As you get older, you kind of take a more sober view of life.– Bernard Sumner

At the dawn of the country’s multiparty dispensation, the name Hastings Kamuzu Banda—the country’s founding president—sounded like it was synonymous with evil in some circles. A leading political activist Chakufwa Chihana even labeled the Malawi Congress Party, the governing party for which Kamuzu was its leader, as the party of death and darkness.

The new found freedom that had come with the referendum had given birth to myriad publications. For being demonised as evil, most if not all, of these publications reveled in and flourished on Banda-bashing. News consisted in bashing Kamuzu, the new monster in town who had to be beaten to pulp. No wonder when there was nothing left to bash, the titles closed shop.

As we drew closer to elections in 1994, the chant ‘Wakuba yomweyu’ (For the position of President, we will go for the same thief), became a popular song indicating how deeply fed up and incensed some people were with Kamuzu’s autocratic rule. They were so pissed off with his rule they had come to a point they would rather send a certified thief to State House than continue under Kamuzu and his MCP.

That one day, the same Kamuzu Banda would be honoured by government (even posthumously) was unimaginable. In fact at that time it would have been viewed as madness. But here we are 28 years after Kamuzu was deposed from power, waxing lyrical about Kamuzu’s vision and achievements. We are toasting to the soul of the departed Kamuzu to continue resting in eternal peace for laying a “strong foundation for the country’s development.’ The National Planning Commission, the government’s body mandated to coordinate the country’s social and economic development, honoured Kamuzu on November 9 2022.

NPC chairperson Richard Mkandawire said although Kamuzu was not part of the Malawi 2063 (MW2063) formulation, his leadership and vision provided a sound foundation for the country’s development blue print to thrive.

“Kamuzu Banda was committed to driving a developmental State agenda. This is evidenced by a sound education system which he established. “

Said Mkandawire: “Another evidence [of Kamuzu’s leadership and vision] is his developmental mindset which saw the provision of a sound basis for agriculture transformation and his commitment to national unity.”

Granted Kamuzu broke the ‘stupid’ federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. He went on to become the country’s first black prime minister and then after independence president. But he had many shortfalls as a leader. His detractors mostly described him as a tin-pot dictator. Whatever that meant or means. His dictatorial style of leadership started flying straight into his face with the Cabinet crisis of 1964. All but a just a handful of his first Cabinet members resigned when Kamuzu could not bulge or take advice from his Cabinet ministers on some policy issues. Kamuzu won. For the next 31 years he would be president of this country ruling with an iron fist. But during the same period, Kamuzu did so many good things for this country in many sectors. And for some of those things, he is only being honoured today when he is 25 years gone. Time is a great changer of things and how we think. Yes, as our democracy is getting older, we are kind of taking a more sober view of life.

What Mkandawire did not openly say during the award presentation is that we have lost almost three decades for not building on the foundation Kamuzu laid. What he also means when he says “we are lagging behind on so many development fronts and we need to run instead of walking to catch up with our colleagues in the region,” is that there is so much to emulate from Kamuzu’s vision.

In fact Mkandawire explicitly said Kamuzu’s legacy should serve as a “reminder to those in leadership positions that they need to focus on building the nation and leave the country better than they found it”. My interpretation of NPC’s chairperson’s statement is that when we deposed Kamuzu in 1994, and buried him four years later, we stopped seeing the good things he left behind for this country. As a country, we threw away the baby with the bath water. There were so many positive things he left behind to be built upon. But we fixated our minds on his negative legacy. And so we lost out.

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