Britain in Africa: Colonialism in Transition

...The Governor of Nyasaland last February took reports of a murder plot so seriously that he declared the Congress party illegal and arrested 200 of its leaders...

...Ghana is already well launched on independent statehood, and the 40 million Nigerians will follow her next year...

...If it ever came to such a point, the Federation would inevitably split: Britain would ensure that at least Nyasaland and those parts of Northern Rhodesia where there are particularly few whites would be able to become independent African states, while Southern Rhodesia and the rest of Northern Rhodesia would drift into apartheid and the racial hell of South Africa...

...There is no doubt that one of the reasons for mounting African opposition to the Federation is the fear that Britain might next year give up her residual powers for protecting the Africans and hand them over finally to the white minority...

...I cannot imagine it is a way to plant such institutions to be seen to shirk the acceptance and assignment of responsibility, which is the very essence of responsible government...

...Aneurin Bevan pointed the obvious parallel between Banda and Arch-bishop Makarios—and the other great African leader...

...have threatened that if they were not given full independence they would use their armed forces to copy the example set by the American colonies...

...They have done so through the creation of Congress parties on the prewar Indian model...

...On March 3. 11 of these "hardcore detainees" were beaten to death at Hola Camp during an attempt to get them to work...

...Experience shows that British Governments, whatever their political color, will come to terms with colonial nationalism in the end a good deal faster than the governments of some other imperial powers...

...In such circumstances, the Africans have had to concentrate exclusively on trying to increase their political power, rather than on cooperating in the functions of government...

...Patrick Devlin...

...Superficially, these changes seem to offer a new chance for progress in the Federation...

...All government, all influence of man upon man, rests upon opinion...

...But what hit the British Government hardest was the commission's description of Nyasaland as "a police state...

...For there is no doubt that there can be no political progress of any sort in Nyasaland until the Congress party is once more allowed to represent the Africans, and its leader, Hastings Banda, is let out of jail...

...It is difficult to avoid the suspicion that fear of the electoral consequences was the main reason the British Government has not accepted the more critical parts of the Commission's report...

...In the Central African Federation the program fixed by Britain six years ago has completely broken down, and in Kenya, although the barbaric Mau Mau revolt seems to be dead, things are moving towards a new crisis of racial conflict...

...We cannot, we dare not, and in Africa of all places, fall below the highest standards in the acceptance of responsibility...

...And in Nyasaland, where the whites number only 7,500 as against 2.5 million Africans, not a single African yet has the vote...

...The smaller British protectorates of Tanganyika and Somaliland are fast advancing toward self-government...

...There were strong economic arguments, which have since been borne out by experience, for federating the three territories...

...There has indeed been some progress in this respect, but not enough to satisfy the Africans...

...Moreover, bitterness is added to the tragedy by the fact that, although impartial commissions have found evidence of brutality and bad judgment in the behavior of the white administrators of these areas, those on whom political responsibility has been fixed have refused to resign, and the Government in London has supported them in their refusal...

...The immediate issue was the report of a commission sent out by the Government itself to examine the situation in Nyasaland...

...We purport...

...We cannot say we will have African standards in Africa...

...Britain on her side has announced that she will never give up her residual rights and duties inside the Federation unless the Africans agree she should do so...

...The best comment on the Hola affair was made by a Conservative MP, Enoch Powell, one of the three Treasury Ministers who resigned from the Macmillan Government 18 months ago on financial policy...

...But the Kenya ministers have ignored the report and the British Government has put no pressure on them to admit their responsibility...

...Asian standards in Asia, and British standards at home...

...This point became the center of a heated debate in Parliament just before the summer recess...

...so that the Africans have no organization through which to express their views...

...So during recent talks with Mac-millan in London, Welensky agreed to drop his demand for early independence, and to permit much greater autonomy for the constituent parts of the Federation—so that Nyasaland could look forward to becoming an African state even though it was part of a federation in which the other states were dominated by the whites...

...The Congress parties were banned in the other federal territories a few days later, so that real political contact between the races has come to a complete stop...

...In Southern Rhodesia, where there are 200,000 whites to 2.5 million Africans, only 1,800 Africans have the vote, as against 55,000 whites...

...Most of the Kikuyu tribe who were arrested during the Mau Mau troubles some years ago have since returned to normal life, but a hard core of some hundreds is still detained in special camps...

...For this reason one of the conditions imposed on the Federation by the British Government was that it should foster partnership and cooperation between the various racial groups concerned...

...But the rapid pace of political progress in these purely African territories only emphasizes the British failure in those parts of Central and East Africa where there is a sizeable minority of white settlers...

...But the British also are capable of giving too little and too late, and this may well be the epitaph on the grave of the Central African Federation...

...The camp officials originally claimed that they had died through drinking contaminated water...

...But the Africans everywhere were almost unanimously opposed to federation, for fear of coming under the domination of the whites in Southern Rhodesia, who were clearly inspired by doctrines of white supremacy—indeed, one of the arguments for the Federation was that it was the only way of preventing Southern Rhodesia from linking up with South Africa...

...Britain has achieved a notable success in liquidating her colonial heritage in Africa...

...under the chairmanship of an eminent judge...

...An official British inquiry has now discovered the facts and fixed the blame quite clearly on those ministers of the Kenya Government who were responsible for prison administration...

...But the British Government still refuses to release the Congress party leaders who were arrested last February in Nyasaland...

...What we can still do in Africa, where we still govern and no longer govern, depends on the opinion which is entertained of the way in which this country and we Englishmen act...

...The extreme wing in these parties has talked s lot about violent action, although there have been no cases yet of the killing of whites...

...and the Africans are prevented by law from ever having more than one-fifth of the total vote...

...Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana has set an even more striking precedent...

...Even the whites would have qualms about such a destiny, since they are mainly British by descent and the South African Afrikaaners are almost as anti-British as they are anti-Negro...

...Meanwhile the political scene in Kenya has been stained by an appalling scandal for which those responsible have yet to express their shame...

...The commission found that the Governor of Nyasaland had been justified in declaring a state of emergency, but that there was no persuasive evidence of a murder plot—although rumors of such a plot may have been responsible for the brutality shown by some of the troops and police...

...In some cases the arrests were carried out with much brutality, and in the subsequent disturbances 51 Africans were killed by police and troops...

...he said, "that it is our objective to leave representative institutions behind us wherever we give up rule...

...The federal constitution comes up for review in 1960 and leading spokesmen of the white community- including the present and past Federal Prime Ministers, Sir Roy Welensky and Lord Malvern...

...The Central African Federation was set up in 1953 to link the British protectorates of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland with the independent state of Southern Rhodesia...

...and its view that the overwhelming majority of Africans loathed the Federation...

...Nor can we pick and choose where and in what parts of the world we will use this or that kind of standards...

...In Kenya the problem has not yet reached so dangerous a stage, but all the elements for a similar tragedy-are there—with less possibility that if racial partnership finally breaks down something at least may perhaps be saved by partition...

...In Northern Rhodesia, where there are only 70,000 whites and two million Africans, 8,000 Africans have the vote, as against 23,000 whites...

...Finally, in the Federation as a whole, where Africans outnumber whites by 90 to one, they have only one vote to every 14 white votes...