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Title: | The Production of History in Malawi in the 1960s: The Legacy of Sir Harry Johnston, the Influence of the Society of Malawi and the Role of Dr. Kamuzu Banda and His Malawi Congress Party |
Author: | Kalinga, Owen J.M. |
Year: | 1998 |
Periodical: | African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society |
Volume: | 97 |
Issue: | 389 |
Period: | October |
Pages: | 523-549 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Malawi |
Subjects: | historiography history 1960-1969 History and Exploration Politics and Government |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/723344 |
Abstract: | This article examines the production of history in Malawi in the 1960s, the period that witnessed the transition of Malawi from colonial status to an independent nation-State. It was also in the 1960s that the first university was established in Malawi, marking the beginning of programmes of historical research and teaching at a serious academic level. The article discusses the way in which the literature of the time influenced the teaching and research of history and, in this connection, particular attention is paid to some of the writings of Harry Johnston, the first British Commissioner to the Lake Malawi region, and to that of the Nyasaland Society, especially its publication, the 'Nyasaland Journal' (first published in 1948). The last section of the article examines the manner in which Kamuzu Banda and the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) attempted to direct and control public discourse of the country's past. The article shows that many historians of Malawi continued to operate under the shadows of Johnston, who was responsible for defining the ethnic/'tribal' configuration of Malawi. His characterization of the Yao, the Ngoni and the Tonga came to be adopted by almost everyone, and it was not until the late 1960s that researchers began to seriously question his classification of ethnic groups. Notes, ref., sum. |