‘Kamuzu was a hero’

25 May 2013

When penning last week’s entry, asking Kamuzu’s apologists such as President Joyce Banda to give Malawians a chance to forget the atrocities that the dictator visited upon them for a good 31 years, I was never under any illusion that every one of my readers will accept my line of reasoning.

There are still people that think Kamuzu was virtuous and I accept it. But the record must be set straight, especially that this man tried to rewrite history so that he alone should be the holy one, the hero of the independence movement when many sons and daughters of Malawi contributed as much and that all they asked of him was to lead the struggle.

I was delighted to receive both positive and negative feedback. In the name of encouraging debate on national issues, I publish one which was not complimentary to me.

Dear George,

I am one of your ardent followers .

In Weekend Nation of 11th May 2013, you treated us to the analysis of JB’s appreciation of Mugabe’s land reform which, in all its fairness, cannot be a model for Malawi.

That was Solomonic advice to JB. I hope that Steve Nhlane made an appointment with JB that very evening to pump some wisdom into her.

But on 18th May you gave us some stuff about Kamuzu. This has kept some of us wondering whether it is possible to stop conservative Malawians from remembering the good things that Kamuzu did for our nation.

Your analysis of how JB led Malawians in celebrating Kamuzu Day leaves much to be desired.

The piece amounted to some myopic thinking.

George, you seem to dream of a heaven like earth in Malawian politics ruled by angelic beings. You seem to nurse the philosophy of “throwing away the dirty water with the baby.”

Statements like “Kamuzu is not a hero, but a tin pot dictator”…….really? Just because JB in her desperate search for votes used his name to score some political points in Kasungu, then some journalist should destroy Kamuzu’s legacy and throw it into a pit latrine?

Unless you want to tell us that you are a son to exiles and that you do not know of what happened in Nyasaland.

Using Kamuzu’s name for selfish political agenda will remain a political game in Malawi for generations to come.

Such politics is also practised by presidential aspirants even in US. They always seek to connect to the spirit of the past in order to put themselves on the political map.

Your analysis makes some of us believe that you belong to the born-free generation.

I love your column and the brain behind your socio-political analyses. Keep it up!

Reverend David Chiguzeni Kawanga,

NKHOMA SYNOD

Dear Reverend,

Thanks for the feedback. My only worry is that you seem to justify Kamuzu’s 31-year brutal torture of Malawians in the name of not dreaming “of a heaven like earth in Malawian politics ruled by angelic beings.”

The danger with this mentality is that it gives leaders even today a carte blanche to kill and maim innocent people in the name of the State. Is that what you want reverend, you, being a Christian leader?

As for my background, I was not born outside the country of parents that were exiled. I spent the first 23 years of my life under Kamuzu.

Of course, I experienced Kamuzu’s brutality to my family when my late father was mercilessly beaten and arrested in my full view when I was less than 10 years old for refusing permission for my late mother to travel to Blantyre for Independence celebrations when she had just given birth to my twin brothers.

My story though is not unique. Many Malawian families experienced Kamuzu’s violence in one form or the other.

Let me hasten to add that this is not what drives me, but a belief that dictators should not be painted white for the mere fact that they are dead to achieve political expediency. It is immoral and unfair to those who bore the full brunt of their excesses.