Political Culture and Nationalism in Malawi

Inspired by the events leading up to the overthrow of Doctor Hastings Kamuzu Banda's Life Presidency, this book explores the deep logic of Malawi's political culture as it emerged in the colonial and early post-colonial periods. It draws on archival sources from three continents and oral testimonies gathered over a ten-year period provided by those who lived these events. Power narrates how anti-colonial protest was made relevant to the African majority through the painstaking engagement of politicians in local grievances and struggles, which they then linked to the fight against white settler domination in the guise of the Central African Federation. She also explores how Doctor Banda (leader of independent Malawi for thirty years), the Nyasaland African Congress, and its successor, the Malawi Congress Party, functioned within this political culture, and how the MCP became a formidable political machine. Central to this process was the deployment of women and youth to cut across parochial politics and consolidate a broad base of support. No less important was the deliberate manipulation of history and the use of rumor and innuendo, symbol and pageantry, persecution and reward. It was this mix that made people both accept and reject the MCP regime, sometimes simultaneously.

Joey Power is professor of history at Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario.

Reviews

Political Culture and Nationalism in Malawi is the most detailed study of the evolution of organized politics in colonial and early post-colonial Malawi. Based on extensive archival and oral research, this volume tells the stories of the different personalities who fought for power; examines ethnicity, gender, and class in Malawi's nascent political milieu; and explores the intrigues, bravery, cowardice, clash of ideas, and conflict resolution inside the first political movements. The book is a major and welcome contribution to the historiography of nationalism in Malawi and sub-Saharan Africa. --Owen J. M. Kalinga, professor of History, North Carolina State University

Details

First Published: 15 Jan 2010
13 Digit ISBN: 9781580463102
Pages: 350
Size: 9 x 6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: University of Rochester Press
Series: Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora
Subject: African Studies
BIC Class: GTB

Details updated on 04 Sep 2010

Contents

• 1  Introduction
• 2  Power and Authority in Early Colonial Malawi
• 3  From "Tribe" to Nation: Defending Indirect Rule
• 4  From "Tribe" to Nation: The Nyasaland African Congress
• 5  The Federal Challenge: Noncooperation and the Crisis of Confidence in Elite Politics
• 6  Building Urban Populism
• 7  Planting Populism in the Countryside
• 8  Bringing Back Banda
• 9  Prelude to Crisis: Inventing a Malawian Political Culture
• 10  Du's Challenge: Car Accident as Metaphor for Political Violence
• 11  Crisis and Kuthana Politics
• 12  Legacies
• 13  Notes
• 14  Selected Bibliography
• 15  Index