Part 4 (2/2)

In addition to the office of president, Banda held as many as seven other ministries: justice, works and supplies, external affairs, agriculture, women's affairs, home affairs, and defense; only in the last years of his rule did he relinquish some of them. He resided in Sanjika Palace in Blantyre and, when Parliament was sitting, he would be at the State House in Zomba; he had other homes in Lilongwe, Kasungu, Mzuzu, Karonga, Monkey Bay, and the Lower s.h.i.+re.

Entering the decade of the 1990s, the life president fell victim to declining health, which tended to reduce his public appearances, including his annual crop inspection tours. Even though the facade of a free government steadfastly met problems, Banda continued to insist that Malawians did not want change in their political system. In 1991, he asked members of Parliament to debate the need for a multiparty system and, not surprisingly, the members of Parliament, all members of the ruling party, supported a one-party government. Meanwhile, pressure from within Malawi and from outside the country was mounting on Banda to initiate reforms that would lead to a full-fledged democratic system of government.

On 8 March 1992, the Malawi Catholic Bishops' Pastoral Letter detailed how the autocratic political system and the government's economic policies had led to suffering in the country. In the following month, Tom Chakufwa Chihana, secretary general of the Southern Africa Trade Union Co-ordinating Council, announced that he would challenge the government by forming an alliance of groups opposed to the single party system. Chihana's boldness and the pastoral letter encouraged people to openly defy the government and the MCP. University students protested and workers went on strike demanding livable wages and better working conditions. In Blantyre, the strikers protested in the city center, and on 7 May, the strike became violent, looting, among other establishments, the main Peoples' Trading Center shop, which was part of Banda's press empire. On that day, the Malawi Young Pioneers and the police, equipped with guns, intervened, resulting in the death of 40 people.

In the meantime, governments in Europe and North America, many of which had supported Banda during the Cold War, threatened to reduce and withhold aid unless he inst.i.tuted reforms immediately. In a radio broadcast on 5 July, he announced his willingness to embark on a process of sociopolitical changes, starting with the setting up of forums where all Malawians could engage in debate with government. This is how the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and the Public Affairs Committee came to be. The former comprised of cabinet ministers, and the latter consisted of the Law Society of Malawi, churches, and representatives of the business community. Three other developments took place later in 1992: the launching of the Malawi Financial Post as the first independent newspaper; the inauguration of two new political parties, the Alliance for Democracy in October, and the United Democratic Front; and Banda's declaration on 18 October that a national referendum would take place on 14 June 1993, to enable Malawians to decide whether or not they wanted the one-party system to be replaced by a multiparty one.

Although very old and frail, Banda campaigned vigorously for the retention of his mode of rule. However, he and his party lost, with most areas of the country overwhelmingly voting for change. He disregarded calls for resignation but set in motion procedures for const.i.tutional reforms, leading to multiparty general elections. To create a good atmosphere and to enable everyone to partic.i.p.ate in the new dispensation, exiles living abroad would be allowed to return, and all political prisoners would be freed. It was also agreed to have free elections on 14 May 1994, and two units, the National Consultative Council and the National Executive Committee of the MCP, were created to oversee the transition to multiparty democracy.

Meanwhile, Banda featured prominently in the campaign for the return to power of the MCP. Loyal party members used his name as a symbol of national unity and prosperity; he himself went on the campaign trail, which was interrupted at the end of 1993 when he fell ill, was flown to the Garden City Clinic in Johannesburg, South Africa, and underwent brain surgery. After a period of convalescence, the infirm president returned to the campaign trail, but the end of his political life was near. Banda's party lost, forcing him to retire to Mudi House, which had been his government residence in Blantyre before 1975 when Nsanjika Palace was being completed. He remained head of the MCP but, in 1996, withdrew from politics altogether, the presidency of the party going to Gwanda Chakuamba. With Cecilia Tamanda Kadzmira at his bedside, Banda died at the Garden City Clinic from cardiac complications and pneumonia on 25 November 1997. After lying in state in Blantyre and Lilongwe, Banda was given a national funeral on 3 December, and he was the first person to be buried at the Heroes Acre in Lilongwe. See also ARMITAGE, ROBERT; ELECTRICITY; OPERATION SUNRISE; TRANSPORTATION.

BANDA, HENRY FOSTER CHIMUNTHU (1962 ). Speaker of the National a.s.sembly, Chimutu Banda was born on 30 December 1962, at Chipembere Village, Traditional Authority Kanyenda, Nkhotakota district. He went to local schools, after which he attended the University of Malawi, where in 1985 he qualified as a teacher. Later, he was to attain a diploma in education administration from the Brandon University in Canada. From 1985 to 1999, he taught at various secondary schools, including serving as headmaster of Nkhotakota Secondary School (199599). Chimutu Banda was active in the labor union movement. He was the regional education publication officer for the Teachers Union of Malawi (199394), and was chairman of the Nkhotakota district branch of the Civil Service Union (199596). In the 1999 parliamentary elections, he won the Nkhotakota North const.i.tuency on the United Democratic Front ticket. Once in the National a.s.sembly, he became the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on the Environment (19992001), a commissioner in the Parliamentary Service Commission (20001), and deputy minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation. In 2004, he retained his seat in the National a.s.sembly and was appointed as minister of youth sports and culture. In 2005, Chimutu Banda joined Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika's Democratic Progressive Party and was a.s.signed to the Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Natural Resources. In May 2009, he defended his seat, and soon afterward became the speaker of the National a.s.sembly.

BANDA, JOHN R. The first indigenous registrar of the University of Malawi, John Banda was born in Mzimba district, went to Blantyre and Dedza secondary schools before proceeding to Makere University, Uganda, where in 1964 he graduated with a BA (Hons.). He worked as a government officer but after a short time joined the new university as administrative a.s.sistant. In 1971, he took over from Ivan Freeman as registrar of the University of Malawi and, in 1973, he and others, presided over the move of the university offices and Chancellor College to Zomba.

In 1975, Banda was among the many professionals and academics who were imprisoned without trial during one of the bouts of excessive human rights abuses in the country. Released two years later, he was employed by Lonrho but in 1979 left for the University of Botswana, where he became senior a.s.sistant registrar; he was to occupy the same position at the University of Swaziland before his appointment in the late 1980s as registrar of the University of Bophuthatswana, later renamed the University of the North-West. In the early 2000s, he retired to Mzuzu, but he became an active member of a body that oversaw the establishment of Livingstonia University. See also EDUCATION.

BANDA, JOYCE HILDA (1950 ). This businesswoman and politician was born in Zomba district. She is the former head of the National a.s.sociation of Business Women and is creator of the Joyce Banda Foundation, which is involved in women's empowerment and rural development in Zomba, and manages a school in Blantyre. She was a member of the National a.s.sembly for ZombaMalosa const.i.tuency and has held cabinet positions in the United Democratic Front and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) governments, including minister of foreign affairs and minister of gender, child welfare, and community services. In 1997, the Hunger Project awarded her the Africa Prize for Leaders.h.i.+p for the Sustainable End of Hunger.

In the 2009 general and presidential elections, Joyce Banda became the running mate of President Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika of the DPP. They won, and she became vice president of Malawi, the first woman in Malawi to occupy this position. However, although the vice president, she was sidelined, her role in government was greatly minimized, and there seemed to be tension between her and the state president. In July 2010, the DPP decided that Peter m.u.t.h.arika would be its presidential candidate in the 2014 elections instead of Joyce Banda as many had expected. Five months later, Banda was expelled from the DPP, but she continued to hold the office of vice president. In April 2011, she formed her own political organization, the People's Party. In the reshuffle announced on 7 September 2011, President Bingu wa Mitharika withdrew all government responsibilities that had originally been a.s.signed to her, and excluded her from the cabinet. However, she was elected to her office, she continued to occupy the vice presidency of the state.

BANDA, KAPICHILA (?1988). This strongman of Dowa politics and a dedicated Dr. Hastings Banda loyalist became a member of Parliament in the 1970s, and in 1983 succeeded Aaron Gadama as the Malawi Congress Party's (MCP) regional chairman and as minister for the central region. With little Western education and uncomfortable expressing himself in English, he was considered the party's organizer par excellence, one who ensured his region's total loyalty to the fundamentals of the MCP. He is credited as the brains behind the rise and success of the Dowa Women League's singers, whose lyrics not only overpraised Banda and the party but also tended to advocate and celebrate violence upon those in disagreement with the life president. Banda died in 1988 of heart failure.

BANDA, LUCIUS (1970 ). Malawi's most popular entertainer of the postHastings Banda era, started his career toward the end of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) rule, first as a member of the Aleluya Band, and then his own band, Zembani. President Banda's security operatives followed him closely because of the political undertones of his music, and in the period 199294, when agitation for democratization became open, he adopted a more critical flavor. After Bakili Muluzi became Malawi's president, Lucius Banda, now referring to himself as the ”soldier of the poor people,” continued to write lyrics and sing songs that did not hesitate to point out problems in society and politics, including corruption and mismanagement in the public service.

In the 2004 elections, Lucius Banda stood and won as the United Democratic Party candidate for the National a.s.sembly, but two years later he was convicted of academic plagiarism and spent three months in Zomba Central Prison. Upon his release, he returned to his music career and, in 2005 and 2006, produced two popular CDs, Enemy and Survivor, respectively, and as usual, both contained tracks that were critical commentaries on society, politics, and the economy. In 2006, the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) blacklisted some of his music and, in January 2010, the publicly owned MBC banned his 15th alb.u.m, Fifteen-fifteen, on the grounds that it was too critical of the government.

BANDA, MTALIKA (19151995). Born in Nkhata Bay district, educated at Bandawe and the Overtoun Inst.i.tution, Kondowe, Banda worked as a civil servant before becoming an activist in the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC). A confident and fiery speaker, he became secretary general of the NAC briefly in the early 1950s. In 1959, he was detained and, upon his release, he was an organizer of the Malawi Congress Party at the district and regional levels. After the const.i.tutional changes in 1961, Banda went to India to study cooperatives; he also became a member of Parliament before being posted to a diplomatic office in the United States.

BANDA, RICHARD ALLEN. The first Malawian to be appointed chief justice, Richard Banda spent his early childhood in Northern Rhodesia where his parents worked from the 1930s to the 1950s. He returned to Malawi to attend primary school at Ekwendeni before going on to Dedza Secondary School. A keen sportsman and star player in the national soccer team, Banda worked in the civil service from 1960 to 1961, primarily as a sports administrator and coach. In 1961, he was one the first Malawians to attend the new Part 1 London Bar course at the Inst.i.tute of Public Administration, Mpemba; he proceeded to London to complete his legal studies before being called to the bar at Grays Inn. Banda returned to Malawi a barrister, worked in the Ministry of Justice, rising to the position of attorney general. In the early 1970s, he was appointed minister of justice and attorney general, but soon fell out of favor with President Hastings Banda. After a few years of virtual confinement to his home area in Nkhata Bay district, the president gave him the position of chief magistrate, and he was soon promoted to be a High Court judge. In 1992, he became chief justice of Malawi, retiring in 2002. In 2007, he became chief justice of Swaziland. He has also served as chairman of Africa Parks (Majete), 20037, president of the Commonwealth Secretariat Tribunal, and president of the Commonwealth Magistrates' and Judges' a.s.sociation.

BANDA, THAMAR DILLON THOMAS (1910?). Born in Nkhata Bay district, Banda went to Bandawe Mission School and then to Livingstonia where in 1930 he qualified as a teacher. For 10 years, he taught at Bandawe and other places in Nkhata Bay and, in 1940, went to Southern Rhodesia where he worked as an accounts clerk. In 1946, Banda became a boarding master at Goromonzi Government School and, three years later, he returned to Nyasaland where he briefly worked for the Colonial Development Corporation, which was establis.h.i.+ng a major development scheme in the Nkhata Bay-Mzuzu area. In 1953, he was appointed clerk to the Council of Chiefs in Nkhata Bay, and from 1953 to 1956 he worked as an accounts clerk in the African Lakes Corporation's in the district. At the same time, he was active in politics, becoming, in 1952, chairman of the Chintheche branch of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) and, two years later, Congress's organizing secretary for the northern province. In 1956, Banda was elected secretary general of the NAC and, in the following year, he became president general of the nationalist movement. In that year, he and others drew up the Memorandum on Const.i.tutional Changes, demanding, among other things, majority rule.

In the meantime, younger activists such as Henry Chipembere and Kanyama Chiume were increasingly unhappy with Banda's leaders.h.i.+p, which they considered as weak and ineffective. It is they who urged him to visit Dr. Hastings Banda (no relation) in k.u.masi in March 1957 to try to convince him to return to Malawi to lead the nationalist struggle. However, even before Dr. Banda's return home, Banda was (March 1958) suspended from the heads.h.i.+p of the Congress. In May 1958, he formed his own political organization, the Congress Liberation Party, which, although joined by other older politicians, such as Dunstan Chijozi, Nophas Kwenje, and James Ralph Chinyama, did not have much support in the country. The Congress Liberation Party ran in, and lost, the 1961 general elections, marking the end of its short life; it was also the end of the political career of Thamar Banda.

BANDAWE. Located on the lakesh.o.r.e in the southern part of Nkhata Bay district, it became the site in 1881 of a Free Church of Scotland mission and later a school. This was a successor to the first memorial mission, Livingstonia, which the church had initially established in 1875 at Cape Maclear. Although the main Livingstonia mission was to move to Khondowe in 1894, Bandawe remained a major religious and educational center, its graduates occupying influential positions in Nyasaland and other parts of southern Africa. Its numerous graduates include Clements Kadalie, Eliot Kamwana Chirwa, Orton Ching'oli Chirwa, Wellington Manoah Chirwa, and Thamar Dillon Banda.

BANDAWE, LEWIS MATAKA (18871967). Born in Mozambique, Lewis Bandawe went to the s.h.i.+re Highlands 12 years later, and soon enrolled at the Blantyre Mission school. In 1913, the mission employed him as teacher/evangelist and in the same year posted him to Mehaccani, Mozambique, to establish a mission station. When World War I broke out, he went to Blantyre for a brief period, but soon returned to Mehaccani where he remained until 1928. While in Mozambique, Bandawe wrote a Lomwe grammar book and translated the New Testament and Psalms into Lomwe. Upon his return to Malawi, he left the Blantyre Mission and joined the Judicial Department, where he rose to the position of senior clerk. In 1943, he founded the Alomwe Tribal Representative a.s.sociation, which actively pet.i.tioned the British administration to purge its doc.u.ments of the pejorative word, anguru, and replace it with Lomwe. Bandawe was also one of the founders of the Nyasaland African Congress.

BANKING. The history of modern banking in Malawi goes back to August 1894, when the African Lakes Company began to provide the first banking facilities in British Central Africa, as Malawi was then called. However, dissatisfied with the services, European settlers invited the Standard Bank of South Africa to establish a local branch in the colony in 1901. By the beginning of the 1920s, it had branches in Blantyre, Zomba, and Lilongwe. Meanwhile, in 1918, the banking operations of the African Lakes Company were taken over by the National Bank of South Africa, which in turn was replaced by Barclays Bank D.C.O. in 1929. The latter also had branches in Blantyre, Zomba, and Lilongwe.

In 1971, Standard and Barclays amalgamated to form the National Bank of Malawi. The equities were held as follows: combined Standard and Barclays, 51 percent; Press Corporation Ltd., 29 percent; Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC), 20 percent. Further changes took place in 1977 when the Standard/Barclays shareholding was lowered to 20 percent while that of Press (Holdings) Ltd. and ADMARC increased to 47.4 and 32.6 percent, respectively. At the same time Standard/Barclays became service companies of the National Bank of Malawi. At the end of 1982, Standard Bank PLC bought Barclays' interests and, in October 1990, it a.s.sumed the name Standard Chartered Bank of Africa PLC, its shareholdings going up by 20 percent. As the service company, Standard Chartered furnished the National Bank with senior managers, including the chief executive officer and his deputy, advisors, and an a.s.sortment of technical experts. In June 1996, the service agreement lapsed and, later that year, the Standard Chartered sold its shares to abiding shareholders on a pro-rata arrangement. The main shareholders of the National Bank are the Press Corporation (51.73 percent), Old Mutual Group (24 percent), members of the public (22.03 percent), and the general public (1.14 percent).

The second major bank is the Standard Bank, formerly the Commercial Bank of Malawi, first registered in 1969, with the first branch starting operations in April 1970. Its main shareholders were Banco Pinto Sotto Mayor, Press Holdings Ltd., and the Malawi Development Corporation. In 2001, Stanbic Africa Holdings, the subsidiary of Standard Bank Group of South Africa, acquired 60 percent of the shares, and the bank became known as Stanbic Bank, changing its name again in 2007 to Standard Bank Limited.

In postHastings Banda Malawi, commercial banks have increased in number and include the First Merchant Bank Ltd. and the Malawi Savings Bank (MSB), formerly the Post Office Savings Bank, which had until 1994 operated as a government-owned inst.i.tution, and since colonial times had been a major channel for mobilizing rural savings. The MSB now provides full banking services and has branches and agencies in all districts of Malawi. Two other financial inst.i.tutions have also added operations and now offer full commercial services. The Investment and Development Bank (INDEBANK), established in 1972, has local and foreign shareholders (British, Dutch, German), and provides medium and long-term credit to borrowers who want to invest in the economic development of Malawi. In the late 2000s, INDEBANK expanded its services to include normal banking. Finally, the NBS Bank, formerly the New Building Society, is entirely Malawi owned: NICO Ltd. (60 percent), public (30 percent), and National Investment Trust Ltd. (10 percent).

The clearinghouse of the Malawian banking system is the Reserve Bank of Malawi, which was established in 1964 to act as banker and advisor to the Malawi government and to issue legal tender currency and maintain external reserves to safeguard the international value of the currency. It also acts as a depository in Malawi for the a.s.sets of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group. On a quarterly basis, it publishes the Economic and Financial Review, indicating trends in the economy. In 1971, John Tembo became the first Malawian governor of the bank and, after 11 years, was replaced by Lyoond Chakakala Chaziya. He was dismissed after four years, and his successor, Chimwemwe Hara, served for a shorter time. In 1989, President Hastings Banda appointed as the bank's chief administrator a West German, Hans Joachim Lesshaft, who was replaced by his Malawian deputy Francis Pelekamayo. When the United Democratic Front formed the new government in 1994, President Bakili Muluzi chose Mathews Chikaonda as governor of the bank. After the 1999 general elections, Chikaonda became minister of finance, leaving the direction of the bank to Ellias Ngalande Banda who, like his predecessor, was formerly a university don. In 2005, Victor Mbewe became the Reserve Banks governor and, in 2009, Perks Ligoya, once an employee of the bank, replaced him.

BARRON, A. FRANCIS. One of the most powerful European tobacco growers, and with Roy Wallace and Ignaco Conforzi, a strong exponent of tenant farming, A. F. Barron immigrated to Nyasaland from Great Britain in 1913 and established a large estate at Makoka in Zomba district. In 1920, he started farming tobacco in the central region where, by the mid-1940s, his holdings in three districts were: six estates in Lilongwe totaling 9, 752 acres; five estates in Dowa totaling 6,384 acres; and a 1,060-acre estate in Kasungu. His tobacco business comprised three main parts: tobacco, mostly flue cured, grown on his estates by wage laborers; flue-cured tobacco produced by tenants on land provided by him, with seedlings and technical help given by him, on condition that it was sold to him; and fire-cured tobacco grown by peasants on their own land but sold to European farmers. Within 15 years of commercial tobacco farming in the central province, Lilongwe and Dowa accounted for over half of the crop produced in the colony.

BARROW, MALCOLM PALLISER (19001973). Born in Surrey, England, Barrow went to Malvern College and then to Clare College, Cambridge, before immigrating to Nyasaland in 1927. He became a tobacco planter in Zomba and later moved to Naming'omba in Thyolo district where he developed major tea, tung, and tobacco estates. In 1940, he became a member of the Nyasaland Legislative Council and, a year later, was appointed to the Executive Council, a position he held until 1953. In that year, he became a member of the new federal Parliament, and was appointed minister of commerce and industry; two years later he was also a.s.signed the Home Affairs and Power portfolios. When Roy Welensky became prime minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, he made Sir Malcolm deputy prime minister. Knighted in 1953 and one of the most powerful Europeans in the Federation, Barrow also had major farming interests in Gadami, Southern Rhodesia. He died in Salisbury in 1973, a few months after the death of his wife.

BEER HALLS. From the early 1940s, British policy reflected the acceptance of the African as a permanent urban dweller, and this meant, among other things, building long-lasting facilities to cater to residents of the new emerging towns. Using finance provided by the Colonial Development and Welfare Fund, dwelling houses for Africans were constructed but so too were welfare and beer halls where it was hoped the Africans would spend their time and money instead of going to bars and drinking houses, most of which were considered to be disreputable. It has been suggested that this policy was a means of social control as colonial governments were anxious to mold the new African townsman to fit their conception of a colonial dependent. In Nyasaland, social welfare and beer halls were built in Blantyre/Limbe, Zomba, Lilongwe, Mzuzu, and the larger district headquarters such as Mzimba.

BEMBA. The Bemba are the inhabitants of the region south of lakes Mweru and Banguelu in present-day Zambia. Matrilineal and divided into chiefdoms, their traditional paramount ruler a.s.sumes the t.i.tle Chitimukulu. The Bemba are known as great hunters, and they successfully repelled the Ngoni attempt to settle in their area. From the end of the 19th century onward, their country witnessed much Christianity missionary activity, including that of the Free Church of Scotland and the White Fathers. The area was also a center of African nationalism; President Kenneth Kaunda and his first vice president, Simon Kapwepwe, were brought up in Bembaland.

BEMBEKE. Located on the western side of the Dedza Mountains, this major Catholic center in Chewa/Ngoni area was originally a substation of Mua and was used mainly as a base where priests could escape from the hot weather of the lakesh.o.r.e. In 1910, it attained full station status; a school and training college were later established.

BENINGOMA. The word beni is derived from the English word band, and ngoma refers to the team dances that imitate a military bra.s.s band. Of all the variations of Beni, the Mganda dance of Malawi is most important. Whereas Beni is still a.s.sociated with the Yao peoples, mganda, or malipenga, remains popular with the Ngoni, Tumbuka-speaking peoples, Ngonde, Lambya-Nyiha, Ndali-Sukwa, Tonga, and Chewa. Aspects of mganda/malipenga resemble the parade of soldiers, and it is performed only by men.

Originating in the 1890s among Swahili Muslims imitating the Royal Navy regiment, these dance performances began in Malawi at the end of World War I. Resentful of their required role during the war, returning porters and soldiers introduced the military-style dances into their society. A mockery of British ceremony and discipline, the mganda reproduced the military drill, the bra.s.s band sound, and the officer hierarchy. Today the dance is still performed in most parts of Malawi. See also ARMY; MUSIC AND DANCE.

BINGHAM, MAJOR HUMPHREY FRANCIS (1899?). This first registrar/commissioner of cooperative societies in Malawi was born in England. He saw action in World War I and worked in East Africa before transferring to Nyasaland, where he worked in the provincial and district administration, including serving as district commissioner in West Nyasa (Nkhata Bay) and Blantyre districts. In 1938, he was a.s.signed to start the Department of Cooperatives, which did not really come into existence until after he returned from the war. Bingham retired to England in 1955.

BISA. In precolonial times, these matrilineal people of northeastern Zambia were famous for long-distance commerce covering the area between the region east of the Luangwa River and the Lake Malawi area and beyond. In the 18th and 19th centuries, they were particularly famous as ivory traders, which they exported via the Indian Ocean. Their main partners were the Yao, with whom they developed a friendly relations.h.i.+p.

BISMARCK, JOSEPH (1859?). Born at Quilimane, Mozambique, around 1859, Bismark was part of the second Livingstonia Mission expedition, and in 1880 was in the initial group of Africans sent by the Blantyre Mission of the Church of Scotland to study at Lovedale (see LOVEDALE MISSIONARY INSt.i.tUTE). Upon his return in 1884, he taught at the mission's schools. He made Malawi his home, and he became one of the first African church deacons of the Blantyre Mission. A colleague of Dr. David Clement Scott, Bismarck made a living mainly as a planter of tobacco and coffee, cultivating over 150 acres. A major opponent of thangata, Bismark was very critical of this system when he presented evidence to the commission investigating the Chilembwe uprising of 1915. See also EDUCATION; MISSIONS.

BLACKWOOD, MICHAEL HILL, CBE (19172005). Born on 13 May 1917 in Lancas.h.i.+re, England, Blackwood went to Ormskirk Grammar School and went on to study law at Liverpool University. He qualified as a solicitor in 1939 and in the following year joined the Royal Artillery, seeing service in Madagascar, India, and Burma. He also served with the 11th East African division, rising to the rank of major. Upon demobilization in 1946, he joined a law firm, Wilson and Morgan in Blantyre, Nyasaland. Blackwood was one of the first members of the Nyasaland Law Society, and became active in European settler politics. He was mayor of Blantyre from 1951 to 1952 and, two years later, he became a member of the Legislative Council (LEGCO) on the European settler ticket. He became deputy leader in Nyasaland of the United Federal Party and, in this capacity, was one of the leading advocates of the merits of the Central African Federation, which the majority of African peoples detested. He attended the Const.i.tutional talks in London in the early 1960s as an opponent of transfer of power to Africans and as a spokesman of Federal and Settler interests.

Regarded as the most powerful European settler after Sir Malcolm Barrow, Blackwood won the 1961 elections on the Federal ticket and, after Malawi became a republic in 1966, he a.s.sumed leaders.h.i.+p of the nominated non-African members of Parliament and also became chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, a position he held until 1973 when he retired from active politics. In 1979, he became senior state counsel, a major recognition for his distinguished legal career. During his tenure in Malawi, Blackwood held many other offices, including chairman of the Commonwealth Ex-services League of Malawi, registrar and chancellor of the Anglican Diocese of Malawi, president of the Nyasaland Society for the Blind, chairman of the Malawi Hotels and Tourist Board, and chairman of the Law Society. He retired in 1983, and on 1 February 2005, he died in Durban, South Africa. See also NYASALAND CONSt.i.tUTIONAL PARTY.

BLAKE, ROBERT. Ordained minister of the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa, Robert Blake opened mission stations of this church in 1894 in the Ngoni areas of Msakambewa and Kafanikhale, and at Chimbazi near Kongwe

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