Crocodiletooth
JF-Expert Member
- Oct 28, 2012
- 18,589
- 20,898
Nyerere recounted the visit that Dr
Hastings Kamuzu Banda paid him in
early 1962, just a few weeks after
Nyerere had resigned as Prime
Minister of the then Tanganyika. He
said: “So Banda comes to me with a
big old book, with lots and lots of
maps in it, and tells me, "Mwalimu
what is this, what is Mozambique,
there is no such thing as
Mozambique". I said "What do you
mean there is no such thing as
Mozambique". So he showed me this
map, and he said "That part is part of
Nyasaland, "that part is part of
Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), that
part is Swaziland, and this part, which
is the northern part, Makonde part,
that is your part."
Nyerere continued: “So Banda
disposed of Mozambique just like that.
I ridiculed the idea, and Banda never
liked anybody to ridicule his ideas. So
he left and went to Lisbon to talk to
Salazar about this wonderful idea. I
don't know what Salazar told him...So
those three, the delegation of the
Masai, led by the American missionary,
Banda's old book of maps, and the
Ogaden, caused me to move that
Resolution, in Cairo in '64.” Banda later
became the first president of Malawi.
Nyerere was not wrong, and with
regard to Lake Nyasa, he had started
the discussion even before Tanganyika
and Malawi became independent. On
November 30, 1961, as Prime Minister,
Nyerere wrote to the Secretary
General of the then United Nations
Organization (UNO), informing him
that Tanganyika would only honor
agreements that the British entered on
behalf of Tanganyika in the previous
two years until December 8, 1961,
unless there were further
arrangements. Nyerere reasoned that,
the British ruled Tanganyika under the
terms of a trusteeship, which denied
them legal powers to alter borders.
But Malawi’s cabinet crisis in 1964
forced some politicians including a
popular nationalist, Kanyama Chiume,
by then a foreign affairs minister, to
escape to Tanzania through Lake
Nyasa, and that outraged Banda.
Additionally, Tanzania as the leading
country in Africa’s independence
struggles couldn’t tolerate Banda who
had made himself a South African
puppet; thus, the border talks stalled
but a cold war emerged.
Later, on May 31, 1967 while speaking
in Iringa Nyerere said: “I am told that
the boundary was changed by the
British during the declaration of the
Rhodesian Federation, but they had no
right whatsoever to do this because
Tanzania (Tanganyika) was a Trust
Territory.” Chiume, who studied in
Tanzania before going to Uganda to
attend Makerere University, was the
credible informant on this particular
detail.
Chiume had told Nyerere that in 1956
when the British formed a commission
to determine borders of the Rhodesian
Federation, which would have included
Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe of
today, they moved the borderline from
the middle of the lake to the eastern
shore. In August 1969 Chiume
repeated the same account to James
Mayall, a researcher from the London
School of Economics.
Banda’s madness didn’t end with the
lake; he claimed Njombe, Songea and
Tukuyu as part of Malawi, and in
response Nyerere said in September
1968: “Banda must not be ignored
simply because he is insane.” In fact,
Nyerere saw the claims that the border
lies alongside the shore was so fooling,
that he said: “The insanity of the claim
is proved by the fact that the eastern
shore is constantly mobile.”
Honestly, it is true that the 1890
Agreement established the border
between Nyasaland and Tanganyika on
the eastern shore of the lake, but was
later redrawn by the British in 1922
when they ruled both countries after
World War I. Perhaps, in respect of the
riparian water rights, which originate
from the English common law, the
British moved the border to the
midline of the lake, a perfect, logical
and legal step since Tanganyika was
their mandated territory as directed by
the League of Nations.
In 1945, after World War II,
Tanganyika continued to be under the
British but under different terms of
the UNO called trusteeship, meaning
Tanganyika would in no way be their
colony. The British went back to the
1890 borderline, making an illegal
decision in 1956 through a border
commission of the Rhodesia
Federation, and that is why Malawi’s
claims are contested by Tanzania.
Hastings Kamuzu Banda paid him in
early 1962, just a few weeks after
Nyerere had resigned as Prime
Minister of the then Tanganyika. He
said: “So Banda comes to me with a
big old book, with lots and lots of
maps in it, and tells me, "Mwalimu
what is this, what is Mozambique,
there is no such thing as
Mozambique". I said "What do you
mean there is no such thing as
Mozambique". So he showed me this
map, and he said "That part is part of
Nyasaland, "that part is part of
Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), that
part is Swaziland, and this part, which
is the northern part, Makonde part,
that is your part."
Nyerere continued: “So Banda
disposed of Mozambique just like that.
I ridiculed the idea, and Banda never
liked anybody to ridicule his ideas. So
he left and went to Lisbon to talk to
Salazar about this wonderful idea. I
don't know what Salazar told him...So
those three, the delegation of the
Masai, led by the American missionary,
Banda's old book of maps, and the
Ogaden, caused me to move that
Resolution, in Cairo in '64.” Banda later
became the first president of Malawi.
Nyerere was not wrong, and with
regard to Lake Nyasa, he had started
the discussion even before Tanganyika
and Malawi became independent. On
November 30, 1961, as Prime Minister,
Nyerere wrote to the Secretary
General of the then United Nations
Organization (UNO), informing him
that Tanganyika would only honor
agreements that the British entered on
behalf of Tanganyika in the previous
two years until December 8, 1961,
unless there were further
arrangements. Nyerere reasoned that,
the British ruled Tanganyika under the
terms of a trusteeship, which denied
them legal powers to alter borders.
But Malawi’s cabinet crisis in 1964
forced some politicians including a
popular nationalist, Kanyama Chiume,
by then a foreign affairs minister, to
escape to Tanzania through Lake
Nyasa, and that outraged Banda.
Additionally, Tanzania as the leading
country in Africa’s independence
struggles couldn’t tolerate Banda who
had made himself a South African
puppet; thus, the border talks stalled
but a cold war emerged.
Later, on May 31, 1967 while speaking
in Iringa Nyerere said: “I am told that
the boundary was changed by the
British during the declaration of the
Rhodesian Federation, but they had no
right whatsoever to do this because
Tanzania (Tanganyika) was a Trust
Territory.” Chiume, who studied in
Tanzania before going to Uganda to
attend Makerere University, was the
credible informant on this particular
detail.
Chiume had told Nyerere that in 1956
when the British formed a commission
to determine borders of the Rhodesian
Federation, which would have included
Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe of
today, they moved the borderline from
the middle of the lake to the eastern
shore. In August 1969 Chiume
repeated the same account to James
Mayall, a researcher from the London
School of Economics.
Banda’s madness didn’t end with the
lake; he claimed Njombe, Songea and
Tukuyu as part of Malawi, and in
response Nyerere said in September
1968: “Banda must not be ignored
simply because he is insane.” In fact,
Nyerere saw the claims that the border
lies alongside the shore was so fooling,
that he said: “The insanity of the claim
is proved by the fact that the eastern
shore is constantly mobile.”
Honestly, it is true that the 1890
Agreement established the border
between Nyasaland and Tanganyika on
the eastern shore of the lake, but was
later redrawn by the British in 1922
when they ruled both countries after
World War I. Perhaps, in respect of the
riparian water rights, which originate
from the English common law, the
British moved the border to the
midline of the lake, a perfect, logical
and legal step since Tanganyika was
their mandated territory as directed by
the League of Nations.
In 1945, after World War II,
Tanganyika continued to be under the
British but under different terms of
the UNO called trusteeship, meaning
Tanganyika would in no way be their
colony. The British went back to the
1890 borderline, making an illegal
decision in 1956 through a border
commission of the Rhodesia
Federation, and that is why Malawi’s
claims are contested by Tanzania.
