Africans and Federation
By W. M. MACMILLAN * THE long debate on Central African Federation has turned very largely on the problematical rights and needs of the African population (whether or not affected by Federa- tion), or been used as propaganda for their rights in general. In their perplexity some politicians and others are now dis- posed to set aside their personal view that Federation is desir- able, and would have the whole project put off till African opinion is better prepared. It is therefore important to be sure that the significance of the African opinion to which it is proposed to defer is rightly assessed. Before setting out lately on a tour of the territories, I was satisfied like others of a prima facie case for Federation—but no less of the importance of African goodwill. A very few days in Nyasaland made it obvious that at any rate this smallest and most heavily populated of the three cannot pos- sibly thrive standing by itself. Cut off from the main arteries of trade, its purely agricultural resources could never be suffi- cient to meet the demand of its purposeful people for the services needed to fit them for modern life. Closer association with two stronger neighbours may need to carry with it some guarantee of a subvention from the Rhodesias to bring the social services to a higher standard—and this the Fiscal Com- mission is reasonably certain to ask for. Given this assurance, only the most compelling reasons can justify those responsible for the welfare of Nyasaland's masses in then choosing to stand aloof.
At a great number of meetings with English-speaking African leaders I tried in all three territories to get to the root of their objections to Federation, and in Nyasaland in particular to elicit alternative proposals. Of these there were none, and, since the speakers almost invariably refused to discuss Federation as such, the burden of our talk was of grievances in general.
It is to be remarked that these Africans never once fell to debating with one another, and by and large the line they took was strikingly alike in all three territories. Basically their fears of Federation were, like those of many people in this country, expressed in terms appropriate rather to the situation in South Africa, and in South Africa as it was twenty or thirty years ago; it is of the Union that so .many of the books have been written which have moulded opinion on these African questions, and it is clear that opinion on Federation has a bookish origin— as has the unshakable assertion that the policies of Southern Rhodesia and the Union are one and the same.
The fear of extrusion from their land was-undoubtedly fore- most; put very simply, it was as if in Nyasaland they looked to see the Boer trekkers' ox-waggons appear on the horizon the very day Federation takes effect; or, in the Southern Rhodesian version, that thousands would get notice to make room by removing themselves to the tsetse-fly waste spaces of the North. These fantastic fears are liable to persist until res- ponsible Europeans do more to discountenance irresponsible enthusiasm for new and quite impracticable large-scale European land-settlement. Such reassurance would be deSir- able even if the Federation question had never risen. Again, natural impatience of industrial and social restrictions on Africa& provokes indignation in all three territories, and this was due to find expression, especially on the very prosperous ,Copper Belt, whether Federation had ever been heard of or not. The nearest thing to a precise criticism of the draft plan of Federation was from Nyasalanders who scent danger to their freedom of movement in the proposed federal control of " imvigration "; loose (and mischievous) talk about their country being chiefly valuable as a reservoir of labour might issue, they seemed to fear, in schemes for the systematic " direction " of Nyasa labour; " immigration " should be more explicitly defined.
* Professor Macmillan, who is Director of Colonial Studies at the University of St. Andrews, has spent many yeari in Africa and written various books on African problems.
The plan of Federation promises to plant Nyasaland more firmly on its economic feet, and at least to strengthen the posi- tion of Africans in Southern Rhodesia by associating them with two predominately African neighbours; yet canvassing the plan has led only to this whipping-up of indignation. By any way of it the well-meant effort of the Home Government to consult African opinion on this specific issue has gone awry. There is a lesson in the view of men on the spot that for want of tried consultative machinery such a result was inevitable. Machinery for the expression of public opinion must be ready before the event. Failing such, the colonial governments had better have relied on their normal and well-understood method of law- making—having decided on the merits of a proposal, air it in Legislative Council and proceed there; whereas this new parade of " consultation " suggested hesistancy, thus posi- tively inviting suspicion. It was too easily assumed that an inexperienced people will at once be persuaded to make a nice balancing of the pros and cons of any proposal put to it.
We might have learned better from what happened in the famous Bamangwato dispute. When the set of tribal opinion turned against the Regent Tshekedi, that great authority on African custom withdrew himself and his followers from tribal territory altogether, recognising that there is no place in African politics for " Her Majesty's loyal opposition." At my very first meeting at Blantyre voices were constantly raised against anyone who seemed to deviate, as it were, from " the party line " by discussing any detail of the White Paper; the only group capable of organising itself had got in first and, working by mass-suggestion, established it as " national " opinion that Federation is to be opposed in principle and " not even con- sidered." These non-co-operative tactics are becoming so much the normal political reaction of Africans in so many widely different parts as to suggest a common inspiration— pretty certainly from the student body overseas and the cosmo- politan influences playing on them. This attitude is capable of arresting the future progress of Africans themselves, as well as further disturbing racial harmony.
It does not follow, however, that this blank negation is the last word. Failing to get considered views on the merits or demerits of Federation, I occasionally took the offensive. How, I asked, if white Rhodesians are as Africans of the two Crown Colonies so vividly depict them, did these reconcile it with their conscience to abandon two millions of their fellows to such wolves ? This and other questions certainly set them think- ing; they seemed in the end to concede, for example, that a university is essential to a complete system of education, and that it is hopeless to look for years to come for more than one Central African University. Political discussion of any kind was in truth so new to these audiences that, all unwittingly, I often found myself as it were donning a gown and conducting a class in history and politics ! Very friendly and entertaining pupils they were too, and I think we always parted on the best of terms.
Full " consultation " of such people must include elementary political instruction, and this has hardly begun—even with this educated class which loudly claims to speak for the masses. As things are, one thoughtful speaker got so far as to suggest a clause allowing " escape " from Federation in a short period of years; this, the only suggestion I got that bore directly on Federation, was some evidence that the ruling party " line " might not fully satisfy if it was once examined. It has been got over to the masses by being linked with their emotions and fears. The way African life conducts itself—social pressure if not intimidation—makes it unlikely that individuals will now emerge as sponsors of a.'" pro-Federation " party. The dis- cussion, however, has hitherto ranged over almost every aspect of local politics except the precise and limited objects in view; these can yet be made a great deal plainer, and separated from extraneous local issues. Focussing attention on positive and tangible benefits like university education or a subsidy to Nyasaland services is long over-due, and might even arouse some enthusiasm.
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