Chipata) Indians on the Development of Chipata District, 1899–1973

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE FORT JAMESON (CHIPATA) INDIANS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHIPATA DISTRICT, 1899–1973 Bizeck J. Phiri Introduction and Historical Background In 1891 the British South Africa Company’s (BSAC) Charter was extended to the territories north of the Zambezi. Friday Mufuzi has suggested that the expedition included an Indian.1 Furthermore, according to Mike Hagemann, ‘in the same year, an Indian police force was raised from Sepoys Sikhs and Mohammedan cavalrymen’.2 Later, in 1893, this force was replaced by new drafts of Sikhs, Zanzibaris, Mozambique and Nyasaland Africans. When Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia were separated, the mixed forces were withdrawn. Clearly, therefore, Indians were introduced in Zambia at the dawn of colonisation. Between 1890 and 1911 Northern Rhodesia was administered by the BSAC as two separate entities, North-Western and North-Eastern Rhodesia. North-Western Rhodesia was administered from Livingstone, while North- Eastern Rhodesia was administered from Fort Jameson (present day Chipata). Although both administrations were financed by the BSAC, they developed separate immigration policies, which later affected the nature and character of Indian immigration to Northern Rhodesia. North-Eastern Rhodesia’s immigration policy was to resemble that of Nyasaland (Malawi), because in the 1890s Cecil Rhodes had signed an agreement with Harry Johnston to oversee both Nyasaland and North-Eastern Rhodesia on behalf or the BSAC.3 The Indian immigration policy in North-Eastern Rhodesia reflected Johnston’s colonial ideal in which he placed a high premium on the role of Indians. For Johnston, the territory was to be ‘ruled 1 F. Mufuzi, ‘A history of Indians in Livingstone, 1890–1964’, unpublished MA thesis, (University of Zambia, 2001). 2 Mike Hagemann, ‘Northern Rhodesia Police’, http://www.mazoe.com/nrp.html 3 J. Haig, ‘Crossing colonial boundaries: The “Indian question” and early Indian immigration to Northern Rhodesia’, C. Baker and Z. Norridge (eds.), Crossing places: New research in African studies (Newcastle, 2007), 5. <UN> 216 bizeck j. phiri by Whites, developed by the Indians, and worked by the Blacks.’4 The two men worked closely in trying to create a role for Indians as middlemen in the fledgling economy of North-Eastern Rhodesia.’5 The region, which is today called the Eastern Province of Zambia, was initially part of what was known as North-Eastern Rhodesia. Prior to that, the area was called East Luangwa District and included parts of what is currently the Northern Province of Zambia. The region as a colonial administrative and economic enterprise traces its origins to the visit by a German trader named Carl Wiese to Paramount Chief Mpezeni of the Ngoni people between 1889 and 1891. The Company was already present in North-Western Rhodesia. The NCEC was formed in England with a nominal capital of £1,000,000 and Wiese became an employee of the NCEC in the late 1890s.6 Although Colonel Warton was sent out as a Company representative, the NCEC did not have formal control of the territory, and was not in a position to administer the territory, nor conduct any business without Mpezeni’s consent. Nonetheless, the NCEC established an administrative station at Chinunda (Old Fort Jameson) and Mr. Morringham was appointed by the Company to be in charge of the post. Because the administrative post was outside Ngoni territory, his administration was ineffective. Later, with the permission of Mpezeni, the administrative post was moved to Fort Young. This development notwithstanding, the NCEC still felt insecure. Believing that the Ngoni would attack the station, resi- dents of Fort Young applied for an armed force from the Nyasaland Protectorate.7 The Protectorate administration at Zomba dispatched troops to Fort Young. Macmillan and Shapiro suggest that Wiese in fact precipitated the attack by the British troops from Nyasaland on Mpezeni’s Ngoni in 1898. Worse still, the arrival of troops at Fort Young created further tension between the two communities, especially because the troops were consid- ered a threat to peace and security of the African people. The war effec- tively suppressed the Ngoni and paved the way for the actual occupation of the territory by the NCEC administration. The new station was placed under a Collector of Taxes. He was charged with the responsibility of enforcing NCEC control of the region. In August 1898 Robert Codrington 4 Cited in R. Rotberg, The rise of nationalism in Central Africa: The making of Malawi and Zambia 1873–1964, (Harvard MA, 1965), 13. 5 Haig, ‘Crossing colonial boundaries’, 5. 6 H. Macmillan and F. Shapiro, Zion in Africa: The Jews of Zambia (London and New York, 1999), 5. 7 Macmillan and Shapiro, Zion in Africa, 5. <UN> <UN>.

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