Nyasaland Emergency 1959 unwilling to release most of the detainees. The Malawi Congress Party was formed as the successor to the banned Nyasaland African Congress by Orton Chirwa after his release from detention in August 1959 as interim President, although he acknowledged Banda as the party's true leader, a position that Banda assumed on his own release and return to Nyasaland. Those other African politicians that had put themselves forward as moderate alternatives to Banda were, Armitage himself admitted, not credible and without influence. Armitage's hopes of negotiating with Orton Chirwa instead of Banda were dashed when Chirwa said that only Banda had
Nyasaland labour migration, mainly of men, to Southern Rhodesia and South Africa. The Nyasaland government estimated that 58,000 adult males were working outside Nyasaland in 1935, but the Southern Rhodesian census of 1931 alone recorded 54,000 male Nyasaland Africans there, so it was probably an underestimate. In 1937, it was estimated that over 90,000 adult males were migrant workers: of these a quarter was thought not to have been in touch with their families for more than five years. By 1945 almost 124,000 adult males and almost adult 9,500 females were known to be absent, excluded those not in touch with