Malawi

Fishing village on Lake Malawi (or Lake Nyasa). Malawi is very undeveloped and faces severe social, economic, and environmental difficulties, among them the siltation of Lake Malawi's spawning grounds, which is endangering fish stocks.

Country in southeast Africa, bounded north and northeast by Tanzania; east, south, and west by Mozambique; and west by Zambia.

Government

The 1994 constitution provides for a president, who is head of state and government, and a single-chamber, 194-member assembly. Both are directly elected by universal suffrage for five-year terms. The president appoints a cabinet whose members are directly responsible to him. The constitution provides for a second chamber, a senate, to represent interest groups and traditional leaders, but it has not been set up.

History

During the 15th–19th centuries the Malawi empire occupied roughly the southern part of the region that makes up present-day Malawi. The difficulty of the terrain and the warfare between the rival Yao and Ngoni groups long prevented penetration of the region by outsiders, though Scottish explorer David Livingstone reached Lake Nyasa in 1859. In 1891 Britain annexed the country, making it the British protectorate of Nyasaland from 1907. Between 1953 and 1964 it was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which comprised the territory that is now Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi.

Republic and one-party state

From the 1940s a European and US-educated African elite began to campaign for independence. Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda (1905–1997), through the Nyasaland African Congress, later renamed the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), led this campaign. He was imprisoned 1959–60 for his activities, but in 1963 the federation was dissolved. Nyasaland became independent as Malawi in 1964, with Banda as prime minister, and two years later became a republic and a one-party state, with Banda as its first president. Banda was declared president for life in 1971. He governed his country in a very individual way, tolerating no opposition, and the paramilitary wing of the MCP, the Young Pioneers, helped to keep the country under authoritarian control. Human-rights violations and murder of opponents were reported. Banda's foreign policies were idiosyncratic. He astonished his black African colleagues in 1967 by officially recognizing the Republic of South Africa, and in 1971 became the first African head of state to visit that country. In 1976, however, he also recognized the communist government in Angola. Based on a mixture of national self-interest and practical reality, such policies enabled Malawi to live in reasonable harmony with its neighbours.

Receiving refugees

Malawi adopted an ‘open-door’ policy towards those fleeing the civil war in neighbouring Mozambique and by 1989 had received nearly 1 million refugees.

Opposition

In the early 1990s, Banda faced increasing domestic opposition, led by Chakufwa Chihana, a trade-union leader. There were also opposition groups operating from outside Malawi. In March 1992 there were public calls for multiparty politics and Roman Catholic Church leaders issued a pastoral letter condemning corruption and government censorship and monopoly of the media. In May 1992 nationwide industrial riots resulted in more than 40 deaths. Western nations suspended aid in order to press for greater respect for human rights. In response, in January 1993 Banda appointed an eight-member commission to supervise preparations for a national referendum on multiparty politics.

Democracy restored

In a June 1993 referendum, Malawians voted overwhelmingly to end one-party rule. Banda agreed to work with opposition groups towards a multiparty system. Banda underwent brain surgery in October 2003 and a presidential council ran the country until Banda's return to health in December 2003. In May 1994, following adoption of a new pluralist constitution, Banda lost the presidency to Bakili Muluzi, leader of the United Democratic Front (UDF), in the first free elections for 30 years. The UDF also formed a coalition government with the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), although most of the AFORD members withdrew from the coalition in 1996.

The new government carried out liberalizing economic reforms and in June 1999 Muluzi was re-elected president, despite joint opposition from the MCP and AFORD. There were violent protests against the result. Muluzi faced opposition with the UDF, led by Brown Mpinganjira, who was arrested in October 2001 on charges relating to a failed coup. In May 2004, the UDF's candidate, Bingu wa Mutharika, won the presidential elections defeating John Tembo of the MCP. But the UDF had to form a national unity government, after failing to win a majority in parliamentary elections. Facing some opposition to his campaign against corruption, in February 2005 President Mutharika left the UDF and set up his own party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Malawi (redirected from Republic Malawi)