Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Place Names of Zimbabwe
- Introduction
- 1 Recruiting and Motivations for Enlistment
- 2 Perceptions of African Security Force Members
- 3 Education and Upward Mobility
- 4 Camp Life
- 5 African Women and the Security Forces
- 6 Objections and Reforms
- 7 Travel and Danger
- 8 Demobilization and Veterans
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora
6 - Objections and Reforms
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Place Names of Zimbabwe
- Introduction
- 1 Recruiting and Motivations for Enlistment
- 2 Perceptions of African Security Force Members
- 3 Education and Upward Mobility
- 4 Camp Life
- 5 African Women and the Security Forces
- 6 Objections and Reforms
- 7 Travel and Danger
- 8 Demobilization and Veterans
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora
Summary
African police and soldiers upheld colonialism, yet they also experienced the racial discrimination characteristic of that system, both inside and outside the security forces. The colonial police and army were racially hierarchical and segregated organizations, with Europeans at the top and Africans at the bottom. Africans had limitations on advancement, special rules that applied only to them, and inferior conditions of service, such as unequal pay and accommodations. Since African police and soldiers were obviously invested in the colonial state and governed by strict codes of conduct, it is hard to imagine that they protested grievances and demanded reforms. Colonial authorities in Southern Rhodesia, however, coming from a small and vulnerable settler minority, were dependent upon African police and soldiers who could use this situation to advance their cause. Since there was certainly a link between increasing educational level and propensity to object to discriminatory treatment, upwardly mobile African police appeared to take the lead in challenging the status quo, though not exclusively. In the 1970s BSAP member Peter Godwin observed that the relatively less-educated African soldiers were more patient, fastidious, and disciplined than the better-educated African police. While working with the RAR, he “never heard a man question an order once. By contrast, the constables were constantly quibbling with their sergeants, and even backchatted me occasionally.”
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- African Police and Soldiers in Colonial Zimbabwe, 1923–80 , pp. 150 - 183Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011