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Fallacious Accusation of Hastings K Banda 43

34
representation in Salisbury throughout the UDI era. Banda even became a
destabilizing force in Zimbabwe’s nationalist politics, first encouraging a rupture
35
in the liberation movement in mid-1961.
However, in 1960, ties between the fraternal liberation movements in
Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland were on solid footing. Unfortunately, as the
success of the nationalist struggle in Nyasaland diverged from the continuation of
minority rule in Southern Rhodesia, this concord fractured. Similarly,
Wightwick’s ‘unhampered flight of imagination’ presaged white Rhodesia’s
increasingly confrontational response to black aspirations for political
representation. Wightwick’s posturing may also reflect the colonial heritage of a
political culture in post-colonial Africa that often seeks to discredit leaders based
on their geographic origins, sentiments far removed from Sithole’s belief that
Banda’s national origin was ‘immaterial.’ A full-fledged debate on Banda’s west
African origins never coalesced, but its tentative appearance played a notable role
in accelerating the tempo of polarisation across the Federation.

Brooks Marmon is a PhD student at the Centre of
African Studies in the University of Edinburgh. His
doctoral research examines the impact of decolonisation
across Africa on Southern Rhodesian politics circa 1950
– 1963. His fieldwork in Europe, North America, South
Africa, Malawi, and Zimbabwe has been supported by
the New York Public Library, Lyndon Johnson
Presidential Library, the Royal Historical Society, and
the British Institute in Eastern Africa. Follow him on
Twitter @AfricaInDC. He is thankful to the
aforementioned funders as well as Ismay Milford, Henry Dee, the Institute of
Development Studies at the National University of Science & Technology
(Zimbabwe), the Research Council of Zimbabwe, Society of Malawi, and the
University of Stirling for support that facilitated the composition of this article.

34 Colin Baker, Harry Graham-Jolly, 1910-1997, The Society of Malawi
Journal, Vol. 50, No. 2 (1997), 64.
35 Henry Slater, “The Politics of Frustration: The ZAPU-ZANU Split in
Historical Perspective,” Kenya Historical Review, Vol. 3, No. 2 (1975), 270.