Page "History of Malawi" Paragraph 18

It took a different kind of tinder to ignite the struggle for political independence in Malawi.

Alec Russell says: '... for the many colorful episodes in Banda's rise to power .. can be attributed to the tale of ' the bruising of Miss Phombeya's toe ' Russell-Big Men, Little People.

She was a young woman who came to the Ryall's Hotel in Blantyre, where Harold Macmillan was lunching on the homeward leg of his famous ' wind of change ' tour in Cape Town.

A junior officer in Macmillan's advance entourage owed Miss Phombeya some money for ' services rendered '.

But instead of paying up, local police officers panicked and tried to get rid of Miss Phombeya ( now visibly parading her anger in front of the verandah restaurant ) in the process hurting her toe ; whereupon a crowd soon gathered outside Ryall's Hotel and quickly the mood shifted from the ' hurting toe ' to protesting the imprisonment of Banda and other local leaders by the federation government.