Southern Rhodesia African National Congress
Southern Rhodesia African National Congress | |
---|---|
Abbreviation | SRANC ANC |
Founder | Left-wing |
The Southern Rhodesia African National Congress (SRANC) was a
Beginnings
By the 1950s, the native peoples of Southern Rhodesia were increasingly dissatisfied with their treatment by the white minority government. In rural areas, the Native Reserves Land were overstocked and in deteriorating condition. In a response to increasing soil erosion, the government introduced the Land Husbandry Act of 1951. The bill was a failure, and did not take into consideration the ecological diversity of the land it reallocated. Problems with the Land Husbandry Act could have been rectified to better suit the native population, but it was in the best interests of the settler population to keep people on the reserves poor, thereby maintaining the unequal wealth distribution the settlers so enjoyed.[citation needed] The Bill saw heavy opposition by both rural farmers, and urban workers.[2][3]
Strict
Formation
Joshua Nkomo was a graduate of
On 12 September 1957, the largely dormant ANC and the City Youth League merged to found the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress. The date was significant, being the 67th Anniversary of
Ideology and organisation
The Southern Rhodesia Africa National Congress established itself as a
By adopting a constitution, they established themselves as the first mass resistance movement in Southern Rhodesia.[13]
SRANC was unique in that they rallied support largely from the rural population, and addressed the grievances of farmers on the reserves. They engaged in house to house, village to village recruiting, and called upon grassroots organising and churches. They held rallies, direct confrontation demonstrations, and canvassed for support internationally.
Nkomo successfully suspended the Land Husbandry Act and openly condemned the bill in a public statement saying:
- "Any act whose effects undermine the security of our small land rights, dispossess us of our little wealth in the form of cattle, disperse us from our ancestral homes in the reserves and reduce us to the status of vagabonds and as a source of cheap labour for the farmers, miners, and industrialists – such and Act will turn the African People against society to the detriment of the peace and progress of this country."[14]
The Congress was successful in preventing government interference in traditional marriage customs, and was instrumental in the banning of Depo Provera (a birth control compound), and expressed “deep suspicion... that there is a political motive behind the scheme of birth control.”[15]
Commitment to nonviolence, utilisation of civil disobedience, and Pan-Africanism created a likeness between SRANC and the civil rights movement happening at the same time in the United States. Said Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. of the Congress:
- "Although we are separated by miles, we are closer together in mutual struggle for freedom and human brotherhood... there is no basic difference between colonialism and segregation... our struggles are not only similar; they are in a real sense one."[16]
Until 1958, SRANC found an ally in Prime Minister Garfield Todd, who met with them regularly and attempted to introduce reforms to "advance gradually the rights of the 7,000,000 blacks without upsetting the rule of the 250,000 whites."[17] Under his administration the minimum wage for black workers was raised, restaurants and similar establishments were given the option of being multi-racial, and restrictions on alcohol consumption were relaxed.[18] In the Summer of 1957, Todd pushed through a reform that would increase the number of voting Africans from 2% to 16%, much to the dismay of his party.[19]
Despite changing international opinion about colonialism, the emergence of independent African states, and the increasing momentum of civil rights movements around the globe in the 1950s and 1960s, the settler government of Southern Rhodesia remained stubbornly resistant to imperial reform. White settlers in Southern Rhodesia were threatened by the idea of advancing the black majority; the country being reliant largely on exports of cotton and tobacco, their livelihood necessitated access to cheap labour. English settlers to Rhodesia had found a much improved standard of living and great wealth, and they viewed that improving conditions for the native majority was a threat to their new-found luxury.[20]
Todd's fall and the banning of SRANC
In 1958, after a one-month holiday in South Africa, Todd returned to Southern Rhodesia to discover his cabinet had resigned in protest of his liberal racial policies, and only 14 of the 24 legislators in his party supported his remaining in office. Todd refused to resign, but on 8 February, he was voted out at a United Federal Party congress and replaced by Edgar Whitehead.[21][22]
On 29 February 1959[verification needed], the Whitehead administration declared a state of emergency and introduced the Unlawful Organizations Act, which banned several organisations including SRANC and allowed government seizure of property. The bill was defended by the claim that SRANC had incited violence, government defiance, and “undermined [the] prestige of Native Commissioners and the loyalty of African Police," said a security intelligence report.[23] Between 1960 and 1965, 1,610 Africans were prosecuted and 1,002 convicted under this law.[24]
The Preventative Detention Act allowed the government to detain several hundred members of SRANC without trial; some members were detained for four years in "shockingly insulting" conditions, while white member Guy Clutton-Brock was released in under a month.[10][25] Nkomo, who was attending a conference in Cairo on his way to London, was not detained; he remained in London organising or on speaking tours to rally support until returning home on 1 October 1960.[26]
The Native Affairs Amendment Act went even further to prevent nationalist activities, by banning meetings of 12 or more natives that would "undermine the authority" of the government. This prevented rural organising, severely limited freedom of speech, and marked the end of nonviolent resistance in Southern Rhodesia. To appease the black elite, Whitehead conceded a few liberal reforms to benefit wealthy, educated, urban Africans.[22]
Later history and Zimbabwean independence
Despite the Whitehead and Smith administrations' attempts to prevent nationalism and resist anti-discrimination reform, the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress re-emerged several times with the same leadership and ideology under different names. Constant repression by the white minority government contributed to the increasing militarisation of these splinter organisations, which culminated in a 15-year war, leading to the internationally acknowledged independence of Zimbabwe in 1980.
The NDP, ZAPU and the "mother of all splits" to form ZANU in 1963
On 1 January 1960, the
The split was dubbed the "Mother of all Splits" because ZANU broke away from several other significant attempts at achieving unity between ZAPU and them; notably the "ZIPA" (1975 and PF(1979–80) accords. Some historians[
Joshua Nkomo became the first Minister of Home Affairs in 1980 until ZANU, under the leadership of Mugabe and Tsvangirai(then a Youth Chairperson of ZANU-Jongwe), unleashed violence, and massacred ZAPU members in Matababeland, Midlands, Manicalland,Mashonaland West, Mashonaland East and part of Masvingo Province, in what is now popularly known as the Gukurahundi Massacres.
In 1987, Nkomo was appointed Vice-President, an office he held for twelve years. Mugabe's administration proved controversial, and, as a leader, he has met serious opposition and criticism on the grounds of human rights abuses.
Notes
- ^ "Robert Gabriel Mugabe" Who's Who: Southern Africa. 2010. WhosWho.co.za. 1 December 2010 [1]
- ^ Phimister, Ian. "Rethinking the Reserves: Southern Rhodesia's Land Husbandry Act Reviewed." Journal of Southern African Studies. 19.2 (1993): pp. 226–29
- ^ Sibanda, Eliakim M. “The Zimbabwe African People's Union 1961–87: A Political History of Insurgency in Southern Rhodesia.” 1st ed. Asmara, ERITREA: Africa World Press, Inc. (2005): pp. 38
- S2CID 154336029. Archived from the original(PDF) on 13 February 2020.
- ^ Sibanda, Eliakim M. "The Zimbabwe African People's Union 1961–87: A Political History of Insurgency in Southern Rhodesia." 1st ed. Asmara, ERITREA: Africa World Press, Inc. (2005): pp. 39–42
- ^ Msindo, Enocent. "Ethnicity and Nationalism in Urban Colonial Zimbabwe: Bulawayo, 1950 to 1963." Journal of Southern African Studies. 48.2 (2007): 274
- ^ "Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (9 December 2010). [2]
- ^ "TheMukiwa.com, 1 December 2010". Archived from the original on 18 June 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
- ^ Sibanda, Eliakim M. "The Zimbabwe African People's Union 1961–87: A Political History of Insurgency in Southern Rhodesia." 1st ed. Asmara, ERITREA: Africa World Press, Inc. (2005): pp. 34–36.
- ^ a b Day, John. "Review: Cold Comfort Confronted, and Rhodesian Black Behind Bars." Journal of Southern African Studies. 1.2 (1975): 265–66
- ^ a b "Weapons Flows in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Swaziland" Monographs No 34. 1999. Iss.co.za. 1 December 2010 [3] Archived 5 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Gutterage, William & Spence, J.E. "Violence in Southern Africa." 1st ed. London: Newbury House. (1997): pp. 61
- ^ Sibanda, Eliakim M. “The Zimbabwe African People's Union 1961–87: A Political History of Insurgency in Southern Rhodesia.” 1st ed. Asmara, ERITREA: Africa World Press, Inc. (2005): pp. 37.
- ^ Phimister, Ian. "Rethinking the Reserves: Southern Rhodesia's Land Husbandry Act Reviewed." Journal of Southern African Studies. 19.2 (1993): pp. 227–28.
- ^ Kaler, Amy. "A Threat to the Nation and a Threat to the Men: The Banning of Depo-Provera in Zimbabwe" Journal of Southern African Studies. 24.2 (1981): pp. 356.
- ^ Sibanda, Eliakim M. “The Zimbabwe African People's Union 1961–87: A Political History of Insurgency in Southern Rhodesia.” 1st ed. Asmara, ERITREA: Africa World Press, Inc. (2005): pp. 41.
- ^ “Central Africa: Who's a Liberal?" Time. 27 January 1958.
- ^ Sibanda, Eliakim M. "The Zimbabwe African People's Union 1961–87: A Political History of Insurgency in Southern Rhodesia." 1st ed. Asmara, ERITREA: Africa World Press, Inc. (2005): pp. 45–47.
- ^ 27 January 1958. Time. 1 December 2010 “Central Africa: Who's a Liberal?"
- ^ Phimister, Ian. "Rethinking the Reserves: Southern Rhodesia's Land Husbandry Act Reviewed." Journal of Southern African Studies. 19.2 (1993): pp. 230–31
- ^ "Central Africa: Whols a Liberal?" TIME Magazine. 27 January 1958. Time.com. 1 Dec 2010 [4]
- ^ a b Sibanda, Eliakim M. "The Zimbabwe African People's Union 1961–87: A Political History of Insurgency in Southern Rhodesia." 1st ed. Asmara, ERITREA: Africa World Press, Inc. (2005): pp. 51–53
- ^ Sibanda, Eliakim M. "The Zimbabwe African People's Union 1961–87: A Political History of Insurgency in Southern Rhodesia." 1st ed. Asmara, ERITREA: Africa World Press, Inc. (2005): pp. 50
- ^ Bowman, Larry W. "Politics in Rhodesia: White Power in an African State." Harvard University Press. (1973): 59–61
- ^ "Southern Rhodesia: Ministry Of Justice Identity Statement" Archives In London and the M25 Area. 2001. Aim25.ac.uk. 1 December 2010 [5][dead link]
- ^ a b "Chiume and Nkomo to Tour U.S." Africa Today. 6.4 (1959): 2
- ^ Sibanda, Eliakim M. "The Zimbabwe African People's Union 1961–87: A Political History of Insurgency in Southern Rhodesia." 1st ed. Asmara, ERITREA: Africa World Press, Inc. (2005): pp. 52–53