Over the years. Sir Henry Phillips's family pressed him to write his memoirs. He
agreed to do this and to start when he reached the age of eighty years. For his
eightieth birthday they gave him a word processor, and he devoted much of the
following three years to writing the memoirs his family sought. The result is From
Obscurity to Bright Dawn, which extends far beyond family interest and importance,
since the post-war political history of Nyasaland is firmly woven into the fabric of the
autobiography.
The book's interest and importance derive from the remarkable changes of which the
author was an intimate part during his eighteen years in Nyasaland's Administration.
Serving under the last four of the country's thirteen Governors, he worked very closely
with the last three. He witnessed at first hand the whole life span of the Federation of
Rhodesia and Nyasaland, from inception to abolition. As an administrator in a remote
rural district when he arrived in 1946, he led a life not greatly differing from that of his
colonial predecessors decades earlier. When he left, in 1964 at independence, he did so
as the last expatriate minister and the confidant of Nyasaland's first, and only. Prime
Minister. All this in eighteen years. His autobiography is a microcosm of post-war
colonial history. His intimacy with the country continued well into the 1980s when he
was successively managing director of Standard Bank's Finance and Development
Corporation, and a board member of a company promoting equity investment in Africa
and of Malawi's National Bank. His is truly an insider's account.
Phillips first covers his time in Karonga district: a fascinating and varied picture of
life just after the war: the jack-of-all-trades work; the hardships, joys, and frustrations;
and the primitive charm of remote rural Nyasaland.
After two years in district work, he went to the secretariat and spent the remainder of
his administrative career in finance and development. Despite being notoriously
onerous, he seems to have enjoyed preparing the annual estimates. He enjoyed, too, the
rewarding experience of working closely with Governor Colby, a man devoted to rapid
economic development.
In 1952 the Governor created the post of supernumerary Development Secretary to
retain Phillips in Nyasaland rather than have him transferred elsewhere. A year later, the
Federation having come into being, he was seconded to the Federal Treasury in
Southern Rhodesia. He was struck by the different conditions of service, and attitudes,
of Southern Rhodesian civil servants when compared with those of Nyasaland. The
initial work on the Apportionment Committee was 'a boring job'. In his subsequent
appointment as under-secretary, concerned with financing development projects,
keeping an eye on constructing the customs tariff, being involved in preparing four
successive budgets, he was on happier and 'gratifyingly familiar ground'. On the whole,
life 'even at under-secretary level, tended to be unexciting' and he had relatively little
difficulty in accepting the offer of promotion to Financial Secretary in Nyasaland and
returning there in 1957.
In the next seven years he witnessed, and took part in, a period of remarkable change
in Nyasaland. In 1958 Dr Banda returned after 40 years absence, and tbe subsequent
escalation of political activity resulted in a state of emergency being declared and
Banda, with over a thousand Congress supporters, being locked up. The changes were
accelerated by Devlin's report into the disturbances, Macmillan's sensing the way the
wind was blowing in Africa and Macleod's appointment as Colonial Secretary. In I960
Banda and all other detainees were released. The following year, elected African
ministers entered Executive Council for the first time and dominated its proceedings.
1963 saw the removal of all ex officio members, save Phillips, from the cabinet, now
under Banda as Prime Minister. At the end of that year the Federation was abolished. On
6 July 1964, in the bright dawn of independence, obscure Nyasaland became Malawi.
Phillips was an intimate part of these changes, especially the vital financial and
economic aspects of secession from the Federation and political independence from
Britain.
Through periodic visits and other contacts over the next two to three decades, Phillips
witnessed Malawi's progress: the remarkable infrastructural development of the first
decade; then the balance of payment problems as the price of oil increased and that of
Malawi's major exports declined; and the humanitarian welcoming of hundreds of
thousands of refugees from Mozambique. Later he sensed Banda's increasing
remoteness from everyday government.
Henry Phillips's practical contribution to the development of Nyasaland - Malawi
and its emergence from obscurity to bright dawn was outstanding. His autobiographical
contribution to the literature on Central Africa, too, is considerable, not only in its clear
readability but perhaps especially in its balanced account of Dr Banda. Very
importantly, it does not neglect - as tends to be the practice - Banda's political and
economic contributions during the early and middle years after his return to Nyasaland -
Malawi.
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