Goodbye, Dr Banda: Lessons for the West from a Small African Country

by Alexander Chula

‘You may never have been, may never go, may never even have heard of the place – but Malawi will repay your attention. It is one of the smallest, poorest countries in Africa, often overlooked; but its relationship with us in the West has been extraordinary.’

In a ruined dictator’s palace, Alexander Chula – a classicist-turned-doctor, fresh out of Oxford – stumbles upon an oak treasure chest. Inside is a priceless, antique edition of Julius Caesar’s Gallic War. This unexpected talisman of Western high culture belongs to the mercurial Dr. Banda, a man of many parts - scholarly physician, anti-colonial hero, brutal tyrant, and fallen philosopher-king.

Banda leads the author deep into the heart of this mysterious country, there to uncover a bizarre meeting of between one of Africa's most fascinating indigenous cultures and the best and worst of our own. Here tribal ritual collides with Greek theatre; masked dancers with roving classicists; poets and pop stars with missionary-explorers; hippies and kleptocrats with long-suffering peasants.

The story is enigmatic but exhilarating, by turns edifying and deeply uncomfortable. But we would do well to examine Malawi presents urgent lessons which resonate piercingly in our vexed age of culture wars and identity crisis.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Africa, Biography, Memoir, Malawi

320 pages, Hardcover

First published July 4, 2023

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gripping book; surprising, really, considering its scope and aim. An Oxford classicist starts teaching at Hastings Banda's 'Eton of Africa', Kamuzu Academy (most teachers are African, but they don't have many classicists to draw from). The author is of British/Thai heritage and this perhaps gives him a deep-rooted even-handedness (or perhaps ambivalence) about cultural belonging. He brings both an outsider's curiosity and a guest's willingness to learn. This means that he doesn't come with an ideological agenda, necessarily. And he has really got to know the culture, first as a teacher, then in a 2nd incarnation, returning as a newly qualified medical doctor.

For example, he takes colonialism as a given (as we all must), while never shying away from its atrocities, arrogance and presumptions. But because it happened, he is prepared to concede and identify any benefits that unexpectedly (or unintentionally) resulted. Most surprisingly of all is his generosity of spirit to the religious culture of Malawi, which today, is awash with all kinds of Christian permutations. He is also fascinated by the indigenous expressions of African animism, keen to understand more of the mindset that undergirds it. But he also gives a generous hearing to the pioneering missionaries like David Livingstone et al, not least because they are so revered and valued by Malawians themselves. This is not something that many secularised westerners would even countenance today. He is clear that he is not a fellow-believer, and so his appreciation only goes so far. He has few illusions about some manifestations (about which he is quite funny, such as the charismatic churches described by his mentor as 'The Quivering Brethren'). But he is clearly impressed -- something he encourages readers to share -- by the courage, tenacity and humility of many of the best of the early missionaries and imperial civil servants. The contrast with the short-termist, professional aid industry (for all its good intentions) was striking.

But the book's big thread is of course the legacy of Malawi's first post-colonial leader and ruler for 30 years. Hastings Banda. He wasn't Africa's worst, but people were still unjustly arrested, or exiled, or assassinated. Terrible things were done in his name. But there are still ambiguities about him. In the end this is a book about ambiguity and paradox. After all, what could be more peculiar than going to teach Virgil or Euripides to bright kids who had previously never left their rural villages? Chula is such a sensitive and interesting writer, full of insight, unexpected connections (such as between the village animist rituals and Euripides Bacchae) and wit. So I don't think having an Africa connection is necessary for getting something out of this book. All that matters is an open mind free of (ideological) preconceptions, something that Chula models throughout.

As a result, I think it should be required reading for anyone working cross-culturally in any role. It's just a bonus that it manages also to be so fascinating and entertaining.

[Yolanda Wandawanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a lot of ways this is not what I was expecting but also exactly what I needed. Chula tells this story memoir style but brilliantly weaves in well researched history and commentary on culture and identity in a way that I thought was thought provoking.

My main criticism is that it doesn’t do much of what the title suggests in terms of giving lessons to the west from Malawi. Do I think the book was worse off for it? Probably not. Chula is most brilliant when
laying out the character of Malawians and the complexities of multicultural identities and I was often left wishing he said more about this when he had just begun to scratch the surface.

Bonus points that I attended Kamuzu Academy briefly and grew up in Lilongwe so a lot of his descriptions were familiar and more enjoyable to me as a reader. I think he describes Malawi authentically (and this is coming from a Malawian) and I would definitely recommend it to other Malawians.

Favorite Quote: “Whoever is uprooted, she observed, has a tendency, whether deliberate or not, to uproot others. And then you are left only with scattered individuals”

[K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trigger warnings: colonialism, death, death of a child, dictatorial regime

I picked this up purely because it's set in Malawi and I needed that for my Read Around the World challenge. And yet for some reason I didn't pick up on the fact that this is nonfiction before I started reading. It's like a cross between memoir and social history, and even after finishing it, I don't quite know what to make of it.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Chula's discussion of his time at the school and how it had the largest GCSE Latin class in the world during his time there because all students study Greek and Latin. But at times the connections between the personal and the historical got lost and the story became quite dry. It wasn't a bad book! It just wasn't at all what I was expecting.

[Alex Levine]

Over the past two decades, copious new-look histories of empire and decolonization have been produced on Tanzania, Ghana, Namibia, etc. Malawi, as far as I’ve seen, has received marginal if any interest, even as the “federative” turn - drawing attention to the moment in the late-50s, early 60s when federative rather than nation-state based responses to the end of empire seemed possible (indeed preferable), from Malaysia to the Caribbean, and particularly throughout Africa - has led some to reexamine the Central African Federation. Chula would argue, perhaps (and I would agree) that this is because Malawi challenges - and brings much-valued complexity to - historians’ understanding of European entanglements in Africa; not least as illustrated in his discussions of missionaries and movement between Europe, the US, Malawi, and other African nations. He also makes a really interesting point about the value of looking from Malawi to appraise and perhaps reassert the universal value of European intellectual traditions (like classics) so challenged over the past half- to quarter-century.

The book also has definite disadvantages: it’s perhaps 100 pages too long, Chula is relatively unreflective on his own positionality vis-a-vis his biting and in my opinion entirely correct critique of liberal Western aid worker’s racialized fetishization of the country, and he has not put enough thought into what becomes an unproductive and problematic dichotomy between authentic, placed countryside and unplaced and ontologically disrupted cityscape.

[bolli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ungur fornfræðingur er fenginn til að kenna klassísk mál við einkaskóla í Malaví, sem er eitt minnsta og fátækasta land Afríku. En hvers vegna í ósköpunum er verið að kenna grísku og latínu í þróunarríki þar sem flestir stunda sjálfsþurftarbúskap og lifa á undir einum dollara á dag? Svarið má rekja til stjórnartíðar Hastings Kamuzu Banda, sem var forseti Malaví allt frá sjálfstæði 1964 og fram til ársins 1994. Arfleifð hans er flókin og enn þann dag í dag eru skiptar skoðanir á því hvort hann hafi verið grimmur einræðisherra eða sjálfstæðishetja og framsýnn landsfaðir (eða einhvers staðar þar á milli).

Í bókinni segir höfundur frá reynslu sinni af Malaví og fléttar frásögnina saman við fornfræðina sem hann kennir ásamt ýmsum þáttum úr sögu landsins, allt frá ómunatíð til samtímans með sérstaka áherslu á Banda og stjórnartíð hans. Að sumu leyti tengja malavísku nemendur hans meira við fornbókmenntirnar en aftengdir vesturlandabúar vegna þess að hefðbundinn lífstíll þeirra og fjölgyðistrú svipar meira til Grikklands til forna heldur en vesturlanda nútímans.

[Thomas Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A refreshing book - avoids the cliched lessons that are too often drawn by commentators from ‘advanced’ Western countries. The observations, whether you agree with them or not, have firm roots in the author’s experience in the country, his understanding of its political history and through balanced reflections. A great IPE book (international political economy).

[Lizzie Beach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh me oh my! What an interesting book!! I am kicking myself that I didn’t read this as I was writing my uni dissertation as it would have been so so useful, but equally I’m glad I got to enjoy it in a way that I read it for pleasure rather than academia.

While I don’t agree with everything Chula says in this book, I found his perspective really interesting and amazingly well written. I have never interacted/thought much about the world of classics so this side to the book was really eye opening for me and the connections to the Malawian Village really engaging. I specifically liked the continued focus on Gule Wamkulu, which I have interacted with in my time in Malawi but have always wanted to learn more about.

I really enjoyed the focus on Banda and the 1960s-90s time in Malawi and there were some parts of this history, and of that man, that I didn’t know despite writing my dissertation on him. This also goes for a lot of the discussion about pre-colonial missionaries in Malawi. It was thoroughly well researched but the academic side of me would have preferred a bit more referencing (although I loved the bibliography section and my To Read list is now a lot longer!)

Chula dove into so many areas of Banda’s personality and his insiders perspective of Kamuzu Academy painted a very different picture to the one I found in my research. I see flaws in both my own studies, as well as omissions in Chula’s book, and reading this has reignited my passion for the subject and desire learn more.

I would love to read more from this author and hear about his more recent work in Malawi as a doctor and his observations on current, rather than historic, politics!

[Sally Hull · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a book I found difficult to put down, an enjoyable and stimulating read, and now I am planning a trip to see Malawi for myself. This small, impoverished, east African country, with a big lake and towns with evocative name such as Livingstonia and Blantyre, produced an extraordinary vision of classical education born from some hardy Scottish missionaries and the eponymous Dr Banda, president, anglophile, anti-colonial hero, and eventually brutal tyrant.

Chula, a classics teacher and medic, may have seen this culture in its dying days, but there were other treasures to be found. At the heart of this book is the surprise of finding a meeting place between the village tribal rituals and the stories and mythology found in classical literature. Alongside this are acute observations of rural life, and a visit to one of the few white farms with its elderly owners. Altogether we get a nuanced story of colonialism and church planting, we are encouraged to look without jumping to judgement, and above all to leave our twenty-first century baggage on the doorstep.

[Rosie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent, fascinating book about the meeting of cultures in Malawi. I learned so much from it. Written by an ex-pat who is not a missionary nor an aid worker but who went to teach in a unique school which aimed to give Malawians a Classical education,- the brainchild of Hastings Banda, who felt all Malawians should have this opportunity. Having been a classicist myself (I did Latin and Greek A Levels) and having taught at a mission boarding school in Zambia, before later becoming a lecturer in theological colleges, there was so much in here that I could relate to and so many questions I have asked myself in the past. It is also fascinating about local cultures, and the meeting and blending, or not, of Christianity and traditional religion. Because the author is not a Christian, nor anti-Christian, his dispassionate view on this especially is very interesting, unbiased, and therefore quite revealing. A very worthwhile read for any who go to work in another culture.

[piattenzione · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot of the book is unique and quite random, and deserves great credit for that. An Oxford educated classical scholar turned doctor spends years of his life in Malawi and describes the cultural history and peculiarities of the country, always making parallels with what he knows best: antiquity, ancient Rome, the old Greeks, medicine. I already said it was going to be random!

The writing style is often a little complicated; the dictionary a welcome companion while reading. And yet I will give it to the author, whose nerd level I admire across the board, not least for the meticulous research for this book.

When I read the last page, I am happy:
About having found this unique book and about reading another somewhat shallower novel next.

[Sakshi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, I had to DNF this book and say goodbye to Dr Banda. Now I do understand that I didn’t read the whole book so I probably should not be writing a review about it. But, I am simply disappointed in this book primarily because (for a majority of the beginning of this book) I didn’t expect it to be a comparative study of the author’s choice of reading for Classics at Oxford and Dr Banda’s fascination with the subject that resulted in his dictatorial imposition of Classics/ Latin in the lives of Malawian citizens (at least until his death). The writing is undoubtedly nice, which can be one of the reasons why someone should read this book.

[Ili Giannakis · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s something about reading about places you recognize and Chula paints both a wonderful and a harrowing picture. Its history goes all the way back to Livingstone, Johnson and Maple. He blends Malawian intellectual history with European classics through poems and ancient Greek stories. Worth the read for anyone, especially those who call Malawi home!

[Stephen Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book. Amazing depth of insight by an author with privileged access, but limited years, in Malawi. And a profound comment on western attempts to change Africa - still relevant. A "must read" for volunteers in Malawi.

[Gigi Hoarau · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think ‘Goodbye, Dr Banda’ is one of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read. It’s interesting, surprising, at times uncomfortable, and gives a wonderful insight into life in Malawi. I highly recommend this book.

[Kelly Keenan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating lens through which to learn about Malawi’s colonial history and traditional culture, in addition to exploring how classical literature relates to modern day.

[nick stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mutual understanding required

I wish I had read this before I went to Malawi.
I shall certainly go again
The Malawian people are quite exceptional in their hospitality as this book makes clear.