Northern Rhodesia Institute for Colonial Research

Welensky's "New Federation" Plan of 1962.

This map, currently being circulated in the media by unscrupulous and ill-informed individuals bent on misleading masses in a transparent bid for relevance, depicts Sir Roy Welensky’s 1962 proposal for a new federation. It is crucial to understand that this was never a formal, published plan, but rather a desperate, last-ditch political gambit. Welensky's primary objective was to salvage a rump federation from the collapse of the larger one, specifically to protect the economic interests of Southern Rhodesia and its white settlers by securing the massive revenues from the Copperbelt—a region that geographically lay within Northern Rhodesia.

In 1962-63, as the Central African Federation collapsed, its Prime Minister, Sir Roy Welensky, proposed a desperate new federation to preserve a white-dominated bloc. His plan sought to combine: Southern Rhodesia, the Copperbelt, Katanga, and North Western . Using the traditional authority of Barotseland as a key pawn in a high-stakes game, Welensky even offered to arrange a meeting between the Litunga and Katanga's leader, Moïse Tshombe, but Mwanawina rejected the plan to avoid alienating his allies in Lusaka and London.

Undeterred, Welensky presented the same proposal to Colonial Secretary Duncan Sandys in February 1963. He offered to let Nyasaland and North-Eastern Rhodesia secede in exchange for a new federation where Southern Rhodesia would provide governance, the Copperbelt the wealth, and Barotseland cheap labour and a “cooperative African leader and Katanga to add to the resources”. Sandys apparently adopted this "manifestly absurd" scheme, flying to Barotseland and securing a signed document from the Litunga requesting secession from Northern Rhodesia but to remain "within the new Federation."

UNIP condemned these negotiations as a manoeuvre to turn the Lozi rulers against nationalists. Sandys soon reneged, stating separation was not in the Barotse people's interest. Despite this, the Lealui , urged on by Godwin Mbikustta, continued to demand secession.

Subsequently, Welensky and Mbikustta travelled to London for talks with R.A. Butler the new Colonial Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations. They were informed that while Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland could leave the Federation, Barotseland could not secede from Northern Rhodesia. Mbikustta protested that this broke Britain's treaties with the Lozi, and Welensky declared that "the Barotse have been sold down the river."

Why the Plan Failed

The scheme was "manifestly absurd" for several reasons:

• British Opposition:- The British government, under Macmillan and then Home, had accepted the "winds of change" and would not agree to a plan that deliberately fragmented a Northern Rhodesia destined for majority rule, especially one that so blatantly used Barotseland as a Bantustan.

• UNIP's Strength:- Kenneth Kaunda and UNIP were too powerful and would never have accepted the amputation of the Copperbelt, the country's economic heartland.

• International Pressure:- The international community, and the UN, would have condemned a plan that reinforced white minority rule and balkanized an emerging African nation.

• Litunga's Caution:- Litunga Mwanawina was wary. While he wanted to secede from Northern Rhodesia, he was ultimately more trusting of the British Crown than of Welensky's settler government, fearing that this alliance would alienate his ultimate protectors in London.