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The Rise of Nationalism in Colonial Africa: The Case of Colonial Malawi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Roger K. Tangri
Roger K. Tangri
Affiliation:
University of Malawi
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Extract

The years of colonial rule in Malawi (formerly Nyasaland) were characterised by the imposition of a political and social system whereby a superior European authority attempted to exercise its will over a territory already populated by Africans. This enforced colonial relationship determined the pattern of political change within the Protectorate, so that any variation in the fundamentals of the relationship was bound to have important repercussions on the total colonial situation. From the earliest years of British rule in Malawi, Africans sought to modify or alter the colonial relationship and it is this sort of African sentiment and activity in reaction to alien control and domination that has come to be regarded as manifestations of nationalism not only in colonial Malawi but also in the other ex-colonial territories of Africa. Thomas Hodgkin, for example, has lumped under the general rubric of ‘nationalism’ “any organisation or group that explicitly asserts the rights, claims and aspirations of a given African society (from the level of the language-group to that of ‘Pan-Africa’) in opposition to European authority, whatever its institutional form and objectives”. Others, however, although appreciating the deep roots of nationalism have tended to confine the use of the term to the post-1945 period with its emergence of nation-wide movements seeking self-government and independence. They have argued that to include every social movement of protest against alien rule as a part of nationalism obscures the political meaning of the concept, blurs the important distinctions that can be made among African responses to the colonial situation, and makes comparative analysis difficult.

Type
Colonial Roots of Nationalism
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , January 1968 , pp. 142 - 161
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1968

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References

1 For a discussion of the concept of the ‘colonial situation’, see Balandier, George, “La Situation Coloniale: Approche théorique”, Cahiers Internationaux de Sociologie, Vol. XI (1951), 44–79.Google Scholar This article has recently been translated into English and reprinted in Wallerstein, Immanuel (ed.), Social Change: The Colonial Situation (New York, 1966), 34–61.Google Scholar

2 Hodgkin, Thomas, Nationalism in Colonial Africa (London, 1956), 23.Google Scholar Professor David Kimble adopts a similar comprehensive definition of nationalism. See his A Political History of Ghana: The Rise of Gold Coast Nationalism 1850–1928 (Oxford, 1963), XIV.Google Scholar Professor Robert Rotberg also follows Hodgkin's all-embracing definition in his The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa: The Making of Malawi and Zambia (Cambridge, Mass., 1965), 2.Google Scholar

3 Coleman, James S., “Nationalism in Tropical Africa”, The American Political Science Review, Vol. XLVIII (1954), 404–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Lord Hailey's ‘Africanism’ is the best-known of these other labels. See his An African Survey: Revised 1956 (London, 1957), 251–252.Google Scholar

5 Professor Hans Kohn speaks of nationalism as “a state of mind, in which the supreme loyalty of the individual is felt to be due the nation state”. See his Nationalism: Its Meaning and History (New York, 1955), 9.Google Scholar

6 For a lucid overall review of the various schools of thought regarding the use or non-use of the term “nationalism” in Africa, see Kilson, Martin Jr, “The Analysis of African Nationalism”, World Politics, Vol. X (1958), 484–497.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Rotberg, Robert I., “African Nationalism: Concept or Confusion?”, The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. IX 1966), 33–46. For a more detailed application of Rotberg's schema, see his The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa, op. cit.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Coleman, op. cit., see also his Nigeria: Background to Nationalism (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1960), 169–170, 419–427.Google Scholar

9 We are concerned here with territorial, colony-wide nationalism and not with regional or tribal nationalism. For this, see Philip Curtin, D., “Nationalism in Africa, 1945–1965”, The Review of Politics, April 1966, 143–153.Google Scholar

10 For a more detailed discussion of the various ways in which nations have come into being, see Ginsberg, Morris, Nationalism: A Reappraisal (Leeds University Press, 1961), 6–23.Google Scholar See also, Benn, S. I. and Peters, R. S., Social Principles and the Democratic State, Chap. 11, on which much of the following is based.Google Scholar

11 Three main languages were spoken – Chinyanja, Chitonga, and Chitumbuka – and numerous ethnic groups with cultural differences existed. The Ngoni and Tumbuka were patrilineal in descent and inheritance and virilocal in residence; the Tonga, Chewa, Vao, Nyanja and Lomwe peoples were matrilineal and uxorilocal.

12 Kohn, , op. cit., 9–11.Google Scholar

13 Wallerstein, , op. cit., Introduction, 2.Google Scholar

14 Kimble, , op. cit., Chap. 13, for a good discussion of the growth of national consciousness in colonial Ghana.Google Scholar

15 Hailey, , op. cit., 251.Google Scholar

16 Ginsberg, , op. cit., and quoted therein, 7.Google Scholar

17 But as E. H. Carr once remarked, “a large numerical majority of the world feel no allegiance to any nation”. Quoted in Kimble, , op. cit., 506.Google Scholar

18 Emerson, Rupert and Kilson, Martin (eds.), The Political Awakening of Africa (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1965), Introduction, 8–10.Google Scholar Such movements of petition and protest were characteristic of most of colonial Africa during the inter-war period. See, for instance, examples of such associations in Coleman, (Nigeria), op. cit.Google ScholarLemarchand, René, Political Awakening in the Congo: The Politics of Fragmentation (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964).Google Scholar

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20 This paragraph is based on an article by Mumba, Levi Z., Secretary of the first native association in 1912, entitled “Native Associations in Nyasaland”, Zo Ona (Blantyre), 24 April, 1924, 1,Google Scholar which was reprinted in The South African Outlook, 2 June 1924, 140–141.Google Scholar It should be noted here that we do not discuss African responses to the colonial situation in the period before 1918. A thorough and detailed treatment is to be found in Shepperson, George and Price, Thomas, Independent African: John Chilembwe and the Origins, Setting and Significance of the Nyasaland Native Rising of 1915 (Edinburgh, 1958),Google Scholar and in Krishnamurthy, B. S., “Land and Labour in Nyasaland, 1891–1914”, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of London, 1964.Google Scholar Thomas Hodgkin and others have suggested that African separatist and independent church movements may further serve as instruments of protest, see Hodgkin, , op. cit., Part II, chap. 3.Google Scholar In Colonial Malawi, most of the leaders of the sectarian movements were also members of the secular native associations. For our purposes, therefore, because of overlapping membership, the confining of discussion to secular organisations would not detract unduly from an understanding of inter-war educated African responses to the colonial situation. See, however, Rotberg, , The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa, op. cit.,Google Scholar Chap. 6, for a discussion of independent African churches. A recent analysis of native associations has been produced by vanVelsen, J., “Some Early Pressure Groups in Malawi”, Stokes, Eric and Brown, Richard (eds.), The Zambesian Past: Studies in Central African History (Manchester, 1966), 376–412.Google Scholar See also the interesting observations contained in Gray, Richard, The Two Nations: Aspects of the Development of Race Relations in the Rhodesias and Nyasaland (London, 1960), 168–178.Google Scholar The following were some of the native associations that proliferated throughout Nyasaland: North Nyasa NA (NNNA–1912), West Nyasa NA (WNNA–1914), Mombera NA (MNA–1920), Nyasaland (Southern Province) NA (NSPNA–1923), Blantyre NA (BNA–1924), Zomba Province NA (ZPNA–1927), Central Province NA (CPNA–1927), Chiradzulu District NA (CDNA–1929), Kasungu NA (KNA–1930), Lower Shire NA (LSNA–1931), Cholo NA (CNA–1938), Mlanje NA (MJNA–1941).

21 Velsen, Van, op. cit., 381.Google Scholar

22 Mumba, , op. cit.Google Scholar

23 MNA to RCNPNA, 26 May 1927 (privately held).

24 Velsen, Van, op. cit., 379.Google Scholar

25 Mumba, , op. cit.Google Scholar

26 Van Velsen, passim.

27 Mumba, op. cit. It is worth noting that the minutes of the NNNA contain numerous criticisms of the Chilembwe Rising of 1915 and Chilembwe's resort to violence.

28 L. Z. Mumba (Secretary of the NNNA; Chairman of RCNPNA) became first President of the NAC; J. F. Sangala (Member of BNA and ZPNA) became a President of Congress; C. J. Matinga (Secretary BNA and member ZPNA) became the second President of Congress; C. C. Chinula (Secretary of MNA) later became Vice-President of the NAC; J. R. N. Chinyama (Secretary of CPNA) became President of Congress in 1950; C. W. Mlanga (member BNA) was elected Secretary-General of Congress; I. M. Lawrence (member BNA) was the first Treasurer–General of the NAC.

29 Hailey, Lord, “Native Administration and Political Development in Tropical Africa, 1940–1942”, unpublished report in Colonial Office Library, London.Google Scholar

30 Velsen, Van, op. cit., Interview: K. Ellerton Mposa, November 23, 1966 (President of BNA).Google Scholar

31 Interview: J. F. Sangala, May 30, 1966, January 24, 1967; K. E. Mposa, November 23, 1966 and L. Bandawe, November 25, 1966. Sangala was employed as chief typist at the Medical Headquarters in Zomba during the period 1936–1938.

32 See also Shepperson, and Price, , op. cit., 494 regarding Lawrence being prosecuted in 1926 for importing prohibited literature into the country.Google Scholar

33 It is not possible here to discuss the influence of external factors on the emergence of nationalist sentiment and activity. See, however, Shepperson, George, “External Factors in African Nationalism, with Particular Reference to British Central Africa”, Phylon, XXII (1961), 207–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34 Interview: Sangala, J. F., May 30, 1966.Google Scholar

35 These five villages, all in very close proximity to one another, were Maunde, Masangano, Citendere, Makata, and Matope, and situated near Ndirande. Nearly all the early Blantyre members and leaders of Congress lived there. These include Sangala, Matinga, Mlanga, Lawrence, Mponda A. I., Lawrence Makata.

36 Sangala has also suggested that he was seriously considering forming an inclusive, territorial-wide movement in 1939, especially after Africans (both chiefs and educated elements) had become united in their opposition to Closer Union, and had vigorously protested against the scheme in their memoranda submitted to the Bledisloe Commission. But realising that Government would not look sympathetically upon the emergence of an organisation involved in agitational politics just as the second World War was breaking out, Sangala had to temporarily shelve his plans. Interview: Sangala, J. F., May 30, 1966, January 24, 1967.Google Scholar

37 See also, Gray, , op. cit., 337.Google Scholar

38 Levi Z. Mumba to James F. Sangala, 16 October 1943. This letter was kindly loaned to the author by Rev. C. C. Chinula.

39 Gray, , op. tit., 339–340.Google Scholar See also, Rotberg, , The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa, op. cit., 182–189.Google Scholar

40 Rotberg, ibid., 192–193.

41 No member of the Executive Committee of Congress received a salary at this time, and Matinga was in dire financial difficulties in 1948. Regarding the educational deputation to London, Matinga took A. J. Mponda instead of Chinula. Interview: C. C. Chinula, May 14, 1966; April 2, 1967.

42 Minutes of the Second Executive Committee Meeting NAC, 20 April 1946. See also, Rotberg, , The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa, op. cit., 197–199. Rotberg (p. 198) is not correct in assuming that Congress agreed to Dr. Banda's first suggestion. In fact, the proposal was defeated by 15 votes to 8.Google Scholar

43 In a letter dated 7 April 1948, A. J. Mponda (Secretary-General of the NAC) wrote to C. C. Chinula (Vice-President General) that “the Central Body is at present insolvent and only lives on the Education Deputation Fund”. Letter kindly lent to author by C. C. Chinula.

44 J. R. N. Chinyama became President of Congress in August 1950 till February 1954, when J. F. Sangala took over for a short period. See footnote 27.

45 The first African secondary school (Blantyre Secondary) was established only in 1940.

46 For a similar transition from groups of protest and petition to militant nationalist movements in colonial Africa, see Rosberg, Carl G. Jr and Nottingham, John, The Myth of “Mau Mau”: Nationalism in Kenya (New York, 1966),Google Scholar and Bennett, George, ”An Outline History of Tanu”, Makerere Journal, VII (1963), 15–32.Google Scholar

47 Coleman, , APSR, op. cit., 140.Google Scholar Also quoted in Wallerstein, Immanuel, The Road to Independence: Ghana and the Ivory Coast (Paris, 1964), 42.Google Scholar

48 Austin, Dennis, Politics in Ghana 1946–1960 (London, 1964),Google Scholar Chap. 2; Lionel Cliffe, ”Nationalism and the Reaction to Enforced Agricultural Improvement in Tanganyika during the colonial period”, unpublished East African Institute of Social Research Conference Paper, 1965; Lonsdale, J. M., “Rural Resistance and Mass Political Mobilisation amongst the Luo of Western Kenya”, Proceedings of the Xllth Congress of Historical Sciences,Vienna,1965,Google Scholar and also the final Chapter of his forthcoming work A Political History of Western Kenya (Oxford).Google Scholar

49 Report of the Nyasaland Commission of Inquiry, Cmnd. 814 (1959), paras 38–39.

50 Ibid., passim. Ever since the early years of British administration, thousands of Nyasalanders had migrated abroad in search of work. For an estimate of this mass exodus of workers abroad, see Gray, , op. cit., 120–121.Google Scholar

51 Cmnd. 814 (1959), op. cit., passim; Mair, Lucy, The Nyasaland Elections of 1961 (London, 1962).Google Scholar

52 See also the excellent article by Lonsdale, J. M., “The Emergence of African Nations”, Mveng, P. E. and Ranger, T. O. (eds.), Proceedings of the International Congress of African History, Dar es Salaam,October 1965 (forthcoming), for a similar set of characteristics.Google Scholar