REMEMBERING DU: AN EPISODE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MALAWIAN POLITICAL CULTURE

Abstract

In September of 1962, Dunduzu Kaluli Chisiza, Secretary General of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), 'prison graduate' and prospective Minister of Finance for Nyasaland, died in a car crash. Immediately, rumours began to circulate that this was no accident but a case of political murder. For the first time, 'car accident' became a metaphor for political violence in colonial Malawi. This article examines the available evidence pertaining to the accident and concludes that although it appears not to indicate foul play, much of it was not made public and this, coupled with a troubled political climate, bred suspicion. It is argued that the rumours about Dunduzu Chisiza's death demonstrate a popular awareness that the image of political consensus advanced by the MCP during the late 1950s and early 1 960s was false. Further, the rumours reveal a profound ambivalence about the growing personalization of rule under Dr H. Kamuzu Banda. While the Cabinet Crisis of 1964 was the first public demonstration of leadership rupture, it was a culmination of tensions rooted in an earlier period, tensions which were already felt by many and expressed through rumour in 1962 and after. ON THE MORNING OF Monday, 3 September 1962, a white Mercedes left the road and plunged into a stream at Thondwe Bridge some 25 kilometres south of Zomba, the capital of colonial Malawi (Nyasaland). The driver was pronounced dead a few hours later at Zomba General Hospital. News of his death rocked the country and condolences flooded in from around the globe as Nyasaland mourned one of her most cherished native sons. The Nyasaland Times called Dunduzu Kaluli Chisiza the 'financial brain' of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and 'one of the most outstanding figures in Central African politics' who 'held the hopes of all races for a settlement to the problem of the Central African Joey Power is a member of the History Department, Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto, Canada. The following rumours are to be understood as that, rumours of events. They are presented and discussed for what they tell us about Malawi's changing political climate and how people have understood this change. They are not meant to suggest foul play or point to the guilt or innocence of any party or parties. Thanks go the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada which provided funding for the research on which this paper is based and to Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto, Canada for additional support. It first appeared under the same title as a paper presented to the African Studies Association conference in San Francisco in November 1996. Thanks also go to Owen Kalinga who read and commented on an earlier draft of this paper and to the reviewers of the African Affairs journal who offered useful advice.