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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Ethics of African tradition: prescription of a dress code in Malawi 1965-1973 |
Author: | Kambili, Cyprian |
Year: | 2002 |
Periodical: | The Society of Malawi Journal |
Volume: | 55 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 80-100 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Malawi |
Subjects: | ethics government policy clothing |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/29779103 |
Abstract: | Malawi's first president, Dr Banda, and the Malawi Congress Party, the only lawful party after 1966, developed a moral philosophy for the Malawi nation based on some kind of self-evident principles of ethics of African tradition which, on closer scrutiny, proved to be either a failed programme of cultural homogenization or ethnic particularism. The moral code was targetted at the youth. Dr Banda was firmly convinced that they were exposed to the danger of moral corruption from the West. In March 1968 Dr Banda endorsed a ban on miniskirts. This policy caused some unease in the largely senior expatriate civil service as well as the white community. Despite efforts by the Attorney General to dissuade Dr Banda from legislating for a dress code, the Decency in Dress Act, banning the wearing of miniskirts and trousers by women and proscribing men from wearing bell-bottomed trousers, was passed in 1973. It was only repealed in 1993, in the run-up to multiparty elections and after nearly thirty years of one-party rule. The debates surrounding the passage of the Act and its repeal raise questions about the 'morality basis' of a State, about when and under what circumstances must a State engage in legislation of a moral code governing private behaviour? Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |