On this day 52 years ago, the BBC reported that Kanyama Chiume had gone into hiding in London. The winds of independence were sweeping over Africa, and bold young Africans were beginning to assert themselves. Chiume had gone to school with Julius Nyerere (who became president of Tanganyika in 1961) and he had studied at Makerere College in Uganda with Mwai Kibaki (current president of Kenya) before studying law in India and then being elected to the Nyasaland Legislative Council in 1956 as a representative of the Nyasaland African Congress party.
Chiume became well known for his provocative speeches and questions in parliament, and he was one of the key campaigners for independence, under the leadership of Hastings Banda. In March 1959 the leaders of the independence movement were rounded up and imprisoned, although Chiume escaped because he was in London at the time. The following year the Nyasaland Constitutional Conference was held in London, and the British agreed that Nyasaland should become self-governing by 1963.
Hastings Banda became prime minister of Nyasaland, and then on 6th July 1964 Nyasaland became independent and changed its name to Malawi. Banda was showing dictatorial tendencies, and a cabinet crisis arose when several ministers led by Chiume presented Banda with proposals to limit his powers. Chiume was forced into exile for the next 30 years while Banda became “president for life” until eventually forced from office in the 1990s. Chiume died in the US in 2007.