Part 13 (1/2)

MISSIONS. It would be difficult to overestimate the influence of missionaries, especially the Scottish, who entered Malawi in the late 19th century. They preceded the establishment of the British Protectorate in Malawi and, as expected, supported the advent of British rule. Three societies, responding to David Livingstone's plea for Christianity and commerce, had sent delegations by 1875: the Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA), the Free Church of Scotland (Livingstonia Mission), and the Established Church of Scotland (Blantyre Mission). Three other Protestant missions were established between 1889 and 1892: the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), the Zambezi Industrial Mission, and Nyasa Industrial Missions (NIM). The Catholic Church did not establish permanent missions until the early 20th century. The Montfort Marist Fathers arrived in 1901 and the White Fathers reestablished in 1902 what they had failed to do in the 13 years before.

The UMCA was set up in England in 1859. This Anglican mission, headed by Bishop Charles F. Mackenzie, chose Magomero in 1861 to be its main base but, from the beginning, it faced immense problems arising from its location. Magomero was in the midst of a region in which the Yao looked for slaves, and the missionaries became involved in local politics, including anti-Yao activities. When Mackenzie died in January 1862, the rest of the missionaries moved farther down the s.h.i.+re Valley where they were joined by the new head, Bishop William Tozer. In 1864, it was decided to transfer the whole operation to Zanzibar, where it remained until 1885 when Likoma Island was chosen as the new UMCA headquarters. At the urging of William P. Johnston, the mission acquired a steamer to service the missions situated along Lake Malawi. By the end of the century the mission had a string of schools along the lake and, in 1899, it established St. Michael's College to train local teachers. In 1911, the impressive Likoma Cathedral was finished.

In 1875, the Livingstonia Mission of the Free Church of Scotland, headed by Dr. James Stewart and Robert Laws, established its base at Cape Maclear but, in 1881 it relocated to Bandawe farther north. In addition to the Christian message, the Livingstonia Mission concentrated on formal Western education, including technical and commercial training. In 1894, Laws founded the Overtoun Inst.i.tution at Khondowe, where teachers, clergymen, bookkeepers, clerks, masons, and carpenters were trained. The most active mission in education, by 1900, the Livingstonia schools taught most postprimary students and well over 50 percent of Malawi's primary pupils.

In 1876, Henry Henderson and his guide/interpreter Tom Bokwito began to build the Blantyre Mission of the Established Church of Scotland at a site given to him by Kapeni, the local Yao chief. In 1878, he was joined by other Scottish missionaries, including Rev. Duff Macdonald, who became its leader. The mission started badly, mainly because it adopted a civil administration policy that led to excessive behavior, including flogging, of Africans. In 1881, a Foreign Mission Committee commission of the church led to the dismissal of Macdonald and other missionaries. A different approach was adopted by the new head, David C. Scott and his a.s.sistant, Alexander Hetherwick. Scott preferred working with African evangelists, and three of his African colleagues became deacons in 1893: Joseph Bismarck, Rondau Kaferanjila, and Donald Malota. Scott found little support for his ”radical” views among European settlers. In 1898, he was forced to resign his post for health reasons, and Hetherwick a.s.sumed the leaders.h.i.+p. In 1909, the Blantyre Mission opened the Henry Henderson Inst.i.tute (HHI), which became an important educational facility, training Africans in the same areas as the Overtoun Inst.i.tute. In 1924, the Blantyre and Livingstonia presbyteries agreed to form the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP), a move originally suggested by Laws and later revived by Hetherwick. In 1926, the DRC presbytery joined the CCAP. The formation of the CCAP led to the appointment of African clergymen to various committees; for example, in 1933, Rev. Harry K. Matecheta became the first African moderator of the Blantyre presbytery.

Although Mvera (1889) in Dowa district was the first mission station of the DRC of South Africa, Nkhoma, in Lilongwe district, became the main center of this missionary society. Established by William H. Murray in 1896, Nkhoma developed into a major educational and health center, where teachers, church ministers, and health care workers were trained. From Nkhoma, the DRC expanded to other parts of central Malawi, including Mlanda and Mchinji, and had stations in Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

In 1889, the White Fathers order became the first Roman Catholic missionary group to arrive in Malawi, setting up a base at Mponda on the southern tip of Lake Malawi. After two years, they left for northern Zambia but returned in 1902. By 1904, the White Fathers had three permanent stations at Kachebere, Likuni, and Mua, and the Montforts had two missions, at Nguludi and Nzama. In the late 1930s, the White Fathers established stations in the northern province, starting with Katete in Mzimba district. Most of the White Fathers were French and, among the early leaders, were Bishops Louis Auneau, Joseph Dupont, and Mathurin Guilleme. It was not until 193738 that the first Malawi priests were ordained: Cornelio Chitsulo, Alfred Finye, and Andrea Makoyo.

There were some differences between the Catholic missions and the Protestant ones, the former being more hierarchical and authoritarian than most of the latter. There was not much movement among African priests to break away and form independent churches, such as happened at Livingstonia and Blantyre. At Roman Catholic missions, women were used more successfully, with nuns working full time with Malawi women and children, not just occasionally as the limited time of wives of Protestant missionaries allowed. Although the Roman Catholic missions were noticeably less able to recruit African males to the celibate priesthood, the convent life offered by the sisterhood had its appeal to Malawi women. Female recruits enjoyed status, a good education, and more independence than was allowed in a male-dominated secular society. The Scottish missionaries, more than other missionaries, were early in encouraging African aspirations and, in this way, greatly contributed to nationalism.

In the postcolonial period, missionaries representing different Christian denominations have increased in number and have come from North America, Europe, and African countries, such as Nigeria. Muslim missionaries have also increased in number, especially after the demise of Dr. Hastings Banda's government. See also BOOTH, JOSEPH; CHILEMBWE, JOHN; MALAMULO; RELIGION.

MITSIDI. Located just northwest of Blantyre, Mitsidi became the headquarters of Joseph Booth's Zambezi Industrial Mission (ZIM). Today, Mitsidi is part of greater Blantyre.

MKANDA. Located east of the Luangwa Valley and southwest of Mwase Kasungu, Mkanda was one of the more powerful Chewa chiefdoms in the 19th century. A century earlier, Mkanda, also the t.i.tle of the ruler, was subordinate to the Undi dynasty but had managed to gain autonomy. The military genius who was responsible for the growth of the chiefdom was Mkanda Chapongolera Mbewe, whose main reputation was a result of his ability to protect people by, among other things, housing them in large stockaded settlements. Mkanda directly controlled the center of the kingdom, but he a.s.signed adjacent areas to other groups, allowing them to collect tribute from Tumbuka, Chewa, and Nsenga populations. The ivory trade was also a factor in the growth of the Mkanda chiefdom.

MKANDAWIRE, DONTON (1939 ). Educationist and politician, Donton Mkandawire was educated at Zomba Secondary School, Domasi Teacher's College and the University of Western Australia, Perth. After teaching at Soche Hill Secondary School, he went to the University of Pittsburg, where he completed a PhD in educational testing. Upon his return in 1984, he joined the Malawi Examinations and Testing Board (MCTB), which he soon headed. When the Kamuzu Academy was established in 1981, Mkandawire was appointed to its board and became its chairman. In 1987, he was removed from the directors.h.i.+p of the examination board and, after a year, he left for the University of Botswana; three years later, he was appointed professor of education at the University of Namibia.

In 1993, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) government recalled him and offered him a cabinet position, minister of information and broadcasting. Not long after the elections he joined the United Democratic Front (UDF) and briefly became minister of education; later he would head a government-sponsored educational research organization. In June 1999, he unsuccessfully stood as UDF candidate for a Mzimba const.i.tuency, in the following year he replaced Mtembo Nzunda as chief executive of the Lilongwe city a.s.sembly. In 2009, he was elected member of the National a.s.sembly for Mzimba Central.

MKANDAWIRE, FRANK MAYINGA. Mayinga Mkandawire was a founding member of the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) Party and, with Mapopa Chipeta, its princ.i.p.al organizer while it was based in Lusaka, Zambia. Raised in Rumphi district, he went to local schools and to the University of Malawi, but went into political exile in Zambia, completing his studies at that country's main university in Lusaka. In 199193, he became actively involved in the movement for political reform; he and Mapopa Chipeta clandestinely sent literature into Malawi, demanding change. Through a newsletter, the Malawi Democrat, which later became AFORD'S organ, they further articulated the need for immediate reform. In 1993, Mayinga Mkandawire returned to Malawi, was elected to Parliament a year later, and, under the coalition arrangements between the United Democratic Front (UDF) and AFORD worked out in late 1994, Mkandawire was appointed minister of forestry, fisheries, and environmental affairs. In 1996, he was one of the AFORD officials who refused to leave government when requested to do so by his party and, in 1999, stood as an independent candidate in the Rumphi Central const.i.tuency but lost to Chakufwa Chihana, the leader of AFORD. Mkandawire died in the early 2000s.

MKANDAWIRE, GRANT MIKEKA (19231995). One of the leading Blantyre-based African businessmen, active member of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC), and cabinet minister, Mikeka Mkandawire was born at Mkombezi in the Chikwawa area of the Nkamanga plains of Rumphi district. His father, a Livingstonia-trained teacher, sent him to local schools and to Ekwendeni where he met future colleague in the NAC, Rose Chibambo, and where he completed primary school. He joined the King's African Rifles and saw service in East Africa. Upon demobilization, Mkandawire traveled south with a view to work in South Africa, but returned in Salisbury (now Harare), Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Back in Nyasaland in mid-1947, he worked for the bus company, the Nyasaland Transport Company (NTC), which had earlier employed Hartwell Solomon, who would soon be a close friend of Mkandawire.

In 1949, the two resigned from the firm and joined Trevor Construction, a business establishment with South African connections. In the following year, Mkandawire became an independent businessman, building a grocery store at Chichiri where some of his a.s.sociate businessmen, including Lali Lubani, Lawrence Makata, and James Mpunga, also operated. When Africans were forced to move out of the Chichiri area in the period 195657, Mkandawire established his business at Kanjedza, not far from where the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) stands today. This time, he added a hotel to his grocery enterprise. Mkandawire, like most other African entrepreneurs, was actively involved in nationalist politics. a.s.sociated with the radical wing of the NAC, he was, in the mid-1950s, president of the s.h.i.+re province of the party and was opposed to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and to Wellington Manoah Chirwa's and Clement k.u.mbikano's nomination to and entry into the federal Parliament. The Mikeka Hotel served as a venue for numerous NAC gatherings and was patronized by many African nationalist activists. In 1953, Mkandawire also became the founding secretary of the African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which aimed at protecting the interests of African businessmen and women. In the same year, Mkandawire became the secretary and publicist of the Supreme Council, a joint organization of the Council of Chiefs and the NAC.

Like many NAC activists, Mikeka Mkandawire was arrested and imprisoned without trial in 1959. Then at the 1916 general elections, he was elected to Parliament on the higher roll as a representative of the northern province. He was appointed minister without portfolio but resigned before independence in 1964 to study in Scotland. He returned a few years later and lived quietly in northern Malawi.

MKANDAWIRE, HARRY (1953 ). A Mzuzu-based businessman and politician, Mkandawire was active in the United Democratic Front (UDF) Party before joining the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2005, becoming its northern region's governor (administrator) and its deputy director of political affairs. In 2009, Mkandawire wrote to President Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika criticizing him for promoting the quota system in the country. He repeated the criticism at a public meeting on 14 November, noting the president's involvement in Mulhako wa Alhomwe, an ethnic cultural organization of his people. Later that month, Harry Mkandawire was arrested and charged with encouraging violence and attempting to destabilize the government. When released, Mkandawire remained unrepentant. He was expelled from the DPP and, in March 2011, Mkandawire formed a political organization, the People's Development Movement.

MKANDAWIRE, JIMMY BILLY MPONDA (1942 ). Once an influential Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) member of Parliament for Karonga north and son of the late Billy Mponda Mkandawire, a prominent local businessman, and rice and cotton farmer, Jimmy was born in 1942 at Kaporo, Karonga, and attended the Mwanjasi Primary School and Blantyre Secondary School. In 1963, he went to the United States to study civil engineering. Unable to return to Malawi because he had become identified with opposition politics, Mkandawire worked in the United States and continued with his studies, graduating with a PhD degree. A committed supporter of political reform, he joined forces with AFORD and, in 1993, returned to Malawi to campaign for the party. In the following year, he was elected to Parliament and, under the coalition arrangement with the United Democratic Front (UDF), he was appointed minister of works. When the working arrangement between the two parties broke down, Mkandawire left government but has remained an AFORD member of Parliament. In 1999, he was reelected to the National a.s.sembly but lost his seat in 2004. In 2009, he stood unsuccessfully as an independent candidate.

MKANDAWIRE MATUPI. Born in Nkamanga in Rumphi district, where he educated up to the primary level, village headman Matupi Mkandawire worked in Southern Rhodesia for most of the 1940s and early 1950s. In 1955, he was deported back to Nyasaland because of his involvement in politics. He continued with political activism and, in 1956, was elected to the Rumphi District Council as a representative for Nkhamanga ward. Mkandawire worked hard to set up branches of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) in Rumphi district, and became a close ally of Kanyama Chiume, the member of Parliament representing the northern province. He was briefly detained during the State of Emergency in 1959, and after the const.i.tutional changes two years later, he became one of the north's public relations officers for the Farmers Marketing Board. Within two years be became a member of Parliament for Rumphi West but, following the Cabinet Crisis of 1964, he supported the expelled ministers, was taken as a political prisoner, and died in detention, apparently soon after receiving the news that his twin brother had pa.s.sed away at home. As a village chief, Mkandawire had traditional authority and the respect that went with it. He was also an active member of the African National Church.

MKANDAWIRE, SIMON KAMKHATI. Founder of the African National Church, Mkandawire was born at Chitimba, Rumphi district, educated at the Overtoun Inst.i.tution up to the Standard 6 level, before going to work in the Belgian Congo. In 1928, he, Robert Sambo Mhango, and Paddy Nyasulu, also originally a.s.sociated with the Livingstonia Mission, founded the African National Church, which retained all the characteristics of a Presbyterian church, except for their lack of tolerance of polygamy. The African National Church strongly supported the aspirations of the African Welfare a.s.sociations. Today the church is known as the International African Church and has adherents in, among other countries, Zambia, Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania.

MKANDAWIRE, THANDIKA. One of Malawi's and Africa's leading social scientists and public intellectuals, Mkandawire spent his early years in Northern Rhodesia where his Mzimba-born father worked. He went to Zomba Catholic Secondary School and, in 195960, became an activist in the youth wing of the new Malawi Congress Party (MCP). He, Aleke Banda, and others founded the party's organ, The Malawi News, becoming a member of its editorial staff. Later he went to study at Ohio State University, completing his graduate studies in Sweden, where he earned his PhD. From the time of the Cabinet Crisis to 1993, Mkandawire was a wanted man in Malawi, primarily because the government and the MCP regarded him as a sympathizer of the exiled ministers. Dr. Hastings Banda personally denounced him as a dangerous person, forcing Mkandawire to remain abroad. He taught at universities in Europe, Africa, and the United States and for some time worked at the Zimbabwe Inst.i.tute of Development Studies. From the mid-1980s to late 1996, he headed the Council for the Development of Economic and Social Research in Africa (CODESRIA) in Dakar, Senegal. In 1997, Mkandawire became head of research at the Inst.i.tute of Economic and Social Research in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2009, it was announced that Mkandawire, one of the most respected African economists and African intellectuals, would become the first chair in African Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London.

MKANDAWIRE, YAPHET. Upon his ordination in 1918, Yaphet Mkandawire worked at Khondowe directly under Dr. Robert Laws. In 1927, he attained the distinction of being the first African treasurer of the presbytery and, in the following year, became minister to the Hara and Mlowe congregations, in the border region of modern Karonga and Rumphi districts. In July 1932, the hierarchy of the mission was informed that Mkandawire had been administered mphemba, a medicine that was believed to protect one from poison or bewitchment. Later that year, a committee that was set up to inquire into the report concluded that he had indulged in an evil act. Despite his good record as a minister and, although some advised that he only be reprimanded, Mkandawire was defrocked and suspended from the church. He reacted by resigning from the church and by establis.h.i.+ng his own church, which he called the African Reformed Presbyterian Church.

MKOCHI, REV. ANDREW. One of the leading Ngoni teachers, evangelists, and pastors in the Livingstonia Mission, Mkochi was the first person, in 1897, to open a school at M'mbelwa Chimtunga Jere's headquarters, with the new Ngoni leader as one of its students. In 1902, he was among the initial group of Ngoni-based evangelists appointed by Rev. Donald Fraser and, in the same year, he represented Hora at the north Livingstonia presbytery. In 1914, he finished theological training at the Overtoun Inst.i.tution and was licensed a year later and posted to Chinsali in Northern Rhodesia. Mkochi returned in 1917 and was ordained at Loudon in November that year. In 1924, he was a member of the Livingstonia delegation to the Blantyre synod, leading to the establishment of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP). Five years later, he was called to the Milala congregation at Engalaweni, just west of Mzimba boma. He would be the moderator of the extraordinary presbytery that suspended Charles Chinula from his ministry.

An influential member of the M'mbelwa Administrative Council, Rev. Mkochi suggested the t.i.tle Inkosi ya Makosi (kings of kings) for the Ngoni paramount ruler.

MKULITCHI, STEPHEN. A close a.s.sociate of John Chilembwe, planner of the uprising and, with David Kaduya, attacked the African Lakes Company (ALC) stores on Sat.u.r.day evening 23 January 1915. It was to his house that the European women and children from Magomero were taken to spend the night before they were rescued by the King's African Rifles (KAR). Mkulitchi hid in the Lake Chilwa area but was caught and shot.

MLANDA. Located almost halfway between Dedza and Ntcheu, not far from Lizulu, this became one of the major outstations and educational centers of the Dutch Reformed Church, training many future leaders of Malawi.

MLANGA, HARVEY (19281979). Born in Blantyre, Mlanga attended Henry Henderson Inst.i.tute (HHI) and Blantyre Secondary School. In the mid-1950s, he went to Salisbury (now Harare, Zimbabwe) where he joined the African Newspapers Group and became editor of African Weekly. He transferred to Blantyre and, in the 1960s, he worked for the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). In 1972, he joined the Blantyre Newspapers where he rose to the position of managing editor. Mlanga died in February 1979.

MLANGA, MARGARET JEAN NANYONI (1927?). She was born near Blantyre and was educated in local schools and the Women's Teacher Training College at the Blantyre Mission. A teacher and politician, Mlanga led the League of Malawi Women from the mid-1960s to 1975 when she was dismissed from the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and imprisoned for some time. Mlanga also served as a member of Parliament for Blantyre West and as parliamentary secretary in the office of the president.

MLELEMBA, PETER (?1945). Peter Mlelemba, generally known as Haya Edward Peters, was one of the most successful African entrepreneurs in colonial Malawi. Born in Blantyre, he was educated at the Blantyre Mission and the Mitsidi headquarters of the Zambezi Industrial Mission (ZIM). In 1905, Eugene Sharrer employed Mlelemba in one of his establishments but he left to become an independent businessman. First, in a joint venture with Mr. Ryalls, he tried to mine mica in the Kirk Mountains but, when the enterprise failed, he became a farmer, leasing land at Nangafungwe Estates of the British and East Africa Company, just on the northern side of Ndirande hill. Although his main occupation there was the timber business, Mlelemba also planted tobacco and chilies. He called his new firm, the PT Company. He bettered himself by registering at a correspondence college in London, and urged other Nyasalanders to also improve their education. In 1909, he was a founding joint secretary (with Mungo Chisuse) of the Native Industrial Union, formed to help the emerging African entrepreneurs in the area. Among the members were Joseph Bismarck, John Gray Kufa Mapantha, Harry K. Matecheta, and Thomas Maseya.

A close friend of John Chilembwe, Mlelemba, also an ivory trader, was out hunting elephants in Mozambique when the 1915 uprising broke, and, realizing that his a.s.sociation with its leader would not spare him from trouble, he fled to South Africa. Deported from the latter country on charges of political activism, he returned to Nyasaland in 1933. Mlelemba could not resume his businesses at Nangafungwe because they had been confiscated in his absence. For a brief period during the war, he worked at the Blantyre boma as a military head clerk, but he remained a poor man. Always politically aware, he was present at the initial Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) in 1944; he died on 24 June 1945.

MLONYENI. This is the t.i.tle of the Ngoni chief in the area of the same name in Mchinji district. The original Mlonyeni was the son of Somfula, a kinsman of Zw.a.n.gendaba, and had accompanied Mpezeni to the Luangwa Valley region; he was a.s.signed the area south of the Bua River, Mchinji, on the MalawiZambia border, which he ruled as Mpezeni's junior. It was in this area that the British built a fort, called Fort Manning, from which they launched an attack on Mpezeni. It was in Fort Manning that Mpezeni was imprisoned for over a year. Although traditionally the office of Mlonyeni remains junior to Mpezeni, in practice they are independent of each other, the former living in Malawi and the latter in Zambia.

MLOZI BIN KAZBADEMA. A Swahili-Arab, Mlozi achieved fame as the main adversary of the British in the Arab-Swahili War fought at Karonga. In 1879, Mlozi's partners in the Luangwa Valley asked him to set up operations in the Ngonde country on the Karonga lakesh.o.r.e from where they could transport their merchandise across Lake Malawi to the east coast of Africa. Initially, his relations with the Ngonde were cordial, but the situation became complicated when the British began to establish their presence in the region and, by the late 1890s, conflicts between the Swahili-Arabs, on the one hand, and the British and Ngonde, on the other, started. On 6 December 1894, the British defeated Mlozi and executed him.

MLUMBE. This is an area on the western side of Zomba Mountain ruled by Yao chiefs of the same name. The original Mlumbe settled in this Mang'anja region in the 1860s after he and Malemia had run away from the more powerful and combative Kawinga whose seat of power was in Chikala hills.

M'MBELWA. t.i.tle of the rulers of the Ngoni of northern Malawi, adopted after Mbalekelwa Chimtunga Jere succeeded his father, Zw.a.n.gendaba.

M'MBELWA AFRICAN ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL. Born out of the Jere Chiefs Council, the M'mbelwa Administrative Council was established in 1933 and was chaired by the paramount Ngoni ruler M'mbelwa II. One of the most successful Native Authorities in colonial Malawi, the council consisted of the M'mbelwa, the six Ngoni chiefs (amakosi), and five councillors (iziduna). The council had its own treasury, school system, and, within the provisions of the Native Courts Ordinance of 1933, a judicial system. It also developed business interests in commercial, agricultural, cattle, and the ghee industry. The M'mbelwa Administrative Council existed until 1961 when it was replaced by the M'mbelwa District Council.

M'MBELWA NGONI. See JERE, MHLAHLO, M'MBELWAI, INKOSI; NGONI; Zw.a.n.gENDABA.

MNTHABALA, AUGUSTINE. Educationist, founding member of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), and first vice president of the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), Augustine Mnthabala was educated in and taught at Kongwe Secondary School, Dowa district, before he was arrested and imprisoned without charge. Upon his release, he worked for the United States emba.s.sy in Lilongwe and, in 1992, became a founding vice president of the AFORD. Later he left the party and was appointed high commissioner to Namibia and transferred to the Malawi Mission in Paris, where he became amba.s.sador.

MOANO. Located on the Kapoche River, a tributary of the Zambezi, this was the headquarters of the Undi state.

MOIR, FREDERICK AND JOHN. Scottish brothers who were joint managers of the Livingstonia Central African Company, which arrived in the Lake Malawi area in 1878 and set up its headquarters about a mile from the Church of Scotland Mission in Blantyre. The Scottish company had been formed in response to David Livingstone's emphasis on Christianity and Commerce in Africa. The company and its headquarters came to be known as Mandala, which means spectacles, because John wore them; it changed its name to African Lakes Company and, later still, to African Lakes Corporation.

MONCKTON COMMISSION. This was a commission of inquiry appointed by the British government to review the future of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Chaired by Sir Walter Monckton, the 26 commissioners, including five Africans, had spent the period February to May 1960 gathering evidence in different areas of the Federation. Most Africans boycotted the commission because they a.s.sumed that the white majority on it would turn in a report favorable to the Federation. In fact, the opposite occurred. The Monckton Report noted the longstanding and widespread opposition to the Federation, and added that the union could not work without some measure of goodwill. The report recommended that, since the Federation was so disliked in its existing form, the British government should retain control over the future of the union, including the possible secession of any of its territories. This latter point sounded the death knell for the Federation.

MONKEY BAY. Known for its abundance of monkeys and located near the southern tip of Lake Malawi, this scenic bay is the main dry dock and operations headquarters of the princ.i.p.al lake transport system in Malawi. To its southeast and southwest are found many traditional fis.h.i.+ng villages, holiday resorts, and lakeside cottages.

MOXON, PETER MAJOR. A British farmer and supporter of African nationalist aspirations in Nyasaland, Moxon visited Dr. Hastings Banda in Ghana in 1957 and was one of the people who convinced the doctor to return to Nyasaland to lead the struggle for decolonization. After completing school at Malborough College, England, Moxon went to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, where he was commissioned into the British army. He saw service in World War II and, after retiring from the army, he began farming at Thondwe in Zomba district. Opposed to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, in 1961 he stood unsuccessfully as a higher roll Malawi Congress Partybacked independent candidate for s.h.i.+re North. Following the Cabinet Crisis in 1964, Major Moxon left the country for Zambia because he became a.s.sociated with the dismissed members of the cabinet.

MOYALE. Located on the EthiopiaKenya border, this was the site of a major Italian siege of a King's African Rifles (KAR) contingent consisting mainly of a detachment of the Nyasaland battalion. The Nyasa soldiers distinguished themselves during the siege (115 July 1940), and it is in honor of this battle that Moyale Barracks, Mzuzu, the home of the Third Battalion of the Malawi Rifles, is named. See also ARMY.

MOZAMBIQUE. The AngloPortuguese Treaty of 1891 established the boundaries between Great Britain's claim on British Central Africa and Portugal's ”province” of Mozambique. As a result of the agreement, nearly half of Malawi is surrounded by Mozambique, and many Malawians have families across the border. As the gateway to Nyasaland by sea, Mozambique would play an important role in the transportation system of Malawi throughout the 20th century. Beira, on the Mozambique coast, became the major port of Malawi when the Trans-Zambesia Railway was completed in 1922. As Malawi approached independence from British rule, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) policy was to attack Portuguese colonialism in Mozambique, particularly when it became clear that decolonization was not on Portugal's agenda.

This intense hostility against the Antonio Salazar government in the early 1960s was ameliorated by Jorge Jardim, an envoy of the Lisbon government, who began meeting with Dr. Hastings Banda on a regular basis. In 1962, Banda announced that although the Portuguese system was to be abhorred, he considered a policy of coexistence possible, much like that tolerated between the British and Americans with the Soviet Union. By 1964, Banda had appointed Jardim as Malawi's honorary consul at Beira. The Portuguese responded by negotiating a mutual trade pact and by permitting the construction of the Nacala railway, which was set to open in June 1970. These activities between Banda and Portugal were condemned by several of Banda's cabinet ministers and were a factor in the Cabinet Crisis in 1964.