By Colin Cameron
Dunduzu Chisiza, Masauko Chipembere, Qabaniso Chibambo, Yatuta Chisiza at first MCP convention in September 1960 in Nkhotakota.
On the 3rd March, 1959, the Nyasaland Government declared a State of Emergency in the country as the rule of law was breaking down.
The Nyasaland African Congress was banned as an illegal organisation, and Emergency Regulations were imposed to enforce the State of Emergency.
Troops were brought in from the then Rhodesia to assist and support the local army and police in maintaining law and order. Many people died, and hundreds and hundreds of Nyasas were arrested and sent to prisons in Bulawayo (Khami), Gwelo and Marandellas – all without trial.
Also there were local concentration camps set up in the country for detainees e.g. Kanjedza in Limbe. I, myself, was a paid-up member of the Congress, maybe the only white member, but I was not arrested. I found myself appointed to run a Legal Aid Scheme, set up and paid for by the Government, to ensure that there was legal representation available to men and women charged with offences these Emergency Regulations.
That year, by chance, I was the Secretary of the Nyasaland Law Society, and in that capacity my appointment was made. Therefore I carried out this task with zeal, real enthusiasm and vigour. In conducting the defence in these trials, throughout the country, I always carried my NAC Membership Card. No Nyasa ever gave me away.
All other members of the Law Society, regardless of their political views, took part in this Defence Scheme at my insistence. I had been working with the Congress even before Doctor Banda returned to Malawi in 1958; the then Leader of the Congress was T. D. T. Banda from Nkhata Bay.
Around August, 1959, two Nyasas arranged a meeting with me in my Legal Office. My employer was Michael Blackwood, Leader of the Federal Party in Nyasaland and the arch opponent of the banned Congress. Therefore I suggested it would be more suitable that we had our meeting in my house at Kabula Hill in Blantyre.
This they readily agreed to and we met later that afternoon, after office hours. The purpose of the meeting became clear immediately, and it was to discuss a proposal of theirs to set up, during the State of Emergency, a new Nationalist Party. They wished me, as a lawyer, to check their proposed new Constitution so that it did not fall foul of the Emergency Regulations.
I had my copy of the Regulations, my copy of the existing Constitution of the now banned Nyasaland African Congress and they brought with them their own draft for the new proposed Party. The two men with this initiative were both well known to me – one, Shadrack Khonje, a teacher at Blantyre Secondary School, and the second was Augustine Nthambala from the Mission.
First of all I examined whether the Emergency Regulation contained any prohibitions of setting up a new and similar Party and whether there were any provisions under which you could construe the new one to the old and therefore it be illegal too. Fortunately no problem was found, and I said that from a legal point of view “go ahead and best of luck”.
We spent the next hour going over their draft of the new Party Constitution, to be entitled the “Malawi Congress Party” and I revised it as required to bring it in to a state suitable for Registration. They had told me that the new Organisation was to be open, and not in any way clandestine, despite the temptation to go down that road. We then had a general discussion as to how they would go about setting it up, and encouraging Membership on as broad a basis as possible throughout the country.
One principle they had was that on Doctor Banda’s eventual release from Gwelo Prison he would be offered the Presidency and Leadership of the Party. The revised Constitution was then taken by Shadrack and Augustine for Registration by themselves. Because of the Emergency difficulties it was mostly supported in the south and the numbers were initially relatively small.
However, shortly afterwards Aleke Banda was released from Khami Prison, and he used his considerable skills in developing the new Party as did Orton Chirwa on his release. Between them the new Party and Organisation multiplied throughout the country with Orton as the President but on the strict understanding that on the release of Dr. Banda from prison he would pass over the Leadership to him.
That is what happened when Iain McLeod, the then Colonial Secretary, released Kamuzu on 1st April, 1960, and as the saying goes “The Rest is History”. I myself became an early Member, but after its development with Aleke and Chingoli I let it lapse, by agreement, as my initial purpose had been achieved.
It was in this way that in the 1961 Elections when Kamuzu asked me to stand in them, and for the Constituency of Soche, that I was able to do so as an “Independent” as did a few other like minded Europeans in different higher role Constituencies. As it happened I was the only one to be successful.
Only for information my house at that time in Kabula Hill is now the home of the well known charity known as “Open Arms Orphanage” and substantially supported by its base in Harrogate and by other donors.
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Written on 6th March 2018.
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