Exactly 60 years ago, the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) held its conference from the 1st to the 5th August 1958 in Nkhatabay at the District Council hall.
The Conference opened its first session on Friday the 1st August to clear all preliminaries on the agenda until the afternoon of Saturday the 2nd August when Dr. Banda was brought in to join the conference.
Among other items of the agenda, the delegates at the conference endorsed Dr. Banda as the new President-General of the NAC following his return to Nyasaland the previous month.
Dr. Banda had been specifically called to come back home to lead the struggle for the independence of Nyasaland.
The conference gave Dr. Banda all the mandate to appoint new office bearers in the top leadership of the NAC and fill all the positions in the National Executive Committee (NEC) as he himself unilaterally deemed fit.
By this, the new top leaders of NAC who were instrumental in the drive to urge Dr. Banda return to Nyasaland and take over the leadership of NAC, hoped that Dr. Banda would confine himself to a symbolic leadership role while they wield the actual powers within the party, a decision which would soon be bitterly regretted by them.
Since Dr. Banda was unknown to most Africans, the NAC embarked on massive publicity drive countrywide to market Dr. Banda as a new brand and image of the struggle. Touted as the ‘greatest of Nyasaland’s sons and the equal to any European’ Dr. Banda’s popularity soared to the level of hero worship that soon culminated to the portrayal of Dr. Banda as the messiah.
To be continued…
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