After three years of arduous negotiations, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was declared a semi-independent state, composed of the former British colony of Southern Rhodesia and the protectorates of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The delicately balanced and complicated government structure of the Federation collapsed in 1963 owing to differences between the white minority population and black African nationalist aspirations, eventually giving rise to three separate countries: Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe), Zambia, and Malawi.
The British advance into Central Africa took place at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. It was largely led by commercial interests, particularly those inspired by the vision of British diamond magnate and prime minister of the Cape South African dominion Cecil Rhodes
Harry
Advance across the Zambezi River led to the formation of North-East Rhodesia, declared a British protectorate in 1893 under the rule of the British South Africa Company, and North-West Rhodesia, joined in 1911 as Northern Rhodesia and declared a protectorate in 1924, henceforth ruled from the Colonial Office in London.
The formation of Nyasaland was also as a protectorate—the British Central Africa Protectorate (1893-1907)—partly under pressure from Scottish missionaries to stop the extensive Arab slave trading and partly to prevent other European powers from gaining further access to the interior. There was much less European emigration to these countries, and from the 1920’s the British policy was to give African development precedence over European colonization.
Plans to join Southern and Northern Rhodesia came and went, largely depending on Northern Rhodesian fortunes. The opening of the copper mines in the Katanga area known as the Copper Belt became the bedrock of the Northern Rhodesian economy. European settlement was largely confined to the railway line connecting the Copper Belt to Southern Rhodesia. In the 1930’s, the governing United Party,
In 1938, the British government set up a commission under Lord Bledisloe (Charles Bathurst)
In the 1930’s in both Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, the African workforce had organized welfare and self-help groups, out of which political movements grew after the war in the shape of the Northern Rhodesian African Congress,
In 1949, Sir Roy Welensky, one of the leading white politicians in Northern Rhodesia, and Godfrey Huggins, whose United Party had won twenty-four of the thirty seats at the 1948 election, called a conference at Victoria Falls,
By March of 1951, the Labour government’s opposition had lessened, and it called a conference in London, leading, in September, to a second Victora Falls Conference, this time including representatives from Nyasaland. The latter’s future had recently been discussed in terms of federating with either the British East African colonies or the Central African ones, and the Central African option had been preferred. The report that emerged from this conference, published in November, reasserted the general wish to maintain a British tradition of political freedom and values in Central Africa, as opposed to the increasingly illiberal South African government’s policy of apartheid. A partnership had to be maintained between European and African. Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland should maintain their protectorate status under the British crown, thus hoping to alleviate the strongly expressed African fears.
The Labour government fell soon after, and a new Conservative government took over under Winston Churchill. The new colonial secretary, Lord Chandos (Oliver Lyttleton)
A final conference was held in London in 1953. This time, no Africans attended. The new constitution was to consist of a governor-general, an executive council or cabinet, and a thirty-six-member parliament or legislature with eighteen representatives from Southern Rhodesia, eleven from Northern Rhodesia, and seven from Nyasaland. The federal government was empowered to deal with defense, trade, communications, industry, and finance. All other matters were to be dealt with by the separate territorial governments. An African Affairs Board was to be set up to veto any legislation inimical to Africans. The two protectorates would remain as such “so long as their respective peoples desire.” The constitution would be subject to review in seven to nine years.
The queen’s assent to the “Federation [Constitution] Order in Council” was received on August 1, 1953, with Lord Llewellyn as the first governor-general. In the first election, the Federal Party, pledged to partnership and a liberal program, won all but one of the seats. No violent African opposition immediately occurred, despite almost no representation, and it was hoped fears had been allayed.
The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland had largely been a European idea, to preserve white economic and political interests. The new federation seemed unable to meet African opposition in its early years, apart from some enlargement of the legislature to include Africans, and with the rising tide of African nationalism
A combined African resolve to break the federation led to violence in 1959 with states of emergency being declared. In 1960, a commission from London under Walter Turner Monckton
Kaunda and Banda emerged as strong leaders in their respective countries and firmly established both countries as independent African nations. The dissolution of the federation, however, led directly to the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in Southern Rhodesia and consequently to that country’s political isolation for the next ten years.
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Birmingham, D., and P. M. Martin, eds. History of Central Africa. 2 vols. 1983. Rev. ed. London: Longmans, 1998. An authoritative account of the whole region. -
Mazrui, Ali, ed. Africa Under Colonial Domination. Vol. 7 in UNESCO General History of Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. One volume in a series of authoritative works on the African continent and its history. Outlines the tides of African nationalism that ran throughout Central Africa during this period. -
Wills, A. J. An Introduction to the History of Central Africa. 1964. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. Written at the time of the Federation, this was the first detailed account of the history of the countries making up the Federation, written by someone on the ground with firsthand experience of the countries involved, later updated.
Africans Return Home After World War II
Nyasaland Independence Leader Banda Is Arrested by British Colonials
Africa’s Year of Independence
Sharpeville Massacre Focuses Global Awareness on Apartheid
Organization of African Unity Is Founded
Kaunda Becomes Zambia’s First President
Southern Rhodesian Freedom Fighters Begin Toppling White Supremacist Government