Africa-Press – Malawi. They differed with their leader, Kamuzu Banda, on the ideology that should define Malawi’s future. Expelled from their homes because of what they believed in, labelled as rebels and wanted dead or alive, they never lost their cause. Driven by the power of the cause, in 1967, they returned to Malawi with a mission. EPHRAIM NYONDO tells the story.
They hid for two days in the thickets of the green jungle of Neno, then Mwanza District. They had been trained by Russians and Cubans at their military camp in Tabora, Tanzania. They walked from Tabora, through Zambia, and sneaked into Malawi, through Neno, for a final act of deleting dictatorship.
In the two days, stocked with the world’s best arms, they silently sat in jungle, sometimes sneaking to talk with chiefs, strategising the best form of attack.
Their plan was to launch the attack on day four. But monkeys, for the area had a hundreds of them, started to make a lot of noise. They were disturbed. Villagers became startled and reported to officials. Day three, government soldiers showed up and began to patrol the area.
The combat
One of government soldiers, after noting glimpse of khakis of danger, shouted: Amaliwongo! Then war broke out! And that was around 3 pm.
Two bullets, during the combat, ripped through the flesh of the general and invaded corners of his heart. He swayed like a falling plane searching a final resting ground. The ground was the comforting yet bloody arms of one of his trusted lieutenant.
Surrender and retreat, he told his trusted lieutenant, but don’t give in, he warned. There was one final, wordless cry from him. And then silence. General Yatuta Kaluli Chisiza is dead!
In the drudgery of his last breath, closed eyes and dry heart, chaos spiralled in the hearts of the last 17 fighters on that afternoon of 11 October, 1967 for two more—Mwahimba and Muteghano—had also been killed. He was the general, their leader. They expected victory, not defeat in the thickets of Neno during that cold October afternoon. They expected him to lead, with arms, in ousting Kamuzu Banda from power and, again, lead in planting a new government based on principles of Africanism. They did not expect him to die.
“The image of his closed eyes and dried mouth, his darker skin in khaki-Cuban military gear, his spread arm as my arms cuddled his empty chest, continue to disturb me today,” recalls Frank Chale Jiya, the lieutenant.
So there they were in the jungle, without a general, their head, in the early hours of the combat. Somebody had to lead, and there had to be someone to lead the cause. Jiya took up the mantle. After all, he was the one holding the instruction to withdraw from the departed general.
Shot on the left shoulder and bleeding profusely, he recoiled from the dead general and ordered withdraw. But the process, he recalls, was bloody.
“There was death, death and death. There were so many government soldiers and we came only 20. A number of government soldiers died and we lost five more,” he says.
Jiya, and four others, managed to evade the combat and, successfully, crossed the border to safety. It was in Zambia.
Eight were captured and, together with Chisiza’s body, were taken to Zomba. Under Kamuzu Banda’s orders, Chisiza’s corpse was displayed in public ‘for all to see, despise and spit’. Jiya recalls that some ‘ministers who are still alive today stood and danced on top of Chisiza’s coffin and, joyously, sang songs of victory’.
The captured eight faced a Kangaroo court in Zomba. They, together with the Jiyas in absentia, were charged with treason. Without much ado, the sentence, as expected, was death. They were executed in public ‘for all to see’ on 2 April 1968. Jiya and others had to remain outside Malawi if they wanted to have life. They were dead the moment they stepped into their homeland. But Jiya, at least, stayed in Zambia until 1993 when an asylum was given to all those who went into exile for political reasons.
But what moved Chisiza and 19 others to dare oust an entire Head of State?
Genesis of differences
Jiya, 74, now retired to corner in Chileka, Blantyre, is one of the unsung nationalist heroes and a post-colonial victim of Kamuzu Banda’s vicious regime.
As a young man in the late 50s, he quickly recognised himself with the winds of nationalist movements. He got radicalised after attending a number of political meetings, and at 20, he joined the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC).
“The meetings could always be held in bush right here in Blantyre. John Chinkwa used to organise these meetings. When he died, late Aleke Banda took over. He was cunning at organising,” recalls Jiya, adding that: “I was one the boys who were sent on errands of mobilisation”.
It was in these meetings where Jiya first saw Yatuta, an elder brother to Dunduzu Chisiza, who died mysteriously in a car accident in Zomba, 1963. Yatuta, having just returned from Tanzania where he worked as senior police officer, was NAC’s Administrative Secretary.
“He was earmarked to be an Inspector General in Tanzania. Kamuzu Banda, after the return in 1958, relied heavily on Yatuta’s security expertise. Yatuta became more of Kamuzu’s personal bodyguard. They were too close to each other. Banda could not do anything without Yatuta’s approval,” says Jiya.
In fact, Yatuta, Dunduzu and Kamuzu, after the arrest of 3rd March 1959 State of Emergency, were all sent to Gweru Prison in Zimbabwe.
However, though not explicit, Yatuta’s relationship with Kamuzu began entered a different note after Dunduzu’s death, recalls Jiya.
“I heard Yatuta increasingly complaining of Kamuzu being detached from him. That Kamuzu always wanted his point of view to be taken. That Kamuzu was always suspicious of him,” he says.
These differences grew wide after the granting of independence on 6 July 1964.
“What I noted was that Banda started to distance himself from the African struggle which most of us wanted to be recognised with. I mean he did not want to be associated so much with fellow African leaders and, even worse, us, fellow Malawians.
“For instance, a number of ministers, including Yatuta, complained heavily why he was still having more whites in the civil service,” recalls Jiya.
He adds: “Kamuzu, again, begun to associate so much with the Portuguese in Mozambique and the Boers of the apartheid South African regime. This angered a number of his ministers who wanted him to help his fellow African leaders to gain independence.”
The disagreements became protracted and irreconcilable leading to what is known as the 1964 Cabinet Crisis. As a result, on 7 September 1964, Banda dismissed three ministers: Augustine Bwanausi, Kanyama Chiumie and Orton Chirwa; a Rose Chibambo, a parliamentary secretary. The dismissals were followed, on the same day and on 9 September, by the resignations of three more cabinet ministers in sympathy with those dismissed. They were: Yatuta, Willie Chokani and Henry Chipembere. Initially, this only left the President and one other minister in post, although one of those who had resigned, John Msonthi, rescinded his resignation within a few hours.
Things fell apart, the centre could not hold.
Journey into exile
In October 1964, Chokani and Bwanausi, who had refused to re-join the cabinet without their colleagues, left voluntarily for Zambia following Banda’s refusal to negotiate. Fearing for their safety, Chiume and Chisiza, too, crossed into Tanzania on 1st October.
“Tension grew in the country. It was a moment of fear. Everyone seen to have been loyal to those ‘rebel’ ministers who resigned was being targeted,” says Jiya.
And Jiya had his moment.
“I was Blantyre District Governor of MCP. The party had ordered me to organise a rally in Nancholi where Banda would denounce the resigned ministers as rebels and dissidents. I protested.
“I went around the city and told people that I had quit though I did not communicate it with the party. So I advised the people against coming to this rally.
“When party officials came to inspect how many people had turned for the rally they found children playing football. There was no nsanja and some communities stoned party officials. There was chaos leading to riot police firing teargas.
“Banda started going around denouncing me as a rebel. The MYP, as a result, started to look for me.
“I left Blantyre for Lilongwe where I hid for seven days. On 21st October, I left Malawi for Zambia,” he narrates.
Birth of revolution
Jiya says each and every day; people fled Malawi and joined them in Zambia. In a period of a month, we had thousands and thousands of Malawians in our midst. All with shared stories.
“Some joined teaching, some in the mines but some of us our hearts were still at home. We still wanted to help our brothers and sisters attain freedom and democracy,” he says.
So he joined a military wing. With the help of countries like Cuba, Algeria, China and Tanzania, they started to train. After few months of training, they left Zambia for Tabora for excessive training. While at Tabora, they invited Yatuta, then in Tanzania, to be their leader.
“He complained that he did not have military training. So we linked up with the Chinese who financed him to train in their country,” he says.
By September 1967, the revolution was ready. And in the early days October, they left Tabora for Zambia—well armed curtsey of Cubans. They entered Malawi, through Neno, with a mission.
“We wanted to dislodge Banda, the Frelimo style; form a new government based on principles of Africanism. In fact, we had a name of the party in mind: Ufulu Umodzi Malawi Africa (UUMA),” he says.
He adds that though they were only 20, it was the spirit of liberation, not numbers, that moved them.
“We never felt afraid of anything. We just had so much love for our country. Yatuta told us in victory or defeat, the message we wanted to send was that Banda is not ruling Malawians with their consent. We wanted the entire world to know that Banda was imposing himself on Malawi. Malawians wanted democracy and freedom,” he says.
In fact, they even had development policies already written down.
“Our major focus was education. Just after gaining government, we wanted to roll out compulsory education. We wanted to spend every nit of a coin in education. We believed Banda capitalised on people’s ignorance to entrench his tyranny,” he says.
Down but not out
After withdrawing due to the death of Yatuta, Jiya and four others went back to Zambia and, in 1975, they formed Socialist League of Malawi (Lesoma). Married to a Zambian lady, Jiya continued recruiting and training. They were preparing for another attack, a ‘deadly and calculated one’.
“We changed strategy. We adopted the militia style. So we were training each other in small groups so that when we return to attack, we should not be easily spotted,” he says.
Led by Dr Attati Mpakati, in 1979, Lesoma was invited to Lusaka to attend the Afro-Asia People’s Organisation (Apso) conference. Jiya says Lesoma became well known, so much that Banda began to target Dr Mpakati—the reason he was petrol bombed.
In 1991, Lesoma changed its military philosophy and adopted a civil and peaceful campaign. In fact, the organisation changed its name to United for Multi-Party Democracy (UFMD).
And it was UFMD in 1992 which organised a seminar where leaders like Chakufwa Chihana and Bakili Muluzi were invited.
In fact, it was at this seminar, held barely a month after the Catholic Bishops had issued the Pastoral Letter on 8 March 1992, where Chihana condemned MCP as ‘party of death and darkness’ and that he was ‘returning home to face death, for his blood would be the engine of change in Malawi’. Chihana arrived at Kamuzu International Airport on 6 April 1992 and got arrested.
UFMD was also key in influencing the US and the Paris Club to announce sanctions against Banda’s regime in 1992.
“I and George Kanyanya spoke to the Congress in US, and the very same day, the US announced sanction against Banda’s regime. Mekki Mtewa went to the Paris Club, and just after speaking, Europe announced sanctions against Banda,” says.
After the sanctions and increased pressure on Banda regarding the continued arrest of Chihana, Malawi held referendum in 1993 to choose between multi-party and Banda’s one party. Multi-party won. And in 1994, general elections were held and UFMD, led by Kanyanya, partnered with UDF and won. Multi-party democracy, which MCP banned in 1966 and 1971, had returned to Malawi.
Is Yatuta still a ‘rebel’?
As he sits on wooden chair enjoying a breeze of a hazily, sunny afternoon at his home, Jiya is not a happy man.
“For all he sacrificed for Malawi to return to multi-party democracy, Yatuta is not recognised in Malawi. It pains me that he was labelled a ‘rebel’ and died with the label yet he fought for a good cause.
“I am even baffled that people that labelled him so, today, are safe in expensive mausoleums, their marble erected in the Capitals yet they their rule led to the death of a number of innocent Malawians.
“My only wish is that government should remove the label of a ‘rebel’ from Yatuta’s death so that he should be buried and commemorated, as a Martyr, one of Malawi’s liberating giants,” he pleads.
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