The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland 1953–1963 : a retrospective at its unattained platinum jubilee

Abstract

Seventy years ago, an association of three colonies in what European imperialists then dubbed British Central Africa came into being. The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (hereafter the Federation) – a union of Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland (present-day Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi, respectively) – barely lasted a decade before its collapse at the end of 1963 in the face of intense anti-colonial pressure. Although this governance structure was short-lived, it was consequential.

Paradoxically, while the Federation initially consolidated white settler rule, its modest progressive reforms ultimately accelerated anti-colonial agitation. The Federation brought a brief economic windfall to Southern Rhodesia that significantly transformed the skyline of Salisbury, the dual capital of that colony and the new political grouping. It realigned Southern Rhodesia away from South Africa, the ‘white south’, and enmeshed its political life more closely with what white Rhodesians dubbed the ‘black north’, which made independence pressures more acute. However, in empowering local white settlers, the Federation simultaneously complicated Malawi’s and Zambia’s pursuit of independence. As the Federation marks the twin anniversaries of its founding and its dissolution, this appraisal reviews its governance trajectory and takes stock of directions in its historiography.