ABSTRACT

The collapse of the Banda regime in 1994 has led to a renewed interest in the nature of the Malawian political tradition. This paper seeks to contribute to the debate by focusing on the political beliefs of nationalist politicians in the decade leading up to the cabinet crisis of 1964 which marks, in some views, the true origin of the Banda dictatorship. It suggests that early nationalist politicians like James Frederick Sangala and Levi Mumba combined a belief in the importance of unity with a democratic awareness of the virtues of civil society. As Congress grew in popularity, however, elements of a totalitarian ideology, deeply intolerant of dissent, began to appear, not only in Dr Banda's speeches but in those of his lieutenants and subsequent opponents such as Masauko Chipembere and Kanyama Chiume. This tendency increased with the founding in 1959 of the Malawi Congress Party which developed as an absolutist body both in terms of its own internal structure and in the demands it made on Malawian society. Some politicians drew on the autocratic tradition of the colonial era to produce justifications for the establishment of an African-controlled dictatorship. Only Dunduzu Chisiza provided a coherent democratic alternative to these views. And even Chisiza had difficulty in reconciling his belief in strongman government with the need to protect individual rights. A totalitarian strain, deeply intolerant of dissent, had thus entered Malawian politics prior to 1964. But this strain coexisted with a democratic tradition, articulated in particular by Mumba and Chisiza.

FEW EPISODES IN THE POLITICAL history of Southern Africa in the last decade have been more dramatic than the sudden collapse of the apparently impregnable Banda regime in Malawi between 1992 and 1994. Only the most naive would claim that the process of change, conventionally dated from the publication of the Roman Catholic bishops' pastoral letter in March 1992 and climaxed by the country's first genuine multi-party elections in May 1994, was brought about simply by popular revulsion against dictatorial rule. The role of the Western creditor states in reversing their previous policy and freezing aid to Malawi was a crucial factor in undermining the Banda regime. So too, was the gradual realignment of interests within Malawi's political elite resulting from the drying up of political patronage following the downturn of the economy from the early 1980s. Yet if external factors were crucial in forcing the government to hold a referendum on multi-party democracy in June 1993, the significance of popular responses should not be discounted. As in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the communist empire, ordinary Malawians have demonstrated considerable scepticism in recent years concerning the ability of politicians of whatever party to cope with the growing economic crisis. But they have also displayed a keen and uncomplicated concern for the protection of human rights, including the freedom of expression and association--rights previously systematically denied in independent Malawi. The ability of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) to attract nearly 34 percent of the votes in the national...