Last October the president of Malawi, Joyce Banda, told European Union delegates in Brussels that she was ready to sacrifice her political career for economic reforms in the country. Banda was mainly referring to a 40 percent currency devaluation that

Read the rest of Joyce Banda: Between Saving the Economy and Winning Elections – By Jimmy Kainja »

In 1966, two years after gaining independence from Britain, Malawi was declared a republic. For the next 28 years Hastings Banda led the country, and the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) was the sole legally recognised party. The authoritarian regime passed

Read the rest of Malawi: constitutional and law reform should continue under Banda – By Hannah Gibson, Africa Research Institute »

Joyce Banda became President of Malawi by accident. Bingu wa Mutharika, her predecessor, died suddenly of a heart attack in April, an event which prompted 48 hours of confusion as senior political figures, including the President’s brother, tried to engender

Read the rest of DIARY: Malawi: Joyce Banda wills the IMF for a loan – By Magnus Taylor »

A principal quality that analysts of African business and politics need is humility. Events in North Africa in 2011 must have led to some uncomfortable questions between firms and their risk advisors – I have yet to see any end-2010

Read the rest of Political risk in Africa: predicting the unpredictable – by Jolyon Ford at Oxford Analytica. »

Malawi prides itself on being a peaceful, friendly and law-abiding country, but it is also well-known for occasional lurches in the opposite direction. The recent transfer of power, from President Bingu wa Mutharika, who died on 5th April of a

Read the rest of Malawi: the Banda Succession – By Nick Wright »

Monitoring from afar the Malawian reaction to the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika and the inauguration, after a brief succession struggle, of Joyce Banda as the new president I couldn’t help being reminded of a Private Eye cover from

Read the rest of Malawi’s new president must build support and mend donor relations – by Keith Somerville »

Between independence in 1964 and the referendum to end the one party state in 1993, Malawi was almost a stereotype of an African autocracy with a geriatric Life President, a violent youth movement which beat or killed his opponents and

Read the rest of Malawi’s democracy dips into recession – By Keith Somerville »

In March 2009, I wrote an article entitled “A New Federation” which suggested that Malawi may be moving slowly, and without anybody really noticing, towards the Federation which had been so firmly rejected by Hastings Banda of Malawi and Kenneth

Read the rest of Central Africa’s Sovereign Issues: Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe – by Nick Wright »

By the peaceful standards of modern Malawi, the 20th of July was a very bloody day indeed. At least 19 people were killed and many more were injured, in demonstrations against the Mutharika government that took place in and around the

Read the rest of Malawi: Bingu turns apocalyptic – By Nick Wright »