In the history of Malawi's transport and communications, few modes of travel can be more unusual or fascinating than the flying-boat service from November 1949 to October 1950 between Southampton in Britain and Vaaldam near Johannesburg in South Africa, via Cape Maclear, a somewhat isolated and inaccessible spot on the south-west shore of Lake Malawi, 150 miles from the then administrative capital of Zomba and a further 50 miles from the main commercial centre of Blantyre. Although short-lived and of limited immediate practical importance, its long-term significance was considerable, whilst the details of how the service came about add to our knowledge of the early post-World War II history of colonial Nyasaland, and tell us a good deal about the Governor of the time, Geoffrey Colby.

African intellectuals grapple with political problems well before social scientists are prepared to address them. The abuse of political power constitutes one such problem: a number of African countries have suffered under dictatorships over the last 25 years, but scholars have had very little to say about their experiences to this day.1 Wole Soyinka, however, the foremost African playwright, presented a satire on the régime of Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana, 1957–66) in its later years in Kongi's Harvest (London, Ibadan, and Nairobi, 1967), a play performed already in 1965. And Camara Laye indicted the régime of Sékou Touré (Guinea, 1958–84) in his novel Dramouss (Paris, 1966)