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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The genesis of the Nyasaland Civil Service |
Author: | Baker, C. |
Year: | 1988 |
Periodical: | The Society of Malawi Journal |
Volume: | 41 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 30-44 |
Language: | English |
Notes: | biblio. refs. |
Geographic terms: | Malawi Central Africa |
Subjects: | colonial administration History, Archaeology Nyasaland public administration civil service |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/29778588 |
Abstract: | The Protectorate over the 'Makololo, Yao and Machinga Countries' declared by Great Britain on 21 September 1890 was enlarged on 14 May 1891 to cover the 'Nyasaland Districts', that is, virtually the territory of present-day Malawi. The enlarged Protectorate's administration was entrusted to Harry Johnston, Consul to Mozambique, who had been additionally appointed Commissioner and Consul-General of the 'territories under British influence to the north of the Zambezi' on 1 February 1891. The author examines the genesis of the civil service which Johnston created to administer the Protectorate, and the factors which influenced that creation. These included Lugard's anti slave trade proposals, Johnston's own ambitious proposals for administering an enlarged British South Africa (BSA) Company sphere of influence, and his more modest views on the staff needed to administer Nyasaland either as Consul to Mozambique or as Commissioner of the Protectorate, as well as the formal instructions Johnston received from the Foreign Office. These instructions committed Johnston to five basic government tasks: judicial, political, law and order, financial and clerical, and by early 1893, officers had been appointed to cover - albeit imperfectly - each one. Ref. |