Published by: Indiana University Press
Student, M.D.- P.M.?
Return to Nyasaland
HASTINGS KAMUZU BANDA
I WAS BORN IN KASUNGU, Nyasaland, the son of an aristocratic family in my tribe. I was educated in a Church of Scotland mission. I left Nyasaland as a boy of 13 in standard three because I desired to get the kind of education I couldn't get in Nyasaland.
I walked to Johannesburg-a total of 1,000 miles but not in a single stretch; I walked and walked and walked. Then I worked in the Rand mines, first underground, but then on the surface for the compound manager because I spoke English. I refused to go to the Dutch Reform Church and went to an African Methodist Episcopal Church. The Church helped me go to Wilberforce Academy in Ohio.
I received a diploma in 1929. I had talked to the Kiwanis Club in Marion, Indiana, and Dr. Herald-a white man-said that he wanted me to go to his alma mater, the University of Indiana. He helped me attend that university at Bloomington and from there I transferred to the University of Chicago. I received my Bachelor of Philosophy degree, studying political science and history, on December 22, 1931. Then I went to Meharry Medical School in Nashville where I graduated in 1937. I continued my medical studies in Edinburgh and was an assistant medical officer in Liverpool, and then practiced in London.
When Federation of the Rhodesias and Nyasaland was suggested, I led the opposition in London. The Colonial Office said Federation was for economic, defense, and communications reasons, but the Southern Rhodesian whites demanded it to make sure that Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia would not become independent states. Federation is not "partnership"-a word dangled as bait before British liberals-but it is domination by the racial policies of Southern Rhodesia which differ in degree but not in essence from those of South Africa. After independence, there can be genuine partnership, even Federation-but only of equals, entered into freely. Then Nyasaland might turn to Tanganyika, Northern Rhodesia, and Congo.
When Federation was imposed on my people in 1952, I decided to leave London. I went to Ghana and practiced medicine from 1953 to 1958. At the annual meeting of the African National Congress of Nyasaland in 1957 two resolutions were adopted, one calling for self government, the other asking for secession from Federation. I was asked by my people to return to Nyasaland after 40 years to help them attain these objectives.
I returned on July 6, 1958. I toured the whole country and within less than four months I had all of Nyasaland on fire-politically. Because I refused to compromise, the government devised a story similar to the Reichstag Fire. The so-called massacre plot was the Nyasaland counterpart.
On March 3, 1959, more than 1,000 of us were arrested. I remained in prison for 13 months, without charges and without trial. What did I do in prison? I taught other prisoners. I studied the constitutional history of England and read biographies-of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Franklin. I began my own autobiography. I was released on April 1, 1960. The British are the only colonial people who send a man to prison today only to invite him to Westminster if not Buckingham Palace tomorrow.
THEY CALL ME "ANTI-WHITE." I couldn't possibly have plotted a massacre of white men and women in Nyasaland. All over America and Britain I have white friends. When I think of white men I think of Dr. Livingstone and Dr. Herald of Indiana, and Mrs.Douglas Smith of Winnetka. I couldn't possibly think of murdering whites. Those whites in Nyasaland who are ready to live as businessmen, traders, friends, and
neighbors have nothing to fear. I welcome them, as neighbors, but not as masters or rulers.
They call me "communist." I could never be a communist because I consider myself to be a good Presbyterian.These are incompatible. I will not look to the East for economic help to Nyasaland as long as I can get help from the West. Only if the West were to treat me like de Gaulle treated Sekou Toure would I be forced to look elsewhere.
They call my plans "impractical." An independent Nyasaland could be viable. We want the cooperative development of our economic resources. We want Nyasaland to become the Denmark of Central Africa.
They call me "the extremist of the extremists." I refuse to play the role of stooge or "educated Uncle Tom." I refuse to bow. Thus I am not afraid of the term, extremist. Nowhere in history did the so-called moderates accomplish anything. We in Nyasaland want African masters of our own country. If that be extremism, xenophobia, sedition, or even treason, then I am ready to go back to Gwelo Prison and die there.Note
DR. HASTINGS K. BANDA, President of the Malawi Congress Party, is Nyasaland's most important political personage. In April he visited the U.S. briefly less than two weeks after he was released from 13 months imprisonment in Southern Rhodesia's Gwelo prison. He will be making headlines once again in July when the Nyasaland Constitutional Conference begins in London.
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