Since 1933, various traditional chiefs in Nyasaland have been designated as Native Authorities, initially by the colonial administration, and they numbered 105 in 1949. . They represented a form of the Indirect rule which had become popular in British African dependencies in the second quarter of the 20th century, although Nyasaland's Native Authorities had fewer powers and smaller incomes than similar institutions in other African colonies. The Native Authority system worked reasonably effectively until after the Second World War, when they were obliged to enforce unpopular government agricultural policies and, in some cases, their support for the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland made Native Authorities unpopular with many of their people. After 1953, many of the powers of individual chiefs were transferred to councils which became the Native Authorities, although the chiefs sat on these councils. After independence, the authorities were renamed Traditional Authorities and continued to operate, and the status and influence of many of the chiefs revived through their cooperation with the Malawi government of Hastings Banda.
There is an ongoing debate as to whether the Native Authorities' link with the colonial governments in the British African dependencies caused their authority to become weakened and for educated “new men” to emerge as community leaders, or whether the new status and administrative and judicial powers given to them by those administrations allowed chiefs to shake-off the pre-colonial restrictions on their powers and become more authoritarian and even despotic. Setting up a hierarchy of tribal paramount chiefs, subordinate chiefs and village headmen may also have served to fix previously less rigid “tribal” identities..
Indirect rule before 1933
The first two colonial Commissioners to the British Central Africa Protectorate, Harry Johnstone and Alfred Sharpe, were unwilling to involve African chiefs in the governance of the protectorate or to accept their authority. However, the poverty of the administration and the eagerness of many chiefs to secure official recognition led to the District Administration (Native) Ordinance, 1912, which allowed the governor to appoint Principal Headmen, who had only such authority and stipends as the residents (later district commissioners) for their district allowed them. Most Principal Headmen were prominent local chiefs, although in some cases preference was given to mission-educated candidates rather than those with a greater hereditary claim to chiefly status. Each Principal Headman was made responsible for a number of Village Headmen, although it was made clear that the arrangement was not intended to foster or perpetuate rule by chiefs. Amendments to the 1912 Ordinance in 1924 and 1929 extended the powers of the Principal Headmen to hear civil cases under customary law, collect hut taxes and issue certain licences.
The governor of Nyasaland between 1924 and 1929 Sir Charles Bowring was an enthusiastic advocate of conscripting forced labour to work on European tobacco farms or on public works for minimal wages. He sought Colonial Office approval to extend its use to unpaid work on road building projects, which would involve taking workers far from their homes. This was similar to the proposed use of forced labour in Kenya where the governor Sir Edward Northey had in 1919 instructed government officials to coerce African labour to work on European-owned farms and estates, despite earlier Colonial Office objections. After the scandal of Northey' proposal, the Colonial Office made clear it that any compulsory labour by local Africans must be paid; it could only be used on government projects if absolutely necessary and then only with Colonial Office approval.
Bowring had held senior positions in Kenya between 1901 and 1924, and the Colonial Secretary, Leo Amery, who wanted to avoid a repeat of the Northey scandal, vetoed his proposal and, in 1928, instructed Bowring to consider the introduction of a form of Indirect rule in Nyasaland, appointing chiefs as Native Authorities. Bowring resisted on the basis that he thought Nyasaland’s tribal organisation was disintegrating, and his tour of duty was cut short in May 1929 as a result of his opposition. His successor, Shenton Thomas, who was governor from 1929 to 1932, enthusiastically promoted Indirect rule, instructing administrative officers that chiefly authority must be strengthened where it existed and restored where it no longer existed.