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The History of Race Relations in Rhodesia

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The History of Race Relations in Rhodesia The African e-Journals Project has digitized full text of articles of eleven social science and humanities journals. This item is from the digital archive maintained by Michigan State University Library. Find more at: http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/africanjournals/ Available through a partnership with 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 con- quered. 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.
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