Page 49 - 2020 SoM Journal Vol 73 No 1 FINAL_Neat

Fallacious Accusation of Hastings K Banda 41

confirm Banda’s Malawian roots. 21 Although the editor-in-chief of the
conglomerate’s premier offering, the Central African Daily News later wrote that
the company failed to offer much editorial support for Banda, its pages offered
22
vigorous rebuttals to Wightwick’s claim.
An unnamed senior correspondent of Bwalo la Nyasaland, travelled
several hundred miles from Blantyre to Kasungu District, Banda’s home area, and
following a four-day investigation categorically reported that Banda was indeed a
23
Nyasa by birth. The story appeared in print in early June, nearly two months
after Wightwick’s comments, which gained little traction elsewhere in the
Federation’s press, likely because of their patent lack of veracity. The front page
of the Central African Daily News of June 4,1960 carried pictures of Banda’s
sister, Jenala, and nephew, John Phiri. A banner headline trumpeted ‘THERE IS
24
NO DOUBT ABOUT IT: DR BANDA IS A NYASA BY BIRTH.’ It explained that
the investigation was a direct response to Wightwick’s parliamentary comments.
A second story on page four of the issue offered details on Banda’s
childhood in Nyasaland, and young adult years in Southern Rhodesia and South
Africa. It primarily drew on an interview with Banda’s uncle, Hancock Phiri, who
had lived in both places with his nephew several decades previously. 25 The
reporter also spoke to two of Banda’s nephews. The author’s investigation
concluded with a visit to Chamwavi Estate, a defunct farm previously supported
26
by Banda and home to his sister and two half-brothers, Bentham and Enos.

A Zimbabwean Nationalist Weighs In:
The affair seemed to have subsided (at least in the press) until that
August, when a withering opinion piece on Wightwick’s allegation of Banda’s
west African origins, now some four months old, appeared in the Central African
Daily News. The author was the American-educated Reverend Ndabaningi
Sithole, a teacher and school administrator who had only joined Southern
27
Rhodesia’s nationalist movement, the National Democratic Party, that June.
Sithole’s piece derided the “Wightwickian invention” derived from a “flight of

21 “There is No Doubt About It: Dr Banda is a Nyasa by Birth.” Central African
Daily News, June 4, 1960.
22 Nathan Shamuyarira, Crisis in Rhodesia (London: Andre Deutsch, 1965), 140.
23 “There is No Doubt About It: Dr Banda is a Nyasa by Birth.” Central African
Daily News, June 4, 1960.
24 Ibid.
25 “Dr Banda: His Childhood and Early Education.” Central African Daily News,
June 4, 1960.
26 Ibid.
27 “Chitepo and Rev. Sithole have Joined the NDP.” Central African Daily
News, June 6, 1960.