Nation No. 35

With dozens of former African colonies and territories declaring their independence since World War II, the ceremony has become more or less ritualized. And so it was last week in Malawi, formerly the British central African protectorate of Nyasaland, now African nation No. 35. At the stroke of midnight, as fireworks lit the sky over Blan-tyre's Central Stadium, the Union Jack was hauled down in the presence of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. In its place rose the black, red and green banner of the newly sovereign nation of Malawi.

The new nation's credentials for sovereignty are typically African. Landlocked Malawi is small, poor and mainly agricultural. Its potential is mainly untapped; its 9,000 whites are vastly outnumbered by its 11,000 Asians and 3,900,000 blacks. It must rely on outside help even to meet its annual budget deficit of $12.6 million.

Jail & a Promise. That's where Prime Minister H. Kamuzu Banda comes in, and that's where the difference lies. A compact gnome of a man, Banda showed determination as a lad of twelve by walking the 1,000 miles from Nyasaland to South Africa, by working in the gold mines there and by saving some of his earnings to pay his passage to the U.S. Methodists helped get him to the U.S. and put him through high school; he went on to the University of Chicago and Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn. He practiced medicine for seven years in London, in 1958 returned home to try and pull Nyasaland out of the Central African Federation controlled by white-dominated Southern Rhodesia. He battled Federation Prime Minister Roy Welensky at home and in London and went to jail as a result. But with his people behind him, Banda held the spades; finally he won a promise of independence from Britain.

Looking Outward. Something of a demagogue, natty little Kamuzu Banda, nevertheless, is wise enough to know where his country's wherewithal must come from. He has asked for and received a large and immensely popular contingent from the U.S. Peace Corps. He has persuaded the British to make up budget deficits of Malawi for its first five years of nationhood. He has established friendly relations with the Portuguese, who control his only outlet to the sea. He has persuaded London's Colonial Development Corporation to advance the bulk of the cash needed for a Shire River power project now abuilding. He is negotiating a loan from West Germany, has received technical assistance from the U.S.

When Malawi takes its seat at the U.N., says Banda, it will be "on the side of the nation which is right in international disputes. It so happens that the West is right most of the time."

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