The Mwanza trial as a search for a usable Malawian political past

The main thesis of this article is that nations need memories and that in many African States there is a need to create a memory of the period between independence and the reintroduction of multipartyism. That process often takes the form of inquests into human rights abuses which can result in trials. An example is the trial in Malawi of six people - including former President Kamuzu Banda - on the accusation of conspiring to murder four politicians on a back road close to the Mozambican border in Mwanza District in May 1983. The article discusses how the reactions to this trial of the present ruling party, the UDF (United Democratic Front), and the previous ruling party, the MCP (Malawi Congress Party), and their leadership, differ. The trial is seen as a struggle about the interpretation of the past which is put in the context of the actual events in 1983 as these came out in the trial. The fundamental question which arose is whether responsibility for what happened in that period can be put squarely in the hands of the triumvirate which was in control, or whether decisionmaking was much more diffused throughout society. The first version of events - that of the prosecution - lacked evidence, and the result of the trial was therefore the acquittal of the accused. The second version portrays Banda as a leader who could be deceived by his environment, which is at variance with the way many Malawians saw his role. Notes, ref., sum