Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland - Rise of African Nationalism

Rise of African Nationalism

African dissent in the CAF grew, and at the same time British circles expressed objections to its structure and purpose – full Commonwealth membership leading to independence.

In June 1956, Northern Rhodesia's Governor, Sir Arthur Benson, wrote a highly confidential letter heavily criticising the federation in general (and the new constitution planned for it) and Federal Prime Minister, Sir Roy Welensky, in particular. Nearly two years later, Huggins (now Lord Malvern) somehow obtained a copy of it and disclosed its contents to Welensky.

Relations between Whitehall and the CAF cabinet were never to recover. These events, for the first time brought the attention of British Conservative Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, to a crisis emerging in the CAF, but apparently he did not fully comprehend the gravity of the situation, attributing the row to the old CO-CRO rivalry and to Welensky taking personal offence to the letter's contents.

The issues of this specific row were in the immediate sense resolved quietly with some constitutional amendments, but it is now known that Welensky was seriously considering contingencies for a Unilateral Declaration of Independence for the federation, though he ended up opting against it.

Meanwhile, towards the end of the decade, in the Northern Territories, Africans protested against the white minority rule of CAF. In July 1958, Dr. Hastings Banda, the leader of African National Congress (ANC) of Nyasaland (later Malawi Congress Party) returned to Nyasaland, while in October the militant Kenneth Kaunda became the leader of the Zambian African National Congress (ZANC), a faction from the Northern Rhodesian ANC. The increasingly rattled CAF authorities banned ZANC in March 1959, and in June imprisoned Kaunda for nine months. While Kaunda was in jail, his loyal lieutenant Mainza Chona worked with other African nationalists to create the United National Independence Party (UNIP), a successor to ZANC. In early 1959, unrest broke out in Nyasaland, which, according to historian Robert Blake, was "economically the poorest, politically the most advanced and numerically the least Europeanized of the three Territories."

The CAF government declared a state of emergency. Banda and the rest of Nyasaland's ANC leadership were arrested and their party outlawed. Southern Rhodesian troops were deployed to bring order. British Labour MP John Stonehouse was expelled from Southern Rhodesia shortly before the state of emergency was proclaimed in Nyasaland, which outraged the British Labour Party.

The affair drew the whole concept of the federation into question and even Macmillan began to express misgivings about its political viability, although economically, he felt it was sound. A Royal Commission to advise Macmillan on the future of the CAF, to be led by Walter Monckton, was in the works. Commonwealth Secretary, Sir Alec Douglas-Home was sent to prepare Welensky, who was distinctly displeased about the arrival of the Commission.

Welensky at least found Douglas-Home in support of the existence of the CAF. By contrast, Douglas-Home's rival, Colonial Secretary Iain Macleod, favoured African rights and dissolving the federation. Although Macmillan at the time supported Douglas-Home, the changes were already on the horizon. In Britain, Macmillan said that it was essential "to keep the Tory party on modern and progressive lines", noting electoral developments and especially the rise of the Liberal Party.