Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda was a leading pan–Africanist who oversaw the Independence of several African countries.

The history of Malawi’s Independence is similar to Kenya’s, in that Malawi was declared a state in 1963 and became independent in 1964. Soon after Independence from Britain, Kamuzu Banda was appointed the prime minister of the country.

He was elected president in 1966, a post he held until 1994 when he lost to Bakili Muluzi.

Banda, a medical doctor, belonged to the Chewa tribe who inhabit Kasungu district in the Central region.

I had heard stories about him, but it was not until I went to Malawi that I got a feel for the kind of man that he was.

I was informed that the mausoleum of Dr Banda was not far from the Sunbird Capitol Hotel in area 10, in Lilongwe, which is where I was staying.

I took a walk up the road, across a zebra crossing painted in yellow, as the cars zoomed past; there are no bumps on the roads. I took my time; the traffic was not as heavy as Nairobi, Dar es Salaam or Kampala.

I crossed over to a forested area, where a stream passes under a concrete culvert, and came to a street lined with jacaranda trees; on my right was the newly constructed Bingu International Conference Centre, the only five-star hotel in Malawi, now almost complete.

I walked up to a beautifully constructed monument that looks like a house, with cedars and palm trees surrounding the building. The grass looked trimmed, but the place seemed deserted.

As I got closer I noticed a man clearing weeds. I asked him if he would show me around the monument. “Just walk in by the side and go round the house, you will find someone inside,” he said.

I went to the front entrance of the mausoleum and found Governor Chimwemwe. There were no security guards present, not even privately owned.

Mr Chimwemwe said he worked for the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, and had been at the mausoleum since 2011.

“We have a lot of visitors, both local and international; we receive between 100 and 150 visitors per week,” he said.

I told him that I was from Kenya and would like to know more about Kamuzu Banda.

“Not much is known about him in my country,” I said, adding that Kenyans think Kamuzu was a man who ruled with an iron fist.

He declared that Kamuzu Banda was the best president Malawi had ever had, and that his cronies were his greatest undoing.

I then sought to know why he was called ngwazi.

“He was called the ngwazi, which means the lion, because in the 1980s there was a meeting in Egypt to discuss apartheid in South Africa. All the African leaders at that meeting wanted to declare war on the whites. But Dr Banda was against it, saying that fighting whites with bows and arrows was a defeatist reasoning that could lead to the death of many Africans,” Chimwemwe said. After, as the other African leaders pondered his words, they called Dr Banda ngwazi.

The mausoleum was constructed by president Bingu wa Mutharika, now deceased. Construction began in 2004, and was completed in 2006.

The mausoleum has four large pillars, which represent the four fundamental cornerstones of Banda’s rule — loyalty, unity, obedience and discipline.

Around and under the four pillars are 24 smaller pillars that represented the 24 districts of Malawi under Dr Banda. Today there are 28 districts in the country.

Life history

Kamuzu Banda was born in 1898, appointed prime minister in 1963, and became president in 1966. He ruled until 1994 and he passed on on December 3, 1997. Kamuzu was a Christian and belonged to the Church of Central African Presbyterians, which is the second largest church in Malawi after the Catholics.

It was difficult to get to the actual tomb of the ngwazi, which lies in the basement, but on the upper floor there is a replica of the grave. The epitaph is inscribed with Dr Banda’s favourite Bible passage from Psalms 23: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, He leadeth me beside the still waters.”

A picture of Dr Banda with a flywhisk in his hand hangs above the tomb.

“This flywhisk was given to Dr Banda by the first president of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta,” Mr Chimwemwe said.

As I set out from the mausoleum, I met a party of pupils from Chejika and Victory primary schools in Lilongwe. I asked them what they expected to learn from the visit.

“Dr Kamuzu Banda was a freedom fighter and our first president, we are here to learn about him,” one student replied.

As I left the mausoleum, I thought about the place where the first president of Kenya’s remains lie in Nairobi. There is heavy security, and ordinary Kenyans are not able to visit the mausoleum of the founding father of Kenya, even if it is just to learn more about him.