A Son of the Rock

I watched the end of the League Cup final today and noticed that the person giving out the medals was Joyce Banda, the President of Malawi, according to the Wiki article in the link the most powerful woman in Africa and 71^st in the world.

Her surname made me wonder if she was in any way related to Hastings Kamuzu Banda, first President of Malawi and leader of its colonial predecessor, Nyasaland.

It turns out though that she is a Banda by marriage. Her husband Richard is a prominent judge who doesn’t seem to be related to the former President. Perhaps Banda is a common name in Malawi.

Under Hastings Kamuzu Banda Malawi became a one party state and he was made President for Life in 1971. In 1993 a referendum ended the dictatorship and he lost subsequent elections.

Due to his control of Malawi during his Presidency he was considered in some quarters a tyrant, and irreverently referred to as One Man Banda.