The first Nyasa association established in South Africa was the Nyasaland African National Congress (NANC), founded in Johannesburg in 1920 by two Tonga, Anderson Chimbaza and John Longwe. Officials at the Native Affairs Department hardly held the NANC in high regard, noting that though the 'Congress originally aspired to represent some 500 natives from British Nyasaland...I understand that the number who have actually joined and paid their subscriptions is probably less than one fifth of this number. I have met the Executive Committee of the Congress on several occasions. It is composed of men of poor education, indifferent attainments, and no forcefulness of character. The creation of the Congress is I think due to a spirit of emulation and a desire on the part of the organisers to earn their living by politics rather than manual labour...The organisation will probably dwindle and finally disappear.'[1]

 

In contrast to this disparaging view, the executive was comprised of some very well respected Africans. Chimbaza was the son of a chief, and the original chairman Albert Ankhoma, a minister Apostolic Faith Church educated at Bandawe Training Institute (and a Tonga), had a reference in the prestigious African Yearly Register and a policy taken out with African Life Assurance Society Ltd.[2] Despite official expectations, the congress itself remained active, admittedly intermittently, until at least 1951, and offered support to Malawians who lived on the Reef. [3]

Though difficult to fully ascertain, the NANC does appear to have been a representative body for Malawians across urban South Africa. The NANC's correspondence with the Native Affairs Department was erratic; with no information on the Congress in the 1930s other than when Chimbaza applied for recognition in 1931 and 1936.[4] It is impossible to tell whether this represented the inactivity of the congress, or a high degree of independence from the South African state. Colonial officials took the former view, noting in 1947 that the congress had 'been semi-moribund for a number of years, and I do not think can be said to have any great support from the people it purports to represent...support wanes when subscriptions are asked for, and though I think the leaders are, in many cases, sincere in trying to better the conditions of their less educated countrymen outside Nyasaland, little is achieved in this respect...'[5]

 

Within African circles by the mid-1940s however, the congress was seen as representative of the Malawian community - in part to the detriment of its leaders, and it was during such moments that they looked to the South African state for assistance. In 1945 the congress was charged by the South African National Congress' 'Vigilance Committee' with dealing with a Northern Rhodesian called Thomas Kazembe who had run off with the wife of a Zulu, Joseph Kumalo.[6] Threatened with the repeat of a 'war' which in 1927 had seen a number of Nyasas hospitalised with stab wounds, the executive of the NANC were keen to see that Kazembe was properly punished, and in October 1945 a deputation of the NANC asked for his deportation. The congress certainly appears to have had links across South Africa, with the executive committee gaining permission in November 1948 to visit Malawians across the Union, including Clements and Robert Kadalie in Cape Town.[7] This may have been a regular practice before 1948 when General Smuts temporarily eased pass laws.[8]

 

Engaged with Malawians across South Africa, the congress was focused on providing support domestically and did not look beyond the borders of the Union for transnational linkages. When the NANC again applied for recognition in August 1947, President JR Gray Banda described the congress as “a political body looking after the interests of the Nyasaland Natives....to direct their social, intellectual and moral activities according to the laws of the Union Government....the Officials of the Congress are all subjects, or what we call detribalised Natives, who can understand well the Laws of the Land as they themselves are a part of it.”[9] Throughout its existence in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, the executive consistently emphasized that they were South African as well as Nyasa, and orientated its activities towards issues affecting Nyasas specifically in the Union, not Southern and Central Africa.

Correspondence between the NANC and the Native Affairs Department terminated after Davidson Moyo, the Chairman and Secretary of the NANC, alleged in April 1951 that James G Mandah (possibly the same individual as JR Gray Banda), the President, was an "ardent communist" who put Malawians in danger with his political teachings.[10] Utilising the contemporary fears of white South Africans, Moyo may have been looking to oust Mandah as head of the congress. There is no evidence that James G Mandah was arrested for these allegations, but lack of correspondence after this date indicates either the collapse of an organisation whose existence relied on the agency of a limited number of individuals, or that the congress went underground. Either way these events point to the stringency of state restrictions on politically active Malawians, who were increasingly vulnerable to any political allegations.

 

Numerous other less well-documented Nyasa associations existed in South Africa,[11] but the one other Nyasa association with considerable coverage in the South African National Archives is the Nyasaland and Rhodesian Industrial Co-Operative (NRIC), founded in 1946. Davidson Moyo, the same man who must be seen as responsible for terminating the NANC's correspondence, proclaimed in its constitution, "As a founder I will see that my people get something to eat, from today I will be called Leader of Nations. I will lead the Nation in a proper way.”[12] A member of the South African Native Military Corps from January 1941 to September 1943, Moyo was a hospital assistant on Village Reef mine in October 1945 and involved in the NANC from at least September 1945. Colonial officials took the view that "Mr Moyo is considered something of a fanatic and is labouring under the mistaken conviction that he is the chosen leader of the Northern Territory Natives in the Union."[13] In 1947 he put himself forward as a judicial officer overseeing Malawians stating, "I know how to deal with Nyasaland people...this is the only thing how we can stop the trouble in Johannesburg of the whole Union of South Africa. I will deal with them according to my Native Custom and my National Secretary [James Kamanga] is also very clever."[14] Officials feared this was simply "a cloak to 'skin' his fellow countrymen."[15] With the apparent failure of the NRIC to garner any popular support, in his hunt for influence Davidson Moyo went on to become Chairman and Secretary of the NANC, and by June 1950 seems to have won the trust of officials who took the view "that he is quite harmless and not likely to become involved in any political agitation."[16] If anything however the relatively large amount of NRIC correspondence indicates Moyo's attempts to use the state as a means of gaining influence and legitimising his co-operative. As noted by a colonial official, the NRIC "was invented by himself and has not I think a very large membership..."[17] In comparison to the NRIC, the lack of correspondence from other associations may indicate relative strength in numbers and success.

 

 

 

[1] NASA GG 28/416 'Objects and Activities of Nyasaland Native Congress', 10/01/1921.

 

[2] Skota, African Yearly Register,(Johannesburg, 1932); NASA KJB N1/3665/56 'Estate of Late Albert Ankhoma', 23/11/1956.

 

[3] NASA GG 50/1557 Untitled letter from Chimbaza requesting employment for Jameson, 27/01/1928.

 

[4]NASA NTS 7215 75/326 'Nyasaland Native National Congress', 31/03/1936; 'Nyasaland Native Congress', 12/01/1931.

 

[5] NASA NTS 7263 375/326 'Nyasaland Native National Congress', 06/11/1947.

 

[6]NASA KJB 408 N1/14/3 'Re Joseph Kumalo & Thomas Kazembe', c. mid-1945.

 

[7] NASA KJB 408 N1/14/3 'Names and Districts of visits', 08/08/1948.

 

[8] Crush, Jeeves & Yudelman, Labour Empire, p.13.

 

[9] NASA NTS 7263 375/326 'Nyasaland Native National Congress', 30/08/1947.

 

[10] KJB 408 N1/14/3 'Transvaal Nyasaland African National Congress', 05/04/1951.

 

[11] See Appendix 3.

 

[12] NASA NTS 7263 377/326 NRIC Constitution, 27/09/1947.

 

[13] NASA KJB 410 N1/14/3 'Nyasaland ad Rhodesian Industrial Cooperative', 10/11/1947.

 

[14] NASA KJB 410 N1/14/3 'General Hertzog Promised', 27/09/1947. This presumably is the same James Kamanga who was in contact with NAC treasurer IM Lawrence in 1944. Lawrence was also in contact with Kadalie in the 1920s. Power, Political Culture and Nationalism in Malawi: Building Kwacha, (Rochester, 2010), pp.47 & 228.

 

[15] NASA NTS 7263 377/326 Untitled, 09/12/1947.

 

[16] KJB 408 N1/14/3 'The Transvaal Nyasaland African National Congress', 22/06/1950.

 

[17] KJB 408 N1/14/3 'Nyasaland & Rhodesian Industrial Co-operative', 06/11/1947.