From: "mukanenazaine" <mukanenazaine@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue May 16, 2006  7:02 am
Subject: Re: Kamuzu may not have been malawian after all.
mukanenazaine
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This is the true story of the Ngwazi.


Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda was the head of state of Malawi (formerly
Nyasaland), a poor landlocked country in central Africa, for 31
years. Banda and a small clique of supporters controlled virtually
every aspect of this agrarian country for more than a quarter of a
century: its politics, judiciary, military, and economy. In doing so
they enriched themselves at the expense of the country's 10 million
people. On international welfare indicators, Malawi ranked as one of
the 10 poorest countries in the world, with a per capita gross
domestic product of $175.
Kamuzu Banda was born in 1898 in a rural area of central Malawi to
Chewa-speaking peasant farmers. (Banda claims he was born in 1906
but most records indicate it was 1898.) His parents named him
Kamuzu, or "little root" to honor the root-herb potion that cured
his mother's barrenness. At the age of four, in accordance with
Chewa custom, Kamuzu left his parents' home to live with his
maternal grandmother. There he learned rudimentary farming skills
and participated in Chewa ritual. In 1905, when Banda was seven
years old, his parents separated. Banda went to live in his father's
village, where he attended Mtunthama Primary School, established by
Scots missionaries.
Banda was fortunate that his uncle, Hanock Phiri, took an interest
in him and persuaded his family to allow him to attend a European-
style school. Phiri himself had been educated by Scots missionaries
and had converted to Christianity. While Banda was a student at
Mtunthama School he joined the church and was baptized into the
Church of Scotland. Banda took as his Christian name Hastings, the
surname of a missionary he admired.
In 1910 Banda went to the Chilanga Full Primary School, where his
uncle Phiri was teaching. On completion of primary school Banda left
Nyasaland and prepared to go to South Africa to the Church of
Scotland's Lovedale College. Banda left for South Africa in 1914,
walking as far as Hartley in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where
he found a job as a sweeper in a local hospital. Banda stayed in
Hartley for two years, saving his small wages for his school
tuition. During these two years working at the hospital, Banda
decided to study in Scotland to become a doctor.
In 1916 Banda left Southern Rhodesia for the better wages offered by
the gold mines in South Africa. He took a job in the Johannesburg
area on the Witwatersrand Deep mine, where he worked below ground.
In Johannesburg, Banda came into contact with African activists like
Clements Kadalie, a unionist also from Nyasaland, A. B. Xuma,
president of the South African African National Congress (ANC), and
Ghanaian educator J.E. Kwegyir Aggrey.
Banda was politicized by these men and the rhetoric of Jamaica's
Marcus Garvey and his call for "Africa for the Africans," and with
the preaching of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, an
Ethiopian black separatist church. In 1922 Banda joined the AME
church, which agreed to sponsor him in the United States so he could
complete his education. Banda arrived in the United States in 1925
and attended the AME's Wilberforce Institute near Xenia, Ohio. He
graduated in three years, at the age of 30, with a high school
diploma.
With the support of wealthy benefactors he met through Kiwanis
Clubs, Banda continued his studies, first at the University of
Indiana from 1928 to 1930, and then at the University of Chicago,
from which he graduated in 1931. In 1932 he entered Meharry Medical
College and graduated five years later as a doctor of medicine. In
order to return to Nyasaland as a practicing physician, Banda needed
to qualify at a British institution. He registered at the University
of Edinburgh and received his licentiates in 1941. Banda hoped to
return to Nyasaland as a doctor with a church mission, but his
contract was cancelled when the white nurses at Livingstonia
notified church authorities that they would not work under an
African doctor. Banda failed to get mission sponsorship and so he
moved to Britain's Liverpool and set up his own practice. Rather
than serve in the army when he was conscripted during the World War
II, Banda served two years as a conscientious objector in a Tyneside
seaman's mission hospital and the Newcastle hospital.
At the end of the war he moved to the London suburb of Harlesden and
became a National Health Service doctor. His practice treating
nearly 4,000--mainly white--patients brought him financial rewards
and respect within the community. He was active in Labour party
politics and associated with African nationalists like Jomo Kenyatta
of Kenya, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, and other Pan Africanists. He kept
in touch with African nationalists groups, like the Nyasaland
African Congress founded in 1944 by Nyasa soldiers returning from
overseas service, and gave them financial assistance and advice.
Banda's hard-won world of respect and wealth came to an abrupt end
when his white secretary's husband, Major French, named Banda as a
co-respondent in divorce proceedings. French was suing his wife,
Margaret, for divorce on grounds of adultery. In August of 1953
Banda left his practice and his home and went to Ghana. Mrs. French
joined him there and they moved to Kumasi, Ghana, where, according
to Philip Short, author of Banda, they "lived as man and wife" for
three years.
In 1953, following pressure from British settler groups in Northern
and Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, the British colonial office
allowed the three British territories to form a federation, the
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, even though the Africans
themselves were strongly opposed to it. In 1957, fearing that
Britain was planning to amalgamate the territories, Nyasa
nationalists appealed to Banda to return home and lead the Nyasaland
African Congress. They wanted an elder to lead them, someone who
would be respected by the older members and who would tolerate the
younger men. At the age of 59, Banda agreed to return to Nyasaland
and take over leadership of the Congress.
With a record of major accomplishments behind him, Banda returned to
his native land after an absence of 43 years, hailed by the masses
as their savior. He cut a strange figure as he toured the country in
his three-piece English suit, black homburg hat, and African fly-
whisk, demanding self-government for the territory and secession
from the Federation. Although he emphasized non-violence, the crowds
became unruly, and in March of 1959 the government declared a state
of emergency. Banda was deported and sent to jail in Gwelo (Gweru)
in Southern Rhodesia. The Nyasaland African Congress was smashed,
all of its leadership was in jail or in exile, and 1,000 members
were in detention.
From prison Banda continued to exercise power. With his approval,
Orton Chirwa, the first black Malawian to qualify as a barrister
(attorney), established a new political party, the Malawi Congress
Party. Under the guidance of Aleke Banda, the secretary-general, the
organization grew rapidly, from just over 8000 members in October,
1959, to 250,000 by March of 1960, despite a ban on public meetings.
Pressure was mounting on the federation government and it decided to
release Banda on April 1, 1961, to take part in negotiations in
London for a new constitution. Following the constitutional
conference, Banda returned to Malawi to resume his role as leader of
the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). The party made Banda president for
life and granted him expansive power over party members and policy.

Mukanenazaine