By Dr. Louis Nthenda.
Most readers may not be familiar with the events of the 1960s which led to Thandika losing his passport and nationality.
I have a letter written in real time in 1967 during one of the many crises by a British Lecturer in Geography (then at the University of Malawi) to his parents. I had known him at Oxford and he has been kind enough to entrust me with his correspondence.
Are there any surviving University of Malawi (Unima) students who lived through this particular crisis and others during Chanco Chichiri? I would like to hear from them. Here are some excerpts of the letter:
Dear …
A new crisis has arisen for the University — in one way it’s a continuation of the old one. …. On Monday afternoon, it was learned that 8 students had been ordered to return to their villages by the President.
No reason was given except that it was on security grounds, and those concerned were to be off the campus by the next morning. I was just back home when I heard the news. Roger Tangier and the Williamses drove to my house to tell me. We all went on to visit other members of staff to discuss the matter. Eventually several of us ended up in the Central Bar but fortunately noone made any loud fuss to attract the attention of the other customers to the fact that we were cursing Banda.
In between visiting the various houses and going for a drink I stopped at the University the back way and found one of the victims in his hostel.
This one was Mr H.K.Ngoma who had been headmaster of Chiradzulu Secondary School before coming into the second year and I taught him Geography. He is nearly 40 years old and has several children. He had given up nearly everything to try to obtain his degree and certainly was a most able and well-liked student. I asked him what had happened — I had heard most of the information already and he confirmed the story.
Mr Msonthi, Chairman of the University Council, and Minister for Transport, Communications and Works was delighted to inform the eight. He said that he hadn’t known what they had done but advised them to say nothing (nor) organize support for themselves. Already, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Ian Michael, had refused to be the agent of dismissal as there was nothing against them on academic grounds. Ngoma asked me not to do anything for him at all and asked me to thank Prof Agnew and Dr Hutcheson for teaching him.
He said if there was interference he might not even reach home. I hope he was being over-cautious because of his family; one hears of dreadful “accidents” and some must be true.
Then Tuesday morning Dr Ian Michael addressed the surviving students.
Altogether since the end of last term we have lost 18 out of 186, mostly for political reasons. He explained that the 8 were not expelled by the University and he had told Kamuzu only the Government would be held responsible for the removal, not this University. There were no questions.
The staff of Chancellor were present and arranged a meeting for all University staff, including Soche Hill, the Polytechnic and Mpemba to be held at 4:30 pm to be addressed by the V.C. Meanwhile the common denominators were searched for to discover the reason for the expulsion.
Five of the 8 had been on the Debating Society Committee; one was Chairman of the Students Union (the previous one was expelled last term for misbehaviour which the Dean found beyond the pale). Other features: most are from the North; 5 were at Dedza Secondary School; 4 lived at Nkhata Bay and 4 lived in the same small prefab another inmate of which has just fled to Dar es Salaam.
However, it’s not believed that they were involved in activities designed to overthrow the Government, though no doubt they opposed it. It was the Debating Society which had invited Ministers to debate the subject of the one party state, something which previously fanned up Dr. Kamuzu Banda’s wrath.
It is assumed that Dr. Kamuzu Banda doesn’t see the students sufficiently cowed by the earlier campaigns on MBC, in the Malawi News, and in public. At lunch time a hastely scrawled student notice appeared in the main entrance. It read:
For the sake of money we will keep the University going !!!!
Memebers of staff, do you also follow this statement?
If so, there will be no co-operation between you and us.
We fear that you may betray us. But mind you that at the end you will teach tables. For we are picked like pennies on the road.
Another … student notice which I didn’t see said: “ Beware the Ides, that (sic) March – beware the tyrant is trying to close the University.”
When the 4:30 meeting came we were in for more shocks. Dr Kamuzu Banda had suddenly decided that the site of the University in Zomba was in the wrong place —
Then a third bombshell was that Rich Abrahams, the American administrative assistant to the Vice-Chancellor, has just had his contract terminated, which means deportation. So 8 students and 1 member of staff. Better than last time, eh? No reason given.
Many people made suggestions and observations for two hours but it diddn’t really seem to get us anyhwere. We seemd to be living in a lunatic asylum where the patients guard the nurses. I told them that the students, at least one of them, had been genuinely worried at the possibility of being helped by anyone because of what more might befall hm.
I had pomised him that I would tell the rest of what he had asked. Secondly I read out my copy of the students’ notice saying that nobody had taken notice of what the students thought or would do … before it was taken down. It would be wrong to say that the staff don’t care …
Eventually it was decided to send a delegation of four to the special meeting of the University Council which was held this morning. 72 people signed the request for the delegation to be accepted.
Note: Soon after this 1967 event, the writer of this letter was himself declared a prohibited immigrant and deported. Dr. Kamuzu Banda’s system was one of equal opportuniy and didn’t differentiate: university administrators, teachers and students were equal victims.
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