This book focuses on the great War's effect on Africa in general and Malawi in particular. It describes the outbreak of the war, the recruitment of soldiers, the drafting of porters, the conditions of military life, the conditions on the home front, and the war's end.

“I certainly had very extreme views, very violent views... and I certainly did advocate... extreme methods.” So a leading Nyasaland nationalist characterised the struggle for independent Malawi, but Dr Hastings Banda, a highly respected medical doctor based for many years in London was invited back to Nyasaland to lead the movement to independent Malawi and the Malawi National Congress. Here was, or so it seemed, a loyal and progressive Government with pro-Western leadership – a final success in the story of British decolonisation. Yet within three months all but one of the cabinet ministers had resigned or were dismissed, former ministers fled the country including distinguished members of the independence movement. Even the pro-Congress Europeans feared for their lives. Colin Baker unravels this potentially disastrous episode in Malawi's history and in the story of decolonisation. He illuminates not only the immediate post-independence problems of Malawi, a newly independent African state, but charts the growth of Banda's autocracy. This detailed and revealing study reveals the problems inherent in the whole momentous story of Africa in independence and decolonisation.

Using the longue duree approach and the political economy approach, The State, Counterinsurgency, and Political Policing in Colonial and Postcolonial Malawi, 1891-1994 studies Malawi's colonial and post-colonial history. Malawi is a former British Protectorate, formerly known as the Nyasaland Protectorate. Paul Chiudza Banda analyzes the story of the rise of insurgencies in Malawi and adopts the concept of "counterinsurgency" to address the reactions of the state to those who challenged its legitimacy and authority. Banda explores the factors behind the rise of insurgency, such as land alienation, high taxation, elements of forced labor, and denial of development opportunities. Banda also examines the counterinsurgency measures used by the state, such as the use of brutal force (especially through the police and other para-military groups), the codification of strict laws, and the offer of development opportunities. Through Malawi’s history, Banda provides an analysis on why citizens challenge state authority, how the state responds, and what methods the state uses to defeat insurgencies.

"A guide to the press of the United Kingdom and to the principal publications of Europe, Australia, the Far East, Gulf States, and the U.S.A.

The Chiwaya War's basic conclusions are that the First World War was a major turning point in the history of Malawi's peoples, creating the first glimmers of a shared national identity; and that it marked, more than any event before or since, the entry of Malawians into the emerging modern world system far more quickly than likely they, and certainly even the most enlightened British colonial administrators of the time, would have preferred.