Marizane, Antonio Santos (2016) Religious change in the trans-frontier Nyungwe-speaking region of the middle Zambezi, c.1890-c.1970. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/23580 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this PhD Thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This PhD Thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this PhD Thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the PhD Thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full PhD Thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD PhD Thesis, pagination. RELIGIOUS CHANGE IN THE TRANS-FRONTIER NYUNGWE-SPEAKING REGION OF THE MIDDLE ZAMBEZI, c.1890-c.1970 By Antonio Santos MARIZANE Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London 29 May 2016 ABSTRACT With a few exceptions, earlier studies of religious change in Southern Africa have generally focused on Christianity in select areas, ethnic groups and polities within one state, confined by the colonial boundary. This approach made light of the existence of expansive African traditional religious networks across ethnicities and boundaries. Traditional religion was often relegated to the periphery, with predictions of its imminent demise under the impact of colonial rule, global forces and proselytising world religions. The constantly mutating perceptions of group belonging across established borders were often overlooked. By focusing on the trans-frontier Mid-Zambezi region from c.1890 to c.1970, and reviewing oral histories, documents, primary and secondary literature, as well as carrying out oral interviews, the present study uncovers the survival, continuity and disjuncture in traditional religion in a changing religious landscape across borders. The Mid- Zambezi region was populated by a mixture of Shona groups and pockets of a multi ethnic Nyungwe-speaking group. British and Portuguese imperialists divided the area into what became the colonies of Southern Rhodesia and Portuguese East Africa. Thus a region which was once the centre of the indigenous Mwene Mutapa State and a key site of earlier Portuguese mercantile and Catholic missionary activity was now rendered marginal by colonial boundary making. State and missionary penetration was slow, and the region became an important source of migrant labour for Southern Rhodesia. Yet this marginality was a key factor in explaining the continued dominance of the royal ancestral mphondolo or mhondoro traditional religious systems which began to co-exist with the growing but often instrumental adherence to the Christian churches. The change in the religious landscape consisted of adaptations to wider socio-economic changes generated by Christian missionary activities, formal education, wage migrant labour and monetisation. In this flux of socio-economic changes, the religious landscape of the Mid Zambezi was reconfigured. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract: . iii Table of Contents: . iv Dedication: . v Acknowledgements: . vi Abbreviations: . viii Maps: . x Introduction: Religious change in the trans-frontier middle Zambezi valley, c. 1890-c. 1970. 1 Chapter 1: The roots of nineteenth century mid Zambezi political and religious authority . 36 Chapter 2: Post conflict missions, education and socio-religious change in the mid Zambezi, 1898-1939. 86 Chapter 3: The consolidation of the border and the politics of identity in early twentieth century mid Zambezi . 139 Chapter 4: New missions, labour migration, money and identity 1945-1960s . 186 Chapter 5: Continuity and change: The persistence of mizimu, mhondoro and aspects of ancestral religion in the 1960s . 242 Conclusion: . 286 Sources and Bibliography: . 295 iv DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to My paternal and maternal Grandparents, and to my Parents v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Without the support of the following people, this thesis would not have seen the light of day. First on the list is John-Mark Considine who not only generously provided most of the financial support for this study, but went on to take a detour from his other commitments to join me in the fieldwork in Mozambique and to offer some useful insights into writing even though history is not his speciality. I also thank Elisabeth and Charles Bellord, Edmond Bellord, Lupana and Peter Hodgson, Anthony Salter, MJE Foster and John Wilkins - the former editor of the Tablet and his Trust, for covering part of the costs over the years. I thank Dr John Parker for the initial guidance and supervision through the first part of the project. My other tutors, Shabnum Tejani, Richard Reid and Wayne Dooling were always available whenever I sought their advice. My friends Dr Anselmo Samussone, Dr Stephen Itugbu, Zayra M. Badillo and Crescencia Masawe deserve special mention. They offered useful insights into research culture. My fellow research colleagues, Jared McDonald Ross, Mike Talbot, Fion so Wai Ling, Aparajita Mukhopay, Anushay Malik, Fabian Stremmell, Shazia Ahmed and Sotirious Dimitriades provided a social environment that eased the pressures and solitude of research and writing. Fr Anthony Bex, the archivist at the Jesuit Archives in Harare and the staff of the National Archives of Zimbabwe proved to be world class in their professionalism. Pedro Marizane Pota of the Universidade de Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo was exceptional in his efficiency and readiness to help. My interviewees, as listed in my bibliography, have made this work what it is. Finally I wish to acknowledge the support of my mother Paula da Gloria Portasio and family members who I cannot list here as that would require several pages more. But I will mention Margret, Santa, Tadziwa and Melesa who gave much needed support vi especially during my fieldwork in the Murewa district of Mashonaland East and in Mashonaland Central Provinces in Zimbabwe. My acknowledgements would be incomplete without the mention of my colleagues Canon Pat Browne who housed me in London, Canon Christopher Tuckwell and Fr Alexander Master who housed me in the final stages of my dissertation writing. vii ABBREVIATIONS AACJC African Apostolic Church of Johane Marange ACC African Chiremba Council AIC African Initiated Church ARPAC Arquívo do Património Cultural BMS Berlin Missionary Society BSAC British South Africa Company CACA Central African Chiremba Association CMS Church Missionary Society CNC Chief Native Commissioner DA District Administrator DC District Commissioner DRC Dutch Reformed Church GPA Global Political Agreement (power sharing between ZANU-PF and MDC) JAH Jesuit Archives Harare (Garnet House) LMS London Missionary Society MDC Movement for Democratic Change NADA Native Affairs Department Annual NAZ National Archives of Zimbabwe NC Native Commissioner NMMZ National Monuments and Museums of Zimbabwe OFM Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans) OP Order of Preachers (Dominicans) PF-ZAPU Patriotic Front-Zimbabwe African People’s Union viii PNC Provincial Native Commissioner SDA Seventh Day Adventist SJ Society of Jesus (Jesuits) TANHA True African N’angas Herbalists Association UEM Universidade de Eduardo Mondlane ZANU-PF Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front ZANLA Zimbabwe African National Liberation Front ZCBC Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference ix MAPS Figure 1: Map of the Mid Zambezi as defined in this study in relation to the region showing the key towns of Salisbury (now Harare) and Tete (also known as Nyungwe).1 1 Maps in Figures 1, 2 and 4 were created by the author based on outlines adopted from: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=outline+maps+of+africa+zimbabwe+- +mozambique&tbm=isch&imgil=8UztfaeZ2- x Figure 2: Map showing the places where the author carried out oral interviews in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Interviews were carried out in Bulawayo, Harare, Tete, Beira and Maputo and in the marked and enumerated localities. xi Figure 3: Map of the Old Mutapa state Showing the historic settlements, towns and feiras in relation to modern Cities. (Source: Mudenge S.I.G., A Political History of the Munhumutapa C. 1400-1902 (Harare, London, 1988), p. xxvii). xii Figure 4: Map showing the Colonial boundary separating British Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Nyasaland (Malawi) and Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique) and Catholic missions and their founding dates. (Sources: created from Google Maps; Dias, Dr Rui Dos Anjos, Anuário Católico de Moçambique, 1966 (2° Anno de Publicação) Ediçao e Propriedade da Conferéncia Episcopal de Mocambique; and the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishop’s Conference (ZCBC), Annual Directory (Harare, 2008). xiii Figure 5: Labour Routes into Southern Rhodesia. Source: The National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ) and Peter Scott, ‘Migrant Labour in Southern Rhodesia’, Geographical Review 44, No. 1 (1954), p. 35. xiv Introduction Religious Change and Identity in the Trans-Frontier Mid Zambezi 1 The conclusions by some scholars in the 1960s and 70s that the ‘confrontation’ between religious cults in eastern Central Africa on the one hand, and the ‘combined forces of world religions, modern technology, and the bureaucratic state’ on the other, was