A mausoleum to Malawi’s founding president and one of Africa’s most repressive leaders, Kamuzu Banda, will be inaugurated on Sunday, stirring mixed emotions over the dictator’s legacy in the impoverished Southern African nation.
President Bingu wa Mutharika will open the two-storey $600 000 marble-and-granite mausoleum that will also house a library and research centre on Malawian history during a ceremony on Heroes Acre in the capital Lilongwe.
The United States-trained doctor who led the country to freedom from British colonial rule 42 years ago ruthlessly wielded power in Malawi for three decades until 1994 when he was ousted in the countrys first multiparty polls.
Banda, popularly known as ”Ngwazi” or conqueror, died in South Africa in 1997 at the age of 99 and was one of Africa’s most controversial leaders.
He was laid to rest in a gold-plated coffin along with his trademark Homburg hat and lion’s tail fly-whisk near Parliament in Lilongwe, where construction of the mausoleum began in 2004.
Prominent author and historian Desmond Phiri said Banda ”was a total failure on human rights” but that he nevertheless ”deserves the mausoleum because he came at an opportune time to unite Malawians and lead the fight against colonialism”.
”Despite this dark side to his leadership, Malawi would do injustice to history if it ignored Banda’s achievements in fighting for freedom and independence,” said Wapulumuka Mulwafu, a senior lecturer at the University of Malawi.
But critics say the shrine to Banda is a pointless luxury in one of Africa’s poorest countries, where life expectancy has been cut down to 36 due to HIV/Aids and close to half the population of 12-million are in need of food aid.
”He does not deserve the mausoleum. That’s money that should have been used to compensate victims of human rights abuses committed during his regime,” rights activist Julian Mhone said.
Mhone, whose politician father Douglas ”mysteriously disappeared” in the 1960s when he spoke out against Banda, is one of hundreds of Malawians waiting to be compensated.
Former president Bakili Muluzi, who unseated Banda in the landmark 1994 polls, set up a national tribunal which operated for 10 years until 2004 to compensate hundreds of victims of rights abuses under the Banda regime, although few have received funds.
Muluzi’s successor Mutharika started building the mausoleum soon after he came to power in 2004, saying it was government’s duty to honour the former head of state, who ”led the fight to freedom”.
While Muluzi condemned Banda for his ”legacy of brutality, torture and gross abuse of human rights”, Mutharika has taken a different tack, saying that he deserves recognition for bringing freedom and development to Malawi by building roads, hospitals and other facilities.
Banda, who proclaimed himself president-for-life in 1971, jailing his opponents and silencing critics, also barred women from wearing trousers and short skirts and jailed men for having long hair.
His rule was marked by human rights abuses. According to some estimates, up to 100 000 Malawians were forced into exile during his tenure.
After widespread anti-government rioting and the suspension of Western aid in 1992, Banda was forced to abandon one-party rule in 1993 and agree to elections.
He was thrown out of power in the country’s first multi-party elections the following year.
The views of Banda’s descendants, who are due to attend the inauguration, were taken into account in the design of the mausoleum.
The family objected to early plans to put the founding president’s remains on display in a manner similar to the tomb of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in Moscow’s Red Square.
”The idea of viewing the remains of Doctor Banda is not in conformity with Malawian culture of exposing dead bodies. Instead we want a tomb with a big portrait of Banda,” said grand-nephew Ken Kandodo. – Sapa-AFP