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Coercion and Control in Nyasaland: Aspects of the History of a Colonial Police Force*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

John McCracken
John McCracken
Affiliation:
University of Stirling
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This article examines the changing function of the Nyasaland police force between the 1890s and 1962. Initially, the police consisted of small groups of armed ex-soldiers, totally untrained in conventional police duties and employed by district officers in pressing labour and enforcing the payment of hut tax. In 1920, however, the authorities responded to the threat seemingly posed by the emergence of ‘dangerous classes’ – particularly labour migrants returned from the south – by forming a trained, centralized force, commanded in the Shire Highlands, though not elsewhere, by European police-officers. In the reorganized districts the police succeeded in protecting urban property. But so limited was the size of the force that the prevention and detection of crime was hardly attempted over the greater part of the country, while campaigns such as that against the Mchape witchcraft eradication movement foundered in the face of popular opposition.

Substantial changes began in the mid-1940s in response to urbanization and the increasing complexity of police duties, coming to a climax in the 1950s as the colonial government struggled to maintain authority. At first the emphasis was on raising educational standards and improving conditions of service. But following the crisis of 1953, it switched to expanding police numbers and increasing the coercive power of the force; this process was accelerated in the aftermath of the 1959 emergency.

Recruitment policies were influenced by the technical requirements of the authorities and by the ethnic stereotypes they evolved – a combination which resulted in the recruitment of a disproportionate number of Yao policemen in the first few decades and of more Lomwe and Chewa later. Policemen were attracted less by the rates of pay than by the privileges on offer. An inner corps of policemen spent their lives upholding colonial authority, but most could not be placed in a distinctive category of ‘collaborator’.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , March 1986 , pp. 127 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

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19 W Wheeler, Acting Chief Secretary to Judge, High Court, Blantyre, 4 Feb. 1919, MNA S1/152/19.

20 Smith to Secretary of State for Colonies, 18 Aug. 1919, MNA S1/152/19.

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25 Figures calculated from Bell Report. This compares with the situation between June 1891 and March 1896 when 53.8 per cent of government revenues went on the police and the military. See Vaughan, M. A., ‘Social and economic change in southern Malawi: a study of rural communities in the Shire Highlands and Upper Shire Valley from the mid-nineteenth century to 1915’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1981), no.Google Scholar

26 See file on Isa Lawrence, MNA S2/50/23.

27 See ‘Reports on native controlled missions, 1940–3’, MNA S1A/1339.

28 Ibid.

29 Colonial Office minute, 1 May 1953, PRO CO 1015/243.

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32 L. S. Norman to Secretary of State for Colonies, 4 Oct. 1920, P.R.O. CO 525/94; G. Smith to Secretary of State for Colonies, 21 Feb. 1921, CO 525/25.

33 See Vaughan, ‘Social and economic change’, 130, where she notes that in 1938 hut tax contributions still accounted for 28.7 per cent of total local revenue in Nyasaland but only 12 per cent in Southern Rhodesia and 8.2 per cent in Northern Rhodesia.

34 Annual Report of Northern Province for year ending 31 March 1926, MNA S1/920/26.

35 K.R.T. to the Governor, 30 Jan. 1934, MNA S1/1379/27. According to this memo, nearly one half of the people sent to prison in 1930 were committed for non-payment of hut tax.

36 Undated memo on ‘Northern Province’, POL 2/17/11.

37 See for example Zomba Monthly Police Report, Nov. 1938, MNA POL 5/2/16.

38 Major Stephens to Provincial Commissioner, Southern Province, 18 July 1924, MNA POL 2/19/4.

39 The Blantyre town police dates from 1899 and the Limbe town police from 1911. See minutes of the Blantyre Town Council, 11 May 1899 and Limbe Town Council, 13 June 1911, MNA BL 2/1/1/1 and 2/1/2/1.

40 The first clause in the Blantyre bye-laws of 1912 runs as follows: ‘No Asiatic or Native shall acquire property either leasehold or freehold or settle or carry on trade on his own account, either directly or indirectly or jointly or in partnership with a European in the Township except in the Asiatic Ward’: MNA S1/3921/19. Some time before 1920 this was modified to allow Asians to reside in any part of the Township, though in practice strenuous efforts were made to prevent them from doing so.

41 Ibid, and ‘Township Ordinances, Blantyre and Limbe 1938’, MNA S1/392ii/19.

42 Blantyre Town Council minutes, 27 June 1899, 23 Nov. 1900, 25 Oct. 1915.

43 Limbe Town Council minutes, 28 Aug. 1922 and 29 Jan. 1923.

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48 Ibid., July-Aug., Nov.-Dec. 1930.

49 Figures calculated from Blantyre Monthly Police Reports and Annual Reports of Nyasaland Police, 1930–4. In the five months from Sept. 1931 to Jan. 1932 not a single case of robbery or housebreaking was reported from Blantyre, Limbe and Zomba.

50 Evidence of Major F. T. Stephens, 20 June 1938, Rhodesia-Nyasaland Royal Commission, Oral Evidence, Volume III: Nyasaland, FCO.

51 Zomba Monthly Police Report, Dec. 1938; interview with former Superintendent Brian Burgess, Zomba Plateau, 22 Jan. 1983.

52 Zomba Monthly Police Report, Nov. 1949.

53 Annual Reports of Nyasaland Police, 1924 and 1925, MNA POL 5/1/1; High Court case re Masule alias Time alias Williams, MNA J 5/5/25.

54 Zomba Monthly Police Report July and Oct. 1949, MNA POL 5/2/16; Nyasaland Times, 17 and 20 Oct. 1949. I owe this reference to Dr William Beinart.

55 For comparative information see Hobsbawm, Eric, Primitive Rebels (London, 1959) andGoogle ScholarIsaacman, Allen, ‘Social banditry in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) and Mozambique, 1894–1907’, Journal of Southern African Studies, iv, i, 1977.Google Scholar Most of my information on Mitende's reputation today was gained from participants in the History Seminar, University of Malawi, 7 March 1983, and particularly from Dr Isaac Lamba whose help I am glad to acknowledge.

56 The number of motor vehicles in Nyasaland increased from 623 in 1924 to 2,189 in 1929. See Nyasaland Military Handbook, June 1924 and 31 Dec. 1929, MNA S2/6/27. By 1930 nearly 3,000 bicycles a year were being imported.

57 Annual Report of the Nyasaland Police for 1930.

58 Blantyre Monthly Police Reports, Sept. 1944, May-June 1946, MNA POL 5/2/2.

59 Report of Social Welfare Officer, Southern Province, 1951, MNA 2/28/7F 2525. I owe this reference to Dr Megan Vaughan.

60 Ng'wane, H. D., ‘Economics of Kacasu distilling and brewing of African beer in a Blantyre-Limbe village’, in Apthorpe, R. J. (ed.), Present Interrelations in Central African Rural and Urban Life, proceedings of the Eleventh Conference of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute for Social Research (Lusaka, 1958).Google Scholar

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63 This account is drawn from material in the following two files: MNA S1/522/32 and NS 1/23/2.

64 G. D. Anderson, Provincial Commissioner Southern Province to Chief Secretary, Zomba, 6 Dec. 1932, MNA S1/522/32.

65 Evidence of N. C. Dulana in District Officer, Liwonde, to Provincial Commissioner Southern Province, 12 Nov. 1932, S1/522/32.

66 Minute by Attorney General, 4 Jan. 1933 in S1/522/32.

67 Provincial Commissioner, Southern Province to all District Commissioners, Southern Province, 9 Feb. 1933, MNA NS 1/23/2.

68 McCracken, John, Politics and Christianity in Malawi, 1873–1940 (Cambridge, 1977), 280–281.Google Scholar

69 Annual Report of the Nyasaland Police for 1945, 7 and 15.

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72 Ibid.

73 Morton, , Just the Job, 242.Google Scholar

74 Note of meeting between the Governor and Mr Kaye Nicol, General Manager of the British Central Africa Company, 15 May 1948, MNA 2/8/9F 1476.

75 Annual Reports of the Nyasaland Police Department, 1947–52; Blantyre Monthly Police Reports, June 1948, MNA POL 5/2/2; Morton, , 236–242, 257–258 and 284–288.Google Scholar

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89 Unattributable source.

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100 Jhala, Violet, ‘The Yao in the Shire Highlands, 1861–1915: the establishment of their authority and adjustment to changing socio-economic conditions’, B.A. Honours research paper, University of Malawi, 1980Google Scholar; Vaughan, , ‘Social and economic change’.Google Scholar

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102 Memo on ‘Nyasaland Police. Organisation, conditions of service, pay, etc.’, 1926. MNA S1/645/26.

103 Ibid.; Annual Report of the Nyasaland Police, 1930.Google Scholar

104 Percentages calculated from Annual Reports of the Nyasaland Police. Clearly there are dangers involved in attempting to define individuals in ethnic terms in an area like colonial Malawi where tribal identity was very fluid. The ‘Lomwe’ for example, as at present defined, are essentially a creation of the 1940s. However, it is important to note (a) that the recruitment policies of the colonialists were considerably influenced by these tribal categories and (b) that many soldiers and policemen accepted and utilized them for their own purposes.

105 Annual Report of the Nyasaland Police, 1939. As early as 1928 it was noted in the annual report: ‘It is very doubtful whether the ordinary African ex-soldier makes a good policeman; his military training and surroundings are inclined to make him domineering and aggressive towards other Africans and a man of these traits is useless as a policeman': MNA POL 5/1/2.

106 loe Memo by W. B. Bithrey, 16 May 1939. MNA POL 2/17/3.

107 See particularly Nyasaland Times, 7 Sept. 1953.

108 Annual Report of the Nyasaland Police, 1970, 7.Google Scholar

109 Sir D. Mackenzie-Kennedy to Secretary of State for Colonies, 12 May 1941, PRO CO 525/188/44006/4 1941–3.

110 Onselen, Van, ‘Collaborators on the Rhodesian mining industry’, 408–412.Google Scholar

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112 Blantyre Monthly Police Report, Feb. 1938, MNA POL 5/2/1.

113 See ‘Grievances of educated natives of Blantyre to the Magistrate Blantyre’, 1923, MNA NC 1/3/2.

114 Morton, , Just the Job, 258.Google Scholar

115 Interview with Mr Brian Burgess, 22 Jan. 1983.

116 Annual Report of the Nyasaland Police, 1959.Google Scholar

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118 Annual Report for Chiradzulu District, 1939, MNA NSD 2/1/4. Career details of policemen serving under district officers are contained in the Nyasaland district books.

119 Lilongwe District Books, 1918–23 and 1923–38.

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122 Quoted in Vail, Leroy, ‘Ethnicity, languages and national unity: the case of Malawi’, in Bonner, P. (ed.), Working Papers in Southern African Studies, II (Johannesburg, 1981), 127–128.Google Scholar

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126 ‘Grievances of educated natives of Blantyre’, 1923, MNA 1/3/2.

127 Geo. S. Mwase for Central Province Universal Native Association, 19 Nov. 1927, MNANC 1/3/2.