The 1959 Nyasaland State of Emergency in Old Karonga District

ISSN： 1465-3893

Source： Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol.36, Iss.4, 2010-12, pp. : 743-763

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Abstract

This article discusses the 1959 State of Emergency in the old Karonga District in the northern part of Nyasaland, an area that became associated with violent resistance to colonial authority, and it does so in an attempt to demonstrate the significance of local studies in understanding colonialism and nationalist movements. It is divided into three sections. The first section explains the factors responsible for the heightened political temperature in the period preceding the emergency; this is followed by a description of some individual events that occurred earlier that year and during the state of emergency itself. In the process, it shows the uncompromising attitudes of the government and the governed towards each other and, thus, the inevitability of the conflict. Finally, the article examines the manner in which the changing political climate of the time affected indigenous power dynamics and social relations, especially among the Ngonde, the numerically preponderant inhabitants of the lakeshore area of the district.