The Nyasaland emergency of 1959 was a state of emergency in the protectorate of Nyasaland (now Malawi), which was declared by its governor, Sir Robert Armitage, on 3 March 1959 and which ended on 16 June 1960. Under the emergency powers that operated during the Emergency, over 1,300 members or supporters of the Nyasaland African Congress (Congress) were detained without trial, and most of the party's leaders including its president, Dr. Hastings Banda, were imprisoned in Southern Rhodesia after being arrested on 3 March. Many other Africans were jailed for offences related to the Emergency, including rioting and criminal damage. In the week before the Emergency was declared and during its first month, over 50 Africans were killed and many more wounded by the colonial security forces, which included many European troops from Southern Rhodesia. Others were beaten by troops or armed police or had their huts destroyed and their property seized during punitive operations undertaken during the Emergency.McCracken, (2012). A History of Malawi, 1859–1966, pp. 352–9.
Nyasaland had a history of problems arising from the limited access that African peasant farmers had to agricultural land, and of opposition to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which Nyasaland had joined in 1953. Although opposition to Federation was at first limited to a relatively small group of educated Africans, the imposition of agricultural rules designed to reduce soil erosion, which took significant amounts of land out of cultivation and involved additional work by the smallholders affected, made it more widely unpopular. On his return to Nyasaland, Banda used dissatisfaction with these schemes to spread his message that Nyasaland should leave the Federation.McCracken, (1998). Democracy and Nationalism in Historical Perspective, pp. 238-9.
The stated aim of the State of Emergency was to allow the Nyasaland government to restore law and order after the increase in lawlessness following Dr Banda's return to the protectorate in July 1958. However, it is clear from government documents released in the 1990s that the British Colonial Office took the view that, if Nyasaland were to remain in the Federation, Banda and the Congress had to be neutralised and that the Federal Government under its Prime Minister Roy Welensky wished to ensure that African nationalists, in Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia as well as Nyasaland, would not interfere with his plans to achieve Dominion status for the Federation and reduce British influence in its two northern territories following a constitutional review due in 1960.Baker (1997), State of Emergency: Nyasaland 1959, pp. 62, 86.McCracken, (2012). A History of Malawi, 1859–1966, pp. 346-8.
After a short initial period of rioting, damage to property and strikes after the Emergency was declared, most of the strikers returned to work and Nyasaland became calm but tense, apart from remote areas in the Northern Region, where resistance continued for several months. This unrest was countered by a campaign of harassment by troops and police, including hut burning, arbitrary fines and beatings. However, Armitage had no plans to resolve the political crisis in Nyasaland, other than expecting that the elimination of Banda and Congress would allow alternative politicians willing to cooperate with the colonial government to emerge. Instead, the Malawi Congress Party was formed as the successor to the banned Nyasaland African Congress in August 1959 and rapidly grew into a larger mass-movement than Congress had been.McCracken, (2012). A History of Malawi, 1859–1966, pp. 355–6, 360-3. By the end of 1959, the new Colonial Secretary, Iain Macleod realised that he would have to negotiate with Banda and that such negotiations would involve ending the Emergency, releasing the remaining detainees, and Nyasaland's eventual withdrawal from the Federation.Baker, (1997). State of Emergency: Nyasaland 1959 pp. 211, 218.
Armitage strongly resisted Macleod's proposals, particularly the release of Banda and other former Congress leaders, and it was unlikely that he would be able to negotiate effectively with Banda on constitutional progress. Because of his strong opposition to the release of Banda and others and their return to Nyasaland if they were released, British ministers decided to nominate Armitage's successor on 1 April 1960, the same day that Banda was released. The State of Emergency ended on 16 June 1960: Armitage was seen as an obstacle to progress, and he left Nyasaland permanently in August 1960.Baker, (1997). State of Emergency: Nyasaland 1959, pp. 248, 265-7.
At the end of 1958, the Colonial Office had concluded that allowing Congress to continue as a legal political party under Banda's leadership was incompatible with the continued existence of the Federation, so it decided to eliminate Congress using emergency powers. Within a year, it reached a similar conclusion regarding the Malawi Congress Party and Federation, but in view of the strength of African opposition, it decided that Federation could only be imposed on Nyasaland through the use of significant force for an indefinite period, something that the British government was not prepared to do.Darwin (1994), The Central African Emergency, 1959, p. 228
Background Land issues The violent uprising of John Chilembwe in 1915 was an expression of the frustration of educated Africans denied an effective political voice and of the grievances of ordinary Africans denied a share in the benefits of the colonial economy as well as of religious radicalism.Rotberg, (1965). The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa, pp. 80–3. After the Chilembwe uprising, protests against colonial rule were muted and concentrated on economic and social improvement for Africans, with political advancement a distant aspiration. However, a 1930 declaration by the British government that white settlers north of the Zambezi could not form minority governments able to dominate local Africans stimulated political awareness.Rotberg, (1965). The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa, pp. 101–2, 118–22. In the 1940s and early 1950s, the most pressing problem was African access to land. Between 1892 and 1894, about 15% of the total land area of the Nyasaland, including some 867,000 acres, or over 350,000 hectares of the best land in the Shire Highlands, the most densely populated part of the country, had been turned into European-owned estates.Pachai, (1978). Land and Politics in Malawi 1875–1975, pp. 36–7. Africans living on these estates were required to pay rent, normally satisfied by their undertaking agricultural work for the owner under the system known as thangata, which later developed into a form of sharecropping in some areas.Pachai, (1978). Land and Politics in Malawi 1875–1975, p. 84.
For many years, neither the Nyasaland government nor the British government had dealt with African land grievances, despite recognising that a problem existed. Generally, the supposed needs of the estate owners were given priority. Thangata was regulated by the Natives on Private Estates Ordinance 1928. However, this allowed landowners to evict up to 10% of residents at five-yearly intervals. It did not provide a permanent solution, as it did not deal with the problem of estate land that was under-utilised but not available to African farmers, nor with the owners' ability to evict tenants. The legislation was overtly race-based, as it used the category of "Native" (or African) to determine land rights.Baker, (1993) Seeds of Trouble, pp. 40, 217.Pachai, (1973). Land Policies in Malawi, pp. 688–70. There were no large-scale evictions in 1933 and few in 1938, but in 1943 hundreds of families in the Blantyre District refused to leave their tenancies as there was nowhere for them to go, and the colonial authorities declined to use force. The evictions due in 1948 were suspended because of a serious famine: they took place in 1950 but were resisted.Baker, (1993). Seeds of Trouble, 1946–1964, pp 40, 42–4.
Tensions between estate owners and tenants remained high during the early 1950s. In the overcrowded Cholo district, the British Central Africa Company treated tenants on its tea estates harshly, and there were riots there in 1945. Between 1950 and 1953, the company tried to evict about 1,250 tenants and increase the rents of the remainder. Many refused to pay rent or taxes and occupied land on undeveloped parts of company estates. Serious riots broke out in Cholo in August 1953, leading to the death of eleven people and the injury of seventy-two.Palmer, (1986). Working Conditions and Worker Responses on the Nyasaland Tea Estates, pp. 122–3, 125. The Abrahams Commission (also known as the 1946 Land Commission) was appointed by the Nyasaland government in 1946 to inquire into land issues in Nyasaland following riots and disturbances by tenants on European-owned estates in Blantyre districts in 1943 and 1945. Abrahams proposed that the Nyasaland government should purchase all unused or under-used freehold land on the estates, which would become Crown land allocated to African smallholders as Native Trust Land. Africans on the estates were to be offered the choice of remaining there as workers or tenants, or of moving to Crown land.Tenney and Humphreys, (2011). Historical Dictionary of the International Monetary Fund, pp. 10, 17–18. The programme of land acquisition accelerated after 1951, and by 1957 the government had negotiated the purchase of most of the land it had targeted. By June 1954, 350,000 acres had been re-acquired, leaving only 3.7% of Nyasaland's land in private estates. At independence in 1964, this had been reduced to less than 2% per cent.Pachai, (1973). Land Policies in Malawi, pp. 691–2.
Political issues In the same period that the economic position of Nyasaland's Africans was improving, their political aspirations received a major set-back. Agitation by the government of Southern Rhodesia led to a Royal Commission, the Bledisloe Commission, on the future association between Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Despite almost unanimous African opposition, its report in 1939 did not rule out some form of future association, provided that Southern Rhodesian forms of racial discrimination were not applied north of the Zambezi.McCracken, (2012). A History of Malawi, 1859–1966, p. 232–6.Rotberg, (1965). The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa, pp. 110–14. The danger of Southern Rhodesian rule made demands for African political rights more urgent, and in 1944 James Frederick Sangala promoted the union of various local African associations in the protectorate into the Nyasaland African Congress.McCracken, (1998). Democracy and Nationalism in Historical Perspective, p. 233. One of its first demands was to have African representation on the Legislative Council, which advised governors on local legislation.McCracken, (2012). A History of Malawi, 1859–1966, p. 271, 313–16. Before 1949, African interests were represented on this council by a single white missionary, but in 1949, three Africans were nominated by the governor to sit on the Legislative Council.Rotberg, (1965). The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa, pp. 101, 192.