Which South African journalist was imprisoned by the first prime minister of Rhodesia to be native to the country?
The Word of a Gentleman The Word of a Gentleman (1981) (later retitled "Undercut") was the third of five novels written by Peter Niesewand, the South African journalist who spent 73 days in solitary confinement for his coverage of Ian Smith's government in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Set in the fictional former British colony of St David's Island, it has no principal protagonists beyond the corrupt trio of Claud Montrose, Alec Clifton, and Stephen Luther, but the subversive influence of the American agent Clive Lyle is progressively revealed as the story unfolds. The fate of the unjustly imprisoned Stephen Ayer and his wife Nora are the focus of many chapters (and the book opens with a quotation from Oscar Wilde's "The Ballad of Reading Gaol"); these reflect Niesewand's detention by Desmond Lardner-Burke under P. K. van der Byl and Smith, and his subsequent deportation, leaving behind his wife of three years, Nonie Niesewand (née Fogarty).
Hastings Banda Hastings Kamuzu Banda (14 May 1898 – 25 November 1997) was the leader of Malawi from 1961 to 1994 (for the first three years of his rule, until it achieved independence in 1964, Malawi was the British protectorate of Nyasaland). After receiving much of his education overseas, Banda returned to his home country (then British Nyasaland) to speak against colonialism and advocate independence. In 1963 he was formally appointed prime minister of Nyasaland and, a year later, led the country to independence as Malawi. Two years later he proclaimed Malawi a republic with himself as president. He consolidated power and later declared Malawi a one-party state under the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). In 1970 the MCP made him the party's President for Life. In 1971 he became President for Life of Malawi itself.