Mausoleum for Kamuzu Banda stirs mixed feelings in Malawi

LILONGWE – Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika opened a lavish mausoleum on Sunday dedicated to the country’s founder and one-time dictator Kamuzu Banda, in a colourful ceremony that met with mixed emotions.

Mutharika cut a ribbon, unveiled a plaque and laid a wreath as a two-gun artillery salute boomed across the administrative capital Lilongwe at the mausoleum’s unveiling, attended by some 10 000 people. Banda, popularly known as “Ngwazi” or conqueror, died in South Africa in 1997 at the age of 99 after a career as one of Africa’s most controversial leaders whose human rights record came under severe criticism.The two-storey, US$600 000 marble-and-granite building in the Heroes’ Acre houses a library and research centre, but its construction has caused mixed feelings about Banda’s iron rule in the poverty-stricken southern African nation.A United States-trained doctor who led the country to freedom from British colonial rule 42 years ago, Banda – better known to the world in the past as Hastings Banda – wielded power ruthlessly in Malawi for three decades until 1994 when he was ousted in the country’s first multi-party elections.When he died he was laid to rest in a gold-plated coffin along with his trademark Homburg hat and lion’s tail fly-whisk near parliament in Lilongwe, where construction of the mausoleum began in 2004.”We Malawians have finally given our first head of state the respect that he deserves…it is befitting that we do so and honourable to remember him in this way,” President Mutharika told the cheering crowd.There had been previous attempts to “obliterate the name of Kamuzu Banda from the minds of Malawians and history,” Mutharika added.He was apparently referring to his predecessor Bakili Muluzi, who promised to build a mausoleum after Banda’s death, but said construction was held up because of lack of funds.Muluzi often criticised Banda’s human rights record, calling it a “legacy of brutality, torture and gross abuse of human rights.”Mutharika however said: “I disagreed with this policy.my government will continue to honour this true Malawian hero.”The prominent author and historian Desmond Phiri earlier told AFP that Banda “was a total failure on human rights,” but that he nevertheless “deserves the mausoleum because he came at an opportune time to unite Malawians and lead the fight against colonialism.”The rights activist Vera Chirwa, a former Banda critic, attended Sunday’s function “to let bygones be bygones.”Banda jailed Chirwa and her husband Orton for 12 years after Malawian agents abducted them in neighbouring Zambia, a home for many political dissidents who fled Malawi to escape punishment.”I forgave Banda a long time ago,” Chirwa told AFP.But critics say the shrine to Banda is a pointless luxury in one of Africa’s poorest countries, where life expectancy has been cut down to 36 due to AIDS and close to half the population of 12 million are in need of food aid.”He does not deserve the mausoleum.That’s money that should have been used to compensate victims of human rights abuses committed during his regime,” said rights activist Julian Mhone said.Banda, who proclaimed himself president-for-life in 1971, jailing his opponents and silencing critics, also barred women from wearing trousers and short skirts and jailed men for having long hair.According to some estimates, up to 100 000 Malawians were forced into exile during his tenure.- Nampa-AFPBanda, popularly known as “Ngwazi” or conqueror, died in South Africa in 1997 at the age of 99 after a career as one of Africa’s most controversial leaders whose human rights record came under severe criticism.The two-storey, US$600 000 marble-and-granite building in the Heroes’ Acre houses a library and research centre, but its construction has caused mixed feelings about Banda’s iron rule in the poverty-stricken southern African nation.A United States-trained doctor who led the country to freedom from British colonial rule 42 years ago, Banda – better known to the world in the past as Hastings Banda – wielded power ruthlessly in Malawi for three decades until 1994 when he was ousted in the country’s first multi-party elections.When he died he was laid to rest in a gold-plated coffin along with his trademark Homburg hat and lion’s tail fly-whisk near parliament in Lilongwe, where construction of the mausoleum began in 2004.”We Malawians have finally given our first head of state the respect that he deserves…it is befitting that we do so and honourable to remember him in this way,” President Mutharika told the cheering crowd.There had been previous attempts to “obliterate the name of Kamuzu Banda from the minds of Malawians and history,” Mutharika added.He was apparently referring to his predecessor Bakili Muluzi, who promised to build a mausoleum after Banda’s death, but said construction was held up because of lack of funds.Muluzi often criticised Banda’s human rights record, calling it a “legacy of brutality, torture and gross abuse of human rights.”Mutharika however said: “I disagreed with this policy.my government will continue to honour this true Malawian hero.”The prominent author and historian Desmond Phiri earlier told AFP that Banda “was a total failure on human rights,” but that he nevertheless “deserves the mausoleum because he came at an opportune time to unite Malawians and lead the fight against colonialism.”The rights activist Vera Chirwa, a former Banda critic, attended Sunday’s function “to let bygones be bygones.”Banda jailed Chirwa and her husband Orton for 12 years after Malawian agents abducted them in neighbouring Zambia, a home for many political dissidents who fled Malawi to escape punishment.”I forgave Banda a long time ago,” Chirwa told AFP.But critics say the shrine to Banda is a pointless luxury in one of Africa’s poorest countries, where life expectancy has been cut down to 36 due to AIDS and close to half the population of 12 million are in need of food aid.”He does not deserve the mausoleum.That’s money that should have been used to compensate victims of human rights abuses committed during his regime,” said rights activist Julian Mhone said.Banda, who proclaimed himself president-for-life in 1971, jailing his opponents and silencing critics, also barred women from wearing trousers and short skirts and jailed men for having long hair.According to some estimates, up to 100 000 Malawians were forced into exile during his tenure. – Nampa-AFP

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