The architect of the independence of Malawi and the country's first prime minister and first president.
Background
Banda was born in the Cewa-speaking Kasungu district of central Malawi, then British-ruled Nyasaland, in February 1898 according to an uncle, 1902 according to Banda, or possibly as late as May 14, 1906, the official date. After studying at Presbyterian mission schools in the town of Kasungu, Banda in 1915 or 1916 joined an uncle who was working at the Hartley mine in Rhodesia. The next year they migrated to South Africa, where they found work first in a coal mine in Dundee, Natal, and then in a mine near Boksburg in the Transvaal.
Education
In 1922 Banda joined the American-run African Methodist Episcopal Church, and in 1925, with the support of Bishop W. T. Vernon, he went to the United States to study.
Career
He and his uncle migrated to South Africa, where they found work first in a coal mine in Dundee, Natal, and then in a mine near Boksburg in the Transvaal.
In 1922 Banda joined the American-run African Methodist Episcopal Church, and in 1925, with the support of Bishop W. T. Vernon, he went to the United States to study.
Until 1953 Banda practiced medicine in North Shields, on Tyneside in northern England, and in London. But he also kept in close touch with nationalist politics in his own and neighboring countries. In 1944 he helped back the Nyasaland African Congress, in 1945 he attended the fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester, and from 1948 to 1953 he vigorously opposed the creation of the Southern Rhodesian-dominated Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. When Britain imposed the federation upon unwilling Africans, Banda in disgust moved to Kumasi, in what became Ghana, and started a new medical practice. In Nyasaland young militant nationalists, especially Henry Masauko Chipembere and William Kanyama Chiume, had reorganized the Congress, and in 1958 they persuaded Banda to return home to head it. In March 1959, after riots had convulsed Nyasaland, Banda and other Congress leaders were jailed, mostly in Southern Rhodesia. The Congress was banned, but it was reborn as the Malawi Congress Party in 1960 when Banda was released on British orders. Banda helped negotiate a favorable new constitution, and his party won a resounding victory in the elections of 1961 and led Malawi to independence in 1964.
Until 1953 Banda practiced medicine in North Shields, on Tyneside in northern England, and in London. But he also kept in close touch with nationalist politics in his own and neighboring countries. In 1944 he helped back the Nyasaland African Congress, in 1945 he attended the fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester, and from 1948 to 1953 he vigorously opposed the creation of the Southern Rhodesian-dominated Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. When Britain imposed the federation upon unwilling Africans, Banda in disgust moved to Kumasi, in what became Ghana, and started a new medical practice. In Nyasaland young militant nationalists, especially Henry Masauko Chipembere and William Kanyama Chiume, had reorganized the Congress, and in 1958 they persuaded Banda to return home to head it. In March 1959, after riots had convulsed Nyasaland, Banda and other Congress leaders were jailed, mostly in Southern Rhodesia. The Congress was banned, but it was reborn as the Malawi Congress Party in 1960 when Banda was released on British orders. Banda helped negotiate a favorable new constitution, and his party won a resounding victory in the elections of 1961 and led Malawi to independence in 1964.
