Nyasaland Leader Hits Rhodesian Domination

"We prefer to starve in independence than to have full stomachs in slavery," Hastings Banda, Chief Minister of Nyasaland, told a questioner in his Winthrop House audience last night.

Banda, who is also president of the Malawi African National Congress, a political party which seeks to withdraw Nyasaland from the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, claimed that the present federation is desired only by white settlers. They hope to use it to extend the oppressive "native policy" of Southern Rhodesia, Banda charged. The policy, according to Banda, is "in no way different from that of the Union of South Africa."

Although the settlers claim that this federation is necessary for economic reasons, Banda insisted that "once they clamped their federation on us, they would be able to get dominion status, and then we would be in the same place as South Africa."

Challenged by Rhodesian Student

Banda's assertion that Nyasaland can be economically self-sufficient was challenged after his talk by a Boston University student from Southern Rhodesia, who charged that dissolving the federation "would cause some human beings to suffer."

The Rhodesian proposed instead that Banda use his recently acquired majority in the Nyasaland legislative council as a tool for "eliminating discrimination" throughout the whole federation.

"We're not worried about discrimination, what we want is independence," Banda countered. He charged that the Southern Rhodesian students were not willing to fight for independence, but were only worried about "getting good jobs." They are, he explained, "like pigs and horses, only interested in full stomachs."

In answer to a question about the possibilities for democracy in African states, he commented that democracy in Africa does not have to take the form which it has taken "in Washington, in Boston, or in Tammany Hall." "While I believe in an opposition," he added, "I am not going to go out of my way to get it."