Central Africa: River of Tears

Aged only ten years, the Federation of the Rhodesias and Nyasaland last week died a largely unlamented death. The federation's birth in 1953 had smacked of illegitimacy, and one of its principal midwives, burly ex-boxer Roy Welensky, was from the start accused by black nationalists of dedicating himself to the goal of keeping its African population under the thumb of a minority of white settlers.

As outgoing Prime Minister Welensky muttered his misgivings, death came to the federation on New Year's Eve. Next day at noon, 2,000 Africans gathered for a mock funeral. Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda, boss of Nyasaland's Malawi Congress Party, told his cheering supporters, "I mean to rule. I shall allow no stupid fool to destroy what I've built up. If to do this is to be a dictator, make the most of it!" Then his followers set fire to a coffin representing the federation and the ashes were thrown into the Shire River, which, in the words of the Malawi News, "will carry the relics down to the Zambezi River, which is saturated with the tears of Welensky and the other settlers."

The positions of the three territories are radically different. Little Nyasaland, which becomes the independent state of Malawi on July 6, has some 3,500,000 people and virtually no resources except its brilliant but megalomaniacal leader Dr. Banda. Northern Rhodesia, which will obtain full independence next fall as the state of Zambia, is loaded with mineral wealth, and its copper represents one of Africa's most profitable exports. Moderate Kenneth Kaunda's United National Independence Party seems certain to sweep the territorial elections set for Jan. 20, but Kaunda is already facing terrorist opposition from the African National Congress, led by hard-drinking Harry Nkumbula and by members of the Lumpa church, a militant African sect headed by a 39-year-old self-styled prophetess named Alice Lenshina.

For the present, white-dominated Southern Rhodesia has decided against a unilateral declaration of independence, though a noisy section of the population is strongly in favor of it. Prime Minister Winston Field urges that "on no account must we put ourselves in the wrong" by breaching the Constitution, under which the territory is still tied to Britain as a self-governing member of the Commonwealth. But Southern Rhodesia, lacking large-scale mineral deposits and heavily dependent on agriculture, is economically depressed and many of its 224,000 white settlers are emigrating, mostly to neighboring South Africa. Many of the remainder seem to be enthusiastically hoping for a political comeback by Sir Roy Welensky as Rhodesia's leader. At the moment, Sir Roy is planning to retire to a local farm and write his memoirs, but he has nimbly promised to return to public life "if my country needs me."