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 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