At independence in 1964, the 1st Battalion of the KAR became the first battalion of the Malawi Rifles. The headquarters remained at Cobbe Barracks in Zomba, named after Lt. Col. Alexander Cobbe VC, the commander who had led the CAR into Ashanti country. However, in 1967, a third battalion was formed, and its home would be the newly constructed Moyale Barracks in Mzuzu. It was christened Moyale in memory of the site on the KenyaEthiopian border where a contingent of the Nyasaland KAR excelled by outmaneuvering their Italian enemy. In the early 1970s, the headquarters of the Malawi army moved to the new Kamuzu Barracks in Lilongwe, which also became the home of the 2nd Battalion; Cobbe Barracks continued to be the base of the 1st Battalion.
In the colonial period, an indigenous person could not expect to become a commissioned officer. This changed after the 1961 elections when Malawians began to be sent for training abroad, mostly in Great Britain. Later, some were trained in Kenya. In 1978, a new military inst.i.tution, the Kamuzu Military College, opened in Salima, primarily to train soldiers of all ranks. Officers continued to be sent to military schools in countries such as Britain, the United States, and France for advanced and more technical training. Less than 10 percent of the national budget is spent on the military, and an estimated 561,000 men (age 15 to 49) are considered fit for military service. Currently Malawi has three well-commanded, disciplined, and well-equipped battalions. Helicopters and transport aircraft have been added to the armed forces. There are also patrol boats on Lake Malawi, and a small army air wing based at the Zomba airport.
Until the early 1970s, the British, as part of technical a.s.sistance, provided the leadership of the Malawian army in the person of the commander. They also attached commissioned and noncommissioned officers to the Malawian army to help with basic training. However, in 1972, Brigadier Graciano Matewere was promoted to the rank of major general and became the first Malawian to command the Malawi army. Eight years later, he was replaced by General Melvin Khanga, a Sandhurst-trained officer, considered to be a very competent soldier and administrator. Since his retirement in 1992, the army has had a number of commanders including generals Isaac Yohane, Manken Chigawa, Kelvin Simwaka, Joseph Chimbayo, and Marko Chiziko. Chigawa was murdered by bandits in the Dedza area on the ZombaLilongwe road.
On the whole, the defense forces have kept out of politics, although during Operation Bwezani of November 1993, they seemed to indicate that they would be playing a more active role in the political destiny of the country. The army has also been involved in minor incidents including one on 15 January 1998, when some soldiers ransacked the offices of the Daily Times in Blantyre because of a story they did not like. The newspaper took the case to court, but it was settled out of court when the army commander apologized, saying that the action of the soldiers had not been sanctioned by the command.
In late 1999, the military started, for the first time in its history, to recruit women into its ranks and, prior to this, it organized a workshop to sensitize officers on gender matters.
The Malawi military has increasingly became involved in mediating roles in international disputes. In 1987, they joined frontline forces in trying to contain the actions of the guerrilla movement Resistencia Nacional Mocambicana (RENAMO) in Mozambique. The Malawi army was a.s.signed the responsibility of guarding the NacalaMalawi rail line in northern Mozambique. Companies of the army patrolled that region for three years. In more recent times, the army has been part of the United Nations peacekeeping forces in Rwanda and in eastern Europe. Malawi has confirmed its commitment to this aspect of international relations by offering its armed personnel to be part of a trained force that can be called on to perform such duties anywhere in Africa. Malawi soldiers are involved in the Africa Crisis Response Initiative, a U.S.-sponsored program aimed at training African soldiers for peacekeeping, humanitarian, and similar emergencies. In the later part of 1999, 72 Malawi soldiers were part of the Organization of African Unity"s Military Observer Force to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and it continued to contribute its military personnel well into the 2000s. Early in 2000, the air wing of the Malawi army played a leading role in the rescue operations following the flood disaster that befell Mozambique. Similarly, from 2005 to 2007, a contingent of the Malawi defense forces formed part of the African Union mission to Darfur, Sudan.
ASIANS. Most Asians in Malawi trace their origins to the Gujarat region of western India and Pakistan. Initially, they went to the Lake Malawi area in the service of the British colonial government, mainly as subsurgeons, noncommissioned military officers, and as operators in the new railway system. Some of them returned home at the end of their contracts, whereas other remained to become independent businessmen. They were later joined by relatives and friends, and soon the rural and urban retail trade was dominated by people from the Indian subcontinent. Today they are professionals, small traders, craftsmen and commercial middlemen.
In 1970, the government ordered Asians to sell their stores in rural areas to Africans; the order restricted Asian traders to towns. Although the 1970 order did not limit the freedom of Asian residents and citizens to travel within the country, they had to reside and work in one of the four urban areas: Lilongwe, Zomba, Mzuzu, and Blantyre. Within some of these urban centers, strict rules governing where Asians could own property resulted in limitations on where they could reside. Asian residents, whether Malawian citizens or not, were also compelled to transfer ownership of trucking businesses to Malawians of African origins. Asians remained free to expand into other areas of business, and industrial licenses for new Asian industries were routinely granted.
However, many Asians chose to leave the country, mostly to Great Britain. Those who remained began to feel more pressure with the 1986 pa.s.sing of the Immigration Act, which called for a decision in two years from foreign residents: to emigrate from Malawi, to register as citizens of Malawi, a country that does not allow dual citizenship; or to apply for a permanent resident permit. It is estimated that by the early 1990s fewer than 13,000 Asians were still living in Malawi. After the 1994 elections, the situation changed in that the new government reversed the 1970 order; Asians could now return to the rural areas to live and engage in business.
A notable number of Asians had actively supported the move to multiparty politics, and some of them, such as Krishna Achutan, became significant players in the United Democratic Front.
Asians have contributed much to Malawi culture, including to its vocabulary, which has come to be a.s.sumed to be indigenous to the Lake Malawi region. Since, initially, the colonial army was manned by Indians, certain Indians words came to be popularized and were eventually adopted by Malawian languages. Among such words are basi (enough), chai (tea), debe (tin), galimoto (motorcar), rupiya (shilling), and tchuti (holiday); their Hindustan derivatives, respectively, are bas, chae, dubbi, gharri, rupee, and chuti. See also NYASALAND INDIAN a.s.sOCIATION; NYASALAND INDIAN TRADERS a.s.sOCIATION; TRANSPORTATION.
ASKARI. Of Swahili origin, in Malawi the term refers to soldiers. Its usage can be traced to Sir Harry Johnston"s establishment of the first modern military force. See also ARMY.
a.s.sOLARI, ALESSANDRO, BISHOP (19282005). This Catholic bishop of the Mangochi diocese was born in Italy, ordained in 1954 in the order of the Missionaries of the Company of Mary, and was a priest in Madagascar for six years before going to Malawi in 1961. Eight years later, he was appointed the first vicar apostolic prefect of Mangochi, the area mainly identified with Islam, and in December 1973, he became bishop of the new diocese of Mangochi. a.s.solari was a signatory of the Pastoral Letter of March 1992, which hastened political reform in Malawi. In November 2004, he retired, and he died on 13 April 2005.
ATONGA TRIBAL COUNCIL. Formed in 1932 by the district commissioner of Nkhata Bay, and originally with a membership of 32, this council consisted of all chiefs in the district and, in effect, collectively a.s.sumed the role of an unofficial paramount chief. The government took this unusual step ostensibly because it was a means of solving problems arising out disagreements between chiefs as to who among them was senior. Initially, the council"s chairman, elected by the chiefs, held office for a year but, later, the period was shortened by half, apparently to avoid the emergence of particularly powerful individuals. Among matters discussed at council meetings were collection of taxes, administration of justice, immigrant labor, and improvement of education and health. The government was not eager for the Western-educated Tonga to join the council for fear of upsetting the status quo, and when, in 1934, the chiefs voted to include people other than chiefs, the district commissioner vetoed the decision. This was to change as, later, some commoners were co-opted into the council. In February 1948, the government abrogated the council.
AUNEAU, BISHOP LOUIS, SMM (18761959). The second Catholic bishop of the Shire diocese, Louis Auneau was born in France on 11 February 1876, was ordained a priest in the Montfort order in 1900, and, seven years later, was posted to the Shire area of Malawi. He served at Nzama and Utale and in May 1910 succeeded Auguste Prezeau as bishop of Shire. Louis Auneau is much a.s.sociated with the expansion of the Catholic Church in the southern region of Malawi and in parts of Mozambique: many primary schools were opened during his tenure as bishop; Zomba Secondary School and seminaries at Nankhunda and Likulezi were established under his general guidance. He also started the Utale Leprosarium and created two local religious orders of the Catholic Church, the Society of African Lay Brothers and the Diocesan Society of African Sisters. When Auneau retired in December 1949, the pope made him an a.s.sistant at the papal throne and bestowed on him the t.i.tle of Roman count. Bishop Auneau also received other honors. The French government granted him the Order of the Legion of Honor, and the British conferred on him the Order of the British Empire. He died on 5 November 1959.
B.
BAKKER, JACOB. Missionary sent by the Sabbath Evangelizing and Industrial a.s.sociation in the United States to a.s.sist Joseph Booth in his Seventh-Day Baptist work in the Lake Nyasa area, Jacob Bakker, then 26 years old, arrived in the Shire Highlands in the early part of 1901. A printer by training, Bakker did not fit in with Booth"s plans, which required an educationist and an accountant, and, before long, there was tension between the two men. Shortage of finances, health problems of Booth and his wife, and Bakker"s unpreparedness for his work at the mission contributed to the tension. In July that year, the Booths departed for South Africa and the United States, leaving Bakker in charge of all the operations in the country. Bakker showed less enthusiasm for some of Booth"s projects such as the African Cooperative Society, and was to close other projects, including several schools. Politically more conservative than his predecessor, Bakker did not receive the same support and loyalty from African a.s.sistants as they had given to Booth. While Booth was in the United States later that year, arrangements were made to sell the Plainfield Industrial Mission to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, to which Booth had now become affiliated. Bakker returned to the United States in late 1902.
BALAKA. Located on the ZombaLilongwe road and on the Blantyre-Salima rail line, Balaka is a rising commercial center in Malawi. Until 1998, Balaka was a subadministrative boma within Machinga district; it has now become the substantive headquarters of the new Balaka district.
BANDA, ALEKE KADONOMPHANI (19392010). One of the most prominent politicians in the period leading to independence and in postcolonial Malawi, Aleke Banda was born on 19 September 1939 at Kwekwe, Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia), where his father, a Tongan from Nkhata Bay district in Nyasaland, worked at Moss Mines. Banda went to Inyati School of the London Missionary Society in Bulawayo, and there distinguished himself as a first-cla.s.s student, a prefect, and editor of the school magazine. He became a prominent leader in the Southern Rhodesia African Students a.s.sociation (banned in 1959) and, at 15, was elected secretary of the Kwe Kwe branch of the Nyasaland African Congress. Using his good writing skills, he published nationalist articles opposing the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and colonialism in general. When the State of Emergency was declared in Southern Rhodesia in March 1959, Banda was arrested at his school premises, detained at the Khami prison, where some Nyasaland-based politicians had earlier been taken, and, within a short time, was deported to Nyasaland. There he worked for the London and Blantyre Supply Company while continuing with his anticolonial activities. He began to edit a labor union paper, Mtendere pa Nchito, and, when Orton Chirwa founded the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) on 31 September 1959, Banda became its full-time secretary general. He also became, with Thandika Mkandawire, founding editor of the party newspaper, the Malawi News, which he continued to edit until 1966.
A tireless and enthusiastic party worker, Banda was a member of the MCP delegation at the Nyasaland const.i.tutional talks in London in July 1960. Later that year, he was also part of the party"s delegation to the Lancaster House Conference, which reviewed the future of the Federation. When Dunduzu Chisiza died in 1962, Banda once again became secretary-general of the Malawi Congress Party. In 1966, he was appointed minister of development and planning, and in the next two years, served as minister of economic affairs and minister of finance, respectively. Later, in a 1972 cabinet reshuffle, he took over the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Tourism. A year later, President Hastings Banda dismissed him from the cabinet, ostensibly for a breach of party discipline and, for three years, Aleke Banda lived in his village, becoming a notable farmer. After a well-publicized apology to President Banda, he was appointed managing director of Press Holdings, but, within five years, he lost this position and was placed under detention at Mikuyu where he remained until 1991.
Upon his release, Banda joined the groups agitating for the democratization of Malawi, becoming a founder and vice president of the United Democratic Front (UDF). In the 1994 elections, he stood for a Nkhata Bay const.i.tuency, and, although he lost, he was appointed minister of finance; in 1997, he was transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture. In the 1999 general elections, Banda stood as a UDF candidate for Nkhata Bay South but lost to Sam Kandodo Banda of the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD). In spite of this result, he continued to be the first vice president of the UDF and was reappointed minister of agriculture and irrigation in the new cabinet; in a cabinet reshuffle later, Banda became minister of health and population. A prominent businessman, his family owns The Nation, which was established in the early 1990s as a pro-democracy organ, and remains one of the influential newspapers in the country. At the height of the third term debate, which dominated the pre-2004 elections, he resigned from the UDF and joined the People"s Progressive Movement, eventually becoming its leader. The People"s Progressive Movement became part of the Mgwirizano coalition in the 2004 elections. In 2009, Aleke Banda retired from politics but he continued to be one of the most respected persons in Malawi.
BANDA, ETTA ELIZABETH (1949 ). Prior to May 2009 when she was elected as a member of Parliament for Nkhata Bay South and was appointed Malawi"s minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, Etta Banda occupied numerous distinguished positions in the health profession. Banda graduated from the nursing school in Malawi, worked for some time before going to South Africa and then to Boston University, where she earned an MSc degree in community health nursing. Later, she received a PhD in nursing administration, education, and policy from the University of Maryland. She taught at the Kamuzu College of Nursing, University of Malawi, where she served as dean, vice princ.i.p.al, and princ.i.p.al. Besides teaching, she also carried out research, mainly in health policy planning, and was a member of the editorial board of the African Journal of Midwifery. Both in Malawi and the wider Southern African region, Banda was involved in projects aimed at meliorating primary health care, especially in the field of reproductive health, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, s.e.xually transmitted diseases, and tuberculosis. Most of this work received support from, among other international organizations, the Kaiser Family Foundation, IntraHealth International, Health Equity Project, and Management Science for Health. In the Cabinet reshuffle announced on 7 September 2011, Etta Banda lost her position in the government but she continued to serve as a member Parliament for Nkata Bay South.
BANDA, HASTINGS KAMUZU (c. 18961997). Malawi"s former life president was born Kamnkhwala Banda at Mphonongo in Chief Chilawamatambe"s area in modern Kasungu district in around 1896. Since his mother, Akupinganyama, and his father, Mphonongo, wanted him to go to a good school, Kamnkhwala left his village school near Mtunthama, the site of present-day Kamuzu Academy, for his maternal grandparents" home at Chiwengo; this enabled him to attend the school at Chikondwa, where the Chayamba Secondary School stands today. In 1908, he moved to Chilanga Mission station where two years later Dr. George Prentice of the Free Church of Scotland baptized him as Akim Kamnkhwala Mtunthama Banda, although he would later add two other names, Hastings and Walter, of which the latter was later dropped. Kamunkhwala (meaning the little medicine) was also replaced by Kamuzu (the root).
Banda continued his schooling at Chilanga Primary School, where his teachers included his uncle, Hanock Msokera Phiri, where in 1914 Banda pa.s.sed Standard 3. In the following year, Banda set out for South Africa, apparently with a view to enroll at Lovedale (see LOVEDALE MISSIONARY INSt.i.tUTE), the famous Scottish Presbyterian school. For a brief period, he worked at Hartley, in Southern Rhodesia, where he met his uncle who had gone ahead. The two proceeded farther south, working at a Natal colliery before reaching Johannesburg. It was in the latter city that Banda probably made friends with Clements Kadalie and learned of Garveyism. Although he changed his plans to go to Lovedale, Banda did not lose sight of his ambition to improve his education and, to this end, he completed Standard 8. He also became a member of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, which agreed to underwrite his education in the United States.
Banda began his studies at the AME church"s Wilberforce Inst.i.tute, in Ohio, where he completed his diploma in only three years. Next he entered the University of Indiana to pursue an early interest in medicine. He remained there for two years before transferring to the University of Chicago, majoring in history and politics. After he received a bachelor"s degree (1931), Banda entered Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, graduating in May 1937. He decided to go to Scotland to attain postgraduate qualifications to enable him to practice in the British empire, planning to return home as a medical missionary. The return to Nyasaland became a long-term goal after the Church of Scotland and the government refused him positions in the colony. Instead, he established a practice in Liverpool in 1941 but, as a conscientious objector, he spent the remaining war years in Tyneside working at a mission for colored seamen and, subsequently, at the Preston Hospital near Newcastle.
After World War II, Banda established a practice in the London suburb of Kilburn and became more politically active, joining the Labour Party and the Fabian Bureau. He enjoyed the exchange of ideas with other African expatriates and future leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta. Certainly at this juncture, Banda had the funds to return home, but he chose to stay in London. He generously supported the education of about 40 needy African students while serving as doctor to several thousand patients. He remained in regular touch with Malawi and, from the time that the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) was formed, Banda encouraged, advised, and supported it financially. He also gave financial aid to a cooperative farm in Kasungu by purchasing land and equipment. This Kasungu agricultural scheme (1950) was to act as a model for similar African-run developments in Malawi.
As the movement for the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland advanced, Banda responded with a militancy not before exhibited by this rather conservative man. He campaigned against the Federation through the Fabian Bureau and sympathetic members of the British Parliament. The NAC"s and Banda"s opposition to the Federation were unrelenting as both were vociferous in noting African objections to such plans. Despite this, the decision was made to form a closer union, and in 1953, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland became operative.
When the Federation became a reality, Banda felt betrayed by London. He also felt that he was responsible for the failure of the Kasungu farm project back at home. At this point in his life, he chose to leave London for the Gold Coast (later Ghana), where Kwame Nkrumah invited him to accept an administrative post in the government that had resulted from recent const.i.tutional changes. However, Banda chose a more reclusive life in k.u.masi, the Ashanti capital, where he lived with Mrs. Margaret French, his companion since the end of the war. Until 1957, he practiced medicine and ignored events at home. During this same period, the NAC floundered badly before being revitalized by Henry Chipembere and Kanyama Chiume. In 1956, both became members of the Legislative Council (LEGCO), where they exerted pressure on the government to dissolve the Federation.
A new militancy began in the NAC and, in 1957, Banda was informed of those developments. That same year, Thamar Dillon Banda (no relation) visited Banda in k.u.masi and urged him to return home to head the NAC. Chipembere followed up by writing to Banda, emphasizing the need for a charismatic-type leader who was qualified for the task. The timing seemed propitious to Banda: the Federation news grew grimmer with talks of membership in the Commonwealth, and in k.u.masi, charges (later proven false and dropped) were made against Banda preventing his practice of medicine. The invitation to return home was welcomed, and Banda departed from Ghana, leaving Mrs. French there; he briefly stopped in London where he met old friends, made speeches, and prepared for his journey in July 1958.
Banda arrived in Blantyre prepared for a long struggle or, if his people did not want him, to return to London. However, on 6 July 1958, several thousand Malawians greeted him at Chileka airport, treating him like their savior from colonialism. In August, the NAC elected Banda as their president and he chose a cabinet consisting of Chipembere (treasurer), Chiume (publicity), Dunduzu Chisiza (secretary), and Rose Chibambo (Women"s League). Banda then began a campaign to strengthen the NAC. In the next two months, he visited nearly every district, lecturing against the "stupid Federation," advocating immediate decolonization, and attacking tribalism and thangata. Everywhere he spoke of the virtues of unity, loyalty, obedience, and discipline. By the end of the year, Malawians were united as never before and were growing impatient with an inflexible Protectorate government. Relations between the European settlers and the NAC worsened as the former considered the const.i.tutional demand for African majorities in the Executive Council and LEGCO as absurd proposals.
In JanuaryFebruary 1959, the NAC began a nonviolent and noncooperative campaign in which the detested agricultural regulations (malimidwe) were ignored. Banda opposed the use of violence as a political weapon, but did not exclude the possibility if it ended the despised Federation. Fearful of the increased number of Congress meetings and speeches, the government reinforced its police staff with Southern Rhodesian troops and, on 3 March, declared a State of Emergency. Banda was aroused from sleep in his Limbe home, taken to Chileka airport in only his night clothes, and flown to Gweru prison in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). In Gweru, Banda, with Chipembere and the Chisiza brothers, planned Malawi"s political and economic future. During 13 months in detention, Banda also wrote his autobiography, which to date has not been published. In April 1960, Banda was flown home, but he did not stay long before embarking on short speaking engagements in Great Britain and the United States.
At home again, he concentrated on the Lancaster House conference in JulyAugust. At this const.i.tutional meeting, Banda, Orton Chirwa, Chiume, and Aleke Banda represented the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), which, during Banda"s period in jail, had become the successor political organization to the NAC; Michael Blackwood represented the United Federal Party of European supporters, and Nophas Kwenje, James Ralph Chinyama, and Thamar Dillon Banda stood for a more moderate African position. Banda took an immediate hard line and repeated the demand for African majority rule, for self-government, and for an end to the Federation. By the end of the conference, both sides had agreed to a dual-roll franchise, a LEGCO having 28 elected members and an Executive Council of 10 members, all of whom would have ministerial status. The new Const.i.tution was presented by Banda as a vital doc.u.ment leading to independence. However, moderates like Kwenje were blamed for the failure to secure a universal franchise.
Shortly after the Monckton Report indicated that secession from the Federation could be permitted, Banda attended the Federal Review conference in London in December 1960. Also attending the conference and maintaining a hard line against the Federation were Joshua Nkomo of the National Democratic Party of Southern Rhodesia, and Kenneth Kaunda of the United National Independence Party of Northern Rhodesia. The conference accomplished little, but when Banda returned home, he announced that the Federation was dead. He spent the next months preparing for the August 1961 elections. His campaign to enroll voters and ensure their support for the MCP was immensely successful. His appearances and speeches were very popular, and his control in and over the MCP was growing more complete. The election results were nothing less than spectacular, for Banda and his MCP swept the lower roll seats (20) and obtained two higher roll seats. The governor, Glyn Jones, appointed Banda minister of natural resources and local government and, in this new capacity, Banda directed his energies to eliminate the abusive and detested thangata and malimidwe. From then (1961) onward, Banda concentrated on the agricultural development of Malawi, with some notable results.
The interim period before the dissolution of the Federation in 1963 witnessed the gradual a.s.sumption of political power by Banda and his a.s.sociates. Governor Jones had confidence in the ministers" abilities and was impressed by their eagerness to get on with the problems of government. The final preparations for self-government were formalized at Marlborough House, London, in November 1962; these negotiations resulted in the establishment of a cabinet and a legislature. The only point that remained nonnegotiable was Banda"s determination to secede from the Federation. Finally, in December 1962, the right of Nyasaland to withdraw from the federal government was formally announced, although months before it had been conceded by the British government. It would take one year to dismantle the Federation.
In February 1963, Kamuzu Banda was formally made prime minister, a role he had held, practically speaking, for over a year. Several months later he and Governor Jones negotiated the last of the const.i.tutional changes made at Marlborough House. Accordingly, elections were held in April of the following year in which 50 MCP nominees were elected unopposed. Banda selected his cabinet shortly thereafter: Chipembere (Education), Yatuta Chisiza (Home Affairs), Colin Cameron (Works), Willie Chokani (Labor), and John Msonthi (Transport). At independence on 6 July 1964, Chiume became minister of information and external affairs, and Tembo became minister of finance. Banda a.s.sumed the portfolios of trade, natural resources, social development, and health.
In the decades following independence, Banda a.s.sumed even greater personal power and enjoyed wide popularity. Ambitious economic projects and government reorganization also characterized his administration, which had the paternalism of the 18th-century enlightened despot Frederick the Great of Prussia. The Kasungu-born doctor reversed decades of British neglect and indifference with the result that Malawi"s earliest loans were oversubscribed by foreign investors delighted with the positive economic climate and apparent political stability. Malawian entrepreneurs were encouraged to engage in commerce formerly run by Asians, and Banda sought some Africanization of large-scale industries such as railways. He also invested his party"s money in Malawi, mainly in Press Corporation Ltd. The Cinderella Protectorate, as Malawi was once dubbed, did emerge from the ashes, but critics of his style of government often point out that economic development was skewed and was attained through authoritarian methods and greatly diminished political freedom.
The Cabinet Crisis was a catalyst for the reorganization of government and the further consolidation of Banda"s personal rule. In September 1964, Banda dismissed several cabinet ministers, and three others resigned out of sympathy. He portrayed his former ministers as enemies of the state and expelled them from the MCP. At Banda"s direction, Malawi virtually became a one-party state by mid-1965. In nearly every aspect of life in the country, the party complemented the state in political power; public criticism of the government was eschewed, and only private questions were tolerated by the Banda government.
The ministerial crisis also precipitated a revitalization of local or traditional inst.i.tutions, long overlooked during the colonial period. Banda encouraged the return of traditional dancing and the use of one national language, chiChewa, which was also his mother tongue. His efforts to exert moral control over Malawi society included regulations on drunkenness, tight trousers, and short skirts. The traditional (local) court system was expanded, and Malawian jurisprudence was increasingly preferred over that inherited from the British, which Banda perceived as too permissive, allowing unacceptable numbers of criminals to escape because of clever lawyers or poorly presented evidence. The judiciary became less independent and more susceptible to political controls by Banda and the MCP. Extrajudicial measures, such as the Forfeiture Act (1966), permitting the government to seize property of "subversive" persons, became law. In 1971, presidential elections were not held, but the Malawi Parliament declared Banda as "life president," stipulating that, on his death, the functions of that office would be performed by a Presidential Council comprising two cabinet ministers and the secretary general of the Malawi Congress Party.
Under Banda"s leadership, Malawi"s priorities were to expand agricultural production, especially the estate sector, to encourage industrial development and to improve the nation"s transportation system. Banda"s economic influence was all pervasive, mostly as a result of the economic statutory bodies, some of which he had inherited. Parastatals (publicly owned holding companies) were created as a means for Malawi to control its economy and retain whatever expatriate resources were necessary to reach the proposed national goals. At independence, the nation lacked capital and an entrepreneur cla.s.s with management ability; the parastatal sought to fill that vacuum, and Banda, by becoming general overseer of this corporate empire, extended his powers far beyond those provided by the government. He allowed these organizations to function in the marketplace as well as to use their resources for his own political purposes. Some of the most important of these statutory bodies were the Malawi Development Corporation (MDC), Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation, Air Malawi, and the Electricity Supply Commission; only the latter proved able to make a profit.
In addition to the office of president, Banda held as many as seven other ministries: justice, works and supplies, external affairs, agriculture, women"s affairs, home affairs, and defense; only in the last years of his rule did he relinquish some of them. He resided in Sanjika Palace in Blantyre and, when Parliament was sitting, he would be at the State House in Zomba; he had other homes in Lilongwe, Kasungu, Mzuzu, Karonga, Monkey Bay, and the Lower Shire.
Entering the decade of the 1990s, the life president fell victim to declining health, which tended to reduce his public appearances, including his annual crop inspection tours. Even though the facade of a free government steadfastly met problems, Banda continued to insist that Malawians did not want change in their political system. In 1991, he asked members of Parliament to debate the need for a multiparty system and, not surprisingly, the members of Parliament, all members of the ruling party, supported a one-party government. Meanwhile, pressure from within Malawi and from outside the country was mounting on Banda to initiate reforms that would lead to a full-fledged democratic system of government.
On 8 March 1992, the Malawi Catholic Bishops" Pastoral Letter detailed how the autocratic political system and the government"s economic policies had led to suffering in the country. In the following month, Tom Chakufwa Chihana, secretary general of the Southern Africa Trade Union Co-ordinating Council, announced that he would challenge the government by forming an alliance of groups opposed to the single party system. Chihana"s boldness and the pastoral letter encouraged people to openly defy the government and the MCP. University students protested and workers went on strike demanding livable wages and better working conditions. In Blantyre, the strikers protested in the city center, and on 7 May, the strike became violent, looting, among other establishments, the main Peoples" Trading Center shop, which was part of Banda"s press empire. On that day, the Malawi Young Pioneers and the police, equipped with guns, intervened, resulting in the death of 40 people.
In the meantime, governments in Europe and North America, many of which had supported Banda during the Cold War, threatened to reduce and withhold aid unless he inst.i.tuted reforms immediately. In a radio broadcast on 5 July, he announced his willingness to embark on a process of sociopolitical changes, starting with the setting up of forums where all Malawians could engage in debate with government. This is how the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and the Public Affairs Committee came to be. The former comprised of cabinet ministers, and the latter consisted of the Law Society of Malawi, churches, and representatives of the business community. Three other developments took place later in 1992: the launching of the Malawi Financial Post as the first independent newspaper; the inauguration of two new political parties, the Alliance for Democracy in October, and the United Democratic Front; and Banda"s declaration on 18 October that a national referendum would take place on 14 June 1993, to enable Malawians to decide whether or not they wanted the one-party system to be replaced by a multiparty one.
Although very old and frail, Banda campaigned vigorously for the retention of his mode of rule. However, he and his party lost, with most areas of the country overwhelmingly voting for change. He disregarded calls for resignation but set in motion procedures for const.i.tutional reforms, leading to multiparty general elections. To create a good atmosphere and to enable everyone to partic.i.p.ate in the new dispensation, exiles living abroad would be allowed to return, and all political prisoners would be freed. It was also agreed to have free elections on 14 May 1994, and two units, the National Consultative Council and the National Executive Committee of the MCP, were created to oversee the transition to multiparty democracy.
Meanwhile, Banda featured prominently in the campaign for the return to power of the MCP. Loyal party members used his name as a symbol of national unity and prosperity; he himself went on the campaign trail, which was interrupted at the end of 1993 when he fell ill, was flown to the Garden City Clinic in Johannesburg, South Africa, and underwent brain surgery. After a period of convalescence, the infirm president returned to the campaign trail, but the end of his political life was near. Banda"s party lost, forcing him to retire to Mudi House, which had been his government residence in Blantyre before 1975 when Nsanjika Palace was being completed. He remained head of the MCP but, in 1996, withdrew from politics altogether, the presidency of the party going to Gwanda Chakuamba. With Cecilia Tamanda Kadzmira at his bedside, Banda died at the Garden City Clinic from cardiac complications and pneumonia on 25 November 1997. After lying in state in Blantyre and Lilongwe, Banda was given a national funeral on 3 December, and he was the first person to be buried at the Heroes Acre in Lilongwe. See also ARMITAGE, ROBERT; ELECTRICITY; OPERATION SUNRISE; TRANSPORTATION.
BANDA, HENRY FOSTER CHIMUNTHU (1962 ). Speaker of the National a.s.sembly, Chimutu Banda was born on 30 December 1962, at Chipembere Village, Traditional Authority Kanyenda, Nkhotakota district. He went to local schools, after which he attended the University of Malawi, where in 1985 he qualified as a teacher. Later, he was to attain a diploma in education administration from the Brandon University in Canada. From 1985 to 1999, he taught at various secondary schools, including serving as headmaster of Nkhotakota Secondary School (199599). Chimutu Banda was active in the labor union movement. He was the regional education publication officer for the Teachers Union of Malawi (199394), and was chairman of the Nkhotakota district branch of the Civil Service Union (199596). In the 1999 parliamentary elections, he won the Nkhotakota North const.i.tuency on the United Democratic Front ticket. Once in the National a.s.sembly, he became the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on the Environment (19992001), a commissioner in the Parliamentary Service Commission (20001), and deputy minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation. In 2004, he retained his seat in the National a.s.sembly and was appointed as minister of youth sports and culture. In 2005, Chimutu Banda joined Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika"s Democratic Progressive Party and was a.s.signed to the Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Natural Resources. In May 2009, he defended his seat, and soon afterward became the speaker of the National a.s.sembly.
BANDA, JOHN R. The first indigenous registrar of the University of Malawi, John Banda was born in Mzimba district, went to Blantyre and Dedza secondary schools before proceeding to Makere University, Uganda, where in 1964 he graduated with a BA (Hons.). He worked as a government officer but after a short time joined the new university as administrative a.s.sistant. In 1971, he took over from Ivan Freeman as registrar of the University of Malawi and, in 1973, he and others, presided over the move of the university offices and Chancellor College to Zomba.
In 1975, Banda was among the many professionals and academics who were imprisoned without trial during one of the bouts of excessive human rights abuses in the country. Released two years later, he was employed by Lonrho but in 1979 left for the University of Botswana, where he became senior a.s.sistant registrar; he was to occupy the same position at the University of Swaziland before his appointment in the late 1980s as registrar of the University of Bophuthatswana, later renamed the University of the North-West. In the early 2000s, he retired to Mzuzu, but he became an active member of a body that oversaw the establishment of Livingstonia University. See also EDUCATION.
BANDA, JOYCE HILDA (1950 ). This businesswoman and politician was born in Zomba district. She is the former head of the National a.s.sociation of Business Women and is creator of the Joyce Banda Foundation, which is involved in women"s empowerment and rural development in Zomba, and manages a school in Blantyre. She was a member of the National a.s.sembly for ZombaMalosa const.i.tuency and has held cabinet positions in the United Democratic Front and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) governments, including minister of foreign affairs and minister of gender, child welfare, and community services. In 1997, the Hunger Project awarded her the Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger.
In the 2009 general and presidential elections, Joyce Banda became the running mate of President Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika of the DPP. They won, and she became vice president of Malawi, the first woman in Malawi to occupy this position. However, although the vice president, she was sidelined, her role in government was greatly minimized, and there seemed to be tension between her and the state president. In July 2010, the DPP decided that Peter m.u.t.h.arika would be its presidential candidate in the 2014 elections instead of Joyce Banda as many had expected. Five months later, Banda was expelled from the DPP, but she continued to hold the office of vice president. In April 2011, she formed her own political organization, the People"s Party. In the reshuffle announced on 7 September 2011, President Bingu wa Mitharika withdrew all government responsibilities that had originally been a.s.signed to her, and excluded her from the cabinet. However, she was elected to her office, she continued to occupy the vice presidency of the state.
BANDA, KAPICHILA (?1988). This strongman of Dowa politics and a dedicated Dr. Hastings Banda loyalist became a member of Parliament in the 1970s, and in 1983 succeeded Aaron Gadama as the Malawi Congress Party"s (MCP) regional chairman and as minister for the central region. With little Western education and uncomfortable expressing himself in English, he was considered the party"s organizer par excellence, one who ensured his region"s total loyalty to the fundamentals of the MCP. He is credited as the brains behind the rise and success of the Dowa Women League"s singers, whose lyrics not only overpraised Banda and the party but also tended to advocate and celebrate violence upon those in disagreement with the life president. Banda died in 1988 of heart failure.
BANDA, LUCIUS (1970 ). Malawi"s most popular entertainer of the postHastings Banda era, started his career toward the end of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) rule, first as a member of the Aleluya Band, and then his own band, Zembani. President Banda"s security operatives followed him closely because of the political undertones of his music, and in the period 199294, when agitation for democratization became open, he adopted a more critical flavor. After Bakili Muluzi became Malawi"s president, Lucius Banda, now referring to himself as the "soldier of the poor people," continued to write lyrics and sing songs that did not hesitate to point out problems in society and politics, including corruption and mismanagement in the public service.
In the 2004 elections, Lucius Banda stood and won as the United Democratic Party candidate for the National a.s.sembly, but two years later he was convicted of academic plagiarism and spent three months in Zomba Central Prison. Upon his release, he returned to his music career and, in 2005 and 2006, produced two popular CDs, Enemy and Survivor, respectively, and as usual, both contained tracks that were critical commentaries on society, politics, and the economy. In 2006, the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) blacklisted some of his music and, in January 2010, the publicly owned MBC banned his 15th alb.u.m, Fifteen-fifteen, on the grounds that it was too critical of the government.
BANDA, MTALIKA (19151995). Born in Nkhata Bay district, educated at Bandawe and the Overtoun Inst.i.tution, Kondowe, Banda worked as a civil servant before becoming an activist in the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC). A confident and fiery speaker, he became secretary general of the NAC briefly in the early 1950s. In 1959, he was detained and, upon his release, he was an organizer of the Malawi Congress Party at the district and regional levels. After the const.i.tutional changes in 1961, Banda went to India to study cooperatives; he also became a member of Parliament before being posted to a diplomatic office in the United States.
BANDA, RICHARD ALLEN. The first Malawian to be appointed chief justice, Richard Banda spent his early childhood in Northern Rhodesia where his parents worked from the 1930s to the 1950s. He returned to Malawi to attend primary school at Ekwendeni before going on to Dedza Secondary School. A keen sportsman and star player in the national soccer team, Banda worked in the civil service from 1960 to 1961, primarily as a sports administrator and coach. In 1961, he was one the first Malawians to attend the new Part 1 London Bar course at the Inst.i.tute of Public Administration, Mpemba; he proceeded to London to complete his legal studies before being called to the bar at Grays Inn. Banda returned to Malawi a barrister, worked in the Ministry of Justice, rising to the position of attorney general. In the early 1970s, he was appointed minister of justice and attorney general, but soon fell out of favor with President Hastings Banda. After a few years of virtual confinement to his home area in Nkhata Bay district, the president gave him the position of chief magistrate, and he was soon promoted to be a High Court judge. In 1992, he became chief justice of Malawi, retiring in 2002. In 2007, he became chief justice of Swaziland. He has also served as chairman of Africa Parks (Majete), 20037, president of the Commonwealth Secretariat Tribunal, and president of the Commonwealth Magistrates" and Judges" a.s.sociation.
BANDA, THAMAR DILLON THOMAS (1910?). Born in Nkhata Bay district, Banda went to Bandawe Mission School and then to Livingstonia where in 1930 he qualified as a teacher. For 10 years, he taught at Bandawe and other places in Nkhata Bay and, in 1940, went to Southern Rhodesia where he worked as an accounts clerk. In 1946, Banda became a boarding master at Goromonzi Government School and, three years later, he returned to Nyasaland where he briefly worked for the Colonial Development Corporation, which was establishing a major development scheme in the Nkhata Bay-Mzuzu area. In 1953, he was appointed clerk to the Council of Chiefs in Nkhata Bay, and from 1953 to 1956 he worked as an accounts clerk in the African Lakes Corporation"s in the district. At the same time, he was active in politics, becoming, in 1952, chairman of the Chintheche branch of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) and, two years later, Congress"s organizing secretary for the northern province. In 1956, Banda was elected secretary general of the NAC and, in the following year, he became president general of the nationalist movement. In that year, he and others drew up the Memorandum on Const.i.tutional Changes, demanding, among other things, majority rule.
In the meantime, younger activists such as Henry Chipembere and Kanyama Chiume were increasingly unhappy with Banda"s leadership, which they considered as weak and ineffective. It is they who urged him to visit Dr. Hastings Banda (no relation) in k.u.masi in March 1957 to try to convince him to return to Malawi to lead the nationalist struggle. However, even before Dr. Banda"s return home, Banda was (March 1958) suspended from the headship of the Congress. In May 1958, he formed his own political organization, the Congress Liberation Party, which, although joined by other older politicians, such as Dunstan Chijozi, Nophas Kwenje, and James Ralph Chinyama, did not have much support in the country. The Congress Liberation Party ran in, and lost, the 1961 general elections, marking the end of its short life; it was also the end of the political career of Thamar Banda.
BANDAWE. Located on the lakesh.o.r.e in the southern part of Nkhata Bay district, it became the site in 1881 of a Free Church of Scotland mission and later a school. This was a successor to the first memorial mission, Livingstonia, which the church had initially established in 1875 at Cape Maclear. Although the main Livingstonia mission was to move to Khondowe in 1894, Bandawe remained a major religious and educational center, its graduates occupying influential positions in Nyasaland and other parts of southern Africa. Its numerous graduates include Clements Kadalie, Eliot Kamwana Chirwa, Orton Ching"oli Chirwa, Wellington Manoah Chirwa, and Thamar Dillon Banda.
BANDAWE, LEWIS MATAKA (18871967). Born in Mozambique, Lewis Bandawe went to the Shire Highlands 12 years later, and soon enrolled at the Blantyre Mission school. In 1913, the mission employed him as teacher/evangelist and in the same year posted him to Mehaccani, Mozambique, to establish a mission station. When World War I broke out, he went to Blantyre for a brief period, but soon returned to Mehaccani where he remained until 1928. While in Mozambique, Bandawe wrote a Lomwe grammar book and translated the New Testament and Psalms into Lomwe. Upon his return to Malawi, he left the Blantyre Mission and joined the Judicial Department, where he rose to the position of senior clerk. In 1943, he founded the Alomwe Tribal Representative a.s.sociation, which actively pet.i.tioned the British administration to purge its doc.u.ments of the pejorative word, anguru, and replace it with Lomwe. Bandawe was also one of the founders of the Nyasaland African Congress.
BANKING. The history of modern banking in Malawi goes back to August 1894, when the African Lakes Company began to provide the first banking facilities in British Central Africa, as Malawi was then called. However, dissatisfied with the services, European settlers invited the Standard Bank of South Africa to establish a local branch in the colony in 1901. By the beginning of the 1920s, it had branches in Blantyre, Zomba, and Lilongwe. Meanwhile, in 1918, the banking operations of the African Lakes Company were taken over by the National Bank of South Africa, which in turn was replaced by Barclays Bank D.C.O. in 1929. The latter also had branches in Blantyre, Zomba, and Lilongwe.
In 1971, Standard and Barclays amalgamated to form the National Bank of Malawi. The equities were held as follows: combined Standard and Barclays, 51 percent; Press Corporation Ltd., 29 percent; Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC), 20 percent. Further changes took place in 1977 when the Standard/Barclays shareholding was lowered to 20 percent while that of Press (Holdings) Ltd. and ADMARC increased to 47.4 and 32.6 percent, respectively. At the same time Standard/Barclays became service companies of the National Bank of Malawi. At the end of 1982, Standard Bank PLC bought Barclays" interests and, in October 1990, it a.s.sumed the name Standard Chartered Bank of Africa PLC, its shareholdings going up by 20 percent. As the service company, Standard Chartered furnished the National Bank with senior managers, including the chief executive officer and his deputy, advisors, and an a.s.sortment of technical experts. In June 1996, the service agreement lapsed and, later that year, the Standard Chartered sold its shares to abiding shareholders on a pro-rata arrangement. The main shareholders of the National Bank are the Press Corporation (51.73 percent), Old Mutual Group (24 percent), members of the public (22.03 percent), and the general public (1.14 percent).
The second major bank is the Standard Bank, formerly the Commercial Bank of Malawi, first registered in 1969, with the first branch starting operations in April 1970. Its main shareholders were Banco Pinto Sotto Mayor, Press Holdings Ltd., and the Malawi Development Corporation. In 2001, Stanbic Africa Holdings, the subsidiary of Standard Bank Group of South Africa, acquired 60 percent of the shares, and the bank became known as Stanbic Bank, changing its name again in 2007 to Standard Bank Limited.
In postHastings Banda Malawi, commercial banks have increased in number and include the First Merchant Bank Ltd. and the Malawi Savings Bank (MSB), formerly the Post Office Savings Bank, which had until 1994 operated as a government-owned inst.i.tution, and since colonial times had been a major channel for mobilizing rural savings. The MSB now provides full banking services and has branches and agencies in all districts of Malawi. Two other financial inst.i.tutions have also added operations and now offer full commercial services. The Investment and Development Bank (INDEBANK), established in 1972, has local and foreign shareholders (British, Dutch, German), and provides medium and long-term credit to borrowers who want to invest in the economic development of Malawi. In the late 2000s, INDEBANK expanded its services to include normal banking. Finally, the NBS Bank, formerly the New Building Society, is entirely Malawi owned: NICO Ltd. (60 percent), public (30 percent), and National Investment Trust Ltd. (10 percent).
The clearinghouse of the Malawian banking system is the Reserve Bank of Malawi, which was established in 1964 to act as banker and advisor to the Malawi government and to issue legal tender currency and maintain external reserves to safeguard the international value of the currency. It also acts as a depository in Malawi for the a.s.sets of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group. On a quarterly basis, it publishes the Economic and Financial Review, indicating trends in the economy. In 1971, John Tembo became the first Malawian governor of the bank and, after 11 years, was replaced by Lyoond Chakakala Chaziya. He was dismissed after four years, and his successor, Chimwemwe Hara, served for a shorter time. In 1989, President Hastings Banda appointed as the bank"s chief administrator a West German, Hans Joachim Lesshaft, who was replaced by his Malawian deputy Francis Pelekamayo. When the United Democratic Front formed the new government in 1994, President Bakili Muluzi chose Mathews Chikaonda as governor of the bank. After the 1999 general elections, Chikaonda became minister of finance, leaving the direction of the bank to Ellias Ngalande Banda who, like his predecessor, was formerly a university don. In 2005, Victor Mbewe became the Reserve Banks governor and, in 2009, Perks Ligoya, once an employee of the bank, replaced him.
BARRON, A. FRANCIS. One of the most powerful European tobacco growers, and with Roy Wallace and Ignaco Conforzi, a strong exponent of tenant farming, A. F. Barron immigrated to Nyasaland from Great Britain in 1913 and established a large estate at Makoka in Zomba district. In 1920, he started farming tobacco in the central region where, by the mid-1940s, his holdings in three districts were: six estates in Lilongwe totaling 9, 752 acres; five estates in Dowa totaling 6,384 acres; and a 1,060-acre estate in Kasungu. His tobacco business comprised three main parts: tobacco, mostly flue cured, grown on his estates by wage laborers; flue-cured tobacco produced by tenants on land provided by him, with seedlings and technical help given by him, on condition that it was sold to him; and fire-cured tobacco grown by peasants on their own land but sold to European farmers. Within 15 years of commercial tobacco farming in the central province, Lilongwe and Dowa accounted for over half of the crop produced in the colony.
BARROW, MALCOLM PALLISER (19001973). Born in Surrey, England, Barrow went to Malvern College and then to Clare College, Cambridge, before immigrating to Nyasaland in 1927. He became a tobacco planter in Zomba and later moved to Naming"omba in Thyolo district where he developed major tea, tung, and tobacco estates. In 1940, he became a member of the Nyasaland Legislative Council and, a year later, was appointed to the Executive Council, a position he held until 1953. In that year, he became a member of the new federal Parliament, and was appointed minister of commerce and industry; two years later he was also a.s.signed the Home Affairs and Power portfolios. When Roy Welensky became prime minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, he made Sir Malcolm deputy prime minister. Knighted in 1953 and one of the most powerful Europeans in the Federation, Barrow also had major farming interests in Gadami, Southern Rhodesia. He died in Salisbury in 1973, a few months after the death of his wife.
BEER HALLS. From the early 1940s, British policy reflected the acceptance of the African as a permanent urban dweller, and this meant, among other things, building long-lasting facilities to cater to residents of the new emerging towns. Using finance provided by the Colonial Development and Welfare Fund, dwelling houses for Africans were constructed but so too were welfare and beer halls where it was hoped the Africans would spend their time and money instead of going to bars and drinking houses, most of which were considered to be disreputable. It has been suggested that this policy was a means of social control as colonial governments were anxious to mold the new African townsman to fit their conception of a colonial dependent. In Nyasaland, social welfare and beer halls were built in Blantyre/Limbe, Zomba, Lilongwe, Mzuzu, and the larger district headquarters such as Mzimba.
BEMBA. The Bemba are the inhabitants of the region south of lakes Mweru and Banguelu in present-day Zambia. Matrilineal and divided into chiefdoms, their traditional paramount ruler a.s.sumes the t.i.tle Chitimukulu. The Bemba are known as great hunters, and they successfully repelled the Ngoni attempt to settle in their area. From the end of the 19th century onward, their country witnessed much Christianity missionary activity, including that of the Free Church of Scotland and the White Fathers. The area was also a center of African nationalism; President Kenneth Kaunda and his first vice president, Simon Kapwepwe, were brought up in Bembaland.
BEMBEKE. Located on the western side of the Dedza Mountains, this major Catholic center in Chewa/Ngoni area was originally a substation of Mua and was used mainly as a base where priests could escape from the hot weather of the lakesh.o.r.e. In 1910, it attained full station status; a school and training college were later established.
BENINGOMA. The word beni is derived from the English word band, and ngoma refers to the team dances that imitate a military bra.s.s band. Of all the variations of Beni, the Mganda dance of Malawi is most important. Whereas Beni is still a.s.sociated with the Yao peoples, mganda, or malipenga, remains popular with the Ngoni, Tumbuka-speaking peoples, Ngonde, Lambya-Nyiha, Ndali-Sukwa, Tonga, and Chewa. Aspects of mganda/malipenga resemble the parade of soldiers, and it is performed only by men.
Originating in the 1890s among Swahili Muslims imitating the Royal Navy regiment, these dance performances began in Malawi at the end of World War I. Resentful of their required role during the war, returning porters and soldiers introduced the military-style dances into their society. A mockery of British ceremony and discipline, the mganda reproduced the military drill, the bra.s.s band sound, and the officer hierarchy. Today the dance is still performed in most parts of Malawi. See also ARMY; MUSIC AND DANCE.
BINGHAM, MAJOR HUMPHREY FRANCIS (1899?). This first registrar/commissioner of cooperative societies in Malawi was born in England. He saw action in World War I and worked in East Africa before transferring to Nyasaland, where he worked in the provincial and district administration, including serving as district commissioner in West Nyasa (Nkhata Bay) and Blantyre districts. In 1938, he was a.s.signed to start the Department of Cooperatives, which did not really come into existence until after he returned from the war. Bingham retired to England in 1955.
BISA. In precolonial times, these matrilineal people of northeastern Zambia were famous for long-distance commerce covering the area between the region east of the Luangwa River and the Lake Malawi area and beyond. In the 18th and 19th centuries, they were particularly famous as ivory traders, which they exported via the Indian Ocean. Their main partners were the Yao, with whom they developed a friendly relationship.
BISMARCK, JOSEPH (1859?). Born at Quilimane, Mozambique, around 1859, Bismark was part of the second Livingstonia Mission expedition, and in 1880 was in the initial group of Africans sent by the Blantyre Mission of the Church of Scotland to study at Lovedale (see LOVEDALE MISSIONARY INSt.i.tUTE). Upon his return in 1884, he taught at the mission"s schools. He made Malawi his home, and he became one of the first African church deacons of the Blantyre Mission. A colleague of Dr. David Clement Scott, Bismarck made a living mainly as a planter of tobacco and coffee, cultivating over 150 acres. A major opponent of thangata, Bismark was very critical of this system when he presented evidence to the commission investigating the Chilembwe uprising of 1915. See also EDUCATION; MISSIONS.
BLACKWOOD, MICHAEL HILL, CBE (19172005). Born on 13 May 1917 in Lancashire, England, Blackwood went to Ormskirk Grammar School and went on to study law at Liverpool University. He qualified as a solicitor in 1939 and in the following year joined the Royal Artillery, seeing service in Madagascar, India, and Burma. He also served with the 11th East African division, rising to the rank of major. Upon demobilization in 1946, he joined a law firm, Wilson and Morgan in Blantyre, Nyasaland. Blackwood was one of the first members of the Nyasaland Law Society, and became active in European settler politics. He was mayor of Blantyre from 1951 to 1952 and, two years later, he became a member of the Legislative Council (LEGCO) on the European settler ticket. He became deputy leader in Nyasaland of the United Federal Party and, in this capacity, was one of the leading advocates of the merits of the Central African Federation, which the majority of African peoples detested. He attended the Const.i.tutional talks in London in the early 1960s as an opponent of transfer of power to Africans and as a spokesman of Federal and Settler interests.
Regarded as the most powerful European settler after Sir Malcolm Barrow, Blackwood won the 1961 elections on the Federal ticket and, after Malawi became a republic in 1966, he a.s.sumed leadership of the nominated non-African members of Parliament and also became chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, a position he held until 1973 when he retired from active politics. In 1979, he became senior state counsel, a major recognition for his distinguished legal career. During his tenure in Malawi, Blackwood held many other offices, including chairman of the Commonwealth Ex-services League of Malawi, registrar and chancellor of the Anglican Diocese of Malawi, president of the Nyasaland Society for the Blind, chairman of the Malawi Hotels and Tourist Board, and chairman of the Law Society. He retired in 1983, and on 1 February 2005, he died in Durban, South Africa. See also NYASALAND CONSt.i.tUTIONAL PARTY.
BLAKE, ROBERT. Ordained minister of the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa, Robert Blake opened mission stations of this church in 1894 in the Ngoni areas of Msakambewa and Kafanikhale, and at Chimbazi near Kongwe