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 When Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia were separated, the mixed forces were withdrawn.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1 F. Mufuzi, ‘A history of Indians in Livingstone, 1890–1964’, unpublished MA thesis, (University of Zambia, 2001). 2 Mike Hagemann, ‘Northern Rhodesia Police’, http://www.mazoe.com/nrp.html 3 J. Haig, ‘Crossing colonial boundaries: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 immi- gration to Northern Rhodesia’, C. Baker and Z. Norridge (eds.), Crossing places: New research in African studies (Newcastle, 2007), 5.
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.