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
4 - Camp Life
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
Asked why African police lived in their own camps, former BSAP member Phillip Mhike responded that ’the first reason for this was so we did not have to mix with other Africans,” and the second reason was that “when you have vicious dogs you keep them locked away.” African police and soldiers, and often their immediate families, usually lived in settlements that were physically separate from the broader African community of Southern Rhodesia. Physical separation allowed white authorities to enforce rules strictly among black security force personnel, and to have near constant access to them in case of emergency, and minimized their association with the black civilians they were meant to control. New African police recruits were trained at NPTS (later APTS and then Tomlinson Depot), a large central facility in Salisbury, where they lived in barracks. Upon graduation they were assigned to specific police stations or camps across the country that varied greatly in size from large urban institutions with numerous buildings to small camps of a few huts in remote rural areas. As such, the standard of life for African police and their families varied a great deal and changed considerably over time. African soldiers, who were not a regular feature of the security forces until World War II and afterward, lived in fewer and much larger facilities located close to urban centers. These barracks, camps, and stations were places where African police and soldiers carried out their regimented daily professional duties and spent a great deal of their free time, which, for some, included daily family life.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- African Police and Soldiers in Colonial Zimbabwe, 1923–80 , pp. 88 - 138Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011