Foreign News: RIDING THE CHANGING WINDS

(2 of 2)

Dr. Hastings Banda, 55. who today sits, pajama-clad, writing his memoirs in a comfortable Southern Rhodesian prison, spent most of his adult life in Britain, where he was a prosperous London physician with a large white practice. Yet, when he returned to his native Nyasaland (pop. 2.800,000, almost all black) in 1958 after 40 years of self-exile, thousands of Africans met his plane and cheered hysterically when he shouted the one Chinyanja word he still remembered: "Kwaca! [dawn]," the slogan of all Nyasaland nationalists who demand self-rule and separation from the Central African Federation.

Banda's name was a household word in Nyasaland, for from faraway London he had produced a torrent of fiery pamphlets, messages and speeches in the cause of Nyasa independence. Last year, when nationalist riots spread through the colony, the government brought in troops and declared a state of emergency, accusing Banda of being the cause of it all. Banda denies he counseled violence, but he shouts: "We mean to get out of their damned federation. One cannot exclude violence. Africa is on the move. You cannot stop us!" Britain's Colonial Office wants Banda released, but Nyasaland's local authorities have stalled for fear the freeing of Nyasaland's martyr might touch off an orgy of exultant nationalism.