AHC: Save the Federation of Rhodesia-Nyasaland

Wolfpaw

Banned
All of this talk about Rhodesia and the Bush War lately has gotten me interested in its predecessor, the Federation of Rhodesia-Nyasaland.

So here's your challenge: with a POD no earlier than January 1, 1956, figure out a way for the FRN survive for the majority of and/or through the Cold War.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
I like my idea of Portugal buying arms through ARMSCOR, then flying them direct from South Africa into Rhodesia on the national airline.

It fulfills my love of cloak-and-dagger Charlie Wilson's War-type stuff.

Sure, it's not a single thing that'll do it but it would probably alleviate some pressure. And that's probably the best way to do it: keep adding factors until you wind up at a satisfactory answer.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
That might have been enough to save South Rhodesia, but would it have been enough to help prop up the Federation together by any significant degree?

Perhaps if Katanga managed to successfully break away from the Congo it could help the Federation out?
 
Katanga separating off would be a huge change I think. If you could somehow butterfly the UN intervention force, then it would have been possible to create a state in the zone that could have afforded to build some sort of functioning state that could have acted as a buffer of some kind. Then without the UN Intervention in Katanga - perhaps the early rule of "respect the colonial borders" may not become an article of faith in the Independent Nations that created the OAU. This could have butteflies for the Nigerian/Biafran war.

What it doesn't address though is that the federation was effectively a tool of the Southern Rhodesians and still fundamentally undermined by the racial franchise. I do remember reading that a lot of the resources of the federation were used developing the South as well.

I just do not see how the federation could keep itself together given the disparity in population make up, economic development and political development in the three states. At the very least you would have to somehow hive off Nysaland I think, in order to retain some sort of chance of the federation lasting.
 
Well, you need Kenneth Kaunda to be killed off, thus allowing Harry Nkumbula to maintain his influence over Zambia. While the former had radicalized and become a militant, the latter wanted to compromise with the white government until the African majority was "ready" to enter the political arena. This alone saves Rhodesia a lot of trouble, since Kaunda actively supported the insurgents that would fight in the Bush War.

With Nyasa-land, you may merely need to keep Hastings Banda out of the country. It was his arrival in what is now Malawi that resulted in the demonstrations that lead to the regions secession.
 
AFAIK it was originaly a scheme to keep North Rhodesia (almost all black but resorce rich) under British control by tieing it to South Rhodesia.

Maybe when the wind of change begins to blow some clever black leader or London bureaucrat reverses the idea.
The federation is now a tool to keep South Rhodesia form UDI and ensure a gradual transformation to majority rule there.
So the blacks and british support it wholeheartly.
 
Federation of Rhodesia & Nyasaland

The key problems of the Federation were two-fold:

(1) Landlocked with unreliable and, ultimately hostile neighbours

(2) The governing minority could not speak or understand the language of the 95% majority

Problem (1) could only have been solved by joining the Federation with a coastal territory like South Africa which would likely have refused.

Problem (2) was a matter of will and education.

African Cowboy
Johannesburg


So here's your challenge: with a POD no earlier than January 1, 1956, figure out a way for the FRN survive for the majority of and/or through the Cold War.
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The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is unlikely to last without the changes Ariosto mentioned, but I've wondered if Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland could have remained federated as the "Federation of Zambia and Malawi". At some point we might even see the reunification of Rhodesia and Nyasaland upon the assumption of majority rule in Southern Rhodesia/Zimbabwe if the ZANU and ZAPU rebels were in favour of joining the Federation (which would probably have to be renamed the Central African Federation or something like that since the Federation of Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe is a rather unwieldy name).
 
The governing minority could not speak or understand the language of the 95% majority

Disagree with this. I am white English and am married to the daughter of a Mashona Tribal Chief. My late father in law was a minister in Ian Smith's UDI government (he was killed by Mugabe's forces in the liberation war). Ian Smith could certainly speak Shona, as can every white person I've met in Zimbabwe (and there were still plenty in July last year) even in Ballantyne Park, Harare (there were even some white checkout staff at the Spar supermarket).

Joshua Nkomo was also an MP in the federation and he was a far more effective liberation leader than Mugabe. Overall though I don't think the federation could continue, however linguistically the Shona language of Mashonaland and Manicaland in Zimbabwe and the Chewa language in Malawi (my wife can speak both) are very, very similar. The Ndebele lannguage of Matabeleland in Zimbabwe is quite different from both Shona and Chewa, being a variant of Zulu (My wife can also speak Ndebele and Zulu being raised in a mixwd part of Zimbabwe - and attending a posh private school (before independence) helps). I could see a linguistic federation possibly surviving minus Matabeleland, however I don't know anything about Zambian linguistics and how they fit with Zimbabwe and and Malawi, as Zambia is the link between the two countries (or else via Mozambique which is Swahili speaking and a very old enemy of the Mashona people).

I would agree that the federation was designed to enrich Southern Rhodesia at the expense of Zambia. Malawi (Nyasaland) has no real natural resources and is an agricultural (and very friendly country - would recommend a holiday there) country, renowned for the quality of its rice. It also has some excellent Indian restaurants.

All my my own prsonal opinion and some a bit off topic, but it is heartfelt from someone who loves Zimbabwe and its people.
 
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