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Welfare Associations and other Instruments of Accommodation in the Rhodesias between the World Wars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

James R. Hooker
James R. Hooker
Affiliation:
Michigan State University, East Lansing
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Extract

During the 1930's, especially in the early depression years, welfare associations of African intellectuals, for the most part Government clerks or mission employees, were formed in Northern Rhodesia. Originally conceived as guilds of conscious elites, what many Europeans of the period distastefully referred to as ”detribalized natives“, these associations quickly became, or were considered to have become, organs of wider significance. Many persons who later rose to prominence in politics and the trade union movement acquired their first organizational experience in these short-lived, rather underestimated protest bodies. As the name suggests, there were many resemblances to nineteenth-century British workmens' associations; certainly in the line of rail towns stretching from the Falls to Ndola, the Duke of Wellington's convictions were resurrected by Government a century later in another land. When Government directed its basilisk gaze at these associations in 1933, they quickly succumbed. Still, one is justified in studying them, if only because they serve to increase the number of Africans in African history.

Type
Social Movements
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , October 1966 , pp. 51 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1966

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References

1 Nat/M/13. Chief Sec‘y’s circular minute of 4 Sept. ’33; the associations were formed ”to look after the non-political interests of detribalized natives resident in the various townships.“ For the fuller context, see the work which resulted from Dr. Rotberg, Robert's parallel investigations in the same archives at the same time: The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa (Harvard, 1965), especially pp. 124–34Google Scholar.

2 Sec/Nat/322. NWA, Ndola SNA to CS, 6 Oct. ‘30.

3 ZA 1/9 45/1 (122). Livingstone NWA Note of 18/2/31.

4 ZA 1/9/62. Racial Discord, 1932–3 (20 June 1932).

5 For Sir Leopold see Davidson, J. W.Northern Rhodesia Legislative Council (London, 1948), pp. 67–68Google Scholar and Gann, L. H., Birth of a Plural Society (Manchester, 1958), pp. 164–166, 168Google Scholar.

6 Sec/Nat/322. Ndola NWA 30 Apr. ‘33. Sec/Nat/332, 10 May '33. For proceedings see Sec/Nat/311.

7 Sec/Nat/332. Lusaka NWA. SNA to CS, 25 Aug. ‘33 … 19 Jun. ‘33.

8 Nat/M/13. ZA 1/9 45/1 (1…2). Sec/Nat/334, Mazabuka NWA. The Livingstone Association also had its funds stolen and was blamed for failing to prevent a serious inter-tribal clash between aWemba and Balovale people in Maramba compound on Christmas Day, when according to rumor, Government allowed the revival of old animosities. This belief was prevalent in Southern Rhodesia too.

9 Sec/Nat/86, vol. I. Sec/Nat/311, minutes of PC's conference, Lusaka, 25 June 1936.

10 Minutes of PC's conference, Lusaka (8–10 March 1939), pp. 10–12.

11 Sec/Nat/348. NRAC File.

12 Sec/Lab/41 … Report of June 1945. Tysde's memo of talks with Beasley of NAD, Bulawayo, … with Barotse National Improvement Society in the Native Welfare Hall of No. 2 compound of Rhodesia Railways, Bulawayo, 26 April 1941.

13 N3/5/8.

14 N3/21/4, 16 Aug. ‘22.

15 N3/21/4, 1 Sept. ‘22.

16 N3/21/4. RBVA File.

17 S84/A/300. Coghlan to Taylor, 4 Febr. ‘25. For Ngano see S84/A/90, 7 Dec. ‘27 (pension), 5 March ‘28 (thanks for receipt of same) and S84/A/183 (ref. to her letter to Governor's wife), 8 June ‘29.

18 S84/A/300, October ‘29.

19 S84/A/86. Native Repatriation, 1925–6.

20 S84/A/85. Copy dated 9 Sept. ‘24 of speech given on 6 Sept. at Salisbury.

21 S84/A/86. See 5 … 11 March ‘25 and 28 Oct. ‘27.

22 S84/A/88, 11 … 17 Aug. ‘27.

23 S84/A/301, Salisbury, 9 June ‘30.

24 S84/A/94, 8 June ‘29.

25 S84/A/88, 24 Mar. ‘27; S84/A/92, 17 May ‘28.

26 S84/A/85. CNC to Premier's Secy. (20 Jan. ‘25), also S84/A/86, 5, 12, 22, … 28 Dec. ‘24, 12 Jan., 18 … 26 Feb., 25 Mar., 24 Aug. ‘25; S84/A/89, 27 Apr. … 2 May ‘27. The South African assessment of the ANC was altogether more realistic than the view held in Salisbury. SAG judged Congress as a ”frankly political“ body containing moderates, extremists and self-seekers. Though not ”an official organization of native opinion“ it was an index to ”a certain section of the population.“ (SNA, Pretoria to CNC, Salisbury, 18 Feb. ‘25.)

27 S84/A/262, see letters of 2 … 30 Oct. ‘29 … 23 March ‘31. For an opposing view of Matabele royalty, see T. O. Ranger's unpublished paper ”Traditional Authorities and the Rise of Modern Politics in Southern Rhodesia: 1898–1930“ delivered at the History of Central African Peoples Conference, held in Lusaka in May 1963 under the auspices of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute.

28 S84/A/295, the others were the Matabele Home Society, SR Native Welfare Association, Bantu Voters’ Association, Bantu Benefit Association (probably the Railway Bantu Benefit Transport Society), the ICU and the Bantu Women's league.

29 Sec/Lab/41. Reports for Feb. ‘47 … Oct. ‘48.

30 Sec/Nat/447, 5 Jan. … 11 May ‘45, clippings from African Weekly for 18 July, 14 … 21 Aug. ‘46.