The USA and Venezuela are not the only countries in the world to have been led by presidents given to eccentric and sometimes catastrophic folly. Among the outrageous have been the following:
MALAWI
This little known African state recently came to public attention when Madonna decided to adopt one of its many orphans (who had a family of his own!). Its other claim to fame is that it was led from 1964 - 1994 by the eccentric Doctor Hastings Kamuzu Banda, known also as the Ngwazi (Lion) or simply “His Excellency”. A qualified medical doctor, elder in the Church of Scotland and the only Black friend of pre-democratic South Africa, Banda was a bit of a turnip when it came to passing laws.
After visiting swinging London at the end of the 60s he decreed that no woman in the country should wear mini or even midi skirts; nor should they appear in public wearing trousers. Men were forbidden to grow their hair long or to wear beards, moustaches or tight shorts. The penalty for disobedience was imprisonment for Malawian citizens and immediate deportation for foreigners.
When the good doctor travelled around the country he did so in the presidential cavalcade, complete with sirens, flashing lights and motorcycle outriders. During his perambulations all other road users, without warning, were supposed to stop their cars, get out and wave. Anyone who failed to stop before the first of the outriders drew level with them was called to court to answer charges that were a mixture of disrespect and breach of security. The penalty for this one ranged from a fine of anything between ten shillings and ten thousand pounds. Or you might go to jail.
Then there was the vexed question of language. Kamuzu came from the central region of Malawi where the main language was Chewa. By presidential decree this language became the official one along with English, replacing the much more common Tumbuku and Nyanja.
These were Kamuzu's more bizarre gifts to the nation, but add to them political assassinations, internment without trial and the usual dictatorial extravagances and you end up with quite a sinister character to contend with. Like many leaders his strength was in leading the country to independence and getting rid of the English. Like most freedom fighters he should then have stepped aside to allow a more sensible person take up the baton. Alas there were none others so equipped.
Pressured into holding free elections in 1993/4, Kamuzu, for some reason, was thrown out of power at the ripe old age of about 99 (no-one knew his exact age) and we never even got to the bottom of the rumour that the bachelor president had a son living in the USA!
FRANCE
Many eccentrics have occupied the seat of power in this roughly hexagonally shaped European country, and many brutes as well, but the one that most endears himself to my feeling for the melodramatic is the fondly remembered General. Just the General, but if you still don't know who is referred to let me spell it out: Général Charles de Gaulle, born in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises and named after the international airport outside Paris. Coming from a village with a name like that the general had a lot to live up to.
Now here is a General not afraid to mince his words. His most famous gaffe was uttered during a visit to Canada in 1967. The Canadians were rightly worried that he might mix himself up in Canadian domestic affairs, notably with the separatist movement in Quebec.
On a state occasion he flew not to Canada but to of St Pierre et Miquelon, islands off the coast of Newfoundland which are still considered to be an integral part of France, sending deputies to the National Assembly in Paris. From there he sailed to Canada.
In a speech given from the Town Hall in Montreal the unpredictable General uttered the words “Vive le Quebec” and then added “libre”, “long live free Quebec”. The embarrassment was rather acute and the old duffer had to be coaxed back to Paris amid grave international consternation.
De Gaulle's other hallmark was his huff taking. When things didn't go his way he used to retreat to his home in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises (where he was later to be buried). There he would brood until France saw sense and called on him for redemption. Eventually they stopped calling, but the French took the name of the village to their hearts and dictionaries, and referred to such activity as “taking to Colombey”.
Vive le Général's what I say. When died his successor, Georges Pompidou, announced to the nation « France est veuve », France has just been widowed. Unlike many another President, de Gaulle is buried unpretentiously in a simple grave in his home village, the inscription on the headstone reading only “Charles de Gaulle. 1890 - 1970”.
