1963 - Central African
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
(19) To secure their power, whites in Zambia joined with those in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Nyasaland (Malawi) and formed the
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. (20) Africans strongly opposed the establishment of the federation because they felt that, as the black majority, they were seriously discriminated against by the white minority in all spheres of nationhood--religious, political, economic, and social.
From 1953 to 1963, the country was part of the
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (present day Malawi).
Similarly, when the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress under Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula declared Two Days of Prayer in 1953 in protests against the introduction of the
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, African Assistants at the Institute organised a work boycott with the full support of the organisation.
I was myself writing at the time for one of the more "liberal" UK newspapers, The Observer, a paper I venerated because Amnesty International (an organisation devoted to the cause of political prisoners worldwide) had been born in its pages, and it supported the people of Nyasaland (Malawi) when the British government and the government of the
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland conspired to smear the leaders of the Malawi Congress Party, by falsely accusing them of a plot to massacre their political opponents.
In discussing the establishment of the
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, passing reference is made to the need "to harness rivers, to develop power to meet the needs of industry" without indicating why hydroelectric power was essential, why the Zambezi rather than the Kafue River was dammed, or how Nyasaland would benefit (79).
In 1953, both Rhodesias were joined with Nyasaland (now Malawi) to form the
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Northern Rhodesia was the center of much of the turmoil and crisis that characterized the federation in its last years.
Beginning during the 'Scramble for Africa' and the heyday of imperialism, the business came through the colonial period, the ill-fated
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and the triumph of African nationalism to survive into the era of emerging markets and liberalisation.