Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland 1958 Hastings Banda, the leader of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) (later Malawi Congress Party), returned from Great Britain to Nyasaland, while in October the militant Kenneth Kaunda became the leader of the Zambian African National Congress (ZANC), a split from the Northern Rhodesian ANC. The increasingly rattled CAF authorities banned ZANC in March 1959, and in June imprisoned Kaunda for nine months. While Kaunda was in gaol, his loyal lieutenant Mainza Chona worked with other African nationalists to create the United National Independence Party (UNIP), a successor to ZANC. In early 1959, unrest broke out in Nyasaland, which, according
Operation Sunrise (Nyasaland) released swiftly, although many more continued to be detained well after the start Operation Sunrise. Armitage had no plans to resolve the political crisis in Nyasaland, other than the elimination of Banda and Congress and, from March 1959 he repeatedly sought Colonial Office approval to introduce legislation either to ban Banda from returning to Nyasaland after his detention or to extend his detention (in Rhodesia or Nyasaland) indefinitely. He was also unwilling to release most of the detainees. Those African politicians that had put themselves forward as moderate alternatives to Banda were, Armitage admitted, not credible and without influence. Armitage