African Movement Gains Strength

(The author, a junior from Cornwall-on-Hudson, N.Y., is presently in Mwea-Tebere, Kenya working on a "rice scheme." He is in Africa under the auspices of the Phillips Brooks House program of Volunteer Teachers for Africa. Duggan was initially bound for Malawi, but is now teaching in Kenya. The Malawi project was cancelled.)

"This is all-out war, not cricket. Chisiza and his gangsters must be captured dead or alive." --President Hastings Kamuzu Banda of Malawi.

One month ago a band of forty rebels set out for the city of Blantyre in Malawi to assassinate President Banda. What has happened to them is, perhaps, of less importance than the growing movement of which they were part--a movement which could land the tiny country of Malawi in serious trouble.

Dwarfed by racist neighbors on one side and nationalistic independent states on the other, Malawi lies in the extreme Southern end of the Great Rift Valley which stretches North and South almost the entire length of the continent. As a land-locked nation, it must depend on its good relations with surrounding states to insure overland trans-shipment to the sea. There-in lies Malawi's greatest problem, and President Banda's response to such dependence has embroiled a formerly little-known country in a major struggle.

Unfortunate Timing

Malawi has announced that it plans to open diplomatic relations with South Africa. A more ill-timed disclosure would be hard to imagine, as it coincided with the opening of the Organization of African Unity Conference in Kinshasa, Congo.

Banda's actions might well have resulted in the usual speeches and counter-attacks in the press, and little more, for recently Malawi has been quietly pursuing a course of cooperation with Southern Rhodesia, South Africa, and Mozambique, all of whom have avowedly racist governments. And, in fact, the announcement itself was greeted with surprisingly little reaction publicly. But it did not go unnoticed. Other African states may have been reluctant to criticize openly a former freedom fighter in his own right, who without bloodshed brought his country to independence. But privately they seem to have written off Malawi as a candidate for membership in the East African community of free states, and anything they have to say about President Banda will probably be said on the battlefield from now on. The controversy is now at the boiling point.

This is due in part to a surprising turn of events: The Conference in Kinshasa was moderately successful. At the time of its convening, most observers would have shared Banda's scorn. Many felt that the previous 1966 Addis Ababa meeting represented a ludicrous ending to the futile history of the Organization of African Unity. It showed itself to be utterly disorganized and incapable of coming to grips with any of the major issues, which by October, 1967, had become major crises. President Julius Nyerere remarked simply "Africa is a mess."

When the Conference opened, Nigria was in civil war, the Federal Government contending with two breakaway states. The Congo was struggling with a handful of white mercenaries and their rebel Katangese troops, who had managed to keep the Federal forces numbering 15,000 at bay for three months. Rumors of a plot to overthrow President Nyerere of Tanzania were circulating from ex-Vice President Kambona, in London for "health reasons." Serious Shifta terrorism occupied the Kenya army in the Northeastern Province along the border, while the ruling KANU party was denying that elections would be advanced from 1970 to '68 for their sake.

Against this background, nobody expected much unity to result from the Organization of African Unity, especially under the dubious leadership of General Mobutu, who had enough troubles of his own trying to persuade Algeria to release Moise Tshombe so he could execute the former President.

But in another of his characteristically frank remarks, Nyerere said "It's time Africa grew up." By the time the Conference was over, encouraging signs of maturity and progress had been made, and it was clear that Malawi, which did not even attend the Conference, had been left out of the bargain.

Since the Conference terminated, the participating heads of State have gone all out to prove that more than words would result from their proclamations, and the score sheet so far shows that they meant what they said. Ironically, the more successful their drive for unity becomes, the less bright the future of Malawi begins to look.

First of all, on settling their own differences: President Kuanda of Zambia took the lead in announcing that he would mediate for negotiations between Kenya and Somalia on the Shifta terrorism, as well as providing safe conduct out of the Congo for the mercenaries--whom he described as "human vermin"--and their one thousand rebel Katanga troops. Cynical observers doubted that much would come of either proposal: Kenya and Somalia had been at war for two years and no diplomatic relations existed between them. As for the Congo, the practical side of extracting the mercenaries from the city of Bukavu seemed overwhelming.

Yet barely two weeks after the Conference ministers returned to their capitals, Kenya and Somalia announced resumption of trade before the formal talks had even begun. Somalia had been experiencing difficulties finding outlets for its beef, and when the American packing firm, "Ward Foods," agreed to act as agents for the Somalia Government's cattle transactions with Kenya, the 16-month-old trade boycott came to an end. News of the resumed trade was released by Bruce Mckenzie, Kenya's minister for Agriculture, who said in Nairobi that the decision was in the spirit of Harambee (pulling together, a Kenyan national slogan) and ". . . [it] results directly from the Kinshasa agreement . . . to find ways to end the border dispute."

Shortly after a delegation of the International Red Cross left from Switzerland to help in arranging for the evacuation of mercenaries from the Congo, and President Kuanda stated that he was finalizing transport. Since then, however, things have not worked out so well. Serious fighting has resumed, and it turns out that Zambia was offering only one plane for the entire operation, leaving the Katangese troops to fend for themselves. Not increasing the prospects for a truce is the American decision to provide transport planes for Mobutu's troops. However, there is still a possibility that a settlement may be worked out, though the future of Kuanda's plans formulated at the OAU Conference remains a question mark.

Next came further negotiations on the East African Economic Treaty. It was welcomed by the business communities who promised to stick to it; members were assured that, incredibly, most non-Africans in fact wel- comed its Africanization policy and its emphasis in self-management. The governments involved promised to help avoid the East African nemisis--red tape--in its implementation.

At the same time, Zambia, not part of the agreement, urged members to consider its application. President Kuanda told delegates in Mwanza: "Zambia is knocking at your door. We hope that you will keep this door wide open. I can say that only the pressure of extra work caused by our fight against racialists all around Zambia has made it impossible for us to indicate publicly that Zambia is keen to join hands in at least one or two sections of the Treaty, although, as I have already said, she is very keen to become a full member."

There was a time when the only practical cooperation between East African countries went no further than a common mail and railway service. Zambia's eagerness to join the treaty could only be a prestigious vote for the newly revived unity efforts. Coming so close on the heels of the Conference it could not help but be associated with the movement sparked by the Kinshasa meeting.

Most interesting, though, is Kuanda's reference to "racists all around us." One of the vital decisions made by the Conference was to grant two million dollars out of a three million OAU budget to the waging of guerrilla warfare by freedom movements.

Until now, despite limited success, the freedom fighters had been regarded by racist governments as paper tigers well within the bounds of containment by their security froces. Just as no one paid much attention to the OAU proclamations on other matters, no one considered the beefing up of guerrilla warfare as much of a threat--yet. But it appears that their scorn was slightly premature. In fact Malawi, not one of the racist target states but an Independent black nation, appears to have been one of the first goals of an increasingly organized movement; the success of other OAU pronouncements bodes ill for Malawi's future with freedom fighters.

Malawi Encounters the Paper Tiger

In the meantime, what has happened to the small band of rebels who set out to assassinate President Banda of Malawi? The following item appeared on the front page of the Daily Nation of October 15, published in Nairobi. The article read: "Rebel Arms seized in Malawi raids." "The President's Office in Blantyre said today that security forces have captured a rocket launcher and other arms from terrorists in South-Western Malawi in the past six days. The arms were mostly of Communist Chinese, Russian or Czechoslovak manufacture, the President's Office said. . . ."

". . . There has been an all-out security drive in the past week against a band of rebels said to have slipped into Malawi to assassinate President Hastings Kamuzu Banda. . . ."

". . . Two have been killed--including the alleged leader, former Home minister Yatute Chisiza--and 12 captured so far. The President's Office said that the haul of arms included two machine guns, two submachine guns, ten hand-grenades, three automatic rifles, nine pistols and over 3,000 rounds of ammunition."

Most likely the rebels entered Malawi through Zambia, as President Banda charged. At first the invasion was said to number forty, then the figure was reduced to twenty-six. Led by Chisiza they reached the forests of Neno, forty miles Northwest of Blantyre city, and there they split up into two groups. One group made for Blantyre with its alleged assassina-