Part 7 (1/2)

COLBY, GEOFFREY FRANCIS TAYLOR, KCMG (19011958). Governor of Nyasaland from 1948 to 1956, Colby was born in England in 1901 and attended Cambridge University, after which he joined the colonial civil service, his first posting being to northern Nigeria in 1925. By 1945, he had risen to the position of administrative secretary in the secretariat, Lagos, and, in 1948, he was appointed governor of Nyasaland. Colby is credited with developmental plans. .h.i.therto not experienced in Nyasaland; agriculture was at the center of the schemes. He retired in 1956, and died two years later.

COLLECTOR. In the early colonial period, this was the designation of the head of the district administration. They were termed collectors because central to their duties was the collection of revenue. This was later changed to resident and then to district commissioner.

COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT AND WELFARE FUND. Through the authority of the Colonial Development and Welfare Act of 1940, funds were made available to the British colonies for the use of development projects. In Nyasaland, programs such as the agricultural cooperatives and the Master Farmers Scheme of the 1950s benefited from the fund. See also COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION.

COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (CDC). Established in 1947 as a vehicle for harnessing agricultural and mineral development in the British empire, it was largely financed by public sources including those made available to it by the Colonial Development and Welfare Act of 1940. The CDC's first major project in Nyasaland was the development, from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, of tung estates in the Viphya Highlands and a subsidiary one, the Limpasa Dambo project in Nkhata Bay. The latter was intended to concentrate on rice production to feed workers in the tung growing region. Although both projects failed, Mzuzu grew out of the tung project, to the extent that in 1954 it replaced Mzimba as the headquarters of the Northern Province. As the British empire diminished, the corporation changed its name to the Commonwealth Development Corporation. In Malawi, it extended its activities but this time as a joint investor with local interests. Among the current projects are coffee and tobacco production. See also COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT AND WELFARE FUND.

COLONIAL GOVERNORS. See BRITISH COMMISSIONERS AND GOVERNORS OF BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA/NYASALAND.

COLVIN, Rev. THOMAS STEVENSON (19252000). Born on 16 April 1925, Colvin was a Scottish Presbyterian minister who joined the Blantyre synod of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) in 1954, serving mostly in Blantyre. Upon his return from leave in 1959, the Nyasaland and Federation governments refused him reentry into the colony because of his anticolonial and pro-African views. Between 1959 and 1964, Colvin was a missionary in Tamale, Ghana, but returned to the Blantyre synod in the year Malawi attained its independence from British authority. In 1968, he founded the Christian Service Committee of the Churches in Malawi, of which he became executive secretary until his retirement to Great Britain in 1974. In 1984, he went to work in Zimbabwe and, three years later, he returned to Malawi in the service of another nongovernmental organization. In 1990, Tom Colvin retired to Scotland; he died on 24 February 2000.

COMMON MARKET FOR EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA (COMESA). COMESA grew out of the Preferential Trade Area (PTA) for Eastern and Southern African States, an a.s.sociation of states with the purpose of promoting a free trade area, a customs union, a common market, and, ultimately, an economic community with some uniformity in economic policies. Although discussions leading to the PTA's formation go back to 1977, its establishment dates to 21 December 1981, when the heads of state of partic.i.p.ating countries met in Lusaka, Zambia, and signed the Preferential Trade Treaty detailing its aims and programs. At that stage, the signatories were the Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Somalia, Uganda, and Zambia; in the following year, they were joined by Burundi, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe. Rwanda became a member in 1984, the year of the organization's formal launching. In that year, the PTA inst.i.tuted its Multilateral Clearing Facility (Clearing House) to handle settlement claims originating from deals between member states but, from the beginning, this department was operationally problematic. The UAPTA (the monetary unit of accounting of the PTA), through which intraregional commerce would be articulated, equivalent to the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was introduced in the early 1990s, but it proved to be unpopular.

Under a new treaty, the 1994 PTA was replaced by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, and by that time the members.h.i.+p had increased to include South Africa, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire), and Angola. Malawi hosted COMESA's summit conference in December 1994, and President Bakili Muluzi has served a term as chairman of the organization. Malawian Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika replaced Bax Nomvete, the first secretary general of the PTA, in 1989 and oversaw its transition to COMESA. In 2009, Sondiso Ngwenya headed the COMESA secretariat.

COMMONWEALTH DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION. See COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION.

COMMUNICATION SERVICES. The communications network has expanded considerably since independence. Telecommunications services include telephone, telex, and telegraph. Most investments in equipment, plant, and buildings are in the major urban centers and are funded by British and Danish government loans. Virtually all districts in Malawi now have telephone facilities. Most rural exchanges are manually operated, but replacement by automated exchanges is continuing. International service improved greatly in 1976 with the introduction of direct satellite circuits to Great Britain and South Africa. That same year in Blantyre, a telecommunications training school began operation under the sponsors.h.i.+p of the United Nations International Telecommunication Union. Students from Malawi, Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland attended courses. The most recent international a.s.sistance has been used to fund the expansion of the rural telephone network, the BlantyreLilongwe microwave link, and the development of a national mail sorting and storage center.

Post offices and postal agencies are located in most areas, and the postal service enjoys a fine reputation because its deliveries are usually prompt. The postal services include the Post Office Savings Bank. Deposits are collected at post offices, and tax-free interest is also paid there. In 1994, the banking part of it became independent, and, under the name of Malawi Savings Bank, it a.s.sumed full banking services.

There is also now an increasing use of electronic mail (email) in Malawi. Malawi.net, a parastatal organization, was established in 1997 as the main provider of Internet services. Also government owned with the a.s.sistance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the Malawi Sustainable Development Network Programme. Others include the Globe Internet, Africa-Online, the Malawi Telecommunications Limited, and Zain, formerly Celtel. See also TRANSPORTATION.

CONFORZI, IGNACO. One of the most successful tea and tobacco growers and businessmen in Malawi, Conforzi was born in a landed family just north of Rome, Italy, in 1885. He trained in agricultural science and, in 1907, he became a manager in Nyasaland of one of the tobacco estates belonging to the British and East Africa Company. Two years later, Conforzi started his own tobacco plantation in Thyolo (Cholo) and other parts of the s.h.i.+re Highlands and, by the end of World War I, he was a major producer, selling most of his tobacco to the Imperial Tobacco Company (ITC). In the interwar period, Conforzi, with A. F. Barron and Roy Wallace, opened up large estates in the central region where they became pioneers in growing tobacco through the tenant system. Besides selling tobacco to the ITC and, later, to Gallaher Ltd. of Belfast, Northern Ireland, he and other Italians started a tobacco brokerage company, Clagget, Brachi & Co. Conforzi also established major tea estates in Thyolo, becoming one of the significant tea producers in the country. In addition, he became a leading blanket manufacturer, the brand name, Chiperoni, being particularly identified with the Conforzi family business. In 2001, the estate fell into liquidation, and two years later, the estate was bought by a Limbe-based Asian firm.

CONGRESS FOR THE SECOND REPUBLIC (CSR). Formed in 1964 by Murray William Kanyama Chiume, not long after he sought exile in Tanzania, the political party, whose members.h.i.+p is difficult to determine, was the subject of regular infiltration by Malawi's security agents. In 1994, Chiume returned to Malawi to contest the presidential elections. He and all his parliamentary candidates had lost. He was not a candidate in the 1999 general elections, and the Congress for the Second Republic is now extinct.

CONGRESS LIBERATION PARTY (CLP). Formed on 4 May 1958, by Thamar Dillon Thomas Banda, former secretary general and president general of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC), its agenda was in general similar to that of the main nationalist movement: one man one vote, independence, no color bar, and free education. However, it also reflected the moderate views of its founder: continuation and respect for the power of the chiefs and respect for private property. Although the political party did not achieve notable support, Thamar Banda attended the Federal Review Conference in London in 1960 and, unlike African delegates from the three territories of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, he attended the full conference. In March 1961, the CPL and Chester Katsonga's Christian Democratic Party (CDP) joined and contested the 1961 general elections later that year but lost, marking the effective demise of the political party.

CONSt.i.tUTION. In 1995, the current Const.i.tution of Malawi replaced the one that had guided the country during Hastings Banda's 30-year rule that ended in 1994. The earlier one had increasingly given authority to the presidency and, in 1971, was amended to make Banda president for life, thus allowing him to emerge as a dictator. According the 1995 Const.i.tution, the president would be the head of state and government and commander in chief of the armed forces (see ARMY). Every five years, the president and vice president are elected through universal adult suffrage, and the Const.i.tution allows the president to appoint a second vice president as long as he or she is from a different political a.s.sociation. This is what Bakili Muluzi did in 1994 when he appointed Tom Chakufwa Chihana as second vice president. The president also appoints the cabinet from within or without the National a.s.sembly, which consists of elected members who serve for five years. Although there are provisions for a Senate of 80 members to represent traditional rulers, regional interests, and special groups including the disabled, such a chamber has not yet been formed.

The Const.i.tution also provides for a viable local government system in all the 28 districts of the country. Although each district is headed by a career civil servant, appointed by the office of the president, district a.s.semblies are expected to deliberate on matters affecting their areas. Elections to such a.s.semblies must take place a year after the presidential and parliamentary elections. The first local government elections took place in 2000. Those that were supposed to take place in 2005 were postponed, just as the 2010 ones were deferred to April 2011.

The Const.i.tution stipulates that the judiciary must be independent and, since Malawi inherited the British judicial system, it has many features of the British bench's hierarchy: magistrates' courts, a High Court, a Supreme Court of Appeal, and the Const.i.tutional Court. The 1995 Const.i.tution left out the parallel traditional court system, which, with its less strict rules of evidence, enabled the Banda government to send cases to it, with almost certain conviction of the accused. This was the route that the government took to ensure that Orton Chirwa and his wife, Vera Chirwa, were imprisoned.

The 1995 Const.i.tution also ensures individuals of the protection of human rights and of their freedom of expression and a.s.sociation. Such provisions have allowed individuals to take the government and other powerful ent.i.ties to court whenever they believe their human rights had been violated. This is a major improvement on the situation in Banda's era when free speech and human rights were nonexistent.

CONVENTION OF a.s.sOCIATIONS. This was the coordinating body of all settler organizations in Nyasaland. Such a.s.sociations included the Planters a.s.sociations of Zomba and Mulanje, the Cholo Settlers a.s.sociation, the Nyasaland Council of Women, and the Cholo Tea a.s.sociation. It became a particularly powerful organization and had a direct influence on the colonial government. In time, a.s.sociations of residents who did not identify themselves as Africans also joined the convention. Organizations in the latter category included the Indian Employees a.s.sociation, the Sikh a.s.sociation of Nyasaland, and the AngloAfrican a.s.sociation of Nyasaland. See also WOMEN.

COOPERATIVES. As early as the 1920s, a European cooperative shop existed in Blantyre. Also, during the interwar era, African credit unions and brick-making cooperatives were a feature of urban centers, such as BlantyreLimbe, Zomba, and Lilongwe. However, agricultural cooperatives were a postwar phenomenon and were part of the policy of the colonial government to encourage self-sufficiency and discourage labor migration to the farms and mines of the Rhodesias and of South Africa. Among some of the successful agricultural cooperatives were the Kilupula Rice Growers Co-operative Union, the Ulambya Ghee Producers Co-operative Union, the Kasitu Valley Ghee Producers Co-operative Union, and the s.h.i.+re Valley Rice Growers Co-operative Union. Three years after independence, the government decided to disband all such organizations; it also closed the Department of Co-operatives, which had been in existence since 1945.

CORRUPTION. Corruption and mismanagement in the public sector have grown since the end of Dr. Hastings Banda's long rule. Although, primarily through patronage and nepotism, there was a measure of corruption during the era of his domination of Malawi, Banda was known to have a strong aversion to this practice. To ensure accountability in government and parastatal organizations, he personally selected chairpersons of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Public Accounts, and such officeholders showed him their annual reports first before tabling them in the National a.s.sembly. During his time, the laws regulating embezzlement of public property were very strict, and in most cases, those found guilty in court were imprisoned for a minimum of 14 years.

The political liberalization that followed the elections of 1994, which ushered in the United Democratic Front (UDF) government led by Bakili Muluzi, marked the beginning of an increase in corruption, financial mismanagement, and poor accountability. At the behest of external donors, mainly the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Parliament of Malawi pa.s.sed the Corrupt Practices Act of 1995, which created the Anti-corruption Bureau as an independent organ with powers to investigate and prosecute offenders. The bureau has investigated many cases, including the high-profile case of Samuel Mpasu, eventually leading to his imprisonment. Other cases, such as one that dogged Bakili Muluzi in his postpresidency era, were yet to be prosecuted in court in 2011.

In 1999, Malawi was ranked 45 on the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index, but, by 2001, the country had climbed to the 61st position, indicating a marked increase in corruption in the country. In 20012, donors, including the IMF, the World Bank, and the Danish government, suspended aid to Malawi on the grounds of corruption, bad governance, and overexpenditure in the public sector. In 2004, the last year of President Muluzi's presidency, Malawi had climbed up to the 90th position, in the company of Nepal, the Gambia, India, Russia, and Tanzania. When Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika became president of Malawi, he announced that combating corruption and mismanagement in the public sphere would be high on his list of priorities. However, the TI corruption index continued to ascend to 115 in 2006, 118 (2007), and 115 (2008). There was some improvement in 2009 when Malawi was 89th in the world. Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika continued to speak against corruption, but it became obvious that the practice was thriving and that it was difficult to prosecute powerful politicians. For its part, civil society has argued that corruption could be tackled effectively only with strong political will, including meaningful cooperation between the government and opposition parties, and many nongovernmental organizations are trying to encourage them to work together on this matter.

COTTON. In the early colonial Malawi, cotton was one of the major export crops, grown primarily in the Lower and Upper s.h.i.+re, Karonga, and Salima districts. Although some European settlers grew cotton, many indigenous people also produced it. Even after it was replaced by tobacco in importance, it remained a significant cash crop throughout the colonial period. Today cotton is extensively, but not exclusively, cultivated by farmers in the rural agricultural development projects in Karonga, Lower s.h.i.+re, and Central Lakesh.o.r.e. Production of medium staple cotton by the smallholder sector is bought by the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) and sold to the local textile industry, with any surplus cotton being exported. In the early 1980s, when producer prices favored maize, farmers lost interest in cotton. Since the late 1990s, cotton production has become a major aspect of the government program of the poverty reduction and growth strategy, and Malawi farmers now produce between 13,500 and 50,000 metric tons annually, just over half of which comes from the Lower s.h.i.+re. Three private companies-the Great Lakes Cotton Company, Cargil, and Iponga-form the Cotton Development a.s.sociation of Malawi and own most of the cotton gins, some of which are located at Karonga, Balaka, and Bangula. See also AGRICULTURE; BRITISH COTTON GROWING a.s.sOCIATION.

COUNCIL FOR NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN MALAWI (CONGOMA). Formed in 1992, this organization coordinates about 175 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Malawi. With the increase in the role of NGOs in civil society in the postHastings Banda era, CONGOMA has become a powerful partic.i.p.ant in Malawi's economy and politics.

CREECH-JONES, ARTHUR (18911964). Member of the British Labour Party and the Fabian Society, he was a shadow minister of colonial affairs during the time Clement Atlee was the leader of the opposition in Great Britain. He became secretary for colonies in the postwar Labour government, which also presided over the establishment of the Colonial Development Corporation. In 1947, he met with Dr. Hastings Banda and a deputation of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) and, as result of the meeting, funds were made available to the Nyasaland government for the establishment of the Dedza Secondary School and for the Domasi Teacher's College. Creech-Jones was strongly opposed to the introduction of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and he a.s.sured Nyasalanders that they would not be part of any such a.s.sociation. After he left office, he campaigned widely against it, but his successor, James Griffiths, was more sympathetic to the Federation scheme.

CROSS, DAVID KERR (18561935). Kerr Cross was born in Lanarks.h.i.+re, Scotland. He received his medical degree from the University of Glasgow in 1885 and that year left for the Lake Malawi region to work in the Livingstonia Mission. He was posted to Ncherenje in Mwenewanda, Ulambya, in today's Chitipa district, where he joined Rev. A. J. Bain. Chosen partly because it was on the Stevenson Road joining Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika, the site was near a malaria-infested area, and in 1886, his wife, Christina, died. When the mission was abandoned in 1889, he moved to Karonga where he was both pastor and doctor. In 1896, he joined government service, working in Zomba and Blantyre before going to Durban, South Africa, in 1902. He returned to Great Britain, where he died in 1935.

Cross was the first person to produce a medical report on the Karonga Lakesh.o.r.e. Among the common diseases he encountered were malaria, smallpox, goiter, syphilis (which he mostly a.s.sociated with the Swahili-Arabs), epilepsy, and meningitis; he also saw some cases of elephantiasis and filariasis, but no cases of tuberculosis. See also HEALTH.

CURRENCY. In 1971, Malawi adopted a modern decimal system and dropped the use of British pounds/s.h.i.+llings. The main unit of currency is now the kwacha (MK), which is divided into 100 tambala (t). Decimal coins have been issued: 1 t, 5 t, 10 t, 20 t, 50 t, and 1 k. Since the early 1980s, Malawi has experienced nearly yearly currency devaluations in order to become more compet.i.tive in the export market and to obtain additional a.s.sistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Each time the kwacha was devalued 12, 15, and even 20 percent. The average exchange rate of 198991 was MK2.75 per U.S. dollar, in 1993 MK4.4 per U.S. dollar, in 1997 MK18.28 per U.S. dollar, in 1999 MK43 per U.S. dollar, and toward the end of 2000, MK77.00 per U.S. dollar. It continued to lose value. In 2009, it was at MK140 per U.S. dollar, and in September 2011, it was MK160 per U.S. dollar. See also ECONOMY.

D.

DANCE. See MUSIC AND DANCE.

DEEP BAY. See CHILUMBA.

DELANY, EMMA BERTHA (18711922). Born in Florida, Emma DeLany was educated at Spelman Seminary (now Spelman College) in Atlanta, Georgia, and, after working as a matron at the Florida Inst.i.tute in Live Oak, the National Baptist Convention sponsored her as a missionary to the Lake Malawi region. She arrived in the s.h.i.+re Highlands in 1902 and began work at John Chilembwe's Providence Industrial Mission (PIM). With help from Ida Chilembwe, DeLany developed programs including sewing cla.s.ses for women. She was popular with the PIM congregation and, when she left in 1905, one of her devotees, Daniel Malekebu, followed her back to America. DeLany, with Landon Cheek, helped Chilembwe to organize his mission more efficiently. In 1906, she wanted to return to Nyasaland, but the colonial government denied her request. She remained in the United States raising money for African missions, and in 1912, she went to Liberia where she worked for the next eight years before retiring to America. She died on 7 October 1922, from ”hermaturic” fever.

DELEZA, WADSON BINI (1935?1998). Born in Chiradzulu and educated at Zomba Catholic Secondary School, Deleza became interested in politics while at school. Between 1958 and 1959, he was a prominent member of the Youth League, organizing support for the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) and its successor, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), among the youth of the country. In the early 1960s, Deleza went to the Haille Sela.s.sie University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and received an MSc degree in crop science from the University of Southern Illinois in the United States. From 1965 to 1971, he worked as a research officer in the Ministry of Agriculture and, in the latter year, he became a nominated member of Parliament for Chiradzulu and minister of labor. Two years later, he transferred to the Ministry of Transport and Communications, a post vacated by the dismissed Aleke Banda. Subsequently, he also served as minister of trade, industry and tourism but he later returned to the Ministry of Labour. By the mid-1980s, Deleza had become a senior cabinet minister and one of the more influential politicians in Malawi; he had Dr. Hastings K. Banda's confidence, and was even appointed administrative secretary of the MCP. Considered a hawk in matters concerning the democratization of Malawi, Deleza lost his seat in the 1994 elections, and he retired from politics to become a full-time businessman.

DEMOCRAT, THE. The Democrat or the Malawi Democrat was originally a pro-democracy newsletter published by advocates of change based in Lusaka, Zambia, and secretly transported to Malawi. Behind the newspaper were O'Brien Mapopa Chipeta and Mayinga Mkandawire both of whom were a.s.sociated with the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD). When the two moved to Malawi to campaign for multiparty democracy, they took with them the newspaper, which came to be identified with AFORD. A popular and hard-hitting publication, it became a tabloid but ceased operations in 1996.

DEMOCRATIC PROGRESSIVE PARTY (DPP). Formed in February 2005 shortly after its leader, Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika, left the United Democratic Party (UDF) on which platform he had won the presidential elections of May 2006. The DPP proclaimed that it would stand for, among others, freedom of expression and a.s.sociation, accountability in public service, human rights, and social and economic development. In the May 2009 general and presidential elections, the DPP won the majority of National a.s.sembly seats, and Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika was returned to the presidency. See also POLITICAL PARTIES.

DEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUITIES. This branch of government was created in 1967. The department is responsible for the preservation of local monuments, for researching local history, and for establis.h.i.+ng site museums. It is particularly active in publis.h.i.+ng the results of archaeological excavations, especially those of late Stone Age and Iron Age sites. The director of antiquities is an ex-officio member and secretary of the National Monuments Commission. Manned by highly trained local personnel, the department has on its staff archaeologists, paleontologists, and historians and is considered to be one of the most professionally organized and effective in Africa. Since 1987, the Department of Antiquities falls under a wider department headed by the commissioner of culture; the three sections of the latter department-Archives, Cultural Affairs, and Museums-are each headed by a director.

DEVLIN COMMISSION. Chaired by Sir Patrick Devlin, this commission was appointed to examine the incidents following the declaration of a State of Emergency in March 1959. In its report, made public in July 1959, the colonial government in Nyasaland was discredited for its autocratic behavior toward Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) members, some of whom, the commission admitted, had pursued violent actions. Although the commissioners stated that they had no evidence of a plot to ma.s.sacre Europeans in the colony, apparently there was informal talk among a few Congress members to murder some European officials if Dr. Hastings K. Banda was killed. The commission found that no formal plan existed and that Banda was not aware of any such plot. The Devlin Report was particularly embarra.s.sing for the government as it detailed instances of illegal force and unnecessary brutality. After interviewing Banda, the commissioners not only absolved him of any responsibility for the violence, but declared him an outstanding and dedicated leader of his people. Many members of the Conservative Party in Great Britain were not impressed by the report, and it is said that it may have cost Sir Patrick Devlin, a senior and highly respected judge, promotion to higher office.

DHARAP, M. G. This leading Indian general trader, founding member of the Nyasaland Indian Traders a.s.sociation and the Indian Chamber of Commerce, was originally a wholesaler but, by the 1950s, had established retail shops in almost every district of Malawi.

DIET. Most Malawian diets are based on the subsistence crops that they grow. A warm to hot thick maize flour (in some areas, ca.s.sava flour) porridge (nsima), usually served with a spicy relish, is common at a village meal, which, because of expenses, rarely includes any meat. In urban centers, the traditional diet is often supplemented with eggs, milk, bread, and meat. In the lakesh.o.r.e areas and other places with established markets, fish-dry and fresh-is a regular companion of nsima. Beer, often made from finger millet, is popular in both rural and urban areas. The necessity of balanced diets and good nutrition is being promoted in government educational programs, especially the radio broadcasts of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation. Nsima, in all its varieties, is also the main diet in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Rice is also eaten by many Malawians, especially in areas such as Karonga and Nkhotakota where it is grown. Sorghum and millet, once the staples, are now insignificant in the diet of the Lake Malawi region.

DISEASE. The disease pattern found in Malawi is common to many African countries, which have limited health services. Pneumonia, malaria, gastroenteritis, anemia, measles, and tuberculosis are the leading causes of death in Malawi, where average life expectancy at birth is 47 years. AIDS is also prevalent. Sanitation conditions are not always good: waste disposal tends to be unsatisfactory and water supplies are often contaminated. The Ministry of Health's program to teach principles of sound nutrition and good hygiene is frequently hampered by widespread illiteracy and poverty. Additional constraints include population growth (3.2 percent annually) and budgetary limits on the part of the Malawi government. In the past, Malawi has allocated 92 percent of its health expenditure to urban hospitals; it is hoped that the new emphasis on primary health care will enable more people to be served.

Through multilateral and bilateral aid and the a.s.sistance of nongovernmental organizations, such as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief and the Christian Service Committee of the Churches in Malawi, Banja La Msongolo, and the Christian Healtha.s.sociation of Malawi (CHAM), more attention is being paid to family planning services and child health as well as training Malawi health personnel in the prevention of common diseases. Particularly emphasized are childhood immunization, diarrhea control, malaria prevention, and nutrition monitoring. See also CHOLERA; JIGGERS; LEPROSY RELIEF a.s.sOCIATION.

DISTRICT COMMISSIONER (DC). From the 1930s, the princ.i.p.al administrators were called district commissioners and, besides ensuring the maintenance of law and order and presiding over the collection of taxes, they were also the magistrates of their divisions. District commissioners had to learn, and pa.s.s a test in, a designated Malawian language, usually ciNyanja (chiChewa). The DC's house would be the largest at the boma and, as the senior government official in his area and therefore also representative of the British Crown, a flag would be hoisted on his car whenever he was on official duty. The term district commissioner and the prestige a.s.sociated with it continued into the postcolonial era. See also COLLECTOR.