoples in those regions regain independence.
NKUDZI BAY. Located immediately south of Nkope Bay in Mangochi district, Nkudzi Bay forms part of the fishing areas of Lake Malawi and is the site of many holiday homes owned by companies and individuals. The bay area is also an archaeological site identified with the late Iron Age.
NKULA. See ELECTRICITY.
Nk.u.mBULA, HARRY MWAANGA (19161983). Zambia"s early nationalist leader, Nk.u.mbula was born in Namwala district, completed the teachers course in 1934, and for 12 years taught in this area"s schools and in the copper belt region of that country. In 1942, he went to England to study advanced teacher education and, while there, also attended the London School of Economics. In London, he began to play an active role in Pan-Africanist activities, working with future leaders such as Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah, Hastings Banda, and the West Indian, George Padmore, whom he had admired since his youth. Nk.u.mbula strongly campaigned against the introduction of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and, in 1951, he and Banda wrote Federation in Central Africa, detailing their opposition to the proposed union.
In that year, Nk.u.mbula returned to Zambia (then called Northern Rhodesia) and, within a short time, became leader of the Northern Rhodesia African Congress, renaming it the African National Congress. In January 1955, the government accused Nk.u.mbula and Kenneth Kaunda, the party"s secretary general, of distributing banned literature and imprisoned them for two months. Three years later, he and Kaunda parted company"s when the latter formed his own Zambia African National Congress, which later became the United National Independence Party (UNIP) and went on to win the elections leading to independence on 24 October 1964. Although Nk.u.mbula"s African National Congress attempted a major revival in 1968, it was defeated in the general elections of that year. In 1973, he joined the UNIP, and five years later unsuccessfully contested for its leadership. He died on 8 October 1983.
NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGOs). In 2011, about 200 NGOs operated in Malawi. Nonprofit, private, and voluntary agencies with no ties to government, NGOs have been active in Malawi throughout the postcolonial period. Until the political reforms in the early 1990s, they were mostly concerned with economic development, an adequate supply of clean water, poverty alleviation, and general health improvement. Some are religious, others secular. Some, including Oxfam, World Vision, Medecins Sans Frontieres, and Save the Children Fund, are divisions of international organizations with headquarters outside Malawi; others are Malawian in origin but are dependent on funds and some technical a.s.sistance from abroad. Typical of these is the Christian Service Committee, which, besides its own development projects, allocates some of its funds to other NGOs such as Christian Health a.s.sociation of Malawi (CHAM). Others still solicit external financial and technical a.s.sistance but also rely heavily on funds raised within Malawi and on local volunteers; among such NGOs are the Red Cross, the Malawi Council for the Handicapped (MACOHA), and the Leprosy Relief a.s.sociation (LEPRA). Human rights NGOs such as Amnesty International and Africa Watch were never allowed to work in President Hastings Banda"s Malawi, and the reports that they wrote on the country were based on, among other sources, confidential stringers based in Malawi, contacts in the diplomatic corps, and religious organizations.
Since the early 1990s, human rights and civil liberties agencies have become an accepted part of Malawi"s civic society. Among them are the Center of Human Rights Rehabilitation, Centre for Youth and Children Affairs, Civil Liberties Committee, and Malawi Center for Advice, Research and Education on Rights (CARER). Nearly all NGOs are members of the umbrella organization, Council for Non-Governmental Organizations in Malawi (CONGOMA).
NORTH CHARTERLAND EXPLORATION COMPANY. Formed in 1895, this London-based company in that the British South Africa Company (BSAC) had a 30 percent share, bought the mining concessions which Karl Wiese had secured from Mpezeni, the Ngoni chief. In 1896, Mpezeni granted the company permission to prospect for gold in his area, but increased European activity in the area and the possibility of losing their independence to the British worried the Ngoni. When the suspicions led to the death of some European prospectors, Wiese asked for a.s.sistance, which came from the British Central African Administration in Zomba. Colonel William Manning led the British Central African Rifles to fight the Ngoni under the command of Mpezeni"s son, Nsingu. The latter were defeated and the area came under the administration of the company, which proceeded to divide most of the prime land among European settlers. The company also established new administrative headquarters at Fort Jameson.
NORTH NYASA NATIVE a.s.sOCIATION. Formed in 1912 at Karonga boma, this was the first organization that sought to improve the social and economic welfare of localities. Although traditional rulers such as Peter Mwakasungula, future Kyungu of the Ngonde, were founding members, its leadership and active membership consisted of Western-educated individuals, mostly clerks, teachers, and preachers. Among its founders were Levi Mumba, Robert Sambo Mhango, and Peter Mwakangula who was also its first president. Among its non-African supporters were Dr. Meredith Sanderson, medical officer at Karonga, and Dr. Robert Laws, head of the Livingstonia Mission.
NORTH NYASA NATIVE RESERVES COMMISSION. This commission was appointed in 1929 to settle the matter of three million acres of land in North Nyasa district (most of the current Rumphi, Karonga, and Chitipa districts) given to the British South Africa Company in the era of Harry Johnston"s Certificate of Claims. Many indigenous people lived on this land, and among the possibilities facing the commissioners was either to remove the African occupants to enable the company to lease it to Europeans or to let Africans use it for their own socioeconomic development. In the end, the commission recommended that the company abandon its claim to freehold of the land on the a.s.surance of retention of the mineral rights.
NORTH RUKURU. One of the main sources of Lake Malawi waters, the North Rukuru River rises in the slopes on Nyika plateau, pa.s.ses through Nthalire descending to the Karonga lakesh.o.r.e at Mw.a.n.kenja, and empties into the lake near Karonga boma. In the past, the banks of the Karonga section of the river were lined with banana plantations; in recent times, bananas have been replaced by cotton and maize fields.
NORTHERN CO-OPERATIVE UNION. Formed in 1951, with its headquarters at Rumphi boma, this was the umbrella organization of most of the cooperative unions in the northern province of Malawi and oversaw the marketing of ghee on behalf of its members. It had lorries that transported the union"s produce within the province, ghee packaging machinery, and a modern department shop, which was open to the public and competed effectively with Mandala and Kandodo. It also made arrangements with the larger and better internationally connected Kilimanjaro Native Co-operative Union (KNCU) in Arusha, Tanzania, so its members could sell their coffee abroad.
NORTHERN RHODESIA. Until independence from the British in 1964, this was the designation of the modern Republic of Zambia. Named after John Cecil Rhodes, founder of the British South Africa Company, which had major territorial and commercial interests in the area north of the Zambezi, the whole of Northern Rhodesia fell under direct British rule in 1924. See ZAMBIA.
NORTHERN RHODESIA AND NYASALAND JOINT PUBLICATIONS BUREAU. Established in 1948 to replace the African Literature Committee and the Northern Rhodesia Publications Bureau, the Joint Publication Bureau has published short books, mostly in African languages, in fields such as fiction, folklore, history, dictionaries, grammar of African languages, proper manners, home economics (then called domestic science), and school textbooks. The bureau published many books on Malawi and by Malawian authors, including Nthara"s Mau Okuluwika (1964).
NSANJE. Located in the southernmost part of Malawi and called Port Herald in colonial times, Nsanje became the administrative headquarters of the Lower Shire district in 1891. Nsanje was the main entry into the Lake Malawi region for those using the ZambeziShire rivers. In 1904, the Shire Highlands Railway was extended from Chiromo to Nsanje and then to the Zambezi by 1915. A major cotton-producing district, Nsanje is the lowest point above sea level and one of the hottest areas in Malawi. Nsanje is also the site of Khulubvi, the shrine of the M"bona, an important part of the Mang"anja religious belief.
NSENGA. This is the name of the people who live in Petauke district and parts of the Chipata district of Zambia; it is also the name of their language, parts of which are incorporated in the chiChewa spoken in sections of Mchinji district of Malawi. In precolonial times, the Nsenga were noted cotton growers and produced cloth; like the Bisa to their north, they were famous ivory traders. When Mpezeni and his Ngoni settled in the Luangwa Valley, they colonized the Nsenga, intermarried with them, and within a short time adopted the language of the indigenous peoples.
NSIMA. This is the staple food of all Malawian peoples as it is of most Africans in sub-Saharan Africa. It is made of maize or ca.s.sava flour or a combination of the two, which is boiled until it forms a very thick porridge and is traditionally eaten with the hands. The nsima is served with vegetables, fish, or meat. In times when millet and sorghum were extensively grown in Malawi, flour from these grains was popularly used for nsima. See also DIET.
NSINGU. See FORT MANNING; MPEZENI; WIESE, KARL.
NTABA, HETHERWICK MAURICE. Minister of external affairs in President Hastings Banda"s last government, Ntaba was educated at Blantyre secondary school before going to the United States where he qualified as a medical doctor. Later he went to England where he specialized as a surgeon. Back in Malawi he rose rapidly, becoming head of health services and, in 1990, he was nominated to Parliament and appointed minister of health. In the period leading to political reform, Ntaba became the Malawi Congress Party"s (MCP) chief spokesperson and minister of external affairs. In 1994, he was elected to Parliament as a member for Lilongwe and, five years later was returned to represent Lilongwe South-East. Regarded as the most articulate member of the MCP executive, Ntaba strongly supported his party"s partnership with the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) in the 1999 general elections. After the elections, he joined the United Democratic Front (UDF), becoming one of its most important committee members. In 2005, he, like many UDF members of the National a.s.sembly, moved to the benches of the recently formed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), of which he would serve as secretary general. He was minister of health in Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika"s government but, in the 2009 elections, he lost the Lilongwe South-East const.i.tuency to the MCP. He remained a senior member of the DPP but he became more identified as the combative Presidential spokesperson who sought to explain and justify the policies, actions, and utterences of Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika.
NTARA, SAMUEL JOSIAH (19051976). Educationist, author, and leading historian, Ntara was born at Mvera on 24 September 1905. His father, Josiah Kamfumu, one of the first students at the Dutch Reformed Mission School at Mvera, qualified as a teacher at Livingstonia Mission and taught at Mvera for many years. Samuel Ntara himself attended the Mvera school to Standard 3 level, after which he became a teacher in local village schools. He studied privately and, in 1927, went to Nkhoma Mission and qualified as a third-grade teacher. After attending further short courses at Nkhoma, he was awarded a second teacher"s" certificate, the highest teaching qualification he could expect to obtain. Thereafter, he taught at various schools in Lilongwe district, and in 1932, he was transferred to Nkhoma, where he enrolled for the South African Junior Certificate (Standard 8) through the Union College, which offered a variety of professional and academic courses by correspondence. In 1944, Ntara went to teach at Kongwe School and, two years later, he became a member of the Dowa district council. He was also a member of the Teachers" a.s.sociation, an active elder of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP), and, with Levi Mumba, Gresham Masanghe, and George Simeon Mwase, part of the Lilongwe delegation to the first meeting of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) in 1944. In 1951, he was transferred back to Nkhoma Mission and, in the early 1960s, retired to his home near Kamphata in Lilongwe district. In 1968, Ntara was appointed to the Censorship Board and, in 1975, became the first chairman of the National Monuments Advisory Council.
Ntara is most famous as an author and historian. In 1932, he entered a literary compet.i.tion organized by the International Inst.i.tute of African Languages and Cultures in London. His entry, Nthondo, a fictional biography, won the biography division of the contest. Rev. Thomas Cullen Young translated the ma.n.u.script into English, Julian S. Huxley, the respected scholar, wrote a foreword to Nthondo, which the Bible and Tract Society, London, published in 1933 as Man of Africa. Ntara went on to write other books including Mbiri ya Achewa based on notes dictated to him by the Rev. Namon Katengeza in 1944. The Dutch Reformed Church published the book that year and, in the late 1960s, Kamphandira Jere translated Mbiri ya Achewa into English; Harry Langworthy later edited it, and in 1973, Franz Steiner Verlag published it under the t.i.tle History of the Chewa. In 1949, Longman Green published Nchowa, a fictional story of a lady of Nyasaland, and it is considered the female complement to Nthondo. In the same year, Nkhoma Mission Press published Msyambozya, the story of a Chimbazi village headman who lived near Kongwe from about 1830 to 1926. Although a biography, it is also a social and political history of today"s central Malawi. Cullen Young translated Msyambozya into English, and Luterworth Press published it in 1949 as Headman"s Enterprise: An Unexpected Page in Central African History. In the early 1950s, Nkhoma Mission commissioned Ntara to write a biography of Namon Katengeza, which the Mission Press published in 1964 as Namon Katengeza. In that same year, Ntara"s Mau Okuluwika, a collection of Nyanja (Chewa) idioms, was published by the Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland Joint Publications Bureau. See also LITERATURE.
NTCHEU. This is the designation of the boma and district bordering with Mozambique in the west, Mangochi in the east, Dedza in the north, and Mwanza and Balaka in the south and southeast. Ntcheu is much identified with the Maseko Ngoni who have dominated the area since settling there toward the end of the 19th century. Lizulu, the seat of the Gomani dynasty, is in the northern part of the district. Christian missionaries such as the Church of Scotland, the Catholics, and the Zambezi Industrial Mission (ZIM) have been present in the district since the 1880s and the 1890s, with the result that many people in the district have been exposed to Western education longer than in most other areas of Malawi. The Maseko Ngoni are also identified with resistance to British authority; they did not easily accept British rule in the 1890s. John Chilembwe had significant support in Ntcheu, a district that was also a center of civil disobedience in 1953. See also CHINYAMA, FILIPO; GOMANI I; GOMANI II; LIVULEZI.
NTCHISI. The name of the boma and district formerly known as Visanza, it is located in the mountainous region southwest of Nkhotakota district and was one of the first areas to which the Universities" Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) church expanded out of Likoma. The district produces citrus fruit and coffee, both of which are consumed within the Malawi market.
NTIMAWANZAKO, NACHO. One of the first students at the Blantyre Mission and a contemporary of Mungo Chisuse and Joseph Bismarck, Nacho Ntimawanzako became a teacher and leading evangelist. As advisor to Rev. David Clement Scott on the Mang"anja dictionary, Ntimawanzako accompanied the pastor to Scotland in the mid-1880s and stayed there for two years. On his return in 1887, he became a teacher and evangelist and served at different stations, including Mulanje, which he managed for some time.
NTINTILI, MAPAS. One of the first Lovedale Missionary Inst.i.tute evangelists in the service of the Livingstonia Mission, Ntintili worked at Cape Maclear and for a brief period at Kaning"ina. In 1880, he and other Lovedale missionaries went home on vacation; but Ntintili did not return to the Lake Malawi area.
NTONDEZA, CHIEF. In the late 1930s, this traditional ruler in Thyolo district was in conflict with Wilfrid Gudu and his Ana a Mulungu adherents, finally banishing them from his territory. In September 1953, chief Ntondeza was at the center of another dispute, this time with his own people, who, after accusing him of supporting the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, threatened to depose him and proceeded to destroy property, including that belonging to nearby European plantations. The troubles in Thyolo, as in the rest of the country in that year, have been attributed to the Federation, the introduction of unpopular agricultural and conservation measures, and to the thangata system.
NUNAN, JOHN JOSEPH. The first judge and chief justice of Nyasaland, appointed by Sir Alfred Sharpe in 1900, Nunan laid the foundation of the judicial system in the colony and was also instrumental in codifying its laws. A Catholic of Irish origins, Nunan was very helpful to the early Catholic missionaries, the White Fathers and the Montforts, in their attempts to establish themselves in the colony at a time when the Presbyterians and the Dutch Reformed churches claimed the area to themselves. In 1905, Nunan was appointed solicitor general of Guyana, and Charles Griffin became the new chief justice of Nyasaland.
NYAKYUSA. This is the name of the people immediately north of the Ngonde. The Nyakyusa are closely related to the Ngonde, many of whom migrated from Unyakyusa. KiNyakyusa, the language of the Nyakyusa, is primarily the same as Kyangonde.
NYAMBADWE. Low-density suburb of Blantyre located between the Blantyre Mission in the south, Ndirande in the east, and Chirimba in the north. Nyambadwe is the site of a government house, which, in the late colonial period, was the official residence of the provincial commissioner for the south. In postcolonial Malawi, it came to be known as Nyambadwe House, and it was used mainly to accommodate important foreign dignitaries visiting the country as guests of the government.
NYAMBO, PETER (c. 18841968). Missionary, teacher, preacher, political activist, and traveler, Nyambo was born in Ntcheu district around 1884 and, between 1895 and 1900, attended school at Blantyre Mission. Two years later, Nyambo joined Joseph Booth at Plainfield, Thyolo, where he continued his education. At the beginning of the following year, Booth and his family went to England via South Africa, taking with them Nyambo, who spent the rest of 1903 at a school in Matlock, Derby, where the Booths also resided. For eight months in 1904, he was at the African Inst.i.tute, Colwyn Bay, North Wales, an establishment directed by W. Hughes whom Booth had a year earlier coopted into an abortive training plan for Christian workers in the Lake Malawi area. In 1905 and 1906, he was at Duncombe Hall, the Seventh-Day Adventist College in Holloway, London, and while there, he was baptized into the faith. Nyambo also spent part of 1906 touring Great Britain, Germany, and Switzerland, attending and speaking at 160 meetings. Toward the end of 1906, he was a member of a party of British missionaries to set up an Adventist presence at Kisumu in western Kenya, and he remained there until December 1907 when he went back to Nyasaland, arriving in the Shire Highlands early in 1908.
In the meantime, Plainfield, Nyambo"s home mission in Thyolo, was given a Mang"anja name, Malamulo (commandments/laws). Thomas Branch, the African American head of Plainfield, had been replaced by Joel Rogers, an American with South African experience. On his return to Nyasaland, Nyambo was posted to Malamulo, and after a period, Nyambo was transferred to Matandani, northwest of Blantyre where he and S. M. Konigmacher founded a new mission. At the time, Adventist schools did not go beyond the Standard 3 level, and English was only taught at Malamulo; vernacular was the medium of communications at satellite stations. The confident Nyambo found the environment in the Adventist mission conservative and stifling, and in 1911 he left for Ntcheu, his home district. Toward the end of that year, Booth, now in South Africa and a Seventh-Day Baptist, reestablished contact with Nyambo. Nyambo opened many independent schools, manned by teachers, mainly from the Zambezi Industrial Mission (ZIM), founded by Booth before he left Malawi. At the beginning of 1912, Nyambo, Alexander Makwinja, and others, left for South Africa, and by the following year, Nyambo had become Central African secretary of the British Christian Union, which Booth had established in Cape Town.
In March 1913, the South African Spectator published Nyambo"s article critical of white authority in Nyasaland and the rest of southern Africa. This was followed by other protests against segregation and land problems in the region, but it was his Rhodesia Nyasaland Appeal of May 1914 that brought attention to him as a significant political activist. In this pet.i.tion, signed by, among others, Booth and some South African members of the legislature, he appealed to the British Crown to intervene in the situation in the Rhodesias and Nyasaland because of the manner in which Africans were being treated by the colonial government. Booth seems to have played a part in the pet.i.tion and seems to have sent copies to Filipo Chinyama, John Chilembwe, and the Nyasaland Times. A copy was also sent to the high commissioner in Cape Town for onward transmission to Great Britain and to the governor of Nyasaland.
In May 1914, Nyambo went to England but, contrary to his expectations, the king did not receive him nor did the British government acknowledge his presence in the country. However, he and Booth spent some time addressing meetings, mostly those a.s.sociated with churches explaining the subject of the pet.i.tion. Later that year, Booth returned to South Africa, proceeding to Lesotho where he carried out his plans for African education and economic development. Nyambo remained in England until 1917 when he sailed back to South Africa. When Nyambo finally returned to Nyasaland in 1943, he founded a church, Calici ca Makolo or Church of Ancestors, which was much influenced by the creed of Sri Ramakrishna. Nyambo lived for another 25 years.
NYANJA. Often also referred to as ciMang"anja or ciNyanja, and basically the same as chiChewa, this is the language of the indigenous peoples of the Upper and Lower Shire regions and of the Shire Highlands. Nyanja also means lake. See also MANG"ANJA.
NYASA. This was the name David Livingstone gave to Lake Malawi, a misnomer because his informants were merely telling him that Nyasa or Nyanja means the great waters. In effect, he called it "lake lake." Tanzania still refers to the lake by its old name, Lake Nyasa. In 1907, Nyasaland was adopted as the official name of the colony hitherto called British Central Africa; in 1964, Nyasaland became Malawi. Throughout the colonial period, people from Nyasaland were generally called the Nyasa; this is what labor migrants in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and South Africa were referred to as.
NYASA INDUSTRIAL MISSION (NIM). Established by Joseph Booth in 1893, the Nyasa Industrial Mission had its headquarters near the source of the Likhubula stream, immediately northeast of Mitsidi the location of the seat of the Zambezi Industrial Mission (ZIM), also founded by Booth. Initially manned by Australian missionaries, Booth regarded the new mission as playing a complementary role to the ZIM. Unlike the latter, which was interdenominational, the NIM was Baptist in dogma and, when Booth was expelled from the ZIM in 1894, he concentrated on the NIM, seeking new backers in Great Britain. By 1897, Booth had loosened his links with the NIM, which was then expanding to other parts of the Shire Highlands.
NYASALAND. This was the name of Malawi between 1907 and 6 July 1964, when the British colony became an independent nation. From 1891 to 1893, the country was known as the Nyasaland Protectorate and, from the latter year to 1907, its designation was British Central Africa.
NYASALAND AFRICAN CONGRESS (NAC). Founded in 1944 when the various African Welfare a.s.sociations joined together to form the NAC as the princ.i.p.al mouthpiece of African aspirations in the colony, this political organization was banned in March 1959 and was succeeded in September of that year by the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). During the years 1944 to 1959, the NAC changed from a narrow-based organization to a ma.s.s movement in pursuit of national independence. Until the mid-1950s, when its leadership was challenged, the Congress followed moderate policies. When the NAC committed itself to a more militant position, it also persuaded Dr. Hastings Banda to return home in 1958 to lead the struggle for decolonization.
The person most responsible for the formation of the NAC was James Sangala, who during his career was a teacher and a government civil servant. An early nationalist, Sangala knew the necessity of united action. He received encouragement from the European settler W. H. Timke and support from the members of the Blantyre Native a.s.sociation. In August and September 1943, Sangala and his a.s.sociates convened meetings in Blantyre that resulted in the formation of the Nyasaland Educated African Council. Anxious to have an all-embracing organization, "Educated" was removed from the name and it became the Nyasaland African Council. In October 1944, another meeting approved a const.i.tution and another change of name, this time to Nyasaland African Congress. The office bearers were Levi Mumba (president general), Charles Matinga (vice president general), Charles Wesley Mlanga (secretary general), James Dixon Phiri (vice secretary general), Harry Tung"ande (second vice secretary General), Isa M. Lawrence (treasurer general), and H. B. Dallah (vice treasurer general). Among the executive committee members of the NAC were George Simeon Mwase, Charles Chinula, B. Namboyah, Raphael Mbwana, A. Mbebuwa, and Alexander Phambala. The meeting agreed to make several demands on the government: the right to hold seats in the Legislative Council (LEGCO) and not be represented by the missionaries; the right to form labor unions; the right to have access to the best educational facilities and responsible civil service positions. As a result of these demands, Sangala found himself under government surveillance, but several months later his new umbrella organization represented 20 a.s.sociations.
The first year of the young NAC was a difficult one, partly because of the deaths of its treasurer, Isa Lawrence, and its president, Levi Mumba. Furthermore, the government did not acknowledge any of the resolutions pa.s.sed by the organization. Although it received funds and advice from Hastings Banda, who was practicing medicine in England, the NAC remained a victim of its own internal weakness. The central leadership had no effective hold on the autonomous branches. Full-time officers of the Congress were not paid. The Executive Committee met infrequently, resulting in a distinct lack of communication between senior members of the organization. The NAC"s income was raised locally and was not centralized, which meant that several branches retained financial autonomy as well. In 1948, a scandal in the NAC pointed out its financial inefficiencies: Charles Matinga embezzled Congress funds to cover personal debts. The already weak leadership exhibited in the organization was allegedly also corrupt. When Dr. Banda attempted to reform the Congress financially and organizationally, the NAC leadership ignored his pleas.
The issues faced by NAC in the 1940s and 1950s were serious, but the tactics employed were largely unsuccessful. The most absorbing problems were the land situation, the colonial imposition of new farming methods, and the revival of the federation concept. In the first instance, population pressure in the Shire Highlands had increased, reaching a density of nearly 200 people per square mile. Treatment of African tenants on European estates also had grown intolerable; in some instances, the cutting of timber or building of huts had been prohibited by the white owners (see THANGATA). Ill-feelings between Africans and Europeans were spotlighted in Thyolo district in 1953 when a petty larceny incident on a Luchenza estate mushroomed into a rumored murder and resulted in weeklong disorders (see NGAMWANE, CHIEF). Shortly thereafter, the government initiated a program to repurchase land from European owners.
At the same time, the government was imposing unpopular agricultural policies on the rural farmers. Inefficient cultivation and a rising population had led the government to seek an end to soil erosion. For most African farmers, forsaking a traditional procedure for an uncertain experiment was not a worthwhile risk. Sometimes what British agrarian experts demanded made more work for the African farmers; such demands included digging embankments for contouring before the first rains had softened the soil, and work of this nature often had to be undertaken with hand tools. The government was convinced that only coercion would succeed, and so fines and imprisonment soon followed for failure to comply. African resentment of the Europeans grew and African fears for their land deepened. The third issue that resulted in ma.s.sive disaffection was that of the federation plan. Africans were convinced that any closer a.s.sociation with Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) would result in the loss of land. Many of Malawi"s men had seen for themselves the amount of land alienation while working there. These observations by migrant workers intensified African concern over the possible loss of more land.
The NAC response to these grievances was ineffectual. Like the a.s.sociations that preceded the formation of the Congress, the leadership insisted that patient prodding of the government would yield results. Since the NAC chose to operate within a colonial frame of reference, two weaknesses persisted: one, it failed to develop a popular following, and two, the inefficient internal structure continued with a leadership that did not see the need to change or grow. Although Africans were articulate in their opposition to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland as well as to the land situation, the NAC was unable to transform those thoughts into action. In the mid-1950s, the organization gave up its verbal campaign against the Federation and announced hopes to utilize appropriate const.i.tution