On Tuesday, Mar 19, 2024, Dr. Alexander Chula delivered a lecture titled "Lessons for the West from a Small African Country."
Chula, who is a Thai-British medical doctor and writer, studied Classics at Oxford then medicine at the University of London. In this lecture, Chula addressed his first book, Goodbye, Dr Banda, which reflects on his time spent in Malawi and the lessons he observed from its people and the legacy of its post-colonial dictator: Dr. Hastings Banda.
Chula began his lecture by querying why anybody should care about Malawi. Indeed, it is just a small, impoverished, and landlocked country in southern Africa. However, Chula counters this by arguing that Malawi, which has experienced “the full gamut” of interactions with the West, provides an important lesson to Western society.
Malawi has always been in a relatively impoverished and conflict ravaged area of Africa. Having been a British colony, Malawi gained independence in 1964 and immediately fell under the rule of the eccentric dictator Dr. Hastings Banda.
Banda, who studied and worked in the United States and Britain before returning to Malawi, viewed the biggest problem facing post-colonial Malawi as being its lack of classical education. Thus, he founded the Kamuzu Academy, which soon became known as the “Eton of Africa.” Kamuzu, which cost Malawi 1/3 of its educational budget every year, gave full ride scholarships to the best performing pupils of Malawi.
Although such an obsession with the Western classics may seem odd, Chula explained that there was always a great desire in local Malawians for literature. “There's a widespread view that British colonialists foisted an alien culture on unwilling subjects,” Chula explained Although sometimes that did happen, missionaries to Malawi discovered “an absolutely immense appetite for literacy among locals.”
Part of this desire for literacy and the classics comes from the deep-rooted respect that Malawian culture has for the past. In Malawi, Chula said, one's own ancestors are very much active in everyday life, both through traditions and natural events. Thus, the classics, which are the history and inheritance of the West, had a natural appeal in Malawi. According to Chula, this very respect for the past and for one’s own ancestry is the lesson that Malawi teaches to the West.
This article was contributed by CCCG Writing Fellow Luca Fanucchi
Originally published by at constudies.nd.edu on April 11, 2024.