AN OLD NATIONALIST IN NEW NATIONALIST TIMES - SIWALE,DONALD AND THE STATE IN ZAMBIA - 1948-1963

Donald Siwale took the positive view that governance in colonial North ern Rhodesia could be beneficial to the people. He was a pace-setter a mongst the early educated elite and sewed in numerous capacities as a mediator. He was also a moralist and social critic. This article exami nes his thought and career in the late colonial period, when he stradd led between prominence in the African National Congress and positions within the hierarchy built upon Native Authorities. He participated vi gorously in the African Representative Council throughout its existenc e, 1946-1958. As an improver, he could not forego the opportunity to p rod the administration, for example, by joining the Provincial Develop ment Team. Opposing Northern Rhodesia's incorporation into the Central African Federation, he expounded on the nature of chiefs as repositor ies of legitimacy. Nationalism, however, drew on increasingly populist sources, isolating the educated elite as a differentiated class. The discussion examines his background and relationship with the Chieftain esses Waitwika of the Namwanga, Siwale's own group, and his ineffectiv eness in the face of the 'Nsokolo crisis' of 1952-1953 when the neighb ouring Mambwe peope and their chief inaugurated anti-colonial defiance .