Page 63 - SoMJ Vol 74 - No 1, 2021

Obituary: Frank Johnston 53

Central Africana publishing arm. These were largely marketed through his Central
Africana bookshops in Blantyre and Lilongwe.
Frank Johnston was acutely aware of the population pressures on
Malawi’s natural resources and wildlife and he later remarked that the book that
he had published on the reintroduction of the rhino into the National Parks might
perhaps more aptly have been named “The Poacher’s Guide to Rhino Hunting in
Malawi”. While having a unique and perceptive insight into the politics and
personalities of post-colonial Malawi, he shied away from potential controversy
once wryly remarking that if an autobiography were ever to appear, it would be
published “posthumously, in German…and in Lichtenstein”.
Frank Johnston was born on October 2, 1942 in Ballymena in Northern
Ireland. After attending Rainey Endowed School in Londonderry (aka Derry), he
went on to graduate in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Needham Hall,
Manchester University after which he undertook a one-year Graduate Diploma in
Public and Social Administration at St Edmund Hall, Oxford in 1963. Frank
Johnson was first appointed as the British Government representative at the
Cyprus Tourist Office in London. During this period, he married Maria Ines
Molina, an Argentinian medical doctor. When a job came up for a similar post in
Guatemala, he decided to apply for it, not least given that his wife would afford
him a linguistic advantage. Instead, he went home to tell Maria that he had indeed
been offered a job - but in Malawi. Despite being unsure of Malawi’s exact
geographical location, he had nevertheless accepted the position.
Despite a presidential proscription on long hair, both male and female,
skirts that failed to cover the knee, wide-bottomed trousers (aka loons or bell-
bottoms) plus anything that was arbitrarily perceived as ‘hippie dress’, which was
enforced by rigorously applied law, there appeared a compelling naïve innocence
to Malawi when Frank first arrived. In those days, the country was largely
controlled by a handful of corporate entities which enjoyed cosy relationships with
President Banda. But as many were later to discover, not least when Banda’s rule
appeared threatened, there was also a dark underbelly, where Banda menacingly
threatened that political opponents would be “fed to crocodiles”. This included
Johnston’s friend, the former finance minister Dick Matenje, who was also the
architect of the infamous measurement on the earlier mentioned proscribed
bellbottom trousers, which were mysteriously defined as being “6/5ths of the
width of the knee”.
The post-independence arrival of such conglomerates as Lonrho and
Carlsberg were to drive the development of sugarcane fields and related
industries, albeit with Carlsberg in the early years offering beers limited to either
a Green, Brown or a Black label. Shortly after his arrival, while trying to seek
refreshment in a bar full of beer-swilling expatriates, Frank asked for a beer. The
barman declined, saying “We don’t serve beer here.” After a few minutes, figuring
he may need a password to secure a drink, he asked the barman that if he could