Nyasaland Emergency 1959 Nyasaland Emergency 1959 The Nyasaland Emergency 1959 was a state of emergency in the protectorate of Nyasaland (now Malawi), which was declared by its governor, Sir Robert Armitage on 3 March 1959 and which ended on 16 June 1960. Under the emergency powers that operated during the Emergency, over 1,300 members or supporters of the Nyasaland African Congress (Congress) were detained without trial, and most of the party's leaders including its president, Dr. Hastings Banda, were imprisoned in Southern Rhodesia after being arrested on 3 March. Many other Africans were jailed for offences related to the Emergency, including rioting and
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