ABSTRACT
The Federation was formed in 1953, bringing together the Protectorate of Nyasaland, the Colony and Protectorate of Northern Rhodesia and the self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia. These three territories lie within the tropics, and embrace the greater part of the drainage system of the Zambezi Basin, together with the headwaters of the River Congo and a portion of the north bank of the River Limpopo. This chapter presents the several censuses that have been conducted in the three territories, and then provides an analysis of their findings and of the differences and similarities revealed between the constituent parts of the Federation. In the Federal census of 1956 a group entitled “persons of mixed race” was distinguished, being defined similarly in all three territories as “persons whose parents are of different race and who live after the same style as a European”.
