DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALISM IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: THE CASE OF MALAWI

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.