17 Facts About Nyasaland

Nyasaland was a British protectorate located in Africa that was established in 1907 when the former British Central Africa Protectorate changed its name.

Nyasaland's history was marked by the massive loss of African communal lands in the early colonial period.

When Nyasaland was forced in 1953 into a Federation with Southern and Northern Rhodesia, there was a rise in civic unrest, as this was deeply unpopular among the people of the territory.

Unlike Europeans of British origin, Nyasaland natives did not hold British citizenship under British nationality law, but had the lesser status of British protected person.

The development of Nyasaland was likely adversely affected by the drain of workers to other countries.

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The Nyasaland government estimated that 58,000 adult males were working outside Nyasaland in 1935.

From 1953 to the end of 1963, Nyasaland was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which was not a fully independent state as it was constitutionally subordinate to the British government.

Nyasaland remained a protectorate and its Governors retained responsibilities for local administration, labour and trade unions, African primary and secondary education, African agriculture and forestry, and internal policing.

Nyasaland acknowledged that it had a large African population who required sufficient land for their own use, although his successors did not share this view.

In 1946 the Nyasaland government appointed a commission, the Abrahams Commission to inquire into land issues following the riots and disturbances by tenants on European-owned estates in 1943 and 1945.

Nyasaland suffered local famines in 1918 and at various times between 1920 and 1924, and significant food shortages in other years.

Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was pushed through in 1953 against very strong African opposition including riots and deaths in Cholo District although there were local land issues.

On 3 March 1959 Sir Robert Armitage, as governor of Nyasaland, declared a State of Emergency over the whole of the protectorate and, in a police and military undertaking which it called Operation Sunrise arrested Dr Hastings Banda its president and other members of its executive committee, as well as over a hundred local party officials.

Report concluded that the Nyasaland administration had lost the support of Nyasaland's African people, noting their almost universal rejection of Federation.

Devlin's conclusions that excessive force was used and that Nyasaland was a "police state" caused political uproar.

Nyasaland's report was largely rejected and the state of emergency lasted until June 1960.

From 1953 to 1964 Nyasaland was united with Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.