Let it be known that the history of Malawi as regards the story of the life president of Malawi and his opponents is very distorted. Mainly it was done to please Kamuzu otherwise the writers would face his wrath. For instance the Chilembwe play on 3rd March had a phrase that went something like this: " adzabwera wina adzati kwacha... adzati kwacha" hmmm????????
It is really a shame and sad that we are almost guaranteed never to find the opinions, speeches and any relevant materials of the so called dissidents during Kamuzu's era. Everything that was controversial to Kamuzu's line of thinking evaporated into thin air. What a shame!! this generation and the next generations to come will never know what really happened other the one sided story as told by Kamuzu and his cohorts. I cry for my beloved Malawi
With regards to your earlier posts you seem very much anti-Kamuzu or rather not influnced by the nostalgia that surrounds his rule. That I commend you.
Remeber the referendum in Malawi. I was there, I voted with gusto. I had suffered under Kamuzu and I wanted change. We all wanted change and we got it. But his replacement turned out to be just plain corrupt. Muluzi might have been a decent fellow, but he was a poor president. A good politician but an awful ruler. His cabinet alone is evident of the same cronyism, nepotism, money grabbing, uscrupulous, make-it-quick-while-you-can cabal that haunts every African country today.
On the economical level, things didn't change much. The rich got richer and the poor, well,just starved to death. No more ADMARC and agricultural output decreased.
That might explain why some people still think highly of Kamuzu. Time has a way of smoothing out the bad aspects of history. People seem to forget how restrictive it was in Malawi. My first trip to Malawi as an adult, I was shocked by the amount of censorship, the Youth League (an uneducated, criminal class) power over even the most respectable members of society. Everyone was so afraid. I asked why and they were even afraid to answer me.
Don't forget the people who were killed by Tembo and his cohorts. Why Tembo is not in jail shows the amazing incompetence of Muluzi's rule. Or maybeMuluzi's hands had blood on them as well and he didn't want the trail to lead to him. We'll never know.
I think Kamuzu's memory should never be forgotten, but it should be contextualised, not nostalgised (if thats a word). There should also be a plaque to those who he so brutally murdered.
As for the lost history of Malawi, I lament too. But I know gradually the truth about it all will come out. Schools should start uncovering the period between independence and multi-party. But it should be done without bias so that it doesn't turn to be used as propaganda. Then we'll be going through the same cycle again...