Frayed Federation

The white-dominated Central African Federation--made up of Nyasaland, Southern and Northern Rhodesia--last week seemed about to dissolve. In Northern Rhodesia, the solvent was made up of rioting, strikes and demonstrations that have cost a dozen lives this month. In Nyasaland, the solvent was fiery Dr. Hastings Banda, 56, U.S.-educated (University of Chicago, Nashville's Meharry Medical College) leader of the Malawi Congress Party.

At issue was the election of a legislative council to "advise" the British on governing Nyasaland's 9,000 Europeans, 12,000 Asians and 2,780,000 Africans. Federation Prime Minister Sir Roy Welensky, who had helped jail Banda two years ago on the ground that a "massacre" of whites was being planned, flew in to help prop up his United Federal Party. Welensky made little effort to sway the 100,000 Africans whose literacy and income qualified them to vote in the "lower roll." Instead, he directed his appeal to the Asians, who were combined with the Europeans in the "upper roll." Cocky Dr. Banda gave Welensky a derisive welcome, noting that "he will now have to take a direct share in the ignominious defeat of his party."

On election eve, Africans poured out of the bush and down from the hills. Some lit campfires in the chilly night as they waited for the polls to open at 6 a.m. A 103-year-old man walked the night through to cast his vote at Visanza. and then collapsed. The results could scarcely have been more humiliating to Sir Roy. Although Banda had been expected to win the 20 seats contested in the lower roll, no one had been prepared for his runaway popularity. He swept 99% of the African vote. And even in the upper roll, the Asian voters clearly decided to back a winner. Enough of them switched from the United Federalists to enable Banda to capture three of the eight seats at stake.

In his sleek Mercedes, victorious Dr. Banda drove through cheering crowds to the $28,000 house bought for him by the Malawi Party. There, seated beside a stuffed leopard and beneath a photograph of Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta (see above), Banda announced that whites who will not go along with African rule "will find there is no place for them in Nyasaland." He reiterated his threat to pull his country out of Welensky's Central African Federation "as soon as possible," and added ominously: "If they insist on us staying in the Federation, they'd better bring their soldiers here."

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