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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2009
Despite its pivotal economic position in Central Africa, the history of Zimbabwe's Wankie Colliery has scarcely been explored. Although the historical pattern of capital accumulation and class struggle on the colliery has yet to be traced in any detail, this article suggests that a useful starting point is the protracted labour crisis which convulsed the colliery in 1918. Attempts to expand output through intensified pressure on a dwindling supply of black labour soon established a vicious circle in which workers' health deteriorated rapidly. Hundreds of black miners were incapacitated by ‘tropical ulcers’. An ensuing commission of enquiry exonerated the colliery's management of any blame, but it is nonetheless significant for the light it casts on the British South Africa Company Administration's narrow conception of its role after the Privy Council decision depriving it of ownership of ‘unalienated’ land in the Colony. The article's last section examines the conflict between the colliery's management and organized white workers in the context of the racial division of labour. In doing so, it emphasizes the structural vulnerability of white labour in the colonial era.
1 Bulawayo Chronicle, 8 Nov. 1902.
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7 Ibid. Medical Doctor to Secretary, Department of the Administrator, 10 Aug. 1918.
8 RC3/9/5/20, Enclosure no. 1031A/1918: Wankie Colliery, copy, Managing Director, R.N.L.B., to General Manager, Wankie Colliery, 27 Aug. 1918.
9 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 31 July 1918.
10 A3/18/30/20, A. R. Thomson, Wankie, to Administrator, Salisbury, 22 Apr. 1918. Ila workers did not, of course, come from Fort Jameson but from the Kafue River region hundreds of miles to the west and much nearer Wankie.
11 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 31 July 1918.
12 A3/17/12/1, General Secretary, Rhodesian Mine and General Workers' Association, to Manager, Wankie Colliery, 6 Nov. 1919.
13 Report of the Chief Native Commissioner for the year 1919, 2.
14 N3/33/2, Report and attached schedules, 22 Nov. 1920.
15 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 31 July 1918.
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19 Ibid.
20 H. Mss CH8/2/2/12, Chaplin to Michell, 29 July 1918.
21 A3/18/30/20, Secretary, Department of Administrator, to Managing Director, R.N.L.B., Salisbury, 30 Apr. 1918.
22 See van Onselen, ‘The 1912 Wankie Colliery strike’.
23 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Administrator, 16 July 1918; Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 20 Aug. 1918.
24 A3/18/30/45, Report of Committee appointed to investigate Labour and other Recent Troubles at the Wankie Colliery, 1918.
25 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Administrator, 16 July 1918.
26 Ibid. Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 31 July 1918.
27 A3/18/30/45, Report of Committee appointed to investigate… Wankie Colliery, 1918.
28 Ibid. Confidential, Memorandum to His Honour the Administrator on the Report of the Committee appointed to investigate Labour and other Recent Troubles at the Wankie Colliery, [from] A. M. Fleming, Medical Director, 2 Jan. 1919.
29 Ibid. Report of Committee appointed to investigate… Wankie Colliery, 1918.
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid.
32 Ibid.
33 Paragraph, including direct quotations, based on A3/18/30/45, Report of Committee appointed to investigate… Wankie Colliery, 1918; and A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 31 July 1918.
34 A3/18/30/20, Thomson to Administrator, 22 Apr. 1918.
35 Ibid.
36 Ibid.
37 Ibid. Secretary to Administrator, to Managing Director, R.N.L.B., Salisbury, 30 Apr. 1918; H. Mss CH8/2/2/12, Chaplin to Michell, 29 July 1918.
38 A3/18/30/38, Medical Director to Secretary to Administrator, 17 June 1918.
39 A3/17/12/3, Medical Director to Secretary to Administrator, 10 Aug. 1918.
40 A3/17/12/1, Notes on Wankie Colliery.
41 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Administrator, Umtali, 12 July 1918.
42 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Administrator, 12 July 1918.
43 Ibid. Thomson to Administrator, Umtali, 16 July 1918.
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid.
46 Ibid. Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, Salisbury, 14 Aug. 1918.
47 A3/18/30/45, Report of Committee appointed to investigate… Wankie Colliery, 1918.
48 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 14 Aug. 1918.
49 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 31 July 1918.
50 Ibid. Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 14 Aug. 1918.
51 A3/18/30/45, Report of Committee appointed to investigate … Wankie Colliery, 1918; A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 11 Sept. 1918.
52 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 14 Aug. 1918.
53 Ibid.
54 A3/18/30/45, Report of Committee appointed to investigate… Wankie Colliery, 1918.
55 RC3/9/5/20, Managing Director, R.N.L.B., to General Manager, Wankie Colliery, 27 Aug. 1918.
56 A3/18/30/45, Confidential, Secretary for Mines and Roads to Administrator, 9 Jan. 1919.
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59 A3/18/30/45, Report of Committee appointed to investigate …Wankie Colliery, 1918.
60 Ibid.
61 Ibid. Memorandum to His Honour the Administrator… [from] Fleming, Medical Director, 2 Jan. 1919.
62 Ibid.
63 Ibid. Report of Committee appointed to investigate… Wankie Colliery, 1918.
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66 Ibid.
67 Ibid. Memorandum to Administrator …from Fleming, Medical Director, 2 Jan. 1919.
68 Ibid.
69 Ibid. Secretary for Mines and Roads to Administrator, 9 Jan. 1919.
70 Ibid. Report of Committee appointed to investigate… Wankie Colliery, 1918.
71 Ibid. Confidential, Sir Drummond Chaplin to Secretary, British South Africa Company, London, 17 Jan. 1919.
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76 Ibid. Acting N.C., Wankie, to Superintendent of Natives, Bulawayo, 3 Dec. 1918.
77 A3/18/30/45, Secretary to Administrator, Salisbury, to General Manager, Wankie Colliery, 4 Nov. 1918; and attached correspondence.
78 N9/1/21, N.C., Wankie, report for year 1918.
79 A8/3/8, Compound Inspector's report, Bulawayo Division, February 1919.
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101 RC2/4/39, Resident Commissioner, Salisbury, to High Commissioner for South Africa, 23 Dec. 1919.
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105 Ibid. 23 Dec. 1919.
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107 M3/11/15, telegram, Major [B.S.A. Police], Wankie, to Adjutant [B.S.A. Police], Salisbury, 22 Dec. 1919.
109 RC2/4/40, Resident Commissioner, Salisbury, to High Commissioner for South Africa, 2 Jan. 1920.
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114 A3/17/5, Petition from Umvuma branch, R.M.G.W.A., to Administrator, Salisbury, 15 Nov. 1920.
115 A3/18/30/9, Local Secretary, B.S.A. Company, Cape Town, to Private Secretary to Sir Drummond Chaplin, Salisbury, 7 Sept. 1920.
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125 Ibid. 5 Mar. 1921.
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129 Bulawayo Chronicle, 12 Mar. 1921.
130 Ibid. 5 Mar. 1921.
131 N9/1/22, N.C., Wankie, annual report for 1919; and N9/4/40, N.C., Wankie, report for month of February 1921.
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