Hastings Kamuzu Banda | president of Malawi | Britannica.com Hastings Kamuzu Banda Ho Chi Minh Hastings Kamuzu Banda, (born c. 1898, near Kasungu , British Central Africa Protectorate [now Malawi]—died Nov. 25, 1997, Johannesburg , S.Af.), first president of Malawi (formerly Nyasaland) and the principal leader of the Malawi nationalist movement. He governed Malawi from 1963 to 1994, combining totalitarian political controls with conservative economic policies. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, 1960. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Banda’s birthday was officially given as May 14, 1906, but he was believed to have been born before the turn of the century. He was the son of subsistence farmers and received his earliest education in a mission school. After working in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa , in 1925 he went to the United States , where he received a B.A.

(1931) and a medical degree (1937) at the University of Chicago and Meharry Medical College in Tennessee , respectively. In order to achieve the qualifications needed to practice in the British Empire , Banda then continued his studies at the University of Edinburgh (1941) and subsequently practiced in northern England and London from 1945 to 1953. Banda first became involved in his homeland’s politics in the late 1940s, when white settlers in the region demanded the federation of the Rhodesias and Nyasaland. Banda and others in Nyasaland strongly objected to this extension of white dominance, but the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was nevertheless established in 1953. In 1953–58 Banda practiced medicine in Ghana, but from 1956 he was under increasing pressure from Nyasa nationalists to return; he finally did so, to a tumultuous welcome, in 1958. As president of the Nyasaland African Congress, he toured the country making antifederation speeches, and the colonial government held him partly responsible for increasing African resentment and disturbances.

In March 1959 a state of emergency was declared, and he was imprisoned by the British colonial authorities. He was released in April 1960, and a few months later he accepted British constitutional proposals granting Africans in Nyasaland a majority in the Legislative Council. Banda’s party won the general elections held in August 1961. He served as minister of natural resources and local government in 1961–63, and he became prime minister in 1963, the year the federation was finally dissolved. He retained the post of prime minister when Nyasaland achieved independence in 1964 under the name of Malawi. Shortly after independence, some members of Banda’s governing cabinet resigned in protest against his autocratic methods and his accommodation with South Africa and the Portuguese colonies. In 1965 a rebellion broke out—led by Henry Chipembere, one of these former ministers—but it failed to take hold in the countryside. Malawi became a republic in 1966, with Banda as president. He headed an austere , autocratic one-party regime, maintained firm control over all aspects of the government, and jailed or executed his opponents.

He was declared president for life in 1971. Banda concentrated on building up his country’s infrastructure and increasing agricultural productivity. He established friendly trading relations with minority-ruled South Africa (to the disappointment of other African leaders) as well as with other countries in the region through which landlocked Malawi’s overseas trade had to pass. His foreign-policy orientation was decidedly pro-Western. Britannica Stories Hastings Banda, Life President of Malawi Hastings Banda, Life President of Malawi <Continued from: Hastings Banda: the Early Years After an extra-ordinary but altogether unassuming life as an ex-patriot black African doctor in Britain during the colonial era, Hastings Banda soon became a dictator once in power in Malawi. His contradictions were many, and he left people wondering how the doctor had become Hastings Banda, Life President of Malawi. Extremist: Opposing Federation and Supporting Apartheid Even while abroad, Hastings Banda was being drawn into nationalist politics in Nyasaland. The tipping piont seems to have been the decision by the British colonial government to join Nyasaland with Northern and Southern Rhodesia to form the Central African Federation .

Banda was vehemently against federation, and several times, nationalist leaders in Malawi asked him to return home to lead the fight. For reasons that are not completely clear, Banda remained in Ghana until 1958, when he finally returned to Nyasaland and threw himself into politics. continue reading below our video 10 Best Universities in the United States By 1959, he had been jailed for 13 months for his opposition to federation, which he saw as a device for ensuring that Southern Rhodesia – which was governed by a white minority – retained control over the majority black populations of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. In Africa Today, Banda declared that if opposition made him an “extremist”, he was happy to be one. “Nowhere in history,’ he said, “did the so-called Moderates accomplish anything.” Yet, despite his stance against the oppression of Malawi's population, as a leader Banda had too few qualms, many people thought, about the oppression of South Africa's black population. As President of Malawi, Banda worked closely with the Apartheid South African government and did not speak out against the radical segregation to the south of Malawi's borders.

This juxtaposition between his self-proclaimed extremism and the real politique of his international rule was just one of the many contradictions that confused and bewildered people about President Hastings Banda. Prime Minister, President, Life President, Exile As the long awaited leader of the nationalist movement, Banda was an obvious choice for Prime Minister as Nyasaland moved toward independence, and it was he who changed the name of the country to Malawi. (Some say he liked the sound of Malawi, which he found on a pre-colonial map.) It was soon evident how Banda intended to rule. In 1964, when his cabinet tried to limit his powers, he had four of the ministers dismissed. Others resigned and several fled the country and lived in exile for the rest of their lives or his reign, which ever ended first. In 1966, Banda oversaw the writing of a new constitution and ran unopposed for election as Malawi's first president. From then forward, Banda ruled as an absolutist. The state was him, and he was the state. In 1971, the parliament named in President for Life.

As President, Banda enforced his rigid sense of morality on the people of Malawi. His rule became known for oppression, and people feared his paramilitary Malawi Young Pioneers group. He supplied the largely agrarian population with fertilizer and other subsidies, but the government also controlled prices, and so few but the elite benefited from surplus crops. Banda believed in himself and his people, though. When he ran in a contested, democratic election in 1994, he was shocked to be roundly defeated. He left Malawi, and died three years later in South Africa. A Fraud or a Puritan? The juxtaposition of Banda's demeanor as the quiet doctor in Britain and his later years as a dictator, combined with his inability to speak his native language inspired a number of conspiracy theories. Many thought he was not even from Malawi, and some claimed that the real Hastings Banda had died while abroad, and been replaced by a carefully chosen imposter. There is something fiery about most puritanical people though.

The same inner drive that leads them to renounce and denounce such common acts as kissing (Banda banned public kissing in Malawi and even censured movies he thought had too much kissing) and it is in this thread of Banda's personality that a connection can be drawn between the quiet, kind doctor and the dictatorial Big Man he became. Sources: Hastings Banda, former president of Malawi, is born. | South African History Online South African History Online Home » Hastings Banda, former president of Malawi, is born. Hastings Banda, former president of Malawi, is born. Sunday, 14 May 1905 Hasting Kamuzu Banda was the leader of Nyasaland which became Malawi in in 1964, with him as its president. Banda was born in Kasungu and went to study in the US and the UK. He stayed in the UK where he practiced medicine, later moving to Gold Coast, (now Ghana). After much persuasion, Banda returned to Malawi and quickly became a political icon. He was appointed Prime Minister of Nyasaland in 1963. A year later he proclaimed the country a republic and named it Malawi.

He declared Malawi a one party state led by the Malawi African Congress. The congress made him its president for life. Banda was stripped of the presidency in 1993 when a referendum ended his reign. In 1994 Bakili Muluzu succeeded Banda as president of Malawi after defeating him in the country’s first democratic elections. He died in 1997 at the age of 91, though it is believed he could have been at least ten years older as his exact birth date is unknown. References: • Dowden R. Obituary: Dr Hastings Banda from The Independent [online] Available at: [Accessed on 9 May 2013] • Britannica Hastings Kamuzu Banda [online] Available at: [Accessed on 9 May 2013] Hastings Banda (Politician) - Pics, Videos, Dating, & News Hastings Banda First President of Malawi Male Hastings Kamuzu Banda was the leader of Malawi and its predecessor state, Nyasaland, from 1961 to 1994.

After receiving much of his education overseas, Banda returned to his home country to speak against colonialism and advocate for independence. In 1963, he was formally appointed as Nyasalandâs Prime Minister, and led the country to independence as Malawi a year later. Two years later, he proclaimed Malawi a republic with himself as president.… Read More related links From Secretary To First Lady: The Unauthorized Bio Of Callista Mutharika The Maravi Post Google News - Aug 22, 2011 'Suta reportedly contributed to Malawi&#39;s struggle to end the dictatorial rule of <mark>Hastings Banda</mark> who had been in power for 30 years by hosting the founding members of the former ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) whenever they visited the UK to seek' Improving Legal Access For Rural Malawi Villagers Jurist Google News - Aug 18, 2011 '<mark>Hastings Banda</mark>, the &quot;President for Life,&quot; used these traditional courts to prosecute political opponents and accordingly they became exceedingly corrupted.

When the government became a multiparty democracy in 1994, Banda&#39;s successor abolished the' Malawi: Media Crackdown Index On Censorship Google News - Aug 10, 2011 'When Malawians said goodbye to the long dictatorship of <mark>Hastings Banda</mark>, who ruled with impunity, in the country&#39;s first, multi-party elections in 1994, they thought brutal repression of the media and freedom of expression was behind them' Malawi, Il Mausoleo Di âGrande Leoneâ Il Reporter Google News - Jun 30, 2011 'Si tratta del mausoleo dedicato a Kamuzu <mark>Hastings Banda</mark>, dittatore incontrastato per quasi trent&#39;anni. Banda, nato alla fine dell&#39;Ottocento, dopo una giovinezza girovaga che l&#39;aveva portato prima a fare il minatore in Sud Africa e poi il predicatore' Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Hastings Banda.

CHILDHOOD 1898 Birth When presented with evidence of certain tribal customs by a friend, Dr. Donal Brody, Banda said that; "No one knows the hour, the date, the month or the year in which I was born, although I now accept the evidence that you give me - March or April 1898." … Read More The name Kamuzu means "a little root" and was given to him because he was conceived after his mother had been given root herbs by a medicine man to cure infertility. His surname, Banda, means "a small hut". He took the Christian name of Hastings after being baptised into the Church of Scotland, naming himself after John Hastings, a Scottish missionary working near his village whom he admired. The prefix doctor was earned through his education. Read Less TEENAGE 1915 17 Years Old Around 1915â16 Banda left home on foot with Hanock Msokera Phiri, an uncle who had been a teacher at the nearby Livingstonia mission school, for Hartley, Southern Rhodesia (now Chegutu, Zimbabwe).

1917 19 Years Old In 1917 he left on foot for Johannesburg in South Africa. … Read More He worked at the Witwatersrand Deep Mine on the Transvaal Reef for several years. During this time, he met Bishop W. T. Vernon of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) who offered to pay his tuition fee at a Methodist school in the United States if he could pay his own passage. Read Less TWENTIES 1925 27 Years Old In 1925, he left for New York. THIRTIES 1928 30 Years Old Banda studied in the high school section of Wilberforce Institute, an African American AME college, now known as Central State University, in Wilberforce, Ohio, and graduated in 1928. … Read More With his financial support now ended Banda earned some money on speaking engagements arranged by the Ghanaian educationalist Kweyir Aggrey, whom he had met in South Africa.<br /><br /> Speaking at a Kiwanis club meeting he met Dr.

Herald, with whose help he enrolled as a pre-medical student at Indiana University, where he lodged with Mrs. W.N. Culmer. At Bloomington he wrote several essays about his native Chewa tribe for the folklorist Stith Thompson who introduced him to Edward Sapir, an anthropologist at the University of Chicago, to which, after four semesters, he transferred. Read Less 1931 33 Years Old During his period there he collaborated with the Afro-American anthropologist and linguist Mark Hanna Watkins, providing information on the Chichewa language. In Chicago he lodged with an African-American; Corinna Saunders. He majored in history, graduating with a B. Phil. in 1931. … Read More During this time he enjoyed financial support from Mrs. Smith, whose husband, Douglas Smith, had made fortunes from patent medicines and Pepsodent toothpaste and as a member of the Eastman Kodak board. He then, still with financial support from these and other benefactors (including Dr. Walter B. Stephenson of the Delta Electric Company), studied medicine at Meharry Medical College in Tennessee, from which he graduated in 1937.

Read Less FORTIES Show Less To practice medicine in territories of the British Empire, however, Banda was apparently required to get a second medical degree; he attended the University of Edinburgh and was subsequently awarded a Triple Qualification in 1941, giving him the post-nominals LRCP(Edin), LRCS(Edin), LRFPS(Glas). … Read More His studies were funded by stipends of 300 pounds per year from the government of Nyasaland (to facilitate his return there as a doctor) and from the Scottish Presbyterian Kirk; neither of these benefactors was aware of the other. (There are conflicting accounts of this. He may still have been funded by Mrs. Smith.) When he enrolled for courses in tropical diseases in Liverpool the Nyasaland government terminated his stipend. He was forced to leave Liverpool when he refused on conscientious grounds to be conscripted as an Army doctor. He also became an elder of the Church of Scotland. Read Less Between 1941 and 1945 he worked as a doctor in North Shields near Newcastle upon Tyne. … Read More He was a tenant of Mrs.

Amy Walton at this time in Alma Place in North Shields and sent a Christmas card to her every year right up to her death in the late 1960s.. Read Less 1944 46 Years Old In 1944, he met Merene French, the daughter-in-law of one of his patients, and began a relationship with her. … Read More In 1948 he worked as a doctor in Renfrew. A resident, Bill Johnston, recalled the time when, as a lad, Dr. Banda came to his home to see his father who had a nasty boil on the back of his neck. His father was a respected church elder in the town. Dr. Banda took a small bottle from his case, asked for some boiling water and poured some into the bottle. Emptying the water out, he quickly placed the open end on Bill's father's boil where of course it stuck as the steam condensed. With a cry of anguish, his father leapt to his feet and chased the doctor round the kitchen table with the bottle fastened to his neck. Bill was dumbfounded at hearing his father use language that he had never heard before.

Read Less Show Less Note, however, that this account conflicts with other sources, notably Philip Short's biography which cites a letter from Banda stating that he moved to London in 1945, two months after the armistice, buying a practice in the North London suburb of Harlesden. Initially, he stayed at Mrs. French's house, with Mr. French joining them in October 1945. … Read More Later, he bought his own house in Brondesbury Park. Mrs. French moved in as his housekeeper, together with her husband. According to other accounts, he lodged in a hotel, The Conway Court, in Paddington run by Mrs Janet Evans. Reportedly, he avoided returning to Nyasaland for fear that his new-found financial resources would be consumed by his extended family back home. Read Less 1946 48 Years Old In 1946, at the behest of Chief Mwase of Kasungu, whom he had met in England in 1939, and other politically active Malawians, he represented the Nyasaland African Congress at the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester.

… Read More From this time, he took an increasingly active interest in his native land, advising the Congress and providing it with some financial support. With help from sympathetic Britons, he also lobbied in London on behalf of the Congress.<br /><br /> Banda was actively opposed to the efforts of Sir Roy Welensky, a politician in Northern 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. Read Less FIFTIES 1951 53 Years Old It was rumoured with some excitement that he would return to Nyasaland in 1951, but he moved instead to the Gold Coast in West Africa. … Read More He may have gone there partly because of a scandal involving his receptionist in Harlesden, Merene French (Mrs. French), despite reports that she became pregnant with his child, this has never been confirmed. Banda was cited as co-respondent in the divorce of Mr. French and accused of adultery with Mrs. French.

She followed Banda to West Africa, but he wanted nothing more to do with her. (She died in 1976.) <br /><br /> Several influential Congress leaders, including Henry Chipembere, Kanyama Chiume, Dunduzu Chisiza and T.D.T. Banda (no relation) pleaded with him to return to Nyasaland to take up leadership of their cause. A delegation sent to London met with Dr. Banda at the Port of Liverpool where he was making arrangements to return to Ghana. He agreed to return, but asked for some time to sort out a few private matters, probably seeking to clear his political name after the Mrs. French debacle. The delegation returned without him and proceeded to make arrangements for his imminent return. After two false starts, including a fracas between the police and African crowds threatening to storm a BOAC aerorplane rumoured to be carrying Dr. Banda at Chileka Airport, Banda finally made a showing on 6 July 1958 after an absence of about 42 years. In August, at Nkata Bay, he was acclaimed as the leader of the Congress.

Read Less LATE ADULTHOOD 1959 - 1963 3 More Events 1959 61 Years Old … He soon began touring the country, speaking against the Central African Federation (also known as the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland), and urging its citizens to become members of the party. (Allegedly, he was so out of practice in his native Chichewa that he needed an interpreter, a role which was apparently performed by John Msonthi and later by John Tembo, who remained close to him for most of his career). He was received enthusiastically wherever he spoke, and resistance to imperialism among the Malawians became increasingly common. By February 1959, the situation had become serious enough that Rhodesian troops were flown in to help keep order, and a state of emergency was declared. On 3 March, Banda, along with hundreds of other Africans, was arrested in the course of "Operation Sunrise".

Read Less He was imprisoned in Gwelo (now Gweru) in Southern Rhodesia, and leadership of the Malawi Congress Party (the Nyasaland African Congress under a new name) was temporarily assumed by Orton Chirwa, who was released from prison in August 1959. 1960 62 Years Old The mood in Britain, meanwhile, had long been moving toward decolonisation due to pressure from its colonies. Banda was released from prison in April 1960 and was almost immediately invited to London for talks aimed at bringing about independence. … Read More Elections were held in August 1961. Read Less 1963 65 Years Old While Banda was technically nominated as Minister of Land, Natural Resources and Local Government, he became de facto Prime Minister of Nyasalandâa title granted to him formally on 1 February 1963. He and his fellow MCP ministers quickly expanded secondary education, reformed the so-called Native Courts, ended certain colonial agricultural tariffs and made other reforms. In December 1962, R. A. Butler, British Secretary of State for African Affairs, essentially agreed to end the Federation.

… Read More It was Banda himself who chose the name "Malawi" for the former Nyasaland; he had seen it on an old French map as the name of a "Lake Maravi" in the land of the Bororos, and liked the sound and appearance of the word as "Malawi". Read Less Show Less In 1971 he became President for Life of Malawi itself. … Read More As a leader of the pro-Western bloc in Africa he received support from the West during the Cold War. He generally supported women's rights, improved the country's infrastructure and maintained a good educational system relative to other African countries but also presided over one of the most repressive regimes in Africa. His government regularly tortured and murdered political opponents. Human rights groups estimate that at least 6,000 people were killed, tortured and jailed without trial. As many as 18,000 people were killed during his rule according to one estimate. He was scorned for maintaining full diplomatic relations with apartheid-era South Africa.<br /><br /> By 1993 he was facing international pressure and widespread protest.

A referendum ended his one-party state and a special assembly ended his life-term presidency, stripping him of most of his powers. Banda ran for president in the democratic elections which followed and was defeated. Read Less In 1971, the legislature declared Banda President for Life of Malawi as well. … Read More His official title was "His Excellency the Life President of the Republic of MalaÅµi, Ngwazi Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda." The title Ngwazi means "chief of chiefs" (more literally, "great lion", or, some would say, "conqueror") in ChicheÅµa.<br /><br /> Banda was mostly viewed externally as a benign, albeit eccentric, leader, an image fostered by his English-style three-piece suits, matching handkerchiefs, walking stick and fly-whisk. He also spoke no Chichewa, and relied on a translator, John Msonthi. In June 1967, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Massachusetts with the encomium "... pediatrician to his infant nation".<br /><br /> Within Malawi, views on him ranged from cult-like devotion to fear.

He portrayed himself as a caring headmaster to his people. However, this was a mask for a government that was rigidly authoritarian even by African standards of the time. Banda himself bluntly summed up his approach to ruling the country by saying, "Everything is my business. Everything. Anything I say is law literally law." Read Less 1975 - 1986 4 More Events 1975 77 Years Old He had the Malawi Army support the Mozambican government, controlled by FRELIMO after the country's independence in 1975, to defend Malawi's interests in Mozambique. … Read More This was done formally through an agreement in 1984 with Samora Machel. Simultaneously, Banda used the MYP as couriers and active supporters of the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO), which had been fighting against Machel's government since the late 1970s. Malawi was used to channel foreign aid from South Africa's apartheid government.

Read Less 1979 81 Years Old However, by 1979-80, the bubble had burst due to the global economic crisis set in motion by the Yom Kippur War between Israel and the Arabs in 1973. … Read More Rising oil prices and falling global commodity prices combined to wreak havoc on a 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.<br /><br /> Banda personally founded Kamuzu Academy, a school modeled on Eton, at which Malawian children were taught Latin and Greek by expatriate classics teachers, and disciplined if they were caught speaking Chichewa. Many of the school's alumni have assumed leadership roles in medicine, academia and business in Malawi and abroad. The school remains one of Dr. Banda's most lasting legacies and he said of it "I did not wish my sons and daughters to have to travel abroad to obtain an education as I did." It is claimed, probably incorrectly and unfairly, that Dr.

Banda spent almost all the country's education budget 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. Read Less 1984 86 Years Old Machel issued a dossier to Frontline States with evidence that Banda was still supporting the insurgents in spite of the 1984 agreement to stop. 1986 88 Years Old By September 1986, Machel, Robert Mugabe, and Kenneth Kaunda visited Banda to persuade him to stop supporting RENAMO. … Read More Machel's successor, Joaquim Chissano, continued to complain of Malawi's lack of willingness to stop supporting Renamo.

Banda however was trying to keep Malawian interests in the Port of Nacala in Mozambique and did not want to rely on Tanzania and South Africa ports for its imports and exports due to the expense. Mozambique and Malawi came to an agreement to place troops from both countries in Nayuchi near the port. Incidents of Malawi Army members being killed over the course of four years angered the Army because MYP members were involved with the insurgents, essentially pitting the two against each other.<br /><br /> The end of the Cold War sounded the death knell for Banda's naked autocracy. Western leaders and international aid donors no longer had any use for Third World anti-communist dictatorships, all of which came under mounting pressure to democratize. Donors told Banda that he had to implement reforms aimed at making his government transparent and accountable to the people and the international community as a condition for further aid. The British government also stopped their financial support. Read Less Show Less In March 1992, Catholic bishops in Malawi issued a Lenten pastoral letter that criticized Banda and his government.

… Read More Students of the University of Malawi at Chancellor College and the Polytechnic joined protests and demonstrations to support the bishops, forcing authorities to close the campuses.<br /><br /> In April 1992, Chakufwa Chihana, a labor unionist, openly called for a national referendum on the political future of Malawi. He was arrested before he finished his speech at Lilongwe International Airport. Read Less By October 1992, this mounting pressure from within and from the international community forced Banda to concede to hold a referendum on whether to maintain the one-party state. … Read More The referendum was held on 14 June 1993, resulting in an overwhelming vote (64 percent) in favor of multiparty democracy. After this, political parties besides the MCP were formed and preparation for the general elections began. Banda worked with the newly forming parties and the church, and made no protest when a special assembly stripped him of his title of President for Life, along with most of his powers.

The transition from a rigid authoritarian regime to democracy was fairly peaceful.<br /><br /> Operation Bwezani was a Malawi Army operation to disarm the Malawi Young Pioneers at the height of the political transition in December 1993. Bwezani means "give back." The MYP had a strong network of spies and supporters countrywide at all levels in society. They were Banda's personal security bodyguards and were all trained and indoctrinated in Kamuzuism and military training. The Malawi Army did not infiltrate this group before receiving encouragement by protests by the people. Read Less 1994 - 1995 2 More Events 1994 96 Years Old After some questions about his health, Banda ran in Malawi's first truly democratic presidential election in 1994. … Read More He was roundly defeated by Bakili Muluzi, a Yao from the southern region of the country.<br /><br /> The party Banda led since taking over from Orton Chirwa in 1960, the Malawi Congress Party, remains a major force in Malawian politics.

Read Less 1995 97 Years Old In 1995, Banda was arrested and charged with the murder, ten years previously, of former cabinet colleagues. … Read More He was acquitted due to lack of evidence.<br /><br /> Banda remained quite unrepentant in his opinion of Malawians, calling them "children in politics" and saying they would miss his iron-fisted rule (see Big Men, Little People by Alec Russell). Read Less 1996 98 Years Old A statement of apology was issued on 4 January 1996 in the name of H. Kamuzu Banda to the people of his nation shortly after being acquitted in the Mwanza Trials. … Read More The statement was met with controversy, suspicion and disdain. It was also questioned whether Banda wrote the statement himself or if someone wrote it on his behalf.

In it, he noted that: <br /><br /> Systems of government are dynamic and they are bound to change in accordance with the wishes of and aspirations of the people During my term of office, I selflessly dedicated myself to the good cause of Mother Malawi in the fight against Poverty, Ignorance and Disease among many other issues; but if within the process, those who worked in my government or through false pretence in my name or indeed unknowingly by me, pain and suffering was caused to anybody in this country in the name of nationhood, I offer my sincere apologies. I also appeal for a spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness amongst us all Our beautiful country has been nicknamed `The Warm Heart of Africa' and we have been admired for our warmth and spirit of hardwork. This admiration calls not only for a need for us to look at our past and present and draw lessons from it, but there is even a greater need for us to look forward to the future in our endeavours to reconstruct and reconcile if we have to move forward at all. Read Less Hastings Banda biography, birth date, birth place and pictures Email Print Hastings Kamuzu Banda was a leader in Malawi's struggle for independence, and he became the country's first president.

An acknowledged nationalist, he nevertheless frankly advocated trade and diplomatic relations with white-dominated African countries. Hastings Banda was born to poor parents of the Chewa tribe in the Kasungu District of Nyasaland, a British protectorate, which achieved independence as Malawi in 1964. Banda's early education at the Church of Scotland's Livingstonia Mission school in Kasungu fired his ambition for learning. About age 13 he set out to walk to South Africa to continue his education. He stopped to work in an African hospital near Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). An uncle helped him to reach Johannesburg, where he worked as a clerk in a gold mine. Banda traveled to the United States in 1923 and earned a high school diploma from Wilberforce Academy in 1928. He worked as a Bantu language adviser at the University of Chicago until he earned a doctorate in 1931. He then entered Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, and in 1937 received a doctorate of medicine. To qualify for practice in Great Britain, he went to Scotland and earned medical diplomas at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh in 1941.

He also became an elder in the Church of Scotland. Banda first practiced at the Tyneside Mission for Colored Seamen (1944) and then in a London suburb from 1945 to 1953. His home was a gathering place for Nyasas and for early African nationalist leaders. In 1951 he published a paper criticizing racial policies in Southern Rhodesia, which was then pressing for a federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. When the federation was imposed in August 1953, Banda went to Ghana as a physician to the poor Zongo people and to campaign for the independence of his homeland. Banda agreed in 1958 to return home to lead Nyasaland out of the federation. However, he first headed a delegation to London to petition for a new constitution. He returned to Nyasaland on July 6, 1958. On August 1, 1958, he was elected president of the Congress party. Mounting anti-federation riots led to a state of emergency on March 3, 1959, and Banda was imprisoned in Southern Rhodesia for 13 months.

Upon his release he assumed leadership of the Malawi Congress Party. In June 1960 he accepted a new constitution from Britain which gave Africans a majority in the Legislative Council. On February 1, 1963, he became his country's first prime minister. Independence came on July 6, 1964, and on July 6, 1966—when Malawi became a republic within the Commonwealth—Banda became Malawi's first president. After independence and the creation of a one-party state, Banda had to reconcile the left-wing younger leadership with his own more conservative policies. His firm control—some called him dictatorial—was challenged by dissident ministers in an unsuccessful coup d'etat that lasted from 1964 to 1965. However, Banda's wide-based support among the people of Malawi was shown in 1967, when villagers directed police to conspirators plotting to kill him. Opposition was based partly on Banda's retention of British civil servants as department heads and partly on his frank recognition of landlocked Malawi's economic dependence on nearby white-ruled South African countries.

Banda deplored segregation, but he believed the country could secure badly needed development loans from Rhodesia and South Africa. He maintained reasonable rapport with black African states while initiating trade, loan, and diplomatic relations with white African states. Elected president for life in 1971, Banda maintained his leadership until economic issues associated with the loss of Western aid in 1992 and a serious illness in 1993 led to his defeat in Malawi's first multiparty elections, held in May 1994. He was succeeded in office by Bakili Muluzi of the United Democratic Front (UDF). In 1995 Banda and two others were charged with conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the 1983 deaths of four political adversaries. Although the three were later acquitted, the scandal still raged in 1997 as the prosecution appealed a ruling made by the presiding judge in the case that blocked key evidence from the trial. In addition, the UDF government began a thorough inquiry into Banda's financial affairs, especially concerning the personal wealth he amassed from business ventures believed to have been bankrolled by public funds.

In 1995 Banda was dispossessed of the Press Trust, a successful conglomerate, and charged with fraud in the misappropriation of funds intended for the construction of a school in his home district. Banda was later pardoned in the fraud case due to his extreme age and ill health. In May 1997 the UDF Minister of Lands and Valuation directed the reallocation of 2,000 acres that Banda had illegally seized in 1978 and on which he had established a cattle ranch. Despite Banda's myriad legal woes, advanced age, and failing health, he remained a dominant force within the Malawi Congress Party, which in July 1997 was poised to merge with another opposition party, the Alliance for Democracy. Hastings Banda | The Economist Hastings Banda Hastings Kamuzu Banda, tyrant of Malawi, died on November 25th, aged about 100 Nov 27th 1997 Tweet HE LOOKED like an eccentric version of the typical African dictator: he proclaimed himself president for life, locked up his opponents, lived royally in a poor country, carried a fly whisk and went to church.

But Hastings Kamuzu Banda, who ruled Malawi for its first three decades, was no cardboard cut-out African ruler. He had another life, some would say another persona. The two strands, never reconciled, made him one of the most enigmatic characters of 20th-century Africa. Dr Banda was officially 91 but his oldest friends believe he was at least ten years older. He said he was born in the tiny British protectorate of Nyasaland, now Malawi, in Central Africa, and had walked to South Africa as a young man. But when he returned, some half a century later, he knew no local language and, extraordinary for Africa, had no relations. Some doubted that he had come from there. While working in the mines in South Africa he eagerly educated himself and, through church connections, obtained an education in America. He qualified with high grades as a doctor and won a place to study medicine at Glasgow University in Scotland. He arrived in 1937 and was to make Britain his home for the next 20 years, establishing his medical practice in poor areas of wartime and post-war Britain.

Attracted by his ability as a doctor, his courtesy and his puritan simplicity, rich and poor flocked to his surgery—some achievement for a black man in Britain at that time. He was teetotal, celibate and dressed like an undertaker. To the elders of the Church of Scotland he was a living tribute to Christian missionary endeavour in Africa, and they made him an elder too. A puritan no longer In the post-war independence stirrings in Africa, Dr Banda played an ambivalent role. Originally a moderate, he kept his distance from firebrand leaders such as the Ghanaian Kwame Nkrumah, whom he patronisingly referred to as “my boy”. But when the British tried to forge a union out of the two Rhodesias, now Zambia and Zimbabwe, and Nyasaland, he turned radical. His personal life changed. In 1953 the puritanical doctor had a child with his married English secretary, was cited in her divorce, and fled to Ghana, then the Gold Coast. Four years later his practice there was closed because, it was said, he was conducting illegal abortions.

By now the movement for independence in Africa was in full swing and he moved to what he claimed was his birthplace. Other independence fighters in Nyasaland bowed to his age and superior education and made him their leader. From there his route to power was typical of the times: freedom rallies, imprisonment by the British authorities, release, tea with the governor, a constitutional conference and a flattering independence ceremony conducted by a British royal. He then set about getting rid of his most loyal followers, employing the same security laws he had campaigned against so vigorously. He once said they should be “food for crocodiles”. When old friends and supporters from Britain and America visited him, he could still be the quiet, courteous doctor they had loved so much, but if they mentioned politics he would become enraged, even hysterical. Once, stamping his feet, he screamed at his visitor that his opponents should “Rot! Rot! Rot!” in jail. Was the culture gap between the Victorian-like persona he had created in America and Britain and the spirit of African freedom too great to be encompassed in one personality? Whatever, Malawi became a bizarre place under his rule. Mini skirts, long hair and other manifestations of western sexual liberalism were outlawed.

He surrounded himself with hundreds of women dressed in clothes bearing his image who danced and chanted poems of praise. In their presence he became visibly excited. A former nurse, Cecilia Kadzimira, became his “official hostess”. They never married, though her power over him grew as he aged. Turning his back on former allies in the struggle for independence, Dr Banda gave diplomatic support to South Africa's white rulers, who built him a palace and a new capital in return. In Malawi his attitude to Africans was colonial. He saw them as poor benighted people who needed his guidance and a British education. The Kamuzu Academy was founded, a college based on Eton, at which British teachers inculcated Latin and Greek into favoured African children. He avoided grand socialist plans which lured other African countries to destruction; instead, he gathered the most valuable parts of the economy into a company which he headed. Malawians were told to prosper by tilling the land. They stayed poor and Dr Banda spent at least a month a year at a top London hotel. His end was nearly ignominious. He was bundled from power in an election in 1994 after his old ally Britain abandoned him.

He gave up gracefully but was put on trial accused of killing four politicians in 1983. He was acquitted. Prison would not have been a fitting end for such an intriguing, if flawed, character. Next in Finance and economics X Next in Finance and economics X Next in Finance and economics X Next in Finance and economics X Next in Finance and economics X Next in Finance and economics X Next in Science and technology X Hastings Kamuzu Banda Facts LINK / CITE ADD TO WORD LIST Hastings Kamuzu Banda Facts Hastings Kamuzu Banda (born 1905) was a leader in Malawi's struggle for independence, and he became the country's first president. An acknowledged nationalist, he nevertheless frankly advocated trade and diplomatic relations with white-dominated African countries. Hastings Banda was born to poor parents of the Chewa tribe in the Kasungu District of Nyasaland, a British protectorate, which achieved independence as Malawi in 1964. Banda's early education at the Church of Scotland's Livingstonia Mission school in Kasungu fired his ambition for learning. About age 13 he set out to walk to South Africa to continue his education.

He stopped to work in an African hospital near Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). An uncle helped him to reach Johannesburg, where he worked as a clerk in a gold mine. Studies and Medical Career Banda traveled to the United States in 1923 and earned a high school diploma from Wilberforce Academy in 1928. He worked as a Bantu language adviser at the University of Chicago until he earned a doctorate in 1931. He then entered Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, and in 1937 received a doctorate of medicine. To qualify for practice in Great Britain, he went to Scotland and earned medical diplomas at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh in 1941. He also became an elder in the Church of Scotland. Banda first practiced at the Tyneside Mission for Colored Seamen (1944) and then in a London suburb from 1945 to 1953. His home was a gathering place for Nyasas and for early African nationalist leaders. In 1951 he published a paper criticizing racial policies in Southern Rhodesia, which was then pressing for a federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

When the federation was imposed in August 1953, Banda went to Ghana as a physician to the poor Zongo people and to campaign for the independence of his homeland. Political Career Banda agreed in 1958 to return home to lead Nyasaland out of the federation. However, he first headed a delegation to London to petition for a new constitution. He returned to Nyasaland on July 6, 1958. On August 1, 1958, he was elected president of the Congress party. Mounting anti-federation riots led to a state of emergency on March 3, 1959, and Banda was imprisoned in Southern Rhodesia for 13 months. Upon his release he assumed leadership of the Malawi Congress Party. In June 1960 he accepted a new constitution from Britain which gave Africans a majority in the Legislative Council. On February 1, 1963, he became his country's first prime minister. Independence came on July 6, 1964, and on July 6, 1966—when Malawi became a republic within the Commonwealth—Banda became Malawi's first president.

After independence and the creation of a one-party state, Banda had to reconcile the left-wing younger leadership with his own more conservative policies. His firm control—some called him dictatorial—was challenged by dissident ministers in an unsuccessful coup d'etat that lasted from 1964 to 1965. However, Banda's wide-based support among the people of Malawi was shown in 1967, when villagers directed police to conspirators plotting to kill him. Opposition was based partly on Banda's retention of British civil servants as department heads and partly on his frank recognition of landlocked Malawi's economic dependence on nearby white-ruled South African countries. Banda deplored segregation, but he believed the country could secure badly needed development loans from Rhodesia and South Africa. He maintained reasonable rapport with black African states while initiating trade, loan, and diplomatic relations with white African states. Elected president for life in 1971, Banda maintained his leadership until economic issues associated with the loss of Western aid in 1992 and a serious illness in 1993 led to his defeat in Malawi's first multiparty elections, held in May 1994.

He was succeeded in office by Bakili Muluzi of the United Democratic Front (UDF). Legal Difficulties in the Mid-1990s In 1995 Banda and two others were charged with conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the 1983 deaths of four political adversaries. Although the three were later acquitted, the scandal still raged in 1997 as the prosecution appealed a ruling made by the presiding judge in the case that blocked key evidence from the trial. In addition, the UDF government began a thorough inquiry into Banda's financial affairs, especially concerning the personal wealth he amassed from business ventures believed to have been bankrolled by public funds. In 1995 Banda was dispossessed of the Press Trust, a successful conglomerate, and charged with fraud in the misappropriation of funds intended for the construction of a school in his home district. Banda was later pardoned in the fraud case due to his extreme age and ill health.

In May 1997 the UDF Minister of Lands and Valuation directed the reallocation of 2,000 acres that Banda had illegally seized in 1978 and on which he had established a cattle ranch. Despite Banda's myriad legal woes, advanced age, and failing health, he remained a dominant force within the Malawi Congress Party, which in July 1997 was poised to merge with another opposition party, the Alliance for Democracy. Further Reading on Hastings Kamuzu Banda A full-length examination of Banda's career may be found in John Lloyd Lwanda, Kamuzu Banda of Malawi: A Study in Promise, Power, and Paralysis (1993). An earlier consideration is Philip Short, Banda (1974). His regime is discussed in relation to recent Malawi history in T. David Williams, Malawi: The Politics of Despair (1978). Hastings Banda, the early years Hastings Banda, the early years By Angela Thompsell Updated March 01, 2016. Hastings Banda was one of the more enigmatic “Big Men” of the post-independence era in Africa.

He was Malawi’s first President and ruled the country for 30 years until he was voted out of power in 1994. There were many conflicting reports of Hastings Banda’s early life, and the man himself seemed a mass of contradictions. He was at one and the same time a quiet, Westernized, doctor, and a fiery orator for independence. He railed against colonial domination, but worked closely with Aparthed South Africa. Key Facts Birth: c. 1906 or c. 1898, possibly in British Central Africa (now, Malawi) Occupations: Miner; Manager; Student; Doctor; Activist; Minister; Prime Minister; President; Life President of Malawi Death: November 25, 1997, Johannesburg, South Africa Early Years: Malawi and South Africa There are a number of conflicting stories about Hastings Banda’s life before he rose to power in the 1950s, but he certainly had a transnational early life. continue reading below our video Test Your General Science Knowledge He was born in Kasungu, Malawi , which at the time was the British Central Africa Protectorate, but the date of his birth is disputed.

Officially he was born in 1906, but he agreed later that it might have been 1898. At some point in his early years, a Scottish mission was established in Kasungu, and many have speculated that this early contact had a profound effect on Banda as he was so Europeanized and puritanical in his morality. According to Banda, when he was a young man, he walked 1,000 miles to South Africa in search of work in the mines. It was a claim every Malawian knew once he was President, and it is very plausible. Throughout the twentieth century, many men in Malawi traveled to South Africa – some on foot – in search of work in the mining sector. Doctor: United States, Britain, and Ghana However, he came to be there, it is known that in South Africa, Hastings Banda came to the attention of missionaries, who helped secure him entry to college in the United States. He studied in Ohio, Indiana, and Chicago, Illinois before attending Meharry Medical School in Tennessee. To practice medicine in the British Empire, though, he needed additional accreditation from a British school, so he also attended medical school in Scotland.

Banda’s medical studies had been partially funded, (though again there are conflicting reports) by the colonial government of Nyasaland (as Malawi was then known), but after receiving his degree Banda remained in Britain, practicing first in Liverpool and then in Edinburg. Apparently, Banda was a good doctor. His practice thrived, with a broad spectrum of people seeking his medical care, though there are occasional reports of people who were displeased with his care. While there, he had an affair with his secretary, and there are many who believe he fathered a son by her, but others say that he was not the father of her son. It was at this time, though, that he moved from London to Ghana, where he practiced medicine for several more years. Sources: “ Hastings Banda ,” Economist, November 27, 1997. Kamkwamba, William and Bryan Mealer, The Boy who Harnessed the Wind. New York: Harper Collins, 2009. ‘Kanyarwunga’, “ Malawi ; The Incredible True Story of Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda,” History of Africa Otherwise blog, November 7, 2011.

Hastings Banda - 必应 Sign in Hastings Banda Hastings Kamuzu Banda (c. March or April 1898 – 25 November 1997) was the leader of Malawi from 1961 to 1994 (for the first three years of his rule, until it achieved independence in 1964, Malawi was the British protectorate of Nyasaland). After receiving much of his education overseas, Banda returned to his home country (then British Nyasaland) to speak against colonialism and advocate for independence. In 1963, he was formally appointed prime minister of Nyasaland and led the country to independence as Malawi a year later. Two years later, he pr ... (展开) oclaimed Malawi a republic with himself as president. He consolidated power and later declared Malawi a one-party state under the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). In 1970, the MCP made him the party's President for Life. In 1971, he became President for Life of Malawi itself. As a leader of the pro-Western bloc in Africa, he received support from the West during the Cold War.

He generally supported women's rights, improved the country's infrastructure, and maintained a good educational system relative to other African countries, but he also presided over one of the most repressive regimes in Africa. His government regularly tortured and murdered political opponents. Human rights groups estimate that at least 6,000 people were killed, tortured and jailed without trial. According to at least one estimate, as many as 18,000 people were killed during his rule. He also faced scorn for maintaining full diplomatic relations with apartheid-era South Africa. By 1993, he was facing international pressure and widespread protest. A referendum ended his one-party state, and a special assembly ended his life-term presidency and stripped him of most of his powers. Banda ran for president in the democratic elections which followed and was defeated. He died in South Africa in 1997. His legacy remains controversial, with some hailing him as a national and African hero, while others denounce him as a tyrant and as a corrupt leader.

Hastings Kamuzu Banda (14 May 1898 – 25 November 1997) was the leader of Malawi from 1961 to 1994 (for the first three years of his rule, until it achieved ... Banda’s birthday was officially given as May 14, 1906, but he was believed to have been born before the turn of the century. He was the son of subsistence farmers ... Hastings Kamuzu Banda的用法讲解 法语助手是权威的法语在线词典,为您提供Hastings Kamuzu Banda的中文意思,Hastings Kamuzu Banda的读音,Hastings Kamuzu Banda … Hastings Banda的用法讲解 德语助手是权威的德语在线词典,为您提供Hastings Banda的中文意思,Hastings Banda的读音,Hastings Banda的同义词,Hastings Banda的反义词 ... Banda Banda, Hastings Kamuzu , 1902?–97, African political leader, president of Malawi . A son of peasants, he received a medical degree in the

Question: Hastings Banda was the first President of which African country?
Answer: Malawi