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The Welensky Papers
A History of the Federation of Rhodesia and NyasalandAuthor: JRT Wood
Graham Publishing for the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust 1983
1330pp; 235mm X 152mm;
maps, b/w pics.
ISBN 0-620-06411-0Deluxe edition signed by Sir Roy Welensky and Prof J R T Wood.
Elegantly bound in royal blue calf leather with raised bands and
gilt titles, enclosed in a matching slip case with a matching velvet lining.
The encased volume is presented in a full colour, descriptive, heavy cardboard box.
Only a few copies, still in original wrappings, are still available.
Limited to 200 numbered copies.The prospect for a closer union of Southern and Northern Rhodesia was not promising on the eve of World War-II. A decade later things had changed. The turning point came about in 1948 when three crucial elections took place in southern Africa. The first occurred in the Union of South Africa on 28 May 1948. Despite General Smuts
enjoying a majority support of the popular vote, the vagaries of the first-past-the-post gave a parliamentary majority to Dr Malan’s National Party and brought with it the official policy of apartheid. The South African situation had long caused the British Government doubt and anxiety, but Smut’s defeat came as a shock. His reputation as an Imperial statesman and a member of the British War Cabinet in 1917-18 and his close relationship with Churchill in World War-II had masked the political realities. His defeat triggered a silent but conclusive change in South Africa. The Afrikaner leaders were hostile towards Britain. Many had been positively in favour of the Nazis, with whose racial doctrines, transposed into African terms, they had some sympathy. The new political situation caused a major revision of British policy towards South Africa.
The next two elections of significance followed shortly afterwards. On 27 August Roy Welensky, a strong supporter of amalgamation, gained political power in Northern Rhodesia. On 16 September Godfrey Huggins, another amalgamator, who had only narrowly avoided defeat in 1946, gained an overwhelming majority in the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly.
Malan’s victory swung British Government support towards their cause. They saw the need for a strong central African state to counterbalance South African power. This was despite the ruling Labour Party instinctively opposing amalgamation. This was because articulate African opinion in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland opposed it. Also, because they were suspicious it was an attempt by the deeply entrenched white settler communities north of the Limpopo River to acquire the wealth of the Copperbelt.
This the comprehensive story of how the Central African Federation came about and how it ultimately failed, primarily because of opposition by the black Nationalist parties in its component territories.
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