Classics at the Kamuzu Academy
On the opening of the Kamuzu Academy in 1981, Dr. Banda declared that ‘the Academy was established, essentially and primarily, for Classical education, a nursery for Classical scholars.' In his peroration, Dr. Banda placed Classical education at his model school over all other disciplines: ‘Any student who is not interested in a Classical education must not come here.'
Dr. Banda stands in a long line of statesmen who have attached similar importance to the study of the Greek and Latin Classics. Sir Winston Churchill, for example, who was, to his great regret, but a mediocre Classic when he was a pupil at Harrow School, writes, in his autobiography, of his ideal education, that ‘[he] would make them all learn English: and then [he] would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honour, and Greek as a treat.'
When Sir Winston Churchill was at Harrow , the English Classical tradition had reached its high-water mark, as token not only of intellectual formation but also of social advancement. Earlier in the century, Thomas Gaisford, Dean of Christ Church and Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford (1779 – 1855), had famously urged: ‘Nor can I do better, in conclusion, than impress upon you the study of Greek literature, which not only elevates above the vulgar herd but leads not infrequently to positions of considerable emolument.'
Dr. Banda would have observed and admired the English Classical tradition during his long years of study and work in America and England; and he would have been impressed by the fact that Nyasaland, like most British colonies, was administered at all levels by graduates of the Classics Faculties of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Moreover, Dr. Banda's private Library, which is preserved at Nguruyanawambe Palace , stands as monument to his own Classical learning: Julius Caesar, statesman and architect of the Roman Empire , was an especial inspiration, and it is related that Dr. Banda could quote Caesar at length from memory.
It is testament to Dr. Banda's extraordinary vision that he wished to allow to the flower of Malawian youth the great privilege and honour of participation in this Classical tradition.
***
Visitors to the Kamuzu Academy are impressed to discover, alongside the Greek theatre and the Appian Way – which bears the name of one of the great roads of ancient Rome – a flourishing Classics Department, which serves to embody Dr. Banda's vision. Now under the leadership of its fifth Head, the Department is served by four Masters of Arts of the University of Oxford , who teach Greek and Latin to pupils at all levels within the Academy.
In the lower school, emphasis is placed upon the acquisition of the rudiments of Greek and Latin grammar. It is well said that the study of the Classics is the key to linguistic competence in all languages: indeed, in the Middle Ages, læden referred not just to Latin, but, by extension, to any language. By studying closely the structure of these highly inflected languages, pupils learn to think precisely about the meaning of words and their mutual relationship in a sentence: like ‘the iota that split Christendom', a single letter can make all the difference. Moreover, Latin is the ancestor of the Romance languages, which include French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese; and educated English is distinguished from the vulgar by its panoply of Greek and Latin loan-words.
It is, however, in the middle and upper schools – where nowadays pupils must take either Greek or Latin to GCSE level (c. 16 years), and have the option of pursuing either or both languages to A level (c. 18 years) – that pupils begin to enjoy the fruits of their elementary studies and to realise the true import of the Greek and Latin Classics to the history of civilisation. Besides statesmanship, as embodied in the writings not only of Julius Caesar but also of the great historians – on the one hand, Herodotus and Thucydides, on the other, Tacitus – pupils discover, in the Classical authors, the origins of the Western European traditions of Epic and Lyric Poetry, Tragic and Comic Drama, Philosophy and Rhetoric, Mathematics and the Natural Sciences, and much more. Study of the manuplastic creations of both Greek and Roman civilisations – as embodied, for example, in Athenian vases, Hellenistic sculpture, buildings of the mathematical perfection of the Parthenon – offers one of the highest aesthetic pleasures known to Man. Democracy itself, which allows the liberty to pursue these studies, is a Greek invention.
Teaching is not confined to the classroom. There is an established tradition of Classical plays and Declamation contests at the Academy, both of which serve to encourage pupils to engage actively with Greek and Latin as spoken languages. Although Latin is not (yet) commonly heard on the Appian Way , when Presidents of Malawi have honoured the Academy with their presence, they have been welcomed in Latin.
As from the Academic Year 2006 – 2007, the Classics Department will teach for the examinations of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (Intermediate and Higher, with the possibility of continuation to Advanced Higher). There is a small but worthy body of pupils who choose to continue their Classical studies into the Sixth Form; and the results of the Department are among the best in the Academy.
As the Classics Department celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary, it hopes very much that it might soon be able to send its first graduate of the Academy to a British university to read for a degree in the subject.
***
As Pliny, the Roman Historian, famously said, ‘Ex Africa semper aliquid novi', or ‘There is always something new from Africa .' Certainly, the Kamuzu Academy is not alone in fostering the study of the Greek and Latin Classics in Africa: there is, for example, a flourishing Classics Faculty at Chancellor's College, University of Malawi, which counts among its Senior Lecturers a former member of the Classics Department of the Academy, and Latin remains an examinable subject for the MSCE; and there is, moreover, a strong Classical tradition both in South Africa and in other sub-Saharan African countries, such as Zambia, Zimbabwe and the Congo. However, it may fairly be asked exactly what place Dr. Banda saw for the study of the Classics in the modern state of Malawi .
To an extent greater than many realise, the Classics are indigenous to Africa: the North African littoral lay within the cultural sphere of both Greek and Roman civilisations, so that Alexandria, in Egypt, boasted one of the greatest libraries of Antiquity and St. Augustine, one of the greatest Latin writers of late Antiquity and almost the inventor of autobiography, was a native of what is now Algeria. It is just possible that Lake Malawi was known, at least by report, to Greek explorers.
It is also true that a Classical education, just as in Thomas Gaisford's day, provides a sure foundation for many professions: Commerce and the Law, the Church and, of course, the Academic life, in all its many disciplines. The precise habit of thought and the humanity of the Classic have allowed him to demonstrate the enduring worth of a Classical education to all ages.
For a rising country, such as Malawi , it is, perhaps, natural to look to the future and to be concerned for ‘progress'. However, as Dr. Banda was well aware, there can be no true and meaningful development without awareness of the past. The true significance of the study of the Greek and Latin Classics is broader than the considerations of geography and self-interest aforementioned, and extends even beyond Malawi 's colonial inheritance. For the Classics are part of Man's universal inheritance – and for any man to deny them is to deny his own history. As William Shakespeare, another frustrated Classic who lamented his ‘small Latin and less Greek', expressed the matter so eloquently:
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused.
The Classics belong to Africa just as much to Europe : they should be studied for their own sake.
It is, therefore, surely right to conclude this short summary of the place of the Classics at the Kamuzu Academy with the words of a Malawian proverb, which are, perhaps, particularly appropriate to the Academy which Dr. Banda built alongside the Kachere Tree, where he himself learned his first letters and embarked upon a lifetime of learning: ‘Mtengo wopanda tsinde mudaupenya?' or ‘Did you ever see a tree without a stem ?'
***