MALAWI: FORMER DICTATOR KAMUZU BANDA DIES

(26 Nov 1997) Natural Sound

Former Malawi dictator Kamuzu Banda has died in a hospital in South Africa.

Banda, a hero of independence who went on to become a symbol of dictatorship and eccentric autocracy, died of respiratory failure, a hospital official said on Wednesday.

Banda was hospitalised in Malawi on November 15, suffering from fever and pneumonia, and was transferred to the Garden City Clinic in Johannesburg a few days later in a coma.

Known as the Ngwazi, \"chief of chiefs\" or \"conqueror\" in the local language, Banda was always seen in public in a dark suit, black Homburg hat and waving a lion's tail fly whisk.

Though his official birthday was given as May 14, 1906, long before birth records were kept in the former British colony of Nyasaland, Banda was believed to be in his late 90s.

Banda - formerly known as Hastings Banda - led his nation to independence in 1964.

He declared Malawi a one party state in 1966.

In 1971, almost a decade after being freely elected as Malawi's first black prime minister, Banda declared himself president for life.

He ruled the country until he was ousted in the first democratic elections in 1994, after three decades as head of one of Africa's most brutal and isolated dictatorships.

The elections were held only after anti-government riots and an aid freeze by Western donors to pressure Banda into abandoning repressive policies.

During Banda's rule thousands of political opponents were killed, tortured, jailed without trial or hounded into exile.

In 1995, Banda and top aides were cleared in an eight-month trial of the 1983 murders of four dissident politicians.

Lawyers defending him said then he was 96 and the High Court in Blantyre, the commercial capital, ruled him too ill and frail to appear in court.

Under Banda, Malawi was the only independent African nation to maintain open and formal ties with apartheid-ruled South Africa and Israel.

At the height of his powers, Banda was renowned for his caustic humour, oratory and searching, analytical approach.

The former elder in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland forbade the introduction of television, which he considered a corrupting influence, though he regularly watched foreign programmes from satellite broadcasts.

For most of his quirky rule, men were not permitted to wear bell bottom trousers and women were not allowed to wear skirts above the knee or pants.

The bans were extended to foreign tourists - male visitors with long hair were denied entry unless they allowed themselves to be shorn by airport barbers.

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