Nyasaland almost universal rejection of Federation. Finally, it suggested that the British government should negotiate with African leaders on the country's constitutional future. The Devlin Commission's report is the only example of a British judge examining whether the actions of a colonial administration in suppressing dissent were appropriate. Devlin's conclusions that excessive force was used and that Nyasaland was a "police state" caused political uproar. His report was largely rejected and the state of emergency lasted until June 1960. At first, the British government tried to calm the situation by nominating additional African members (who were not Malawi Congress Party supporters)
Nyasaland Emergency 1959 Nyasaland. Despite almost unanimous African opposition, its report in 1939 did not rule-out some form of future association, provided that Southern Rhodesian forms of racial discrimination were not applied north of the Zambezi. The danger of Southern Rhodesian rule made demands for African political rights more urgent, and in 1944 James Frederick Sangala promoted the union various local African associations in the protectorate into the Nyasaland African Congress. One of its first demands was to have African representation on the Legislative Council, which advised governors on local legislation. Before 1949, African interests were represented on this council by a single