Stooge or saviour?
Patrick Wall
Banda Philip Short (Routledge and Kegani Paul £3.50) `Kwacha,"Uhuru,"Freedom' are words that have dominated the African continent in the second half of the twentieth century. Dr Banda, President of Malawi, is one of that select band of 'prison graduates' who became the father of his country; what is unusual about Dr Banda is that he achieved his country's independence at the age of sixty, then turned the tables on his young lieutenants who were trying to supplant him and capped it all by becoming friendly with the hated South Africa. His life and the contradictions of his character are examined and explained in Mr Philip Short's interesting and well documented biography. In company with a small and select band of African statesmen such as the late Sir Abubaker Belawa of Nigeria, President Houphouet-Boigny of the Ivory Coast and President Senghur of Senegal, Dr Banda has always believed in evolution rather than revolution. He appreciates that, at least for the rest of this century, Africa will need the combined skills and efforts of all races if it is to build nations that can endure both economically and politically.
Ngwazi Dr Hastings Kamuza Banda is a product of two worlds and therefore understands the two very different worlds of Africa and the West. Born at the change of the century near the village of Kasungu of the Chewa tribe Banda was greatly helped by his uncle Hancock Phiri who insisted that he went to school at the early age of seven. At sixteen he went to study at the Overtoun Institute at Livingstonia where he was baptised a Christian. His desire for education took him to South Africa and later through the African Methodist Episcopal Church to the USA and the universities of Indiana and Chicago. After obtaining his degree he enrolled at Meharry Medical College in Nashville and after five years there he was awarded a Doctorate of Medicine and then spent a further three years completing his studies in Edinburgh. During these long years he was helped by many European friends towards whom he has always displayed a lively sense of gratitude. The oath from Kasunga to Edinburgh was no easy one but it not only built up Banda's character but gave him an understanding of the new ways of the West as well as those of Africa and allowed him to select the best from both, a task which is virtually impossible for a European and one which was to stand him in good stead when he finally quit medicine for After practising medicine during the war in the north of England he moved to London in 1945 where he joined the Labour Party and became friendly with a number of the party's, Africanists. His active political career was starting, and after a rather unhappy interlude in Ghana he returned to Nyasaland for the first time for over thirty years to lead the fight against the Central African Federation with Northern and Southern. Rhodesia.
Chipembere and Chiume, the real instigators of his recall, decided as a matter of policy to build the doctor up as a messiah figure.' Together they re-organised the Malawi Congress Party on a village basis and started the fight that took them through the
Spectator February 9, 1974 Nyasaland emergency, and to gaol in Gwelo. This was followed by the Devlin Commission, understanding with Ian Macleod, release and the final destruction of the Federation and the independence of Malawi with Dr Banda as prime minister, then President and finally life President with supreme powers.
With African presidents this is usually the end of the story but not so with Dr Banda.
Instead of sitting back as a father figure he insisted on a close supervision of his cabinet and set as first priority the building up of Malawi's economy. This meant developing closer relations with the Portuguese whose Mozambique ports were essential to Malawi. He began to distrust the increasing nationalism of the OAU which was supported by his young ministers. The break was inevitable but what was surprising was that it was achieved, as was independence, with very little bloodshed. In the Cabinet only two out of eight ministers opposed him. They were dismissed and Banda carried Parliament against them. After failing to raise their constituencies they fled abroad. Later Chipemhere attempted a rebellion that failed. He is now in the USA and, like Chiume in Tanzania, is still looking for an opportunity to return.
Banda now moved into a more dictatorial position, taking supreme power in the Party which in fact controlled the State. He became particularly distrustful of Chinese intrigue in Tanzania, which sheltered some of his exMinisters, and he moved more openly towards toleration of both Rhodesia, where Welensky's UFP which he distrusted had noW disappeared, and of South Africa which was to finance his new capital at Lilongwe.
Dr Banda was educated in the British tradition but unlike Dr Nyerere did not subscribe to socialist economic theories. As a result of this trade boomed, doubling between 1967 and 1969, and South African private investment in Malawi increased as did that 01 Portugal and other Western countries. This was perhaps tolerable but what infuriated the OAU was the realism of such statements as "The problems in Africa today ... are not really those of imperialism and colonialism . . the real problems are economic viabilitY or dependence, political instability amorif, states and disunity among Africa's leaders. Or "While they are criticising me for trading with South Africa openly, they themselves are trading with South Africa secretly ... I treat them with utter contempt ... I say they are moral and physical cowards and hypocrites!'' While one may not like Malawi's present benevolent dictatorship one must appreciate that, like the Portuguese regime next door, it is producing excellent results in such different fields as education and economic develop ment. and its The immediate importance of Malawi a + its President in African political developmen' lies in its geographical position. It is a dagger penetrating into the heart of Mozaillbique, where FRELIMO guerillas having losl, most of their gains in northern Mozambiclu'r are now concentrating on the Tete District where the Cabora Bassa dam is being built; Banda's opinion of 'freedom fighters' is nu` very complimentary, he has even criticised the concept of an African military force saYi0g "Let me laugh at that. What single country 01, Africa today has an army than can take on 0.! beat the Rhodesian Army? No one! Th! Rhodesian Army next to that of South Afric! is the strongest and most efficient in the African continent ... don't deceive Yt1u/' selves." The activities of the various guerilla ura• ganisations in Central/Southern Ai fre, reached its peak in 1962/69 and then decline. More recently there has been a revival Ile' eastern Rhodesia and in Mozambique Nevbe„re FRELIMO is pledged to halt work on Cabora Bassa project due for completion 1975/6. FRELIMO itself admits that t,„ri`c' completion of the dam could mark the turn"'
Point and the beginning of the end for the guerillas. Should Banda, who has kept his country aloof from all these activities, be replaced by a leader more sympathetic to African nationalism, then the whole picture could be drastically altered. Dr Banda will be remembered as the first African President who entertained and was entertained by the South African Prime Minister. Some may regard him as a stooge or even a traitor to his race. Others, though they regret his authoritarianism, may appreciate its necessity in a continent that has had over thirty coups d'etat in the past few years. Banda, like Sir Abubaker Belawa, is an African leader who admits he has learned from the West and who uses this knowledge to lessen the gap between Africa and the West; a leader who realises that his country needs the work of men of all races and one Who sees Africa's future in the terms of evolution rather than of the revolution which IS so popular in left wing circles today. If he avoids Sir Abubaker's fate then he indeed Will go down in history as a great African leader who saw the future possibilities for his People when others were blinded by racialism.
Major Wall is Conservative MP for Heltenprice.
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