PW_2_2022

Article

Going Wild in Malawi Eleni Cotton , Global Writers’ Forum Colonial Africa of the 1970s was very different to the world we have become used to today.

Eleni Cotton looks back on carefree days gone by. I remember dancing at the Mount Soche Hotel (where I often sang in cabaret) until 6 am, followed by champagne breakfasts. Then we drove to our lakeside cottage, swam, played in the water and tore around in the speedboat. We slept for a few hours, before heading back to town for a film at the Rainbow Cinema. The film’s interval was where we all met up again, and talked about where we’d go on the following Saturday. The boys rode their motorbikes crazily, and we hung onto them like limpets. Then my brother George got an MG for his birthday, and we managed to fit six of us into the four seater sports car. The Drive-In Cinema was fun. We took collapsible chairs and tables, snacks and lots of beers. And, oh yes, we watched bits of the films too. The boys drank quite a lot, but we girls would never hear the end of it if we returned home smelling of alcohol. So, we drank orange squash and tonic. We often spent weekends on our farm, where we boated, went hunting, and partied in the evenings to the sound of frogs croaking in the river. If the professional crocodile hunter was around, the boys went crocodile hunting at midnight. Whatever time we made it back to town, we always made it to work on time. Despite their apparently carefree lifestyle, Eleni and her friends were always wary of Malawi’s Dictator / President, Hastings Kamuzu Banda. Eleni said “We had to be careful what we wore though, because Dr Banda was very strict about that. If so much as a knee showed, the police had the power to tear your skirt off. And if the boys’ hair was long enough to touch their collar, it was cut off.” Hastings Banda ruled over Malawi between 1964 and 1994, when the British protectorate of Nyasaland achieved independence and became a republic. Banda’s rule has been described as a “highly repressive autocracy.”

His government certainly supervised the people’s lives very closely. Early in his rule, Banda instituted a strict dress code, which forbid women from wearing: trousers, skirts or dresses that went above the knee, see-through clothing, or having visible cleavage. Men’s hair could be no longer than collar length, and foreign visitors at the airport were given haircuts. Any man who ventured into public with long hair, could also be seized by police and subjected to a forced haircut. In 1995, Banda was arrested and charged with the murders of several former cabinet colleagues during 1985. He was acquitted due to lack of evidence. On his removal from office, Banda was unrepentant for his strict regime, describing the Malawians as “children in politics,” who would “miss his iron- fisted rule.” You can read more of Eleni’s adventures in Malawi, in her book: Bertha the Swiss Trader’s Daughter .

Eleni Cotton

Dr Banda

26

POLICE WORLD Vol 67 No.2, 2022