March 6th, 2022
The nice part about the moving to Malawi to work for an American agency is that we receive both the American and local Malawian public holidays off. This adds up to a total of 19 holidays for 2022, which I simply cannot complain about. Last Monday we received the American holiday, President's Day. Just 10 days later and today marks the celebration of Martyr's Day here in Malawi. Whenever I seemed to ask around the office what Martyr Day was, few seemed to know and just replied with, "I'm not really sure, I just know it's a local holiday and we get it off". This made me wonder what exactly was the meaning and purpose behind the holiday.
I decided to do a bit of an exploration into the history of the holiday. As it turns out, Martyr Day honors the political heroes who risked their lives in the struggle for independence from British imperialism during the tragic events on March 3rd, 1959. To take a quick step backwards, let me start off by giving the definition of a martyr. "A martyr is a person who is put to death or endures great suffering on behalf of any belief, principle, or cause." Throughout history, the British Empire was expansive and the number of countries under their rule was vast. In fact, it was only in 1980 that Zimbabwe gained independence from the British. While there aren't technically any colonies remaining, there are 14 overseas British territories. Several countries around the world celebrate martyr's day to honor the heroes who fought for independence from foreign rule, including India. The date in which each country honors their heroes is different, however. Similarly, in the United States, we celebrate Memorial Day on the last Monday of May to honor and mourn the military personnel who have died in the performance of their military duties.
During the 1950s, Britain united Malawi with the Federation of Northern (Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), a venture that led to widespread resentment of colonial domination. In response, in an effort to attain independence, Malawians formed their own political parties and plotted violent retaliations and acts of sabotage.
On March 3rd 1959, mass protests erupted. In an attempt to quell the protesters, the British arrested prominent Malawian nationalists and other dissidents. The arrests led to even additional widespread protests. At Nkhata Bay (Northern coast of Lake Malawi), about a thousand protestors had gathered near a ship that contained several prisoners. Heavily outnumbered, the British lost control of the situation, opening fire on the crowd and killing many protestors. In total, 51 Malawians were killed, over 1,300 were detained, and many more were wounded.
Malawi ultimately gained its independence in July 1964 and the events of March 3rd, 1959 are seen as big steps on that journey to freedom. In his Martyrs day address of 1974, President Kamuza Banda said "March the 3rd was chosen as a day on which to remember and honor those of our people, who sacrificed their lives in order that we may be free, because what happened on that day, March 3rd 1959, resulted in independence. The independence that the country got in 1964 was a direct result of what happened on March the 3rd, 1959."
