AKA Kamuzu Banda

Born: 1898
Birthplace: Kasungu, Malawi
Died: 25-Nov-1997
Location of death: Johannesburg, South Africa
Cause of death: Pneumonia

Gender: Male
Religion: Presbyterian
Race or Ethnicity: Black [1]
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Head of State

Nationality: Malawi
Executive summary: First President of Malawi

Kamuzu Banda took the name Hastings from a missionary friend in childhood. He received his MD from the University of Edinburgh and practiced medicine in London from 1945-58, as he became increasingly immersed in the nationalist movement in Nyasaland, part of the British Central Africa Protectorate (now Malawi). Elected to lead the Nyasaland African Congress political party in 1958, he made a series of speeches deemed inflammatory by British colonial authorities, and was briefly imprisoned. He took a ministerial post and became Prime Minister of the colonial state, then remained Prime Minister as his nation achieved independence as Malawi in 1964. Malawi became a republic in 1966 with Banda assuming the Presidency, and he declared himself President for Life in 1971. He established pro-Western policies and ruled with an iron fist, until the reduction of aid from America and other western nations led Banda to legalize opposition parties in 1993. In his nation's first multi-party elections the following year, he was voted out of office. Under the subsequent administration he was prosecuted for the murder of three cabinet ministers, but was acquitted. He never married, and died in 1997.

    High School: Wilberforce Academy, Xenia, OH (1928)
    University: Indiana University Bloomington (attended 1928-30)
    University: PhB Political Science, University of Chicago (1931)
    Medical School: MD, Meharry Medical College (1937)
    Scholar: University of Edinburgh (attended 1937-38)
    Scholar: University of Glasgow (attended 1938-41)

    Nyasaland Minister of Natural Resources and Local Government 1961-63
    Prime Minister of Nyasaland 1963
    Prime Minister of Malawi 1963-66
    President of Malawi 1963-94
    Royal College of Physicians
    Sedition 1959

Author of books:
Our African Way of Life (1946, with T. Cullen Young)

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