Frontier causes strife

Press, 2 November 1984, Page 13

Frontier causes strife

Although Zambia and Malawi recently set up a joint commission to deal with border and immigration problems, the exact border between the two countries continues to be hotly disputed. It is the type of controversy all too common in Africa, resulting from frontiers drawn up in the. last century by colonial powers, which did not consult the wishes of local inhabitants, writes Victor Ntjovi in London.

The Zambia-Malawi border follows the watershed between Zambia’s rivers and Lake Malawi It dates back to 1891 in an agreement between the British Colonial office, then administering Malawi (Nyasaland) and the British South Africa Company, which was administering Zambia (Northern Rhodesia). The line was confirmed in a further agreement in 1894. As it stands, it divides members of the same ethnic groups,, from

each other. These include the Ngonis, the Tumbukas, and the Chewas. Dr Hastings Banda, LifePresident of Malawi, is himself a Chewa.

The border is largely unpoliced and people from both sides regularly cross on foot for social events, shopping and, even, to work and to go to school. But bordercrossing also involves criminals, poachers, and illicit game hunters, and this has led to strain between the. two countries. In particular, Banda has claimed that exiles plotting against his regime have made use of this unmarked frontier.

The controversy first flared up in 1968 when President Banda denounced the border line and laid claim to a large part of Zambia. The “natural” boundary, he said, was the Luangwa River some 80 miles to the west The basis of his claim was historical, deriving from

the seventeenth century Maravi empire which included most of what is now Zambia’s eastern province.

Zambia rejected the claim but in 1981 members of the Malawi Young Pioneers, a quasi-military organisation which owes loyalty to Banda, took over, several villages in eastern Zambia. They are adjacent to the Malawian border districts of Mchinji and Kasunga, the latter of which is Banda’s home district and where he has a vast tobacco estate. Zambia threatened to take the matter to the Organisation for African Unity.

Although relations between Malawi and Zambia have improved considerably in recent years, the establishment of the joint frontier commission attests to outstanding differences that have still to be resolved. Copyright, London Observer Service