Violence and 'othering' in Colonial and Ostcolonial Africa. Case study: Banda's Malawi. pp. 197 - 213

This papar takes binary epistemological and ontological configurations and subjects them to analytical review within the broad context of colonial and postcolonial states in Africa. During a process of conceptual interrogation, an 'othering' trend - and the violence by which the trend too often is accompanied - is traced to their colonial origins, and it is argued that the trend has been passed ford from a colonial to a postcolonial era. The paper's thematic trajectory not least is motivated by a warning issued by Marcus Ramagole, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Venda, against repeating in post-apartheid Sout Africa "the scourge of conquest and domination". Ramagole observes, "a culture of domination is self-perpetuating and requires the presence of the 'other' to dominate, whether the 'other' is white or African". He further asserts "the challenge thrust on us by the responsibilities that come with power is to use it differently to those who once oppressed us" (Ramagole 2005). Having first embarked on a theoritical-conceptual exploration of contested spaces and silenced voices in colonial and postcolonial Africa, the paper barrows its focus to a Malawian case study, with particular reference to the Banda regime. The first section of the paper elaborates the conceptual framework and overall argumentation within which is set a Malawian case study. The paper's methodology primarily is literature and theory based. However, the Malawian section incorporates an element of qualitative research in the form of interviews conducted by Domoka Lucinda Manda in June - July 2002 with civil society activists in Blantyre and academics on the Zomba campus of the University of Malawi.