3.1 Political and Economic History of Malawi
3.1.2 Postcolonial History of Malawi: Banda and the Malawi Congress Party
3.1.2.2 The Cabinet Crisis and Banda’s Reign of Terror
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almost complete absence after his death made it virtually impossible to resolve the tensions within the party.
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North, who were sympathetic to the ministers‟ position, chose to do nothing at all in the crisis because there was widespread and deep dislike of any activity that was being led by Chiume.
By leaving rebellion until after independence, the ministers had further handicapped themselves (Lwanda, 2009:164).
The cabinet crisis had long lasting repercussions on the manner Banda conducted the affairs of Malawi (Phiri 2010:305). It was a turning point in the history of Malawi. It defined Malawi‟s political course for the next thirty years of Banda‟s rule. These years were characterized by fear, social injustice and economic exploitation. Using MCP machinery, Malawi Young Pioneers headed by Albert Muwalo, Banda persecuted all ex-ministers, their relatives and all who seemed to support them. A reign of terror was created throughout the country in which many people lost their lives, some were beaten, some were imprisoned and many others fled into exile (Ross, 2009:222). Phiri (2010:291-303) provides a detailed record of how some of the ex-ministers left the country along with their relatives. Chipembere had led a guerrilla group that was aimed at overthrowing Banda‟s government before going to America where he died of diabetes on 24th September 1975 at the age of forty five. Similarly, Yatuta Chisiza led a failed coup d‟état. He was shot dead on 11 October 1967 in a fierce battle against the Kings African Rifles.
Banda‟s tyrannical mechanism paved the way for the country to have a single party rule led by Banda. He became powerful to the effect that in 1971, by act of parliament, Banda was declared life president of Malawi and MCP was made the only lawful party in Malawi. This meant that only in exile did opposition parties exist (Phiri, 2010:307). The meaning of life presidency was that so long as Banda was alive no one could by constitutional means become or aspire to become president of Malawi. Banda created fear among the people to the effect that nobody dared to question his authority. This was clear even in his speeches:
This kind of thing, where a leader says this, but somebody else says that; now who is a leader?
That is not the Malawi system. The Malawi system, the Malawi style is that Kamuzu says it‟s just that, and then it‟s finished. Whether anyone likes it or not, that is how it is going to be here.
No nonsense, no nonsense. You can‟t have everybody deciding what to do (Short, 1974:202- 203).
In this, Banda was appealing directly to the rural masses using the traditional tools of respect for authority, continuity, law and order, or as he called it bata ndi mtendere (calm and peace and age) (Lwanda, 2009:164). In a shrewd move, Banda‟s personal struggle for survival in
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power had on 8th September 1964 become „his people‟s struggle‟ (Lwanda, 2009:165). As in the old Chewa schemes of things, he made the people believe that a battle against the chief or king was likely to lead to subjugation of the entire kingdom by aliens.
In this way, Banda won people‟s support and was able to generate an atmosphere where anyone who challenged his leadership was beaten, imprisoned, exiled or killed. In describing the era, Ross (1996d:41) cites a report by a delegation of British lawyers who visited Malawi in 1992, which read: “The emotion we encountered, among citizens at every level, from villages to government officials was fear.” It is no exaggeration to say that Malawi was a police state; wherever the people gathered, in church, tavern, wedding et cetera, there were police agents in plain clothes (Phiri, 2010:305). Lwanda (2009:303) claims that Banda cultivated the air of a benign dictator; a pattern that was not expected in the immediate post- independence era. The same allegations that the British colonial government was accused of, the nationalists fought for, and that the Devlin Commission stressed in their report, continued unchecked during Banda‟s rule. Thus, Malawi of Banda‟s time in power was known to be a land where silence ruled (Ross, 1996d:41).
Additionally, Phiri (2010:305) refers to incidences of political instability and the assassination of political leaders in countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana and Togo as events that exercised Banda‟s mind and forced him to tighten security measures. He adds that throughout the thirty years of Banda‟s regime, such principles of democracy as freedom of association, freedom of the press and freedom of speech were reduced to the bare-minimum. There was no respect for human rights during Banda‟s rule. In a chronicle of poet‟s imprisonment under life president Banda of Malawi, Jack Mapanje (2011) describes how political prisoners were treated at Mikuyu prison; a prison which was constructed for the sole purpose of punishing those considered to be Banda‟s enemies. Banda possessed most considerable power to influence the outcome of the judicial process, which meant that he was able to use judicial system to punish his enemies (Williams, 1978:247).
Banda used capitalistically inclined principles that allowed a few Malawians, mostly those close to him in the Malawi Congress Party elite, to enrich themselves leaving the majority of Malawians in dire poverty. Lwanda (2009:395) observes that the system supported a few
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people to own businesses that survived because government gave them contracts. Certain government assets were sold cheaply to those in the patronage system. There was abuse of public funds at the expense of poor Malawians.20 Banda, a Chewa himself, encouraged tribalism that elevated his tribesmen above other tribes – a practice that threatened the social, economic and political life of Malawi (Lwanda, 2009:351). McCracken (2012:432) mentions that during the cabinet crisis, ministers accused Banda of favouritism and nepotism citing the Tembo family and other ministers like Aleke Banda as the most favoured.
3.1.2.3 The 1992-94 Political Change: Economic Mechanism in the Multiparty Era