A BRIEF HISTORY OF NYASALAND

(Now Malawi) by Soli Osman

History often gets distorted and is frequently told from the perspective of those in control of the land. The colonial history as taught in schools in pre-independence Malawi concentrated on European pioneers and explorers including David Livingstone -the Scottish missionary.

The land which now constitutes Malawi consisted of a small numbers of hunter-gatherers prior to the migration of the Bantu people from the north over a thousand years ago. By 1500 AD various tribes had established the Kingdom of Maravi from Nkhotakota all the way to the Zambezi River and from Lake Malawi to the Luangwa River in present day Zambia.

Most of the tribes were united until 1700 when they began to break up with the emergence of the Portuguese traders with whom various tribal factions began to build alliances. The Portuguese were keen to trade in ivory but most importantly they were interested in the slave trade. By 1800 some 20,000 African slaves were traded annually, transported from Nkhotakota to Kilwa on the southern coast of what is now Tanzania.

The British had no real presence in the country and it was not until David Livingstone had reached the area around Lake Nyasa in 1859 that the Anglican and Presbyterian missions began to be established there from1860s onwards. The area around the Shire Highlands was regarded as suitable for European settlement. The African Lakes Company Limited was established around 1878 with the aim of setting up trade and transport activities to work in close co-operation with the missions, to combat the slave trade by introducing legitimate trade and to develop European influence in the area. A mission and trading centre was established in Blantyre in 1876. Interestingly, it was not until 1883 that a British Consul took up residence in Blantyre.

The two colonial powers - British and Portuguese - vied with each other to seek influence over the area and the British sent Harry Johnston as a British Consul to agree treaties with local rulers and to keep the Portuguese out of the established areas. A British Protectorate was proclaimed over the Shire Highlands in 1889 and by 1891 the Protectorate included the whole of the area of present day Malawi known as the British Central Africa Protectorate. In 1907 the Protectorate was renamed as Nyasaland. Thus the colonial government of Nyasaland was set up with a budget of £10,000 per year employing 10 European civilians, two military officers, seventy Sikhs from the Punjab and 85 Zanzibar porters who were expected to administer and police a population of around almost two million people in a territory covering 94,000 square kilometres.

The arrival of Indians to the territory now comprising Malawi is closely related to India’s links with Mozambique over a period of 500 years. History teaches us that it was Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer who discovered the sea route to India. Yet there were already Hindu traders on the Mozambique coast when Vasco da Gama arrived there in 1499. Indian Muslim traders from south India’s Malabar region plied for trade along the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa including Mozambique. By early 1800 the merchants of Diu had settled on Mozambique Island and traded by supplying slaves to the Portuguese. 

South Africa’s apartheid and racist laws led to significant numbers of Gujaratis being compelled to leave the country and move north into Mozambique towards the late 19th century. Hindus from Diu and Muslims from Daman came as masons and construction workers. But the flow of migrants from India stopped abruptly in 1899 as a result of an outbreak of plague for which Indians were blamed. The restrictions were further tightened and Indians who sought to migrate to the colony had to pay a disembarkation fee of 3,000 reals at the port of arrival. A number of Indians, both Hindus and Muslim traders from Gujarat, explored further inland from the Indian Ocean coast in Mozambique. 

The early pioneers used the only route available to a landlocked country. The first settlers hoped to find a navigable waterway from the Indian Ocean coast to enter the territory of Nyasaland. This was possible at Chinde on the delta of the Zambezi in Portuguese Territory, where the river could be navigated to its confluence with the Shire River, up which shallow-draught stern-wheel steamboats sailed to Port Herald. When the River Shire was in flood, boats were able to proceed a fair distance above Port Herald. However, the major obstacle on the Shire was the Murchison Falls. Vessels sailing on the Shire River would only get as Chiromo.

In 1911 there were 481 Indians in the territory which by 1920 had increased to 515. The colonial government ensured that the most valuable land in the country was given to white settlers who started charging rents and as a result most of the Africans left to move onto Crown Lands where, under customary laws, they could occupy a small patch belonging to the community. Most were forced to become migrant workers as they were unable to make a living on crowded lands.

The white farmers with large swathes of arable land often found themselves without workers and encouraged Africans from neighbouring Mozambique to come and work for them for a pittance. The numbers increased rapidly after the famine in Mozambique in 1912. To add to the problems of food shortages, the British introduced a hut tax on both the white owned land as well as on Crown Land. Although slavery had been abolished in the UK and in its colonies, it had reared its ugly face in Nyasaland in the form of the thangata system which meant agricultural labour given without pay, by a tenant on an estate owned by a European, in lieu of cash rent. An average African was reduced to living in abject poverty and frequently suffered from hunger and malnutrition. The white estate owners and the colonial government were loathed by the Africans who endured the harshest conditions in a colony which had one of the most fertile lands in the African continent.

The unjust and inhumane conditions under which Africans lived inspired the Reverend John Chilembwe, a Baptist pastor who had trained as a minister in the United States and who was greatly influenced by fellow black American pastors. He was ordained as a minister in 1899 in the US and returned to Nyasaland in 1900. He condemned the Scottish churches for not according full membership to African members. He was frustrated by the refusal of white settlers and the colonial government to provide suitable opportunities or a voice for the African people. 

The First World War had a great effect on Reverend Chilembwe’s mind. During the war some 19,000 Nyasaland Africans served in the Kings African Rifles and up to 200,000 served as porters in the East African campaign against the Germans in present day Tanzania. The German attack on Nyasaland at Karonga in September 1914 had a tremendous impact on the mind of Reverend Chilembwe. Many Africans were killed and maimed in a war that was seen by many as the white man’s war which had nothing to do with the Africans. In anger, Reverend Chilembwe wrote a letter of protest to the Nyasaland Times to complain about conscription of Africans into the British army. The letter was censored and was never published. The cruelty of the white rule, particularly on white estates against African tenants led the Reverend Chilembwe to organise an uprising in 1915. They attacked a notoriously brutal estate owned by William Livingstone, a local plantation manager who treated his labourers harshly and had burned down Chilembwe’s rural churches. Livingstone was killed together with two other white men and a number of black men. The revolt collapsed quickly and the Reverend Chilembwe was shot by African police. He was a preacher and man of God who felt compelled to rebel against the injustice of the white men.

After the rebellion, protests were muted until the 1930 declaration by the British government that white settlers could not form minority governments dominating Africans and this gave impetus to political awareness. But it was not until 1944 that various Voluntary Associations united as the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) whose first demands was to have African representation on the Legislative Council. In 1946 the NAC received financial and political support from Dr Hastings Banda who lived in Britain at the time. In 1955 the Colonial Office agreed to the suggestion of the Governor General to increased representation on the Legislative Council from three to five members. This occurred in 1956 when Henry Chipembere and Kanyama Chiume, two young radical members of Congress were nominated together with three moderate members which led to a rapid growth in Congress membership by 1957. Chipembere and Chiume invited Dr Hastings Banda to come to Nyasaland to provide leadership to the Nyasaland African Congress. Banda agreed to return on condition that he would lead the NAC. Dr. Banda arrived at Chileka airport on 6th July 1958, having lived abroad for 42 years.

Dr. Banda began touring the country and wherever he spoke he roused the people, urging them to become members of the Congress. By February 1959 the situation had become serious enough for Rhodesian troops to be flown in to keep order. On 3rd March 1959, Sir Robert Armitage, the then Governor declared a state of emergency and in an operation called “Operation Sunrise”, Dr. Banda and hundreds of supporters were imprisoned. The total number detained exceeded 1,300 people. Over 2,000 more were imprisoned for offences related to the emergency, including rioting and criminal damage and the Nyasaland African Congress was banned the following day. 51 Africans were killed and many more were wounded. Dr. Banda was released from prison in April 1960 and was invited to London for talks aimed at bringing about independence.

By this time the Nyasaland African Congress had become the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the new emerging nation was to be known as Malawi, and was to become a Member of the Commonwealth with the Queen as the Head of the State. On 6th July 1964 Nyasaland became the independent Commonwealth of Malawi and Dr. Banda became the Prime Minister. But barely after a month later, Malawi suffered a cabinet crisis. Banda had been accused of being autocratic and a number of ministers put forward proposals designed to limit his powers but he reacted by dismissing the four ministers concerned. The dissidents fled the country. Malawi adopted a new constitution on 6th July 1966 and the country became a republic. Banda became the president and the new constitution granted him wide powers and formally made the MCP the only legal party. In 1971 the legislature declared Banda President for Life. Banda became rigidly authoritarian. Malawi had turned into a police state. Censorship was introduced in all facets of life where mail was opened and often edited. Telephones were tapped and opposition was not tolerated. Banda actively encouraged people to report those who criticised him. Opponents were often arrested, exiled or died in suspicious circumstances.

In 1972 Banda’s vendetta against Indians reached new heights. As stated in the MAO document, Proposals towards Economic Reform and Good Government, the President issued a decree that banned Indians from operating businesses in rural centres and forced them to move to the four main towns. This policy was designed to create scope for the indigenous Malawians to take over the Indian businesses and develop their entrepreneurial skills, and thus spread economic wealth more evenly. However, the hoped-for indigenous business boom never materialised and once-thriving centres were left in abeyance. The effect of this policy as a means of social engineering had a profound effect on Indians in Malawi. It resulted in the withdrawal of trading, farming and agricultural licences in rural areas, false imprisonment, forfeiture of property, and business assets and deportation without due process of law. The number of Indians dwindled from 16,000 to an estimated 4000 at the height of the expulsions.

With reference to Goans, the whole community was deported for allegedly turning off the radio whilst Banda’s speech was in progress. The infamous forfeiture Act was used to confiscate estates and assets owned by the members of the Goan Community including the renowned Goan Social Club. The majority of these families were unable to settle their affairs before expulsion and most arrived in the UK penniless. The Malawi Asian Organisation of the UK played an important role in making representations to the British Government on behalf of those in Malawi awaiting the issue of Quota Vouchers enabling them to settle in the UK.