•SIR Roy Welensky

By EXPENDITO CHIPALO –

AS Zambia celebrate the Golden Jubilee of our nation’s independence, it is important to recall part of the history from the colonial past.
There are events and individuals from that era the country ought to remember if not to refresh memories, but also to educate the young generation as such individuals and events are a part of the country’s rich history.
There are many figures from the imperial and colonial rule who took part in key actions that influenced the history of the country nation before its independence.
One such figure is the last Prime Minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Sir Roy Welensky.
Before discussing Sir Roy, a brief explanation of how Zambia became a Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is important so that people understand and appreciate the context of the article.
However, this is the first part of the article, the last one would be published on Monday next week
The colonial history starts from the Berlin Conference of 1884 at which the invasion, occupation and colonisation of Africa by European powers was regulated.
Britain’s share of Africa included Basutoland, East Africa and Uganda, Egypt, Sudan, Gambia, Gold Coast and Ashanti, Nigeria, Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, Sierra Leone, Somaliland and Zanzibar.
In 1889, five years after the partition of Africa, the British South Africa Company (BSAC) signed a Royal Charter with the British government.
Under this Royal Charter, the BSAC which was formed to promote colonisation and economic exploitation across much of south and central Africa was given administrative powers over the area by the British government.
The first directors of the BSAC included the arch imperialist Sir Cecil Rhodes and the South African financier Alfred Beit.
It was at this point those two central African British territories were named as the Northern and Southern Rhodesia (Zambia and Zimbabwe), a name which was derived from Cecil Rhodes last name, as a measure of Rhodes’ power and influence.
The two bridges linking the two Rhodesias to the south over the Zambezi River at Chirundu and Limpompo River at Mussina were named after Rhodes’ financier, Alfred Beit. The Beit Bridge.
At that time, Northern Rhodesia included the present day Katanga Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo but was acquired by the Congo Free State before the BSAC could make claim to its mineral wealth.
Rhodes’ ambition was to create a British zone of political and commercial influence from Cape to Cairo. The BSAC Headquarters here in Zambia was in what is now the Zambian Ministry of Foreign Affairs office along Independence Avenue.
The BSAC claimed huge mineral rights and landholdings in both Rhodesias and embarked on development of mines and construction of infrastructure which included the Rhodesia Railways.
The BSAC even had its own police force and paramilitary units.
In the post World War period the economies of the two countries increased rapidly and this led to an influx of white settlers from all over the world, but mainly from South Africa and Britain.
The two countries were at that time under direct British administration since the BSAC Royal Charter had ceased in 1923 in Southern Rhodesia and in 1924 in Northern Rhodesia.
As the white populations grew in the two territories, the settlers dominated political life and started demanding independence from Britain with no regard for the rights of the black people of Northern and Southern Rhodesia as well as Nyasaland.
Among the leaders of the white settlers was one Roy Welensky who would end up as the last Prime Minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
Sir Raphael Roy Welensky, KCMG (Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George), was born on January 20 1907 in Salisbury (Harare) to a ninth generation Afrikaner mother and a Polish Jewish father.
Welensky lost his mother when he was aged 11 and was forced to leave school at the age of 14.
He joined Rhodesia Railways as a fireman. He was also a fine heavyweight boxer and became the professional heavyweight boxing champion of Rhodesia at age 19 and held the title for two years.
He rose through the ranks of Rhodesia Railways to become a locomotive engine driver and was very active in the Rhodesia Railways Workers Union.
In 1929, he participated in the unsuccessful Rhodesia Railways strike and was moved to Broken Hill (Kabwe) which was the main base of Rhodesia Railways in Northern Rhodesia.
Welensky continued with his workers union activities in Kabwe and was in 1933 elected chairman of the Kabwe branch.
That same year, he was elected to the national council of the Railway Workers Union.
At this same time, Sir Welensky developed interest in settler politics in Northern Rhodesia and in 1938; he was elected to the Northern Rhodesia Legislative Council (as the colonial House of Parliament was known).
In 1939, World War II broke out and many Rhodesians, both black and white were enlisted into the British Commonwealth Forces which took part in the Battle of Madagascar, and the Burma and East African campaigns.
The governor of Northern Rhodesia prevented Welensky from enlisting in the army and appointed him director of manpower.
Although he was not of British ancestry Welensky was reputedly intensely pro-British. John Connell in his foreword to Welensky’s book 4000 Days wrote: “Welensky, who had not a drop of British blood in his veins, shared this pride and loyalty towards Britain to the full.”
Sir Welensky in 1941 formed his own political party, the Northern Rhodesia Labour Party.
The core objective of this party was the amalgamation of Northern and Southern Rhodesia under a new constitution similar to the constitution of Southern Rhodesia which had given ‘responsible government’ to the white Southern Rhodesians.
In 1945, at the end of World War II, Welensky’s party won all the five legislative seats it contested in the election. The Northern Rhodesia Labour Party’s victory led to the resignation of Sir Stewart Gore-Browne as leader of the unofficial members of the Legislative Council of Northern Rhodesia.
In tendering his resignation, Sir Gore-Browne stated that: “black Africans had lost confidence in the whites due to the wish for amalgamation.”
Welensky’s victory and the post-war economic boom in the two Rhodesias gave impetus to his desire for amalgamation. His wish was that the ‘complimentary economic strengths of the countries would be put to their best use under a common administration.’
The British government rejected the idea of amalgamation and as a result, Welensky set about the creation of a federation.
In February 1949, Welensky organised a conference at the Victoria Falls Hotel to explore the idea of a federation. The conference was attended by representatives of the Northern and Southern Rhodesia white politicians.
But the African nationalists and the British government were not represented.
Welensky suggested that the constitution of Australia be used as the basis of the federal constitution. He also touted for the idea of a ‘partnership’ between blacks and whites but insisted that: “for as long as I can see, in that partnership, the whites will be senior partners.”
The white colonial governments of Northern and Southern Rhodesia met with the British government in March 1952 in London to discuss the future of the two territories.
The British government negotiating team led by the left leaning public servant Sir Andrew Cohen once again rebuffed the idea of amalgamation.
The main reason for this British attitude was that the racial policies of the Rhodesian whites were confused with the emerging apartheid of South Africa.
Welensky was forced to refute the idea during an interview with a South African newspaper saying in an apparently paternalistic statement towards Africans that: “I believed in the dictum of equal rights for all civilised men and gradual advancement.”
The London meeting however settled and finalised the idea of a Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The small territory of Nyasaland (now Malawi) was included in the federation because it was felt that it would not survive on its own.
In later years, when the freedom struggle in the three territories intensified, Welensky was disappointed that the Nyasaland Africans were in the forefront of demanding for independence.
During the same time that he was organising the federation, Welensky won one political battle for the benefit of all Northern Rhodesians against the British South Africa Company (BSAC) “which controlled the mineral rights and associated royalties throughout the territory.”
The BSAC had signed treaties with the African kings that surrendered mineral rights. The Royal Charter which had given the BSAC administration rights over Northern Rhodesia had come to an end in 1924.
Welensky thus argued that the territory had a right to the royalties and petitioned the governor to take action.
The BSAC relented after protracted talks to surrender the mineral rights and agreed to pay 20 per cent of its profits from these rights to the government.
Upon the creation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe), Welensky and the Prime Minster of Southern Rhodesia Sir Godfrey Huggins established the United Federal Party (UFP).
The first Federal Legislature elections were held in 1953, the UFP won a resounding victory with twice the votes of the opposition Confederate Party.
Welensky took the federal constituency of Broken Hill (Kabwe) with more than 80 per cent of the vote and was immediately promoted to Minister of Transport.
(Look out for PART 2 on Monday)