Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by POWER, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

African Affairs 97:369-396 (1998)
© The Royal African Society

REMEMBERING DU: AN EPISODE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MALAWIAN POLITICAL CULTURE

JOEY POWER, member

History Department, Ryerson Polytechnic University Toronto, Canada

In September of 1962, Dunduzu Kaluli Chisiza, Secretary General of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), ‘prison graduate’ and prospective Minister of Finance for Nyasaland, died in a car crash. Immediately, rumours began to circulate that this was no accident but a case of political murder. For the first time, ‘car accident’ became a metaphor for political violence in colonial Malawi. This article examines the available evidence pertaining to the accident and concludes that although it appears not to indicate foul play, much of it was not made public and this, coupled with a troubled political climate, bred suspicion. It is argued that the rumours about Dunduzu Chisiza's death demonstrate a popular awareness that the image of political consensus advanced by the MCP during the late 1950s and early 1960s was false. Further, the rumours reveal a profound ambivalence about the growing personalization of rule under Dr H. Kamuzu Banda. While the Cabinet Crisis of 1964 was the first public demonstration of leadership rupture, it was a culmination of tensions rooted in an earlier period, tensions which were already felt by many and expressed through rumour in 1962 and after.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.