Rethinking Hastings Kamuzu Banda’s ‘Discriminatory’ Practices against the People of Northern Malawi

Abstract

This article challenges existing scholarship that portrays Malawi’s first leader, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, as responsible for the alienation of the people of Northern Malawi. It argues that Banda’s policy choices were pursued to enhance national unity by eradicating ethnic and regional disparities in public spaces. Situated within a historical study design, this article approached qualitatively, using both primary and secondary data to support this perspective. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, focus-group discussions, archival research, and desk research. Evidence suggests that events such as language policy changes in 1968, changes in the education sector in 1969, 1987, and 1989, and the transfer of government seat from Zomba to Lilongwe in 1975 have been analytically inconsequential in justifying Banda’s perceived ‘discriminatory’ practices against the people of Northern Malawi. Nevertheless, the portrayal of Banda as having been discriminatory affected relations among the people of Malawi’s three regions, since his policy choices and actions were said to be motivated by his desire to uplift his Chewa ethnic identity.