Archival Significance
Written by Sir Roy Welensky, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland’s second and last Prime Minister, this memoir is a first-hand political account of the Federation’s founding, operation, and eventual dissolution in 1963, from the perspective of the man most responsible for holding it together.
Institutional Context
Published by Collins, London, the year after the Federation’s dissolution, giving Welensky’s account the immediacy of someone writing about events he had personally lived through only months before.
Content Summary
Recounts Welensky’s political career and the roughly 4,000 days, over ten years, of the Federation’s existence, from his own perspective as its dominant political figure.
Research Utility
A primary source of central importance for researchers of the Central African Federation’s political history, valuable for its insider perspective, though best read alongside independent and critical accounts given Welensky’s direct personal stake in defending the Federation’s record.
Abantu Archives Note
Held in-house.