Aged only ten years, the Federation of the Rhodesias and Nyasaland last week died a largely unlamented death. The federation's birth in 1953 had smacked of illegitimacy, and one of its principal midwives, burly ex-boxer Roy Welensky, was from the start accused by black nationalists of dedicating himself to the goal of keeping its African population under the thumb of a minority of white settlers.
As outgoing Prime Minister Welensky muttered his misgivings, death came to the federation on New Year's Eve. Next day at noon, 2,000 Africans gathered for a mock funeral. Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda, boss of Nyasaland's Malawi...
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