be as old as the century, his grip on power likely
to be relinquished only on death. Malawi’s repu-
tation for stability over a quarter of a century
rested on his longevity and hold on the ‘life-
presidency’.
Banda’s Malawi was much admired by the
West. He cultivated a close political and economic
relationship with Britain. With black African
leaders he frequently quarrelled, especially with
Zambia and Tanzania. He condemned criticism
of South Africa as ‘hypocritical and dishonest’,
urging greater realism, and he pursued no
policies of retribution against white settlers in
Malawi. They continued to live a privileged
lifestyle, undisturbed. White farmers and white
civil servants had nothing to fear. His admirable
tolerance did not extend to the black opposition.
Strict censorship and the security services sup-
pressed dissent. He kept Malawi out of involve-
ment in the black independence struggle of
neighbouring Southern Rhodesia in the 1970s.
Nor did Banda attempt to stop the South African-
supported resistance to the Marxist government
in Mozambique from launching incursions into
Mozambique from Malawi bases on the border.
His policies were regarded by black Africa as a
betrayal, but his main concern was to keep
Malawi free from the bloody struggles and civil
wars of Africa. His greatest achievement was
undoubtedly the maintenance of peace in his
country. Remarkable too was Malawi’s humani-
tarian response to the civil war in Mozambique.
By 1991, 1 million refugees had crossed into
Malawi and had been accepted and looked after
by this small and poor country, a response more
civilised than that witnessed in the early 1990s in
some countries of Western Europe.
Malawi’s domestic peace, however, was a peace
based on repression. By the 1990s, fired by exam-
ples of the overthrow of dictatorship elsewhere in
the world, an internal opposition had grown ever
more determined to be granted a voice and to
criticise Banda. The disastrous state of the
economy added fuel to discontent. Long one-
party and one-man rule bred corruption, while
state-run enterprises were inefficient and uncom-
petitive. Malawi’s exports of tea, coffee and
tobacco and its imports were badly disrupted by
the civil war in Mozambique, which practically
closed the railway line to the port of Beira.
Bowing to international and internal pressure,
Banda conceded a referendum in 1993 which
voted in favour of multi-party rule. Malawi has
some good farming land, but mismanagement has
led to widespread malnutrition.
In 1994 there followed the first multi-party
election. The ruling United Democratic Front
elected President Babili Mulsezi. Malawi enjoyed
relative stability and adopted IMF policies to
secure aid. Mulsezi won a second term but when
in the new millennium his party proposed to
change the constitution to allow him a third term
of office if elected in 2004 there was strong
protest. Democracy, if imperfect, was taking root
in even one of the poorest African countries with
a population in 2000 of 12 million and one of
the lowest incomes per head in Purchasing Power
Parity (US$) of just 600.
The contrast between Malawi and Zimbabwe’s
northern neighbour, Zambia, is a stark one.
Zambia was dominated for twenty-seven years
after independence in 1964 by the nation’s
founding father, Kenneth Kaunda, until he was
voted out of office. Until Kaunda’s departure,
Zambia was virtually a one-party state but of a
rather unusual kind: Kaunda, who espoused his
own ideology of ‘humanism’, did not resort to
repression or the imprisonment of opponents,
and no politician had to flee into exile. His own
personal influence overcame the serious tribal and
regional conflicts during the early years of inde-
pendence. On the issue of the black struggles for
equal rights he took a principled stand in support.
The African National Congress found shelter and
assistance in Zambia, though it was periodically
attacked by incursions of special forces from
South Africa.
The economy suffered badly, virtually a
hostage to South Africa, through which most of
Zambia’s exports and imports have to pass.
Zambia relies on copper for 90 per cent of its
export earnings, and the metal’s price plummeted
for much of the 1980s. Under the guidance of
the International Monetary Fund and assisted by
aid, reform was attempted, especially in the field
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