Political Science 101

A few weeks ago, we invited Sister Louisa and Father Gamba to our house for dinner.  Sister Louisa just celebrated 30 years in Malawi and Father Gamba has been here for 27 years so we thought they would be able to provide some useful backround information.  Sister Louisa is a Canossian originally from Italy.  She lives at the primary school, but she teaches a class here at the college.  Her main job is working at the Montfort Media printing press run by the Montfort Fathers editing Chichewa.  She was our Chichewa teacher for the first month, but since school began we haven't had any lessons.  Father Gamba is a Montfort Father also from Italy (Italians are everywhere down here).  He runs Monfort media and he is also involved in the the prison fellowship.  Sr. Louisa reminded us that even though Fr. Gamba is her boss that doesn't mean he always gets to tell her what to do.  30 years of experience comes with a certain authority even if you aren't the boss.  We talked mostly about politics since they were here for most of the time while President Banda was in power.  He took office shortly after Malawi was freed from being an English colony.  He gradually eliminated rival political parties and made himself president for life.  The missionaries were still allowed in the country, but they were cautious about following the rules.  The church became a vocal opposition to the government which led to the dissappearance of a few bishops and priests.  In 1990, the bishops wrote a letter calling for the end of Banda's control which was printed here in Balaka by our good friend Fr. Gamba.  Some say that there was a plan to eliminate the bishops after this, but the letter was sent to the BBC so the international attention prevented it.  There was, however, an attempt to burn down the printing press.  Louisa thinks they hoped Fr. Gamba would be inside, but they failed.  President Banda then allowed the people to vote on a referendum to decide between the single party or a multi-party system thinking that most people would vote for him or not vote at all.  The voting opened at 6 am and there was a line already at 4 am.  He lost and the next year they held a national election for a new president.  Now everything is stable, as much as politics can be anyways, and The Monfort Fathers still have a few political connections.  Gamba has even interviewed the current president a couple times.