Part 12 (2/2)
The government recognized that regional development had to be balanced and it promoted new industries in Lilongwe and, to a lesser degree, in Liwonde. As Asians moved to designated areas of urban Malawi in the 1970s, Malawians who wanted to take over Asian businesses had access to government training in basic management skills. Through the Malawi Development Corporation (MDC) and the Investment and Development Bank of Malawi (INDEBANK), the government tried further to stimulate industrialization. In the late 1990s, the Malawi government began to privatize some of the industries managed by parastatals, even those directly a.s.sociated with the MDC. A significant number of the establishments that the MDC owned previously have been bought by Asian businessmen, many of whom have since the late 1980s come to dominate the manufacturing industry. Taking advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the trade arrangement between the United States and African countries, many such entrepreneurs have invested in the apparel industry. Besides bilateral trade with countries such as South Africa and Zimbabwe, Malawi is also a signatory of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States/European Union (ACP/EU) Economic Partners.h.i.+p Agreement, and such accords have a.s.sisted the small manufacturing industry to survive and thrive.
Although processing of agricultural produce, such as tobacco, tea, sugar, coffee, and cotton, dominates the manufacturing sector, Malawi also produces, among others items, edible oils and fats, blankets and rugs, mineral water, alcohol (including some spirits), bricks and roofing tiles, textiles, retread tires, fis.h.i.+ng nets, cattle food stuffs, flour, matches, bicycle frames, and agricultural implements. See also TRADE.
MAPANJE, JACK (1944 ). Scholar of linguistics and one of Malawi's leading writers/poets, Mapanje was born in Makanjira's area, Mangochi district. He went to local primary schools, to Zomba Catholic Secondary School, and to Soche Hill College where he qualified as a teacher. After teaching for some years, he entered Chancellor College, University of Malawi, where he majored in English. In 1971, he went to the University of London and, two years later, he was awarded an MPhil in linguistics. He returned to teach at the University of Malawi but, within three years, he was back in London at University College to complete his graduate studies for which he was awarded a PhD. He then taught at the University of Malawi and was head of its English Department until 25 September 1987, when he was arrested and confined at Mikuyu Prison without charge. His arrest caused much international protest from individuals and organizations such as International PEN, the worldwide a.s.sociation of writers.
Mapanje remained in prison until 1991, when he was released. He and his family left for England where he taught at the University of York before joining the English Department at the University of Newcastle. Mapanje is a recipient of many literary honors, including the Poetry International Award, and is the author of, among others, Of Chameleons and G.o.ds (1981), The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison (1993), and Skipping without Ropes (1998). He has also held many important offices, including chair of the Linguistic a.s.sociation of Southern Africa Development Co-ordination Conference (SADCC) Universities. See also LITERATURE.
MAPANTHA, JOHN GRAY KUFA. See KUFA, JOHN GRAY.
MAPLES, BISHOP CHAUNCY (18521895). Born in Middles.e.x, England, Maples went to Charterhouse School before going to Oxford University. He graduated in June 1875, and in October was ordained deacon. In the following year, he joined the Universities' Mission to Central Africa as a missionary and left for Zanzibar, where in September he was ordained as a priest. In 1877, he was transferred to Masasi and Newala on the eastern side of Lake Malawi, and in 1886, he became archdeacon of Nyasaland and was posted to Likoma. With Father William P. Johnson, he established many schools on the eastern sh.o.r.es of the lake and at Likoma and Chizumulu. In June 1895, he was consecrated bishop of Likoma, but he drowned in Lake Malawi when the boat taking him to Likoma capsized.
MARAMBO. Located in a major elephant area greatly favored by Swahili-Arab ivory traders, Marambo, with Chasefu, became one of the important Livingstonia Mission stations in the Luangwa country inhabited by the Senga and Tumbuka speakers.
MARAVI. This was a state system established in the Lake Malawi area in the 16th century. Led by the Phiri matriclan, the headquarters of the state was at Manthimba or Maravi, not far from the southwestern sh.o.r.es of Lake Malawi. With the t.i.tle of Kalonga, the Maravi rulers expanded southward to the Lower s.h.i.+re, westward to the LuangwaZambezi valley regions, and northward to Tumbuka and Tonga countries.
MASEKO, MPUTA. Son of Ngwane Maseko of the Swazi section of the Nguni peoples, Mputa led (in the 1830s) the northward migration of the Maseko Ngoni to the Songea area across the Rovuma River where they came in conflict with Zulu Gama's successors. Under the leaders.h.i.+p of Mputa's brother, Chidyaonga, and, later, Mputa's son, Chikusi, the Maseko Ngoni settled in the NtcheuDedza region in the 1860s and 1870s.
MASEYA, REV. THOMAS MPENI. Maseya was one of the first students at the Blantyre Mission school and was also one of the initial lay preachers. In 1894, he and other deacons, including Harry K. Matecheta and John Gray Kufa Mapantha, went to Lovedale Missionary Inst.i.tute for further training. Later he was ordained minister and served in various parts of the s.h.i.+re Highlands. Maseya was an active member of the Blantyre Welfare a.s.sociation and the Southern Province Welfare a.s.sociation.
Ma.s.sINGIRE UPRISING. See MATEKENYA (PAUL MARIANO II).
MATAKA, GORDON. Of Yao affiliation, Gordon Mataka joined Joseph Booth at Mitsidi in 1892 and, with John Chilembwe, Morrison Malinki, and others, became one of the early Africans a.s.sociated with the Zambezi Industrial Mission (ZIM). In 1896, he was one of the local people involved in Booth's African Christian Union, including the proposed Mlonda estate. In the same year, Mataka accompanied Booth to Durban, South Africa, but while there, their relations.h.i.+p changed as the Yao, influenced by Zulu opinion, became increasingly suspicious of Europeans as collaborators. Mataka and Booth never regained their former warm relations.h.i.+p.
MATAPWIRI. He was a Yao chief who, in the 1860s, settled in the area between Mulanje and Matapwiri from which position he controlled trade between the east coast and the s.h.i.+re Highlands. He became a major foe of the British whose authority he much resisted until his defeat in 1895. His successors a.s.sumed the same chiefly name.
MATECHETA, REV. HARRY KAMBWIRI (?1963). This distinguished church minister became one of the first Malawian members of the Blantyre Mission even before the site of it was identified. As Henry Henderson and Tom Bokwito stopped in his village while looking for a place to build the mission, Matecheta joined them, becoming one of the early converts to Christianity and one of the first students at Blantyre. Upon his baptism, he added ”Harry” to his name and, upon completion of his schooling, he became a teacher and preacher. In 1893, he established a substation at Nthubi in the country under the Maseko Ngoni. He returned to the area in 1898 and was there for many years to the point that he came to be known as the Yao missionary to the Ngoni. He gained the confidence of Inkosi Gomani I, ruler of the Maseko Ngoni, and was a frequent visitor to their Lizulu headquarters. In 1907, he became a student at the new theological school in Blantyre, completing the course in 1911, and on 9 April 1911, he was ordained a minister, four days before Stephen Kundecha, thereby becoming the first Malawian clergyman in the Church of Scotland. In 1951, he published a history of the Blantyre Mission, t.i.tled Blantyre Mission: Nkhani ya Ciyambi Cace.
MATEKENYA (PAUL MARIANO II). This leading prazero (owner of a large estate in preWorld War Portuguese Mozambique) was a dominant player in the politics and economy of the Lower s.h.i.+re Valley and part of the s.h.i.+re Highlands for a major part of the 19th century. Paul Mariano II built on a foundation laid by the first Paul Mariano, a Goanese from India, who used Quilimane as a base, and had traded in ivory, gold dust, and slaves in Mozambique. In 1854, Paul Mariano II and his brother, Bonga, led a successful conquest expedition to the s.h.i.+re River region, and from then until the 1880s, he and his offspring would dominate the area between the confluence of the Zambezi and the s.h.i.+re rivers in the south and the upper Ruo River near Mulanje. Behaving like a chief, Mariano changed his name to Matekenya; he and his Chikunda a.s.sistants engaged in the ivory and slave trade and terrorized the local people who opposed him.
Matekenya's relations.h.i.+p with the Portuguese was tense, largely because it was felt that he was claiming dominance in an area that was theirs. In 1858, the Portuguese authorities imprisoned him twice, on a variety of charges; during the second time, he escaped from prison, reorganized his army of Chikunda retainers, and, in 1861, fought off a Portuguese attempt to rearrest him. With guns already in his possession and those he seized from soldiers sent to apprehend him, Matekenya and his well-equipped army moved farther north to the Chironje area of the s.h.i.+re, where he stepped up his slave raiding activities, this time in the mainly Mang'anja territory. In 1862, he defeated Chief Tengani's army, killing the chief, and proceeded to ransack the Khulubvi of M'bona. Although Matekenya died in the following year, his followers continued to be a menace in the s.h.i.+re region as far north as Mulanje.
Both Matekenya's successors, Paul Mariano III and Paul Mariano IV, took the name Matekenya and, in the main, behaved much as he had done, trading in ivory and slaves and, with the help of guns, imposing themselves on local populations. Also, like him they were always keen to cooperate with incoming Europeans in an attempt to isolate the Portuguese. It was not long before the Kololo and the Matekenya clashed. As the former moved into Ma.s.singire (Matchinjiri), as the area under Matekenya came to be known, the hitherto invincible prazero could not contain them. Unimpressed by this poor show of confidence, the Chikunda surrendered Paul Mariano IV to Portuguese officials and, in 1881, he was killed at Mopea en route to Quilimane. The Portuguese now went to the aid of the Chikunda in Ma.s.singire and, in May 1882, raised a flag at Pinda, next to the Kololo area. The Portuguese authority was short lived, however, as in 1884, the people of Ma.s.singire rebelled, citing an excess of Portuguese rule, including the tax system, lack of respect for local custom and tradition, and meddling in the appointment of chiefs, such as Paul Mariano's successor. They destroyed Portuguese property, stole some of it, and proceeded to do the same to that of other Europeans, including the African Lakes Corporation (ALC).
The Ma.s.singire uprising forced the ALC to strengthen its alliance with the Kololo; the missionaries and the British government used it as an excuse to pay closer attention to Portuguese expansionist ambitions into the Lake Malawi region, which many British were beginning to consider as falling within their ”sphere of influence.” On their part, the Portuguese began to establish closer links with the Yao, whose relations with the missionaries were at times cool.
MATENJE, d.i.c.k TENNYSON (19291983). An educator turned politician, Matenje was born near Blantyre in 1929 and was educated at the Henry Henderson Inst.i.tute (HHI) and Blantyre Secondary School and qualified as a higher grade teacher at Domasi Teacher's College. He also furthered his education at the University of Bristol, England, the University of Ottawa, Canada, where he established a reputation as a fierce debater, and University of Western Australia, Perth. He served as headmaster of Soche Day Secondary School and, later, was a.s.signed to the Ministry of Education headquarters. In 1971, he became a member of Parliament for Blantyre and, in the following year, was appointed to be minister of education. After a few years, he was transferred to the Ministry of Finance and, later, to Trade, Industry, and Tourism. In the late 1970s, he returned to the Ministry of Education, to which portfolio was added Youth and Culture. More significantly, in 1981, Matenje became minister and administrative secretary of the Malawi Congress Party. In 1983, he and three other politicians were killed in Mwanza district. See also MWANZA ACCIDENT AND TRIALS.
MATEWERE, GRACIANO, MSM, BEM (19262001). Commanding officer of the Malawi army from 1972 to 1980, General Matewere enlisted in the King's African Rifles in 1947 and saw service in Malaya during that colony's state of emergency. In August 1964, he was commissioned as lieutenant in the Malawi Rifles and in 1969 was promoted to brigadier, second commander of the First Malawi Rifles, and deputy army commander. In 1970, he became commanding officer of the First Malawi Rifles, and two years later, he was elevated to major general and was appointed army commander, the first Malawian to occupy this position. In 1980, he retired from the army, and for some time was a security officer at the Sugar Company of Malawi (SUCOMA).
MATINGA, CHARLES (1901?). A member of the Blantyre Native a.s.sociation, he became vice president of the Nyasaland African Conference (NAC) in 1944 and, on the death of Levi Mumba a few months later, Matinga took over the leaders.h.i.+p of the party. He resisted Dr. Hastings Banda's efforts to streamline the administrative and financial ends of the Congress. In 1948, he was relieved of his position for alleged mismanagement of Congress funds. He later left to live in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).
MAXWELL, WILLIAM ALEXANDER (18831963). Cotton planter and owner of a ginnery, Maxwell was born in 1883 in Dumfries.h.i.+re, Scotland, where he trained as a carpenter. In November 1902, he went to Nyasaland and, in the following year, the African Lakes Company (ALC) employed him as a carpenter and miller and, from 1908, as a general handyman, a position that took him to most parts of the colony where the company had property. Just before World War I, he became a cotton planter in the Ngara-Nyungwe area of southern Karonga district and, during that war, he joined the Nyasaland Field Force and was part of the contingent that engaged the Germans at Karonga. After the war, he concentrated on cotton and on operating a ginnery, which had originally belonged to the British Cotton Growing a.s.sociation (BCGA). Maxwell died in Blantyre and was buried at his Nyungwe farm.
MBANDE HILL. Sacred hill and ritual center of the Ngonde. In the past, the area around it was the traditional headquarters of Ngonde rulers; earlier still, it was the seat of the Simbowe, whom the Kyungu dynasty overthrew at the beginning of the 17th century.
MBEKEANI, JANET. See KARIM, ZEENAT JANET.
MBEKEANI, WALES NYEMBA. Respected public servant and businessman and politician, Mbekeani was born in Ntcheu district and trained as a social welfare officer. He was also active in the politics of decolonization and, after independence in 1964, he became a diplomat, serving as amba.s.sador at a variety of Malawi's missions. In the early 1970s, he returned to Malawi and became general manager of the Malawi Housing Corporation. In the early 1980s, he retired, becoming a farmer and businessman. In the early 1990s, President Hastings Banda appointed him to the cabinet as minister of commerce and industry, a position he retained until the elections in 1994, when he returned to being a full-time businessman.
MBOMBWE. Home of the Providence Industrial Mission (PIM) established by John Chilembwe in 1900. Located just south of Chiradzulu boma, it was a catchment area for European labor seekers, including the nearby A. L. Bruce Estate managed by William J. Livingstone, and was also in the heartland of thangata country. When Daniel Malekebu returned to Malawi in 1926 to take over leaders.h.i.+p of the PIM, Mbombwe remained the headquarters of the church.
M'BONA. This territorial religious medium has its chief shrines in Thyolo and at Khulubvi. M'Bona is concerned with the larger good of the community, including prevention of droughts, epidemics, and floods. For centuries, the M'Bona cult has been a.s.sociated with the Mang'anja people now in the Lower s.h.i.+re Valley. In the 14th century, the Mang'anja peoples intruded upon the Kafula inhabitants, seizing their shrine. Shortly thereafter the Phiri clan imposed its seniority, with the s.h.i.+fts of power within the Phiri hierarchy giving way in the 16th century to paramountcy by the Lundu. Each political takeover of the area included the appropriation of the cult and all its myths and rituals. Christian missionaries in the 19th century viewed the cult negatively, although both shared common points of a creative and powerful G.o.d, specialized priests, and prophetic traditions.
Mb.u.mBA. In matrilineal societies, mb.u.mba refers to dependants within the matriclan. The nkoswe is the guardian of the mb.u.mba. In patrilineal society, mb.u.mba would refer to dependants within the patriclan. President Hastings K. Banda viewed himself as the nkoswe of all the women in Malawi and he called them his mb.u.mba.
MCHAPE. This witchcraft-eradication movement began in the Mulanje district and swept through Malawi in 1933. The leader in Mulanje was Bwa.n.a.li Mpulumutsi (Bwa.n.a.li the Saviour); he and others like him conducted ma.s.s-cleansing ceremonies in villages for the purpose of eradicating or purging areas of all evil. Those villagers declared to be witches or sorcerers were given a medicine to cleanse them of their sins. The movement, which spread to neighboring Zambia and Tanganyika, was apparently fed, in part, by the various Christian churches' failure to vanquish evil (see MISSIONS). Newly initiated Christians believed that their new religion would end the rivalries and differences extant in their society. As AIDS has become a factor in the lives of many communities in Malawi, mchape-like personalities claiming to posses the ability to cleanse society of the evil of AIDS have appeared.
MCHINJI. See FORT MANNING.
MGAWI, KILLION GIBSON KAPOLOSALANKHULA (1931 ). One of the most distinguished pastors in the synod of Nkhoma and in the Church of the Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) in general, Rev. Mgawi was born in Chauwa near Nkhoma in Lilongwe district. His father, a first generation convert, was a full-time preacher in the Dutch Reformed Church and, after theological training and ordination in 1936, served at various stations in the district. As a result of this, Killion Mgawi went to several schools, including Nkhoma Boarding School, where among his teachers were Namon Katengeza, Samuel Ntara, and J. Lou Pretorius. After the Standard 3 level in 1946, he transferred to Kongwe Middle Primary School where he completed his primary education. In 1949, he returned to Nkhoma to train as a teacher and, upon qualifying as an English grade teacher in 1951, he taught for one year. In 1952, he went back to Nkhoma to join theological college with a view to becoming a pastor and, four year later, he graduated, was ordained, and was posted to Dzenza congregation in Lilongwe district. Three years later he moved to Mvera, and while there he spent some months in England, Ireland, and Scotland. Upon his return, he was posted to Mphuzi in Dedza district and was attached to the nearby Chongoni Leaders.h.i.+p and Youth Centre.
From 1963 to 1968, Mgawi was general secretary of the Nkhoma synod, the first Malawian to hold the office, and in 1968 he became traveling secretary of the Student Christian Organization (SCO). Between 1972 and 1998, he served his synod, the CCAP, and the country in various capacities: as moderator of the Nkhoma synod, chairman of the Christian Council of Malawi, the Evangelical a.s.sociation of Malawi, the Malawi Council of the Handicapped, and chair of Ches.h.i.+re Homes. He was also a member of several organizations, including the National Library Service, the 1992 Malawi National Referendum Commission, and International Observer to the 1994 South African elections. During this time, he served as a minister at Nkhoma and Mvera, and completed a bachelor of theology degree at the University of the North in South Africa. In 1998, he was invited to be minister at Kasungu, and that was his last position before retiring from church ministry.
MGWIRIZANO. Mgwirizano, which in chiChewa means cooperation or working together, was an alliance of seven parties for the purpose of contesting the presidential elections of May 2004. They were formed at the behest of some Christian clergy, mainly the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP), the Catholic Church, and the Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA), which were concerned with the multiplicity of opposition parties and the lack of a viable candidate to present an effective alternative to the ruling United Democratic Party's (UDF) presidential nominee. Although, initially, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the National Democratic Alliance led by Brown Mpiganjira, were supposed to be part of Mgwirizano, they did not sign the cooperation agreement. In the end, the alliance members were the Malawi Democratic Party, the Malawi Forum for Unity and Development, the Movement for Genuine Democratic Change, the National United Party, People's Progressive Movement, People's Transformation Party (PETRA), and the Republican Party whose leader, Gwanda Chakuamba, became Mgwirizano's presidential candidate. The alliance lost to the UDF's Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika, whose share of the vote was 35.9 percent. John Tembo of the MCP had 27.1 percent and, with 25.7 percent of the vote, Chakuamba was third.
MHANGO, KAMBONDOMA. With Kanyoli Gondwe, Mjuma, and Mwendera, Kambondoma led the Kamanga and Henga rebellion against M'mbelwa Ngoni authority in 1879. He and Kanyoli formed the Kwenda and Sikwaliweni regiments, which they headed respectively. Having served under Ngoni command, the Majere-Henga, as the rebels came to call themselves, had learned the best in warfare with the result that their former rulers found them particularly difficult to subdue. In fact, the Ngoni succeeded only after Mwase Kasungu rendered some a.s.sistance. When the rebels realized that they were about to lose, they sent their families to the Karonga lakesh.o.r.e; the rebel leaders would follow them later, marking the migration of the Tumbuka-speaking people to Ngonde areas such as Kaporo and central Karonga.
MHANGO, MICHAEL BAZUKA KALWEFU (1939 ). Lawyer and businessman, Mhango was born at Kasote village, Karonga district, went to secondary school in Uganda, and after completing a teachers certificate course at Domasi Teacher's Training College in 1961, taught in Karonga. In 1963, he went to study in Scotland, returning a year later. Thereafter, he taught math and science at Livingstonia Secondary School. In 1966, he was admitted to the University of Malawi, and, in 1968, became one of the first students in the university's bachelor of law program, graduating three years later. He joined the legal firm A. R. Osman Company, and, in 1973, established his own law offices, Bazuka and Company. Mhango became a founder of the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) Party and its legal advisor. In 2004, he won the Karonga North-West const.i.tuency seat on the platform of the Republican Party, was appointed as minister of lands, housing, and surveys, and from 2006 to 2007 was the minister of justice and const.i.tutional affairs. In the 2009 elections, Mhango failed to retain his seat, and since then he has concentrated on his numerous businesses, having already virtually retired from his legal practice.
MHANGO, MKWAPATILA. Malawi journalist Mkwapatila Mhango was murdered along with his family in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1989. Active in the Malawi Freedom Movement, Mhango was critical of Dr. Hastings Banda and the Malawi Congress Party. The Mhango family, like Attati Mpakati a few years earlier, was killed by Malawi intelligence officials.
MHANGO, ROBERT SAMBO. Founding member of the North Nyasa Native a.s.sociation, Mhango was born and educated in Karonga and worked in South Africa before returning to Nyasaland in 1912, two months after the formation of the South African Native National Congress. In 1928, he and Simon Kamkhati Mkandawire became founders of the African National Church. See also AFRICAN WELFARE a.s.sOCIATIONS.
MIA, MUHAMMAD SIDIKI (1965 ). Businessman and one of the most prominent Muslim politicians in Malawi, Mia was first elected to the National a.s.sembly as the member for Chikwawa Mkombezi in 2004. In June that year, Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika appointed him as deputy minister of mines, natural resources, and environment; two months later, he became deputy minister of transport and public works. In 2005, he joined the new Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and, in September that year, he was promoted to minister of irrigation and water development. In May 2009, he was reelected to the National a.s.sembly, and in June was appointed as minister of national defense. In August 2010, he became the minister of transport and public infrastructure.
MICHAEL, IAN LOCKIE (1915?). Founding vice chancellor of the University of Malawi and a world authority on the history and teaching of English grammar, Ian Michael was born in Kelso in the Scottish Borders, educated at various schools in England, and holds degrees (BA and PhD) from the University of London. He taught in schools in England and in 1949 accepted a lectures.h.i.+p in education at the University of Bristol, from which in the early 1960s he was seconded to the University of Khartoum, Sudan, where he was the first professor of education. In 1964, he was appointed chief executive of the new University of Malawi. In 1973, he resigned from the university to take the position of deputy director of the Inst.i.tute of Education, University of London. He retired in 1978.
MIGRANT LABOR. Since colonial days many Malawians have sought work outside their national borders, particularly in South Africa, Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia), and Zambia. With the introduction of taxation in 1892, it was increasingly important to earn enough money to pay taxes and to afford a Western education as well as to purchase European goods. Even before migrant laborers began leaving Malawi for neighboring territories, they had moved about internally seeking money with which to meet European requirements. Three-quarters of all migrant workers were men, 10 percent were women, and the remainder were juveniles, usually boys.
Although Dr. David Livingstone is the first known European to employ Malawi laborers, the African Lakes Company (ALC) was really the first to systematically recruit workers for other European business interests. In 1886, Tonga porters, enlisted by the company to transport goods within the country, so impressed the planters in the s.h.i.+re Highlands that they soon began to employ thousands of them on their estates. No labor regulations existed pertaining to hours of work, wages, or conditions until 1895 when the Harry Johnston administration began to codify some rules, according to which workers could not be employed for more than 12 months at a time, after which they would have earned travel money to return home. In addition, laborers were to be housed and fed and their medical needs taken care of by the employer. The planters were most unhappy about the government regulations, which, they argued, only aggravated the labor shortage they were facing at the time. In fact, European planters sought labor in the planting season when the Africans preferred to cultivate their own land; it was also a fact that Europeans paid very minimal wages to their African employees.
When a labor bureau was established in 1901 to recruit and distribute workers, there were even more abuses, particularly when recruiting agents obtained the cooperation of the European government collector who would hand over African tax defaulters to them. The treatment these farm workers and porters received was shockingly poor even at that time, and it did not improve in the early 20th century when the railway company began to recruit workers to build its line. News of the railway's ill-treatment of its workers reached the Colonial Office after the governor, Sir Alfred Sharpe, personally wrote about abuses he had observed.
Attempts to stop organized labor recruitment by the South African Chamber of Mines were led by missionaries, especially Dr. Alexander Hetherwick of the Blantyre Mission. With the men absent, village life was disrupted and the women left at home had to do their own work and that of the men. For many deserted families, it was an incredible hards.h.i.+p. There was additional strain in villages of Catholic conversion since the missions refused to recognize divorce, even though traditional law permitted it in cases of desertion. Mission opposition to labor migration proved futile as workers continued to leave on their own to do mine or farm work or domestic labor. By 1914, there were about 40,000 Malawians working in mines in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). The numbers of workers were in excess of 100,000 by the 1930s, with as many as one-third never returning home. It was at this time that the Protectorate government acknowledged the vast emigration and its effect on the remaining families. An effort was made in a series of agreements with neighboring countries to repatriate laborers after two years and to provide more suitable camp and travel arrangements. At the same time that the Malawi migrant was strongly influencing the economic development of Zimbabwe, he was also contributing to the underdevelopment of his homeland, severely straining the territory's social structure.
From the 1920s to the mid-1960s, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) was another destination for Malawian labor, despite the fact there were no recruiting agencies for the country. The development of the copper belt attracted Malawians into that country, and some of them even went beyond to Katanga, Belgian Congo (Republic of the Congo), where copper was also being mined. When Zambia became independent in 1964, recruitment of Malawian laborers was discouraged because of the need to solve the local unemployment problem.
When Dr. Hastings Banda became the head of government, he discouraged Malawians from going to South Africa, saying that they would be too far from their families and would be exposed to the harsh urban life of the region. He tried to convince them that they could earn a living by cultivating cash crops. However, in spite of Banda's efforts, Malawian laborers continued to leave the country in large numbers. In 1970, the Wit.w.a.tersrand Native Labour a.s.sociation (WNLA), popularly known as WENELA, recruited 90,000 workers and the Rhodesia Native Labour Bureau (RNLB) 2,000 for South African and Southern Rhodesian employers, respectively. The Malawi government forbade further recruitment after 1974 when a WENELA airplane crashed and killed 75 homeward-bound Malawian mine workers. Until mid-1977, the number of laborers was few, as low as 200 in early 1977. However, the Banda government responded to numerous requests by WENELA to resume recruitment, and about 20,000 trained workers were permitted to leave, much fewer than the 130,000 who were working in South Africa at the time of the crash.
In the early 1980s, the name WENELA was replaced by the Temporary Employment Bureau of Africa (TEBA), which continued to recruit on two-year contracts to South Africa, the latter's mining industry being the largest user. In 1988, believing that hundreds of Malawi's migrant miners were infected with the disease AIDS, South Africa sent them back to Malawi. Although the Malawi government has responded to this health crisis, mine owners continue to restrict Malawian labor into South Africa. In fact, the African National Congress governments, led by Nelson Mandela and his successor Thabo Mbeki, now completely restricts nonskilled Malawian labor from leaving the country, pointing out that, with high unemployment within their country, they have to take care of their citizens first before they can think of foreigners. However, since the change of government in South Africa, skilled and professional Malawians have been going to work there in considerable numbers. Until 1994, most Malawians in this category tended to go to Botswana, where the expanding economy was able to accommodate them. In the postHastings Banda period, Malawian professionals, mainly in the fields of education and health, have also sought work in the United Kingdom and North America. Nonprofessionals have followed suit.
Malawians who have gone abroad to work, joining some of those who did not r
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