Blog Post 7: Changing Boundary Lines for
Malawi
When Malawians first had contact
with Europeans, in the form of Portuguese sailors, they were part of a vast state
called the Maravi Empire. The introduction of the Portuguese and later the
Arabs caused divisions in the empire as some groups such as the Yao took other
Africans in the empire captive and sold them as slaves.
The first Protestant missionary to
Malawi, David Livingstone, was well respected by the Africans for his active
defense of their freedom and sovereignty as nation states. However, explorers
such as Livingstone paved the way for the British to enter Malawi. The British
took control of Malawi in 1893 calling it the British Central African
Protectorate. In 1907 the name was changed to Nyasaland.[1] Nayasaland remained a
colony of Great Britain until 1964.
In comparison to other colonized
African nations, Malawi was not deeply scared by the political boundaries drawn
by the Europeans. The tribes of the region already had a history of being
united under the Maravi Empire. The most conflict arose between the Muslim Yao
tribe and the Christian Chewa tribe, but this rivalry existed before British
colonization.
There was a time during colonization
that the Malawians rejected any attempt by the British to redraw political
boundary lines. In the 1950s, the British felt that joining Nyasaland with
their two Rhodesian neighbors would help the economy in Nyasaland. The
proposition was highly disfavor able with the natives who feared being joined
to colonies with more concentrated European populations. They felt being
connected to Rhodesian colonies would hinder their own progress towards
independent black rule. In 1953 the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was
created as a compromise somewhere between annexation and independence. In 1964
Nyasaland became an independent member of the British Commonwealth and
subsequently the name was changed to Malawi.[3]
The leader of the independence
movement in Malawi, Hastings Kumuzu Banda, became the President of the new
nation. Banda did keep the country fairly peaceful, especially in comparison to
other post-colonial African nations during that time. After Banda was removed
from office, Malawi adopted a two-party political system, but rioting broke out
when the man elected happened to be a Muslim from Southern Malawi. The first truly democratic peaceful election
took place in 2004.[4]
Malawi is a small, poor nation. Had
the European colonial powers not divided up Africa, it is very possible that
the Malawians would still be united with the other tribes of the Maravi Empire.
The Portuguese took Mozambique, and the Germans took Tanzania. This period of
colonization forever divided this empire. The post-colonial cultures of these
African countries have been reshaped to resemble the countries of their
European colonial overlords in many respects.
[3]
Ehiedu E. G. Iweriebor, Ehiedu, “The
Colonization of Africa,” Africana Age.
Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, 2011. http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/essay-colonization-of-africa.html.
[4]
Jonathan Mayuyuka Kaunda, "Malawi: The postcolonial
state, development and democracy," Africa: Rivista Trimestrale Di Studi
E Documentazione Dell’Istituto Italiano per L’Africa E L’Oriente 50, no. 3
(1995): 305-24. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40761017.
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