Malawi stamp – The-Philatelist

Rhodesia and Nyasaland 1959, Trying a more liberal path to maintaining minority rule

Trying to maintain a prosperous colonial life when the home country wants out and your race is less than 10% of the population is difficult. The apartheid system in South Africa was one but a more liberal method was also tried for about 10 years to the north. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The stamp today is attractive and very representative of the last years of British colony status. It also displays the seeds of the failure of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Between the Queen and the grave of Cecil Rhodes, it was just all about what the whites wanted. Under the distant but benign auspices of Britain with Cecil Rhodes as the father of the country. That aspiration was not what the 96% of the population that was black was interested in, namely majority rule.

Todays stamp is issue A20, a three penny stamp issued by the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1959. It was part of a 15 stamp issue in various denominations over a four year period. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. The stamp to look out for in this issue is the 1 pound stamp showing the coat of arms of the territory. It is worth $47 mint.

The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland comprises the territory of modern day Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi. These were territories that were claimed for Britain by adventurer, diamond miner, and proponent of empire Cecil Rhodes in the 19th century. It was his intention that British colonists build a self ruled country that was still a subject of the British empire. However, the European settlers never were more than 10 percent of the population and lived at a level 10 times their African neighbors.

In 1953, in preparation for the end of colonial status a federation of the colony of Southern Rhodesia and the British Protectorates of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland was established. A federation was chosen as to limit the power of economically and militarily dominant Southern Rhodesia. It was thought that this unit would work economically and it did so with rapidly rising incomes for Europeans and indeed Africans. Institutions were opened up to allow more African participation. However Britain saw the federation as a vehicle to transition to majority rule and independence. The leader locally Roy Welensky saw things differently. He did not feel that blacks were ready for rule and that the Europeans could not stay post black rule.

The flag of the Federation. The rising sun is for Nyasaland,(Malawi), the lion for Rhodesia(Zimbabwe), and the wavy zebra lines are for Northern Rhodesia (Zambia)

Britain began separate contacts with independence proponents in Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia. Welensky considered unilaterally declaring independence from Britain but could not bring himself to do it. The Congo to the north had gone independent and within a month had descended into chaos. Thousands of whites fled south but Welensky was not allowed to help them escape by Britain. They favored a UN solution and Daj Hammerjold, the UN Secretary General flew to Northern Rhodesia to start negotiations. When his plane crashed, The Communist and African world blamed Welensky although there is no evidence that he had any responsibility.

Meanwhile in Southern Rhodesia, many whites thought Welensky too accommodating to England and a new party formed with a more radical racialist agenda. Welensky was mocked for being a Jew and a Socialist and the new party came to power. In 1963 the Federation was disbanded. In 1964, now black ruled Northern Rhodesia became independent Zambia and Nyasaland became black ruled independent Malawi. Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence that was not recognized by Britain or the UN and fell into civil war. The war dragged on for 15 years until Rhodesia recognized Britain’s right to install a majority black government and grant independence as Zimbabwe. All of the countries economically underperformed post independence and succumbed to one party, president for life corruption. Upon independence in 1980, Welensky relocated to Britain for his final years.

Prime Minister Roy, ne Raphael, Welensky. He didn’t believe whites could continue under black rule, so after the federation ended he moved first to Salisbury,(Harare) and then London which to date as kept it’s name.

To date Cecil Rhodes grave as yet to be desecrated in Zimbabwe. It is a lucrative tourist draw in the poor country and foreigners are charged four times the local admissions price, despite being in a UN supported national park. There is the usual talk of him being an interloper disturbing the spirits of real Zimbabwe heroes whose names nobody can remember.

Cecil Rhodes grave in more modern times. The rock formations make visits more dramatic at sunrise and sunset

Well my drink is empty. I wonder if the federation had been granted more time to integrate blacks in the institutions if the outcome would have been better. The three countries together would have been a much bigger power, but I really can’t see a modern country in Africa named for Cecil Rhodes. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

The area of modern Malawi received many invasions from different tribes as it was on a lucrative trade routes. So the local Maravi faced attacks from the Achawa friends of Arab traders from the north and refugees from the Zulus from the South. The British sided with the Maravi but to them they were all just natives. It was only the missionairies that could figure it out or make it worse. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp was a common design type that was issued throughout the British Empire in celebration of the Coronation of George VI. Nyasaland was a Protectorate rather than a Colony but natives can be forgiven for wondering what a stamp like this has to do with them.

Todays stamp is issue CD302, a half penny stamp issued by the Protectorate of Nyasaland on May 12, 1937. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents unused.

The area of modern Malawi was once the Maravi Empire. The maravi people were mainly farmers of grains on the fertile land near Lake Nyassa and also had acquired skill in ironwork. Maravi means working with flame. Nyasa means lake in local language and the British took this name for the area. Pre Europeans, the area was on Arab trading routes for ivory and slaves heading to Zanzibar. The Arabs converted the Achawa African tribe to Islam and there were then many clashes with the Maravi. The first Europeans were Scottish missionaries that brought Christianity and the end of slavery. They found a ready market from the Maravi and much less from the Achawa. Thus the signing up as a British Protectorate. There was a hope that it would then be the maravi benefiting from the trade. It did not work out that way.

Slavery was abolished and white planters acquired great plantations of tea and corn. For workers, the plantations found that guest workers from Mozambique would work for much less than local workers while locals worked much less productively on less valuable land. The Christian missions were offering some schooling to natives and these newly educated found no place in the area. In 1915, Baptist educated John Chilembwe formed a political movement and an armed uprising against the British. He had an Achawa father and his mother was an enslaved to the Achawa Maravi. His rebellion was quickly put down and Chilembwe was killed. His movement, which had been modeled on the ANC in South Africa and inspired by John Brown in the USA continued and was eventually the group to whom the area it was turned over to upon independence. The lake became of less importance and so Malawi became a modern pronunciation of Maravi.

The British were always a tiny minority in the area but the so were the self styled “New African Men” that were the products of the western educations given in charity. The Maravi agreed to Protectorate status from the British. A strong friend who could help a people being attacked from all sides. To then bypass the tribal system and turn over power to these created by themselves, New African men like Chilembwe, because they were the only natives they could relate to shows the British falling short as protectors. Independent Malawi had a 30+ year President for life that had previously spent 30 years abroad being educated.

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait till tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.