Kamuzu’s Nyasaland bail-out, his leadership and Malawians voice their views

A Chewa born in Kasungu around the late 19^th century, Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda left Nyasaland at a tender age after discontent with education offered in the country.

He went to Zimbabwe and South Africa where he picked up jobs at plantations and gold mines respectively before he bounded for United States of America to further his education.

Whilst there, he attended tertially education at Merharry and Chicago Universities for medical doctorate degree before he practiced medicine in Britain and Kumasi, Ghana. It was while in Brtain where he indulged in active politics as he used to finance the Nyasaland Africa Congress (NAC) and together with Harry Nkumbula wrote a memorandum against the Federation of Central Africa.

From 1958 to 1994, the name Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda was almost the household name, if not a name that when spoken, it gave someone a surety of a better life, both in economic and social development.

                                        

This is a name of a person who brought hope to the hopeless in 1958 when, as a saviour, he came to save poor Malawians from the cruel rue of the colonial master with his powerful speech which revolved around ending the stupid federation and to bring self governance, upon arrival at Chileka Airport in Blantyre.

The natives beat the drum, danced in uniform but traditional steps, those with a chance to touch his hand felt like freedom has come, local politicians who negotiated his coming home and suffered from the oppressing leadership style of the Europeans felt save and they likened him to messiah.

This was the time when Nyasaland (as Malawi was called then) was on political fire with violence, tension and bloodshed especially in Nkhatabay, Kalonga, Mangochi and Lilongwe where those demanding change were being targeted.

While at the helm of the Nyasaland   Congress (NAC) later the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), Dr Banda toured the whole country wooing the mass for support from the grassroots level, no wonder it became a mass political party with more branches country-wide with the capacity to accommodate the whole family with the main wing, women’s league and the youth league.

His famous ‘Operation Sunrise’ on March 3 1959 led to Dr Banda’s detention at Gweru in Zimbabwe while others were taken to Kanjedza and Domasi.

All these and many other activities on the local scene led to the declaration of the self government in 1963 and finally to the first multiparty elections in 1964 where MCP emerged as victors and was declared independent in the same year, with Nyasaland changed to Malawi.

KAMUZU’S LEADERSHIP

Banda was actively opposed to the efforts of Sir Roy Welensky, Premier of Southern Rhodesia, to form a federation between Southern and Northern Rhodesia with Nyasaland, a move which he feared would result in further deprivation of rights for the Nyasaland blacks. The (as he famously called it) "stupid" federation was formed in 1953, according to the Wikipedia.

Barely a month after independence, Malawi suffered a cabinet crisis. He had already been accused of autocratic tendencies. Several of Banda's ministers presented him with proposals designed to limit his powers. Banda responded by dismissing four of the ministers. Other ministers resigned in sympathy. The dissidents fled the country

By the time Kamuzu took over the country, there was very minimal development in the country as it was regarded as the main source of labour for Zambia and Zinbabwe which had numerous mines.

According to Wikipedia, in 1964, after serving as a government minister in the colonial administration, Banda adopted a macroeconomic policy aimed at accelerating economic development for the betterment of Malawians.

He settled on the Rostow model of "Catch Up" Economics, wherein Malawi would vigorously pursue Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI). This entailed both a quest for "self-sufficiency" for Malawi-becoming less reliant on its former colonial master—and growth of an industrial base that could ensure Malawi was capable of producing its own goods and services. Such capacity would then be used to catch up and even overtake the West.

An infrastructure development program was initiated under the various Development Policies (DEVPOLs) documents that Malawi adopted from 1964 onwards. The country's infrastructure benefited through massive road construction programs.

With the decision to shift the capital city from Zomba to Lilongwe (against vociferous objections from the British preference for the economically and well developed Blantyre), a new road was built linking Blantyre and Zomba to Lilongwe. The Capital City Development Corporation (CCDC) in Lilongwe was itself a beehive of infrastructure development, supported by planning and funds from apartheid-era South Africa.

The British refused to finance the move to Lilongwe. CCDC became the sole development agent for Lilongwe; putting up roads, the government seat at Capital Hill, etc. Other infrastructure entities were added, such as Malawi Hotels Limited, which undertook massive projects such as the Mount Soche, Capital Hotel and Mzuzu Hotel. On the industrial side, Malawi Development Corporation (MDC) was tasked with setting up industries and other businesses.

Meanwhile, Dr. Banda's own Press Corporation Limited and MYP's Spearhead Corporation embarked on various business initiatives that lead to an economic boom during the mid to late 1970s.

However, by 1979/80, the bubble had burst in response to the global economic crisis set in motion by the Yom Kippur War between Israel and the Arabs in 1973. Rising oil prices and falling global commodity prices combined to wreak havoc on the fragile and landlocked Malawian economy based on an insular and indefensible ISI macroeconomic strategy.

Increasingly, the economy was rearranged into a political tool to serve the consumption needs of the emerging Malawian middle-class and thus render it less prone to revolution.

Banda personally founded Kamuzu Academy, a school modeled on Eton, at which Malawian children were taught Latin and Ancient Greek by expatriate classics teachers, and disciplined if they were caught speaking Chichewa. Banda spent almost the whole country's budget on education on this project.

While increasingly ignoring the needs and welfare of the greater majority [80%] of Malawians toiling in the rural areas. The National Rural Development Program and Rural Growth Centers were tentative and belated policies aimed at diverting rural populations from moving to the few urban areas which Dr. Banda's ISI macroeconomic policies had created and were now being battered by the arrival of more and more rural people seeking better opportunities.

Eventually, with the collapse of the Cold War, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund arrived and imposed a series of Structural Adjustment Programs from 1987.

His government supervised the people's lives very closely. Early in his rule, Banda instituted a dress code which was rooted in his socially conservative predilections. For example, women were not allowed to bare their thighs or to wear trousers.
Banda argued that the dress code was not instilled to oppress women but to encourage honour and respect for them. For men, long hair and beards were banned as a sign of dissent. Men could be seized and forced to have a haircut at the discretion of border officials or police. Kissing in public was not allowed, nor were movies which contained depictions of kissing.

MALAWIANS SPEAK

“Regardless of his bad side, I still look at Kamuzu as a perfect leader who brought about change in the country. Change for the lives of Malawians from their earlier perception that whatever they were doing was for the benefit of other to whatever they did as of their own importance,” said Lufeyo Dzombe, a Lilongwe resident.

Dzombe cited the marvelous infrastructure development Dr Banda implemented such as the setting up of Lilongwe City and the linking of the country’s three regions by building the M1 road as the major achievements.

“Our parents never tasted quality education in an enabling environment but like in my home village, Kasiya, there is a very beautiful primary school called Khasu Mudi Kasongola which standards are still standing even today when the development is at the climax.

“Malawians who were sent to other countries to work in the farms came back to build their own nation as a whole and their villages in particular. People started reaping where they sowed. We saw development scattering in all the regions, this is the time we were able to proudly say I am a Malawian,” said Dzombe.

Another Malawian, Lameck Gondwe looks at the late Dr Banda as the main source of all the current Malawi.

“He is the father and founder of this nation at first, whatever we do today we look at his leadership as a model. That’s why do to the good fight against hunger and poverty by current president Professor Bingu wa Mutharika, almost all Malawians liken him to the first Ngwazi (Kamuzu).

“He came back home to liberate the poor out of extreme poverty, high illiteracy rate and above all, to free them from Thangata system which was aimed at enlarging the gap between the rich and the poor. Primary and secondary schools and university of Malawi were built, hospitals, the railway and the country was one of the best in agriculture in the southern Africa,” Gondwe, who hails from Ekwendeni in Mzuzu, said.

However, Mary Banda from Dowa feels although Kamuzu brought change in the country, his leadership was the worst in the history of Malawi.

“This was the time our parents were being treated as the second class citizens of the nation. Dr. Banda failed to continue the multiparty system the settlers left which put him into power. He could not take the opposing views as everyone who questioned his leadership style was attacked in one way or the other through the party system. These people include the Mwanza four and the many Malawians who fled into exile.

“Our mothers were giving birth in the bush due to failure in buying party cards and parents were paying tax for the unborn children. Had it been that he did not accept the life presidency, I think Malawi could have been far in development sing the human resource which fled out the country could have been at the center stage changing the lives of Malawians,” she said.