Thamar Dillon Thomas Banda
| Thamar Dillon Thomas Banda | |
|---|---|
| President of the Nyasaland African Congress | |
|
In office January 1957 – July 1958 |
|
| Preceded by | James Frederick Sangala |
| Succeeded by | Hastings Banda |
| Personal details | |
| Nationality | Malawian |
Thamar Dillon Thomas Banda ("TDT") was a politician in Nyasaland in the years prior to independence. He was President-General of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) from 1957 to 1958, and founded the Congress Liberation Party in 1959.
TDT Banda was a Tonga born in Nkhata Bay on the shores of Lake Nyasa in around 1910. He had spent most if not all of the 1940s abroad in Southern Rhodesia before returning to Nyasaland, when he joined the Nkhata Bay branch of NAC.
The Nyasaland African Congress was organized by James Frederick Sangala and Levi Zililo Mumba, and inaugurated in October 1944 with Mumba as President. Sangala, Mumba and their associates had a vision of the NAC becoming "the mouthpiece of the Africans", cooperating with the government and other colonial bodies "in any matters necessary to speed up the progress of Nyasaland". By the mid-1950s, African leaders in European colonies throughout Africa were encouraged by the example of Ghana's independence to take a more aggressive stand in seeking independence.
TDT Banda had sought to stand for a seat in the Legislative Council (LegCo) in March 1956 when the constitution was amended to allow five instead of three seats to Africans, but the NAC nominated Nephas Kwenje in his place. Possibly as a consolation, he was instead elected Secretary-General of the Congress on 30 March 1956. Sangala, now President of the Congress, and TDT Banda were arrested by the colonial authorities and tried for sedition in May 1956. The charges related to a "seditious publication" handed by Banda to the editor of the Nyasaland Times. The charge was the subject of a question in the British House of Commons. A delegation of women traveled by bus to the High Court in Zomba led by Rose Chibambo, the Treasurer of the NAC and later the organizer of the Malawi Congress Party Women's League after 1958. The women were arrested after demonstrating, chanting:
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