James Ralph Nthinda Chinyama

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James Ralph Nthinda Chinyama
President of the Nyasaland African Congress
In office
August 1950 –December 1953
Preceded by Charles Matinga
Succeeded by James Frederick Sangala
Personal details
Nationality Malawian

James Ralph Nthinda Chinyama was a leading member of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) during the period of British colonial rule in Nyasaland, which became the independent state of Malawi in 1964.

Contents

Early years

Chinyama was the son of Filipo Chinyama, who had been executed for leading the Ntcheu arm of the 1915 uprising led by John Chilembwe. He became an independent tobacco grower and businessman in the Lilongwe District of the Central Province. [1] In 1927, Chinyama helped George Simeon Mwase to found the Central Province Native Association. [2] By 1933, Chinyama was leader of the Native Association of Lilongwe, which had been formed to represent the views of the indigenous people of the area to the colonial administration. [3] In 1950, Chinyama was President of the African Farmers Association, which represented the interests of the most prosperous farm owners. [4]

NAC President

The Nyasaland African Congress, an umbrella organization for Native Associations launched in 1943, had been struggling due to a dispute with the President, Charles Matinga. In January 1950, Matinga was expelled due to suspected misuse of funds. [5] Chinyama was elected President of the NAC at a meeting in Mzimba in August 1950. James Frederick Sangala was elected Vice-President. Chinyama's election marked a turning point in the composition of the Congress, with prosperous farmers and small businessmen taking the place of the civil servants, clergy and teachers who until then had led the movement. [5] After the meeting, Chinyama organized a tour of the Central and Southern provinces to publicize the Congress. [1]

At a conference at Lancaster House in London in April 1952, the newly elected Conservative government together with Godfrey Huggins (prime minister of Southern Rhodesia) and Roy Welensky (future prime minister) as well as representatives of African interests (though it was boycotted by Nyasaland Africans), concluded by publishing a draft constitution for a federation combining Nyasaland with Southern Rhodesia and Northern Rhodesia in a so-called Central African Federation. Chinyama and other Africans were invited to attend, but when they realised the foregone conclusion of the conference they agreed to do so only as observers. [6]

In 1953 the new federation came into being. It was deeply unpopular with NAC members, who saw it as a betrayal of the compact under which the Colonial Office would place the interests of Africans first in Nyasaland. Some of the younger members of the Congress called for radical protests. Chinyama, called at the end of August to Zomba and reminded by Governor Sir Geoffrey Colby of the fate which had befallen his father after the Chilembwe rising of 1915, held back . [7] Rioting and non-cooperation was ruthlessly suppressed, with an official death toll of eleven. [8]

Chinyama publicly condemned the riots, not wanting the NAC to be associated with them. [9] He resigned from his position and was replaced by James Sangala in January 1954. [10]

Later years

In 1956 under a new constitution the Legislative Council was to consist of eleven officials and eleven non-officials. Of the non-officials, five were Africans chosen by the three Provincial Councils. Chinyama was one of those chosen. [11] In 1959, Hastings Banda had assumed the leadership of the Congress and was making populist speeches around the country that were to lead to his arrest later in the year. Chinyama was considered by this time to be a "quisling" for having cooperated with the colonial government. [12] By September 1960, with elections being organized under universal suffrage as a step towards independence, Chinyama had passed into political oblivion, [13] although he did attempt to continue a political career in July 1962 when, along with Pemba Ndovi and Charles Matinga, he formed a rival political party, the Convention African National Union (CANU), which, in a direct reference to Hastings Banda, called for an end to "one man, one party, one leader in Nyasaland". [14]

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Augustine Bwanausi was born in Malawi, then called Nyasaland, in 1930 and trained as a science teacher, but was also politically active in the Nyasaland African Congress, campaigning for the end of colonial rule. In March 1959, a State of Emergency was declared, and Bwanausi was arrested as a leading Congress member and detained until 1960. On his release, he joined the Malawi Congress Party and in 1961 was elected to the Legislative Council, becoming Minister of Internal Affairs and Development in the same year. In 1963, he became Minister of Works. In 1964, there was a confrontation between Banda and most of his ministers, which led to the sacking of Bwanausi and two of his cabinet colleagues in September 1964. Three other cabinet ministers resigned in sympathy, and although Banda was willingness to re-instate Bwanausi and one or two other ministers, their insistence on all be reinstated ended any hope of a reconciliation. In October 1964, Bwanausi left Malawi for Zambia, where he resumed teaching, and was active in Malawian exile politics until his death in a car accident in 1973.

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The Nyasaland Emergency 1959 was a state of emergency in the protectorate of Nyasaland, which was declared by its governor, Sir Robert Armitage on 3 March 1959 and which ended on 16 June 1960. Under the emergency powers that operated during the Emergency, over 1,300 members or supporters of the Nyasaland African Congress (Congress) were detained without trial, and most of the party's leaders including its president, Dr. Hastings Banda, were imprisoned in Southern Rhodesia after being arrested on 3 March. Many other Africans were jailed for offences related to the Emergency, including rioting and criminal damage. In the week before the Emergency was declared and during its first month, over 50 Africans were killed and many more wounded by the colonial security forces, which included many European troops from Southern Rhodesia. Others were beaten by troops or armed police or had their huts destroyed and their property seized during punitive operations undertaken during the Emergency.

References

  1. 1 2 Power 2010, pp. 57.
  2. ↑ Hill & Garvey 2006, pp. lxviii.
  3. ↑ Rotberg 1965, pp. 123.
  4. ↑ L'Hoiry 1988, pp. 106.
  5. 1 2 Ross 2009, pp. 69.
  6. ↑ Baker 1994, pp. 294.
  7. ↑ Baker 1994, pp. 317.
  8. ↑ Power 2010, pp. 76-77.
  9. ↑ L'Hoiry 1988, pp. 108.
  10. ↑ L'Hoiry 1988, pp. 109.
  11. ↑ Baker 2006, pp. 14.
  12. ↑ Murphy 2005, pp. 14.
  13. ↑ Baker 2001, pp. 14.
  14. ↑ Power 2010, pp. 180.

Sources

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