The DOI matches its Crossref record.
The Politics of Ethnicity in Malawi's Democratic Transition
Abstract
While the western media were directing their gaze towards South Africa's political restructuring, another democratic transition was taking place to the north that was no less remarkable and no more imaginable a few years ago. Since Malawi obtained independence in 1964, it had been governed by Dr Hastings Banda (as he was then known) and the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) under a system of absolute rule which the country's élites refused to reform or relinquish. In March 1992 the Catholic bishops issued a formal protest against President H. Kamuzu Banda's political high-handedness, initiating a popular movement for democratic reform and anti-régime demonstrations by university students and staff, as well as factory workers.1 When additional pressure was exerted by the international community, holding foreign aid hostage to democratisation, the Government finally yielded, holding a referendum for multi-party democracy in June 1993 that led to presidential and parliamentary elections in May 1994. Banda and the MCP were ousted, Bakili Muluzi and the United Democratic Front (UDF) were elected, and Malawians of all parties revelled in the freedom to be openly, aggressively political.
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In the citing paper
“Bandahadchosentobuild up the Chewa community in part because he was a Chewa himself, but also because he recognized that if he could bring a handful of other groups under the Chewa umbrella he could construct a coalition that would 'provide him with a very large constituency among the common-folk' (Kaspin 1995, 604- -5).”
From The Political Salience of Cultural Difference: Why Chewas and Tumbukas Are Allies in Zambia and Adversaries in Malawi (2004) · cites this paper as Kaspin 1995
In the citing paper
“In the 1994 contest in Malawi, meanwhile, the country split its vote almost exactly along ethnic lines, with Chewa voters from the Central Region overwhelmingly supporting Banda's Malawi Congress Party (MCP), Tumbuka voters from the Northern Region overwhelmingly supporting the Tumbuka-led Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), and almost no crossover voting taking place between the two communities (Kasp”
From The Political Salience of Cultural Difference: Why Chewas and Tumbukas Are Allies in Zambia and Adversaries in Malawi (2004) · cites this paper as Kaspin 1995
In the citing paper
“His response was to mobilize Chewas as Chewas , and to do so in large part by invoking the threat posed to the community by its Tumbuka rivals (Kaspin 1995; Posner 1995).”
From The Political Salience of Cultural Difference: Why Chewas and Tumbukas Are Allies in Zambia and Adversaries in Malawi (2004) · cites this paper as Kaspin 1995
Citations
Cites
Still being checked.
Research works printed but not linked: 22
- Mkandawire Richard M. , ‘Agrarian Change and Rural Development Strategy in Malawi: a case study of the Chewa peasantry in the Lilongwe rural development project’, ph.D. dissertation, University of east Anglia, Norwich, 1984,
- Woods, 1992, Southern Africa Report, 8, 17
- 10.1080/03057077508707941 · DOI
- Williams, 1989, Annual Review of Anthropology, 18, 401
- 10.1017/S0022278X00021054 · DOI
- Rotberg, 1971, The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa: the making of Malawi and Zambia, 1873–1964
- Ranger, 1989, The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa, 118
- 10.1016/0305-750X(81)90009-7 · DOI
- Kydd, 1982, World Development, 10, 355
- Cohen, 1974, Urban Ethnicity
- According to the Malawi Population Census 1966, Nyanja was then the first language of over of the population and understood by more than three fourths. Although such figure would justify using Nyanja as an official language, they had been inflated according to Vail and White, loc. cit. pp. 180 and 191 fn. 157, in order to support a language policy that had already been determined by the Banda élite. As no other language survey has been conducted since 1966, there is no way to test the veracity of either the Malawi census or Vali and White's counter-claim.
- 1990, Where Silence Rules: the suppression of dissent in Malawi, 11
- Langworthy, 1958, Independant African: John Chilembwe and the origins, setting and significance of the Nyasaland native rising of 1915, 49
- Richards, 1974, From Vision to Reality: the story of Malawi's new capital
- Vail, 1991, Power and the Ptaise Poem: Southern African voice in history, 279
- Tew, 1950, Peoples of the Lake Nyasa Region
- Pike, 1965, Malawi - A Geographical Study
- Gilroy, 1987, There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack: the cultural politics of race and nation
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- Fields, 1985, Revival and Rebellion in Colonial Central Africa
- Anderson, 1991, Imagined Communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism
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Cited by
POSNER, D. N. (2004) · American Political Science Review · doi:10.1017/s0003055404041334 · Cited by 940
Electoral Systems and Democratization in Southern Africa
Reynolds, A. (1999) · doi:10.1093/0198295103.001.0001 · Cited by 276
Metadata
- Authors
- Kaspin, D.
- Corresponding author
- Kaspin, Deborah
- Venue
- The Journal of Modern African Studies
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 1995-12
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 595-620
- ISSN
- 0022-278X (ISSN-L)
- 1469-7777
- OpenAlex
- W2108407362
- Cited by
- 185
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 8.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Journal of Modern African Studies (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › African Studies and Ethnography
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Conflict and Governance
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › African history and culture studies
- Keywords
- Malawi, democratic transition, ethnicity, political reform, Hastings Banda, Catholic bishops, anti-regime protests, multiparty democracy, United Democratic Front, foreign aid, ethnic politics
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- Kaspin, D. (1995). The Politics of Ethnicity in Malawi's Democratic Transition. The Journal of Modern African Studies. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022278x00021455
