Britain in Africa: Nyasaland vs. Federation

...The way in which the riot was suppressed came as a shock to the African Congress, and Banda's arrest has precipitated a grave crisis in its leadership...

...The immediate occasion of the riots was the arrest of Dr...

...On the other hand, if the British stick to their federation policy, as seems more likely...

...Parliamentary control from London was thus a guarantee of their rights...

...The governor issued a white paper which sought to justify the emergency declaration on the ground that a plot had been discovered to assassinate the colony's highest officials as a preliminary to a bloody revolt...

...Now, in the Federation, a new governing apparatus, dominated by the white men of the two richer countries, has severed the direct link between Nyasaland and London and thus weakened the guarantee...

...The Federation undoubtedly has more autonomy than Nyasaland alone ever enjoyed, but this autonomy redounds almost exclusively to the advantage of the white men of the Rhodesias and thus to the white men of the whole Federation...

...This, however, is a minority view...

...The riots were suppressed by British and territorial troops, leaving a toll of 51 killed—all of them African...

...Hitherto, Nyasaland was, though not independent, a separate Crown Colony ruled directly by a governor who was himself responsible to the British Government and so to the British Parliament...

...For example, relations between Southern Rhodesia and South Africa are weaker than before, in part, no doubt, because of the latter's foolish anti-British policy...

...Banda's prestige has suffered considerably, and some of the Congress leaders told me that the top leadership had got out of his hands even before his arrest...

...Conservative elements in the European population here maintain that the unrest was imported and artificially fostered by Banda...

...Actually, the government did not need this pretext for declaring an emergency, for federation or no federation, no government can tolerate riots...

...Both of these views are too simple and vague to explain why race riots should break out in a country with a history of good race relations...

...Though African nationalism would unquestionably have sooner or later affected them, federation, bearing the implications of prejudice, discrimination and loss of their rights, fired their fears and sparked their resistance...

...I have talked with leaders of the African Congress who admitted that the emergency act itself was justified, and who only condemned the violence with which the police and army executed their orders...

...Thousands of Congress people were arrested, mobs broken up and mass meetings dispersed by fire, and 51 Africans were killed...

...In short, what has happened is that Britain's influence is increasingly being replaced by local European interests...

...There are those who question this proposition, who maintain that Nyasaland could achieve the desired economic and financial benefits without being forced into the Federation, and who point out that it is not Nyasaland, but Southern Rhodesia, with its great burden of debts, that has been bailed out by this arrangement...

...But the Nyasaland Africans can not put their trust in intentions...

...Hastings Banda...

...Banda, a well-known doctor who had had a successful career in England and whose return was recognized for the sacrifice it was...

...The attitude of the white men in Nyasaland is quite clear and simple: They are a tiny minority within the tremendous black majority of Nyasaland...

...leader of the nationalist Nyasaland African Congress...

...But the real problem is political, not economic...

...Now they speak of reorganizing the party for democratic action on legal line...

...My own probing satisfied me that the real trouble began in 1953, when Nyasaland, until then a separate British Crown Colony, became a member of the Federation of Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland...

...For Southern Rhodesia especially, with its advanced economy and its concentration of Europeans, is largely a white man's country and dominates the Federation...

...Tension rose quickly as mass activities degenerated into action that began to get out of hand—street incidents, stone-throwing, molestation of whites and Indians...

...The nationalist movement was given new impetus by the return some time ago of Dr...

...And the Nyasalanders fear that if the Federation one day becomes a dominion—the example of South Africa is constantly in their minds—the influence of the British Parliament will become non-existent, and their right...

...Above all, Nyasalanders contrast their own race relations with those of Southern Rhodesia, and they fear a deterioration of their status in the Federation...

...In this situation, the British are in a quandary, for they can make no step toward meeting the demands of the one without giving equal assurances to the other...

...and status seriously threatened...

...the problem is equally simple: For them, federation smells of segregation...

...For the Africans of Nyasaland...

...The advocates of federation make a good case on economic, technological and administrative grounds...

...The British Commission of Inquiry, headed by Justice Patrick Devlin, has discounted the genuineness of the alleged plot...

...Since then, the word "federation" has been a battle cry here, blessed by the Europeans, cursed by the Africans...

...and for them federation means solidarity with a large white community and the loss of their vulnerability...

...of taking seriously into account the feelings of the Africans...

...In February, the governor declared an emergency, arrested Banda and called up Southern Rhodesian police and Army units to help the local police suppress the riots...

...in Nyasaland...

...At the same time, the British will probably not have to negotiate with Banda...

...Opposition to federation came as early as 1953, not only from the Nyasaland African Congress, but what is more important, from all the native chiefs...

...I received the impression that the emerging leaders of the nationalist movement are almost eager to swap Banda for the undoing of the federation and Nyasaland s return to its former status as a Crown Colony...

...Of the three federated territories, Northern Rhodesia is the richest in natural resources, especially copper, Southern Rhodesia is the most advanced industrially and technologically, and Nyasaland by far the poorest and most backward...

...Furthermore, Southern Rhodesia is geographically close to South Africa, and the Nyasaland Africans fear the impact of that propinquity on their own status—for all that race relations in Southern Rhodesia are better than in South Africa and show some promise of moving in an even more liberal direction...

...Indeed, by all accounts, race relations here have been better than anywhere else on this continent—until last February, when riots of a definitely racial, anti-white character broke out...

...they will have to provide the Africans with the strongest kind of constitutional guarantees against the racist and segregationist influence of Salisbury, the Southern Rhodesian capital...

...But even a democratic, legal nationalist movement must show results, and results can stem only from a firm British policy, in alignment with the liberal white element...

...Many Nyasalanders must go to the other two countries to find work, and it is argued that unification, resulting in administrative and budgetary cohesion, can work only to the benefit of Nyasaland...

...This is particularly significant because the tribal chiefs practically everywhere else in Africa tend to stay aloof from the nationalist movements, if only because their status and interests are protected and guaranteed by the colonial governments and would tend to disintegrate within a modern state structure...

...Many Europeans are beginning to see the dangers implicit in this situation and are striving to set the Federation's race policies on a liberal track...

...More liberal Europeans suggest that it is a natural outgrowth of the fact that Nyasaland has reached the age of African nationalism...

...The charm of its landscape even seems to be reflected on the faces of its black population, and a visit here makes it hard to believe that this country is one of the trouble spots of Africa...

...The situation, then, is that the two communities, black and white, confront each other as intransigent antagonists who can envisage no compromise...

...Any move toward undoing the Federation would have to be accompanied by economic, political, military or other guarantees to the European community...

...He soon launched an extreme propaganda campaign marked by strong racist, anti-white and anti-Indian overtones...