The History of Race Relations in Rhodesia

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Scroll down to read the article. The History of Race Relations in Rhodesia

P. R. Warhurst

The modern history of Rhodesia dates from segregationalist government took over in 1962, 1890, with the Occupation of Mashonaland, or the realities of the situation permitted the en- 1887, when the train of events leading to the trenchment of a significant degree of integra- Occupation was set in motion. Contact between tion. White and Black was already well established Chartered rule, during which many basic in the political, economic and social spheres, patterns were to form, began under the aus- and attitudes formulated in the precolonial pices of a concession to Rhodes from Loben- period were to have a strong influence on later gula, King of the Ndebele, who laid claim to developments. But important as the earlier almost the whole of modern Rhodesia. The period undoubtedly was, it lies outside the interaction of the white imperialist and the scope of this paper which is concerned with black traditional ruler was to have an im- modern race relations in the post-1887 era. portant bearing on the subsequent course of Like ancient Gaul, the history of modern events. Lobengula had continued the policy Rhodesia can be divided into three parts; of his father, Mzilikazi, in maintaining the in- Chartered Company rule, which was suc- dependence of his people. The missionary, J. S. ceeded in 1923 by Responsible Government Moffat, once referred to this policy as 'Chinese and the period after 1953 when Southern isolat'on' but Whites were permitted in the Rhodesia was absorbed into the Federation of Kingdom, if only as a means of reducing Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Although conti- possible pressures that would follow total ex- nuity throughout these successive periods is at clusion. Lobengula was well disposed to white least as important as change, they do corres- people provided always that they remained pond to different phases of governmental policy subject to his authority. They enjoyed a privi- towards the Africans. The Chartered era was leged position and in some cases Whites a curious amalgam of integration and segre- became personal friends of the King, but gation, of control and laissez-faire. The fol- woe betide any who flouted his sovereignty, lowing period, under responsible government, as the arrogant negrophobe Frank Johnson dis- saw the introduction of a more rigid policy covered to his cost. Lobengula was still of segregation yet this was also a time of supreme in his own country. African development, especially in the fields In 1887 Lobengula made a treaty with the of health and education. After 1953 integration South African Republic, represented by the became the watchword, and even though a well-known Boer trader, Piet Grobler. The

15 King was strengthening his independence by Ndebele aggression had been improved through securing an alliance with the neighbouring contact with the Portuguese. Having once been Transvaal but Rhodes, who had coveted Mata- dominant in Shona country, the Portuguese beleland for some years, persuaded the High were now returning in some force to substan- Commissioner to take immediate counter- tiate their claims to Mashonaland. In exchange measures to safeguard British interests. The for treaties the Shona eagerly took guns for result was the Moffat Treaty, a treaty of friend- use against the Ndebele imperialists. When the ship between the Ndebele and Britain under British Pioneers arrived, the Shona imagined the terms of which the latter was able to keep that like the Portuguese and traders and hun- out foreign powers. Lobengula was still pla- ters like Selous, they would in due course go gued by a variety of concession-seekers amongst away again. But this time the Whites had come whom Rhodes' group represented the greatest to stay. threat to Ndebele independence. For Rhodes The Pioneers were a very mixed body of wanted more than mineral rights; he intended men. Victor Morier, a corporal in the Police to create a British settlement in the area be- and son of a famous British diplomat, recorded tween the Limpopo and the Zambezi and to cut the range: from an unusually high proportion off the Boers from expansion northwards. To of public school and university men to unem- have disclosed his intentions to Lobengula ployed riff-raff from Johannesburg. Pioneer would have been fatal and they were carefully types are not the sort of people to be gentle disguised in the negotiations for a concession. in their dealings with 'niggers' as Morier re- Rhodes' chief emissary, Rudd, promised that ferred to the Africans. Whether of British or only ten white men would be sent to organize South African birth they looked down on the mining and that they would be subject to the Shona as cowardly, dirty untermenschen. In sovereignty of the Ndebele King. Such 'verbal spite of these harsh attitudes and rough behavi- clauses', however, were not included in the our race relations did not strike the depths written text of the Rudd Concession (1888). usual in frontier situations. With the Pioneers Lobengula had chosen to accept Rhodes' group came a degree of law and order enforced by (which was aided and abetted by imperial offi- the Administration and the British .South Afri- cers) without being aware that he was being ca Company Police. deceived. When he learned that he had been Law and order were applied with a severity tricked, he cancelled the concession. Race rela- that was to become traditional in Rhodesia and tions in modern Rhodesia had opened on a sour in a number of incidents recalcitrant Shona note. were dealt with with undue harshness. Loben- gula protested, not against the harshness, but CHARTERED COMPANY PERIOD against Company interference with his 'dogs'. Rhodes secured a royal charter for his Bri- When Lobengula himself took action against tish South Africa Company which in August- rebellious Shona subjects around Victoria, the September 1890 occupied Mashonaland. If the tiny white community reacted hysterically and Ndebele state was by far the most powerful demanded war. The Company, which had no polity in southern Zambezia, the congeries of more been planning war than had Lobengula, Shona-speaking polities embraced the great changed its policy and drove out the hapless majority of people in the area. The Pioneers King from Bulawayo (1893). occupying Mashonaland saw many villages The Ndebele had lost their prized indepen- perched high on kopjes as a defensive measure dence; the conquerors had become the con- against Ndebele raids and they drew the conquered. The Whites took over the Ndebele clusion that all the Shona were victims of the heartland, confiscated much cattle and treated Ndebele. While some Shona polities did indeed even the zansi aristocrats with contempt. The suffer the scourge of Ndebele raids, others Shona suffered less but felt particularly aggrie- remained in harmonious relations with their ved since they had never been conquered. warlike neighbours, though usually at a subor- Forced labour was exacted from both Shona dinate level. More distant Shona states had no and Ndebele and the bad race relations that contact with the Ndebele. (East of the Mtilikwe resulted from accumulated grievances led to River the Gaza played a comparable role to the Risings of 1896-7. Although there was a their Ndebele cousins.) Shona defences against limited degree of co-ordination, it seems likely

16 that the Ndebele Rebellion and the Shona farmer. Rising were distinct movements both aimed Politically and socially the Whites entrenched at the restoration of the 'good old days'. In- their power, restrained only by imperial lead- deed a number of Shona polities aligned them- ing strings which were not always held taut. selves according to traditional inter-tribal rival- The constitution was colour-blind (from 1898 ries. While some rose, others co-operated with to 1969) in accordance with imperial practice the Whites and a third group remained neutral. and Rhodes' dictum of 'equal rights for all civi- Tf the Whites had caused the Risings, the lized men'. When asked to define a civilized African dissidents hit back savagely, murder- man Rhodes had given a very wide definition: ing women and children. This in turn provoked 'A man, whether white or black, who had suf- a savage reaction on the part of the Whites, ficient education to write his name, has some who dynamited whole communities out of their property or works. In fact is not a loafer.' But places of refuge. The effect of the Risings was since there were few Blacks with any education traumatic. For the Whites, who had lost no less in Rhodesia at this stage, effective political than ten per cent of their number, a new era power was shared by the Company and the of fear had opened, while fear of the Whites Whites, especially the farming interest. Apart forced the Africans to eschew violence for two from the vote, educated Africans were treated generations. little differently from other Africans. The The sfurtn und drang of the Occupation small group of Mfengu, educated Africans from years was followed by a quarter century of the Cape, were the chief sufferers, and they peaceful Company rule. Sir Robert Tredgold objected to practices like having to raise their has claimed that the reformed system (1898- hats to all Whites and not being allowed to 1923) was the best form of government the walk on the pavements. The Mfengu were Africans have never known in Rhodesia. In prime movers in African political groups such 1898 Rhodesia's first constitution allowed for a as the South African Natives Association. This strong measure of imperial control as neither was an elitist organization which requested that the Company nor the colonists could be trusted 'there should be differentiation between us and with unfettered authority over the Africans. the raw native'. Another party desirous of par- Legislation was subject to veto and a Resident ticipation in the political system was the emi- Commissioner was the 'imperial watchdog' in nently respectable Rhodesia Bantu Voters Salisbury. In theory the system was non-racial Association formed in 1923, with two members but in practice a degree of discrimination per- of the Legislative Council in attendance. sisted. Tnere was, however, no overall policy In everyday life white brutality continued, of segregation and Wilson Fox, the General especially on farms and mines. The novelist Manager of the Chartered Company, explicitly Gertrude Page related in Jill's Rhodesian Phi- propounded an integrated approach to the eco- losophy (1910) her horror when the cook on nomy as a whole. Separate development was the farm handled some cooked potatoes: T shunned but job reservation, land segregation would have hit him over the head with a sauce- and discrimination in everyday life were wide- pan as I believe is quite the correct mode of spread. procedure out here.' On the mines conditions Land, that vital element in tribal society, had were grim. Native Commissioner Archie Camp- been recklessly alienated. The Ndebele were bell in 1900 reported a particularly bad mine gradually driven off their homelands and much at which an African had been left to die in the Shona land was occupied by the Whites. The veld after an accident; another had to crawl few African reserves were treated as a tempo- home with a serious wound, only to be accused rary cushion against the impact of westerniza- of desertion; two others received three days' tion. Initially Africans derived considerable pay and £2 respectively as compensation for benefit from catering for the food requirements losing a leg. The Chief Native Commissioner of the country while the Whites concentrated on supported Campbell's objections but it was mining. When it became clear, however, that several years before a system of compensation the gold deposits were limited, the Company was established. The death rate, chiefly from began to foster white agriculture. The African pneumonia, reached appalling figures and peasantry was deprived of many of its new- strong action by the Colonial Office and Sir found sources of income in favour of the white Drummond Chaplin, the Administrator, was

17 needed before improvements were implemen- tely to plans for rigid segregation. The informal ted. segregation of the early years had to a large The Whites were motivated principally by extent been a natural development but segrega- fear. They formed a small community scattered tion became a vicious circle. The lack of con- amongst the black majority and in addition to tact between White and Black gave rise to a physical fear of the Africans, they wished to host of myths and legends which were in turn preserve their separate and superior position. used as the rationale for the maintenance of se- It is not difficult to appreciate the immense gregation. It was a self-perpetuating system. cultural disparity at that time but this was per- The cornerstone of Rhodesian segregation was verted into a prejudice that the gap had to be the Land Apportionment Act of 1930. Land maintained. The Rhodesia Herald, for example, segregation was initiated to protect white inte- criticizing a mixed tea-party at the Methodist rests but it was supported in principle by the church in Gwelo early in the century stated: Africans and their champions, Fr Cripps and 'The kaffir is essentially inferior to the white Revd John White. White summed up the and will for all time remain so'. The Herald melancholy realities which had obliged him to was horrified in 1906 at the suggestion by Ran- deviate from his usual path of integration: dall-Madver, the archaeologist, that Zimba- 'The right of the native to purchase land any- bwe had probably been built by Africans. What where means that he can purchase land no- would happen to the tourist trade? And in where.' The Land Apportionment Act did what they hoped would be the last word on allow for areas where an African could pur- the Zimbabwe controversy added: 'For the chase his own plot but the general division of alkaline touch of the kaffir kills'. the land was grossly unfair. In 1934 the other The most sensitive area of race relations was 'twin pillar of segregation' was added in the sex. There was more than one attempted lynch- shape of the Industrial Conciliation Act which ing over 'black peril' issues but none succeeded instituted a formal colour bar against African thanks to the tradition of law and order esta- workers. The shutters were being put up to blished from the outset. The depth of feeling prevent African competition and further legis- over this subject is evidenced by a fine of £20 lation protected the privileged position of the imposed on an African found hiding under a white elite, like the Maize Control Acts. white woman's bed compared to a mere £5 fine At the helm during the peak period of segre- on a farmer who tied up an African and inflic- gation was Sir Godfrey Huggins who had en- ted twenty lashes. tered parliament an unrepentent racist. He saw The Chartered Company was biased in fav- the Whites as a permanent aristocracy: a care- our of the Whites on whom it was becoming in- fully selected body of British colonists who creasingly dependent. Nevertheless it retained a would rule over the 'lesser breeds without the certain flexibility in policy and could on occa- law'. Through his 'twin pyramid' approach sion serve as an arbiter between the races, as Whites and Blacks would develop in se- in the improvement of mining conditions. The parate spheres. One of Huggins's few redeem- Company's greatest achievement was the ing features at this stage of his career was his establishment of the pax britannica. Tribal concern for African health. A medical man warfare was outlawed and if the Africans had himself he helped to develop in Southern Rho- lost some of their initial economic gains, tradi- desia what became the finest health service in tional agriculture began to benefit from peace- Africa. His greatest achievement in this field ful conditions and the spread of such basic was to be the Harare and Mpilo hospitals of inventions as the plough. But the Company the early fifties. In education the way was less was a commercial concern and showed little clear, for competition with Whites was a con- initiative in such directions as education even stant fear. Huggins's Chief Native Commis- for the Whites and still less for the Africans, sioner, Colonel Carbutt, even suggested that all educated Africans should be sent north of the RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT Zambezi. Nevertheless more was achieved in In the Company period many basic patterns education than under Company rule. were established which have been modified or Huggins himself was beginning to evolve. A extended by subsequent developments. Respon- true conservative, he was suspicious of change sible Government, for example, led immedia- but willing to adapt to new circumstances in

18 order to preserve the essence of the old ways. Significantly the most important single factor In the forties he began to speak of giving the in their success was Whitehead's pledge to re- Africans 'a place in the sun'. For the first time peal the Land Apportionment Act. The Afri- Africans in the urban areas were coming to be cans refused to save Whitehead arguing that recognized as permanent town-dwellers and in an R.F. victory would precipitate a showdown 1945 Huggins negotiated an honourable set- in which Britain would hasten to their rescue. tlement of the African railway strike. After the Second World War African agriculture was AFTERMATH encouraged and modern methods implemented, Surprisingly much integration survived the as in the much-maligned Land Husbandry Act onslaught of the R.F. Winston Field allowed of 1951. The War had swept Rhodesia into the the private schools to integrate in 1963, and industrial age. Immigrants poured in to serve the ratio of Whites to Blacks in employment has the expanding economy and Whites and Blacks steadily declined due to the failure of R.F. were thrown together in the radically different immigration policies. But in 1965 Ian Smith circumstances of urban life. seized independence, the logical conclusion of which was the racist 1969 Constitution which FEDERATION deprived Africans of any effective political In the Federal era great challenges emerged power. A parallel measure, the Land Tenure to the essentially rural outlook of Rhodesians. Act, awarded half the land to the white minor- Urbanization produced African nationalism ity (five per cent). Although African employ- as a response to continued discrimination. The ment remained higher than in Black Africa, Nationalists linked urban and rural grievances there was much unemployment and wages were to create mass protest movements which sought one tenth of white wages. Political repression power rather than participation. While the continued. new Prime Minister, Garfield Todd, was a tough administrator who more than once The paradox of modern Rhodesia is that threatened the Nationalists, he achieved a good while white attitudes towards Africans have deal for the Africans. Similarly his successor, improved markedly since 1890 and integration Edgar Whitehead, who introduced even harsher has come to be accepted in many spheres, repressive legislation, extended the improved race relations have reached their lowest ebb education system, one of the finest in Africa. since the Risings. The explanation lies in the African employment rose to record levels. In- rising tide of expectation on the part of an tegration was the order of the day and in the increasingly educated and westernized African political sphere the 1961 Constitution ensured population. The tragedy of modern Rhodesia is that Africans would enter parliament for the that the races are so concerned with promoting first time. In Salisbury and Bulawayo theatres, their own sectional interests that they ignore cinemas and hotels integrated, as did leading the hopes and fears of the other group. The I i national organizations. Whites, despite notable achievements, have The wave of integration affected the two created a society based on inequality and denial main racial groups differently. The Africans, of human rights. The Africans, despite wide- reacting after decades of discrimination, be- spread discrimination, have derived consider- came more strident in their demands. When able benefit from the presence of the Whites. these were met only in part, violence erupted. But neither side is prepared to face up to the A white blacklash, against integration and consequences of their interdependence. The against violence in both Rhodesia and the story of race relations in Rhodesia is what newly independent countries of Africa, swept Disraeli, in other circumstances, called a 'tale the Rhodesian Front Party into power in 1962. of two nations'.