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 African Congress very similar constitutions, established in the 1920s and early 1930s. The Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) was organised in 1943 by leaders of the Nyasaland Native Associations, with Mumba and James Frederick Sangala of Blantyre the prime movers. The NAC was the first organisation that attempted to work at a national level. At first named the Nyasaland Educated African Council, a few months later the Council renamed itself the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) at the urging of Sangala, who felt the movement should not be restricted to the educated elite. The NAC was intended to be an umbrella organisation that would