Dunduzu Chisiza

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Dunduzu Kaluli Chisiza (also known as Gladstone Chisiza) was an early agitator for independence in Central Africa.

He was born in Florence Bay (now Chiweta) in the Karonga district of Nyasaland (now Malawi), Central Africa, in 1930, to Kaluli Chisiza, a group village headman. He, like his older brother Yatuta Chisiza, was educated at Uliwa Junior Primary School and later, to the rough equivalent of sixth grade level, at Livingstonia.

He worked as a clerk in the Tanganyika (now Tanzania) police in 1949 and later continued his education at Aggrey Memorial College in Uganda, where he joined the Nyasaland Students' Association. In 1955-6, after a stay in the Belgian Congo in 1952-3 and another period in Uganda, he worked as a clerk interpreter in the Indian High Commission in Salisbury (now Harare), Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He was instrumental in forming the Southern Rhodesian African National Congress Youth League and, presumably because this was regarded as a seditious organization, he was deported in August 1956 back to Nyasaland where he participated actively in constitutional discussions with the colonial administration in January 1957.

Later that year, he went to England to study economics, sociology and political science at Fircroft College in Birmingham, where he began a correspondence with Hastings Kamuzu Banda (later the first President of the Republic of Malawi). He met Banda in person in London in June of that year. In August 1958, at Banda's request, Du returned to Nyasaland and became Secretary General of the Malawi Congress Party. He, together with his brother, Yatuta, Kanyama Chiume and Henry Chipembere, worked tirelessly to promote Banda's image as saviour of the native peoples of Nyasaland. Chisiza was arrested, along with other high-profile African dissidents, in the dawn raids of Operation Sunrise on March 3, 1959, when the colonial administration declared a state of emergency in Nyasaland. He was imprisoned in Khami Prison near Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia. He was released, some months after Banda, in September 1960 and in December participated in constitutional talks also involving Banda and Orton Chirwa. In August 1961, Chisiza was elected to represent Karonga in the Legislative Council and became Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance, Henry Phillips (later Sir Henry Phillips).

It appears that during this early period in the run-up to independence, Chisiza and Banda had severe and sometimes heated disagreements over policy. In April 1962, together with his now-mentor Henry Phillips, he visited London for discussions regarding Nyasaland finances. His favorable attitude toward a possible loan for a hydroelectric project to be made through the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (opposition to which was the proximate cause, many would say, for the independence movement in Nyasaland) reportedly caused Banda to become extremely annoyed. The rift was such that, according to some reports, Chisiza resigned or threatened to resign. Some sources allege that he seriously contemplated forming an opposition party, possibly along with Henry Chipembere, once independence had been achieved.

In July 1962 he hosted an economic development symposium at which authorities from around the world presented papers on African and Malawian development. He himself gave a presentation warning of the dangers of dictatorship in emerging African countries. (Among his publications was a paper entitled "Africa - What Lies Ahead?", published by the African-American Institute, New York, in 1962). The conference was an unqualified success. In the short time of his prominence, Chisiza gained enormous respect in the west for his intellect, energy and pioneering ideas.

Chisiza died on Monday, September 3, 1962, while driving back to Zomba from Blantyre. His cream-colored Mercedes was found in a small stream bed beside a bridge at Ntondwe, on the road to Zomba. An inquest concluded he had died from a fracture at the base of his skull.

[edit] References

• "Remembering Du: an episode in the development of Malawi's political culture", by Joey Power. African Affairs, Vol 97, Number 388, July 1998.
• "Dunduzu Kaluli Chisiza", by D. D. Phiri (ISBN 0582601304).