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ETHNICITY AND NATIONALISM IN URBAN COLONIAL ZIMBABWE: BULAWAYO, 1950 TO 1963

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2007

ENOCENT MSINDO
ENOCENT MSINDO
Affiliation:
Rhodes University
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Abstract

Zimbabwean historians have not yet fully assessed the interaction of two problematic identities, ethnicity and nationalism, to determine whether the two can work as partners and successfully co-exist. This essay argues that, in Bulawayo during the period studied, ethnicity co-existed with and complemented nationalism rather than the two working as polar opposite identities. Ethnic groups provided both the required leaders who became prominent nationalist figures and the precolonial history, personalities and monuments that sparked the nationalist imagination. From the 1950s, ethnic groups expanded their horizons and provided platforms from which emerging African nationalists launched their agenda. Understanding these interrelationships will reshape our understanding of the workings of these two identities in a cosmopolitan town.

Keywords

Zimbabweethnicitynationalismidentityurban
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , July 2007 , pp. 267 - 290
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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References

1 Ndabaningi Sithole, African Nationalism (2nd ed., London, 1968), 98.

2 Ibid. 98.

3 E. Msindo, ‘Ethnicity in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe: A study of Kalanga–Ndebele relations, 1960s–1980s' (Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge, 2004), 5.

4 Masipula Sithole, Zimbabwe: Struggles within the Struggle (2nd ed., Harare, 1999).

5 Josephine Nhongo-Simbanegavi, For Better or For Worse? Women and ZANLA in Zimbabwe's Liberation War (Harare, 2000), 119–24.

6 David Lan, Guns and Rain: Guerrillas and Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe (Harare, 1985).

7 Ian Linden, The Catholic Church and the Struggle for Zimbabwe (London, 1980); N. Bhebe, The ZAPU and ZANU: Guerrilla Warfare and The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe (Gweru, 1999).

8 T. O. Ranger, Peasant Consciousness and the Guerrilla War in Zimbabwe: A Comparative Study (Berkeley, 1985); Norma J. Kriger, Zimbabwe's Guerrilla War: Peasant Voices (Cambridge, 1992).

9 Msindo, ‘Ethnicity in Matabeleland’, ch. 1, does a thorough review of works on this period.

10 T. Ranger and M. Ncube, ‘Religion in the Guerrilla War: the case of Southern Matabeleland’, in N. Bhebe and T. Ranger (eds.), Society in Zimbabwe's Liberation War, vol. II (London, 1995), 35–57; T. Ranger, Voices From the Rocks: Nature, Culture and History in the Matopos Hills of Zimbabwe (Oxford, 1999), 209.

11 J. Alexander, J. McGregor and T. Ranger, Violence and Memory: One Hundred Years in the ‘Dark Forests’ of Matabeleland (Oxford, 2000), 110–11, 170.

12 Ibid. 95–8.

13 Ibid. 90–1.

14 An argument similar to that of the nationalist Ndabaningi Sithole in the 1960s (quoted before) that nationalism benefited from the erosion of ethnic associations, a generalization which I strongly dispute.

15 Alexander et al., Violence and Memory, 98.

16 Ibid. 108–9.

17 Charles van Onselen, Chibaro: African Mine Labour in Southern Rhodesia, 1900–1933 (Johannesburg, 1976), 210–14.

18 Lawrence Vambe, From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe (London, 1976), 53, 96.

19 Bulawayo Reference Library (Byo Ref. Lib.), 33/2, City of Bulawayo, Urban Affairs Commission: Answers to questions, Sept. 1957.

20 Van Onselen, Chibaro, 214–15; Vambe, Rhodesia to Zimbabwe, 97–9.

21 Byo Ref. Lib., J. Z. Sawanhu, ‘The suggested native urban policy of Southern Rhodesia: an African viewpoint’, Bulawayo, May 1945 (uncatalogued).

22 Vambe, Rhodesia to Zimbabwe, 272.

23 Jon Lunn, ‘The meaning of the 1948 General Strike in colonial Zimbabwe’, in B. Raftopoulos and T. Yoshikuni (eds.), Sites of Struggle: Essays in Zimbabwe's Urban History (Harare, 1999), 163–82.

24 Ian Phimister, An Economic and Social History of Zimbabwe, 1890–1948: Capital Accumulation and Class Struggle (London, 1988), 270–3.

25 Phimister, An Economic and Social History of Zimbabwe, 264–74.

26 The ICU started in South Africa under Clement Kadalie, a Nyasalander. He sent Robert Sambo to start a branch in Southern Rhodesia, but he was soon deported back south; thereafter, local leaders under Mzingeli took over. See Ian Phimister and Charles van Onselen, ‘The labour movement in Zimbabwe, 1900–1945’, in B. Raftopoulos and I. Phimister, Keep On Knocking: A History of the Labour Movement in Zimbabwe, 1900–1997 (Harare, 1991).

27 Vambe, Rhodesia to Zimbabwe, 96.

28 Ibid. 101.

29 Raftopoulos and Phimister, Keep On Knocking, 75–6.

30 Ibid. 76.

31 Msindo, E., ‘Ethnicity, not class? The 1929 Bulawayo faction fights reconsidered’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 32 (2006), 429–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Delegate Stanley Hall, ‘Mr. Msarurgwa should be chairman of Mashonaland’, African Home News (hereafter in notes AHN), 22 Dec. 1956; AHN, 30 Jan. 1960; Editorial, ‘Tribalism in Bulawayo’, AHN, 7 Oct. 1961.

33 Bulawayo City Council (BCC), T. Box 135, A1, Tribal associations in Bulawayo, 2 Feb. 1955.

34 Ibid.

35 BCC, T. Box 100, S.0.8, African associations and societies: A report of the meeting held in the Stanley Hall by the Nyasaland African Congress on the 20th of Jan. 1957, by Thomas Murefu, Native Constable.

36 BCC, 33/2, Urban Affairs Commission: Answers to questions, Sept. 1957; BCC, T. Box 100, S.0.8, N. Rhodesia Government Labour Office to the Director of Native Administration, Bulawayo, 29 Nov. 1955; Nkonjera, ‘Nyasalanders in Southern Rhodesia told to care for families home’, Bantu Mirror (hereafter in notes BM), 24 June 1950.

37 The period covers the early days of the campaigns for Federation, and its inception, until the rise of the ANC under Nkomo.

38 BCC, A3.3, Members – General: Bulawayo African Advisory Board, Oct. 1951.

39 Joshua Nkomo, Nkomo: The Story of My Life (London, 1984), 41–3.

40 BM, 14 Jan. 1950, 7; BM, 29 Mar. 1952; BM, 26 July 1952, 1; BM, 9 Oct. 1954, 2; BM, 15 Jan. 1955.

41 CNC's Annual Report in BM, 14 Apr. 1956.

42 M. Crawford Young, ‘Revisiting nationalism and ethnicity in Africa’ (James S. Coleman Memorial Lecture Series, University of California, Los Angeles, 2004), 1–17 (unpublished).

43 Sithole, African Nationalism (London, 1968), 57.

44 Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London (ICS), DT 969 GRE, Stella Greenway, Cliff Pocket and Revd. Ndabaningi Sithole, ‘Nation Building’ (Salisbury, Capricorn Society, 1962), 9–13.

45 Rhodes University, Cory Library (Cory), 968 (91) NAT, Report of the National Convention of Southern Rhodesia, Salisbury (Rhodesian printers, 31 Oct. to 5 Nov. 1960), 34.

46 Federation brought S. Rhodesia, N. Rhodesia and Nyasaland into a political, social and economic partnership, pulling their resources together and under one Federal Government but still having their own national parliaments. It existed from 1953 to 1963.

47 BM, 3 Jan. 1953; BM, 14 Mar. 1953.

48 Byo Ref. Lib. (uncatalogued), Kirkwood, K., The Proposed Federation of the Central African Territories (Johannesburg, 1952), 5, 14–15Google Scholar; Roy Welensky, ‘The Federation and the Commonwealth’, Address at Albert Hall, London to the Directors of the United Kingdom, 8 Nov. 1961, 7–8.

49 Byo Ref. Lib. (uncatalogued), Welensky, ‘The Federation and the Commonwealth’, 3.

50 ‘Alien’ is a term used in the colonial setting to describe African foreigners.

51 BM, 12 July 1958; BM, 9 Aug. 1958.

52 In their constitution, they claim that it was formed in 1921; other documents suggest that it was in 1923. See BCC, T. Box 100, S.0.8, Matabeleland Home Society, Constitution.

53 National Archives, Zimbabwe (NAZ), Harare, S2584/4251, Constitution of the Matabele Home Society.

54 NAZ, Harare, S2584/4251, MHS: Chairman's Report, 15 Dec. 1945; NAZ, S2584/4251, Secretary, MHS to the Secretary, National Monuments Commission, Bulawayo, 8 Apr. 1945.

55 The debate about the morality of women was an old one originating from around 1915, as I demonstrated elsewhere. See Msindo, ‘Ethnicity, not class?’

56 AHN, 25 Sept. 1954.

57 BCC, T. Box 100, S.0.8, Location Superintendent to the Director of African Administration, Bulawayo, 19 Sept. 1952. The Superintendent reported that there was ‘no proper system of bookkeeping at all and there is no regards of receipts issued of the payments by the members of the Society’.

58 James Khumalo, ‘Lobengula stood against tribal purity in Matabeleland’, BM, 2 Dec. 1961 (emphasis added). For a similar view held by Luza, that Kalanga are Ndebele, see AHN, 12 Jan. 1957.

59 BM, 2 Dec. 1961. See also Sam Mazingabo, ‘Does not want Kalanga in the Mirror’, BM, 5 Mar. 1960; Mr. K. Ngubane, ‘Ndebele speakers must announce on loud speakers’, BM, 5 Feb. 1960.

60 T. O. Ranger, Revolt in Southern Rhodesia, 1896–7: A Study of African Resistance (London, 1967).

61 BCC, T. Box 100, S.0.8, Location Superintendent to the Director of African Administration, Bulawayo, 5 Sept. 1955.

62 BM, 4 Oct. 1952.

63 BM, 3 Jan. 1954.

64 BM, 25 Sept.1954, see article, ‘Matabeleland Home Society encourages Africans to buy stands’, 1.

65 BM, 14 Apr. 1956.

66 AHN, 3 June 1954; BM, 20 Apr. 1957; BM, 27 Apr. 1957 (see title, ‘Unity in city looks gloomy’, 1).

67 There was a clash over the visit of Rose Kumalo, a female, to the king's grave – BM, 2 Aug. 1958; BM, 9 Aug. 1958 with a heading, ‘Matebele Society washing dirty linen in public’, by Pure Bloodied Ndebele. See also BCC, T. Box 101, S.0.8, Societies and constitutions, vol. II: Mzilikazi Family Association – Bulawayo, Constitution.

68 Umndebele Uqobo, ‘Letter to the Editor, Mr. J. Z. Moyo and the Kalanga Cultural Society’, AHN, 22 Dec. 1956, 12. His name means ‘Genuine Ndebele’. See also copies of articles in BM, 16 July 1960, 15 June 1960, 9 April 1960, 2 July 1960, 16 Sept. 1961, 26 Mar. 1960, 7 May 1960, 16 June 1956, 23 May 1959; and in AHN, 11 May 1957.

69 AHN, 22 Dec. 1956.

70 Uqobo, ‘Letter to the Editor, Mr. J. Z. Moyo and the Kalanga Cultural Society’.

71 AHN, 20 Dec. 1956.

72 AHN, 5 Jan. 1957. Zansi are members of the Ndebele ruling aristocracy.

73 Msindo, ‘Ethnicity, not class?’

74 BM, 25 Sept. 1954.

75 BM, 24 May 1952.

76 AHN, 5 June 1954.

77 Ibid.

78 BCC, T. Box 101, S.0.8, Societies and Constitutions, Vol. 2: Secretary, Monomotapa Offspring Society to the Director of African Administration, 25 June 1957; BCC, T. Box 101, S.0.8, vol. II: Constitution of the Monomotapa Offspring Society, June 1957. This is a reproduced version of the MCS constitution in T. Box 101, S.0.8, Constitution of the Shona Cultural Society, approved 9 Apr. 1956.

79 BM, 10 Mar. 1956.

80 BM, 18 June 1960.

81 BM, 18 June 1960.

82 BM, 18 June 1960, 10; AHN, 25 June 1960, 11.

83 AHN, 22 June 1963.

84 BM, 5 Nov. 1960.

85 See Ranger, Voices from the Rocks, 3–5, 209–21.

86 Nkomo, Story of My Life, 13–15.

87 BM, 20 Aug. 1960. The debate about the Matopos came about during the Constitutional talks of 1960, a time when opportunists in the NDP thought that the transfer of power was imminent.

88 NAZ, S235/363, Urban Areas Act, 1934–5.

89 M. M. Ndubiwa, ‘African participation in housing management in Rhodesia: the Bulawayo African Advisory Board’ (MSc. thesis, University of Birmingham, 1972), 6, 22.

90 Byo Ref. Lib., 33/2, City Of Bulawayo, Urban Affairs Commission.

91 Interview with Mr. Douglas Ndiweni, Pelandaba Township, Bulawayo, 9 July 2003.

92 For their profiles, see BCC, A3.3, Members – General: Bulawayo African Advisory Board, 1951.

93 William G. Flanagan, Urban Sociology: Images and Structure (2nd ed., Boston, 1995), 67–78, 171–3.

94 Msindo, ‘Kalanga–Ndebele relations’, 206–8.

95 Ibid. 206–8.

96 AHN, 14 Dec. 1957.

97 Interview with Mr. Makhoba Khulube, Msiteli Township, Bulawayo, 30 June 2003.

98 AHN, 20 Feb. 1960.

99 Interview with Mr. Makhoba Khulube, Dombodema, Bulilima-Mangwe, 25 June 2003. Similar evidence came from an interview with Mr. Hlangabeza Kumalo, Pelandaba, Bulawayo, 9 July 2003; Brown Luza, ‘Matabeles should get more businesses than Mashonas’, AHN, 18 Mar. 1959; AHN, 19 Dec. 1953; BM, 13 Jan. 1951.; BCC, T. Box 312, H2-2, Street and building names: Provincial Native Commissioner to the Director, African Administration Department, 23 Nov. 1957; BCC, T. Box 343, A20.1, Minutes of the Bulawayo African Township Advisory Board, 6 September 1951. See also E. Msindo, ‘Thoughts on ethnicity and nationalism in colonial urban areas: the experience of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, 1950s–1963’ (unpublished seminar paper, Rhodes University, 31 August 2005), 10.

100 BCC, A3, 3, Members – General, Bulawayo African Advisory Board: Information regarding Advisory Board member Eric Tikili, 12 Oct. 1951. Tikili was in touch with Communists from Oslo. Even Mzingeli, the trade unionist, also had marvellous documents showing connections with the international world. See Vambe, Rhodesia to Zimbabwe, 104.

101 BCC, T. Box 135, A1, Advisory Board Policy: E. H. Ashton (Director of African Administration) to the Returning Officer, 20 Dec. 1954; BCC, T. Box 135, A1, Extract from the Director of African Administration's report, December 1954; BCC, T. Box 136, Correspondence: Minutes BAT, 1954: Note for file A3-6, 18 Aug. 1954.

102 BCC, T. Box 135, A1, PNC Bulawayo, Draft: Liaison between urban Africans and government, Jan. 1955.

103 BCC, A. A., Annual report of the Director of African Administration for the year ended 30th June 1958.

104 For election results for the years until 1964, see AHN, 19 Dec. 1959; BCC, A. A., City of Bulawayo: Annual report of the Director of African Administration, 30 June 1960; Report of the Director of African Administration, 30 June 1961; Report of the Director of African Administration, 30 June 1962; City of Bulawayo, Annual report of the Director of Housing and Amenities, 30 June 1963.

105 Cory, P/68/1671, Report of the Secretary for Native Affairs and Chief Native Commissioner (CNC) for the Year 1960; P/68/16/1671, Report of the Secretary for Native Affairs and CNC for the year 1959.

106 Cory, P/69/1667, Report of the Secretary for Native Affairs, CNC and Director of Native Development for the Year 1957.

107 BCC, A. A., Report of the Director of African Administration for the year ending 30 June 1961.

108 BCC, A. A., Report of the Director of African Administration, 30 June 1962.

109 BCC, Tower Block, T. Box 343, A20.1, BCC, Minutes of the Bulawayo African Township Advisory Board, Khami Road offices, 14 April 1961 and 26 April 1961.

110 BCC, T. Box 343, A20.1, Minutes of the Meeting of the Joint Advisory Board held in the Board Room, Khami Road, on Friday 30 Mar. 1962.

111 Interview with Mr. S. Ncube, Tshabalala, 2 July 2005.

112 BCC, Minutes of a Meeting of the Joint Advisory Board, 30 Oct. 1961.

113 BCC, Minutes of the Joint Advisory Board, 6 Nov. 1961.

114 BCC, Minutes of the Joint Advisory Board Meeting, Khami Road, 20 Nov. 1961

115 A view shared by Khulube. Interview with Makhoba Khulube, Dombodema, 25 June 2003.

116 BCC, Minutes of the Joint Advisory Board Meeting, 26 April 1961; Minutes of the Joint Advisory Board, 20 Nov. 1961.

117 BCC, T. Box 155, A1-2, Administration of Urban African Affairs – Policy: The origin, appointment and function of native urban areas Advisory Boards, 3 June 1959.

118 BCC, T. Box 153, S03, Residents' associations, 1951–1955: S. V. Mzenda (Secretary B. F. Tenants' Association) to the Director of Native Administration Department, Bulawayo, 8 May 1951.

119 BCC, T. Box 153, S03, Barbourfields Tenants' Association: Extract from the Director's Report, June 1951.

120 BCC, T. Box 153, S03, Report of the Meeting of the Rent Payers’ Association in Stanley Square on 7 Nov. 1954.

121 BCC, T. Box 153, S03, Rent Payers' Association Monthly Bulletin, 1 July 1953.

122 BCC, T. Box 136, Correspondence: Minutes BAT: Note for file, 18 Aug. 1954.

123 BCC, T. Box 237, Confidential report of the Director of African Administration on Advisory Board Elections, 1960, 29 Dec. 1960.

124 BCC, Annual report of the Director of African Administration, 30 June 1960; Annual Report of the Director of African Administration, 30 June 1961.

125 BCC, T. Box 254, A1-2/1, Administration of Urban African Affairs, Bulawayo: The Mpopoma Leaseholders Association, memorandum to the City Council of Bulawayo regarding direct African representation in local government, 20 Aug. 1959. See also a threatening letter: BCC, T. Box 254, A1-2/1, F. P. T. Ziyambi (Hon. Secretary, Mpopoma Leaseholders’ Association) to the Town Clerk, Bulawayo, 16 Oct. 1961, Superintendent, Mpopoma to the Director of African Administration, 1 Sept. 1959.

126 BCC, T. Box 343, A.20, South West Commonage, Advisory Board – General: Minutes of a Joint Board Meeting, 30 Feb. 1962. See also Daily News, 29 May 1962.

127 BCC, T. Box 237, A2, Advisory Boards, General: Extract from report of the Director of African Administration submitted to meeting of African Administration Committee held on the 6th June 1962.

128 Ibid.

129 BCC, Annual report of the Director of Housing and Amenities, 30 June 1964.

130 BCC, Annual report of the Director of Housing and Amenities, 30 June 1963.

131 The 1960 violence requires a full paper. See T. O. Ranger, ‘The meaning of urban violence in Africa: Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia, 1890–1960’ (forthcoming), Journal of Social and Cultural History (2006).

132 BCC, Annual report of the Director of Housing and Amenities, 30 June 1963; Annual report of the Director of Housing and Amenities, 30 June 1964. Similar resistance occurred in Salisbury. See BCC, City of Salisbury: Annual report of the Director of African Administration, 30 June 1964.

133 Msindo, ‘Kalanga–Ndebele relations’, 241–7.

134 Sithole, Struggles within the Struggle, 44–56.