Banda had no doubts that he should follow the missionaries' track to progress. In he armed himself for his future with a meager store of cash, a faith in Christianity, and, courtesy of his favorite missionary, the brand-new baptismal name of Hastings.
Penniless by the time he reached Hartley, Southern Rhodesia, Banda found a job as a sweeper at a local hospital. The work was not difficult, but it introduced him to a fierce bigotry toward black patients that was forever burned into his memory by the time he had saved enough money to move on to Johannesburg. Skirting South Africa's stiff immigration laws was difficult. Obtaining a job as a migrant miner solved the problem, getting him first into a Natal coal mine, then into a larger mine near Johannesburg.
Banda found he enjoyed big city life, where his evenings were spent in study at a local mission or in long political debates. He was particularly struck by the lectures of Ghanaian civil rights worker and teacher J. Aggrey, whose American education spurred Banda to look to the United States to secure his own professional future. Already proficient in English, Banda's climb to success began in Xenia, Ohio, where he completed high school.
Next came a short stint at Indiana University, followed by studies in philosophy at the University of Chicago, where he received his liberal arts degree in The years before his graduation were bittersweet; as the home of the Ku Klux Klan, Nashville displayed the most virulent racism Banda had seen since his years in Southern Rhodesia.
A medical mission in Nyasaland had always been Banda's goal. Since a British degree was necessary for this career choice, he went to Scotland for postgraduate study. It took him three years to earn his advanced medical degrees from the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. He then set up the first of several practices in England.
While Banda continued his medical studies in Great Britain, the question of Nyasaland's federation with both Southern and Northern Rhodesia remained a hot topic. White settlers, who had established a farming economy in Nyasaland at the turn of the century, proposed the white-supremacist federation. But black Malawians, seeking to improve their political, social, and economic standing in the colonized region, viewed the idea of federation as a threat to their hope of eventual independence for the territory.
A special commission was set up to tour the three territories. The results of the journey, released in September of , revealed that the black population in each of the territories—Nyasaland, Northern, and Southern Rhodesia—was violently against federation: the people expressed a preference for British protection over the humiliating prejudice rampant in Southern Rhodesia.
Banda agreed. He told the commission about the prejudice he had seen in his broom-wielding days in Southern Rhodesia. Furthermore, he voiced the fears of blacks who were worried that Southern Rhodesia, a sophisticated, self-governing colony, would dominate this federation; the malignant color bar would then spread its tentacles through all three territories, he explained, and blacks would find they had no chance for educational advancement or economic success.
This was already happening, as Banda could attest. His plans to return home as a medical missionary had been torpedoed by a group of white nurses who refused to serve under a black physician.
Next, half-tempted by an offer from the Nyasaland government, he changed his mind after he heard the terms—equal salary with white physicians, but no social contact allowed. World War II ended his professional dilemma by keeping him in England. When peace returned he decided to stay to establish his own practice in London.
Reaping the rewards of his own ambition, he enjoyed the trappings of the prosperous physician—the comfortable home, the car, the tailored clothes. There was even enough money to help pay for the education of some 40 African students. Banda also kept abreast of the changes that the Second World War had wrought on his formerly isolated homeland. Blacks in Nyasaland had been conscripted in large numbers and had served overseas in countries without a color bar.
They had learned that a vast field of opportunity awaited those who were prepared to work for better education, greater opportunity, and a modicum of control over their own country, and they urged their countrymen to strive for these things. Their cry had not been ignored. Response to the NAC's nationalist struggle was so overwhelming that there were 17 affiliated associations plus a chapter in Johannesburg by the time the organization was a year old.
Born Kamuzu Banda, March ? Worked in South African mines in the nineteen-teens; student in the United States, beginning in the mids; physician in England during World War II and on the Gold Coast now Ghana during the early s; elected president-general of Nyasaland African Congress NAC , ; imprisoned in Southern Rhodesia, ; became leader of Malawi Congress Party MCP; successor to the Nyasaland African Congress , ; minister of natural resources and local government, beginning ; prime minister of Nyasaland, ; prime minister of Malawi, ; president of the Republic of Malawi, ; president for life of Malawi, When the thorny issue of federation arose yet again at war's end, he sent a memorandum to the colonial office on their behalf, asking that no union between the three countries be considered until the NAC had been consulted.
Raising another important issue, he also requested an immediate inquiry into education in Nyasaland. Banda first practiced at the Tyneside Mission for Colored Seamen and then in a London suburb from to His home was a gathering place for Nyasas and for early African nationalist leaders.
In 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 , Banda went to Ghana as a physician to the poor Zongo people and to campaign for the independence of his homeland. Banda agreed in 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, On August 1, , he was elected president of the Congress party. Mounting anti-federation riots led to a state of emergency on March 3, , and Banda was imprisoned in Southern Rhodesia for 13 months. Upon his release he assumed leadership of the Malawi Congress Party.
In June he accepted a new constitution from Britain which gave Africans a majority in the Legislative Council. He graduated in In , he received a medical degree from Meharry Medical College. He studied medicine further in the United Kingdom. He practiced medicine in England from to He practiced medicine in Ghana from to He returned to Nyasaland modern day Malawi in after many years of objecting the colonialism afflicting his home country.
He toured the country speaking out against the colonial government, leading to his arrest in Don't have an account?
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