Zimbabwe: Self-government and Federation (1923 - 1963)

Updated January 2008

With the attainment of self-government in October 1923, Southern Rhodesia's Legislative Council was replaced by a fully elected 30-member Legislative Assembly, but the high property qualifications remained in place to ensure that the electorate would remain overwhelmingly White (in 1951 the value of property required was increased to £500, while the annual wage requirement rose to £240 (Wikipedia 2007a; Esterhuysen 2004). Self-government provided for a high degree of autonomy, with Britain maintaining control over foreign policy and having veto rights over legislation that impacted on Africans (though these rights were seldom exercised). The first election was held on 29 April 1924, which was won by the Rhodesia Party and its leader, Charles Coghlan, became the first Prime Minister (Esterhuysen 2004; Wikipedia 2007b).

In 1930 the Legislative Assembly passed the Land Apportionment Act, which allocated 51% of the land for White use, 30% was allocated for the African Reserves and for private African purchase, while most of the remainder was unallocated (Hanyama Undated; Encyclopedia of the Nations 2007; Esterhuysen 2004). Moreover, the land allocated to Whites was prime land and favourably located in relation to transport infrastructure and urban markets, while the Reserves were in remote areas, prone to drought and This skewed distribution of land, combined with rapid population growth with inferior potential (Esterhuysen 2004; Hanyama Undated). This skewed distribution, combined with high population growth rates, over time translated into ever deepening poverty amongst Africans in the rural areas (Esterhuysen 2004; Stocking 1978, 133). State agricultural policy, activity and legislation in the 1930s strongly favoured White agriculture and sought to undermine and marginalise African production (Selby 2006, 50-51; Machigaidze 1991).

The colony was badly affected by the Great Depression in the early 1930's, but this was followed by a new wave of White immigration and rapid economic growth (Wikipedia 2007c; Esterhuysen 2004). In 1933, for £2 million, the British South Africa Company finally ceded its mineral rights to the government (Encyclopedia of the Nations 2007). A manufacturing sector emerged that provided additional employment and tax revenue and the diversified economy was more stable than one based only on agriculture and mining (Esterhuysen 2004). A post-war boom in immigration led to the emergence of a substantial urban based white working class, by 1950 two-thirds of white settlers were new immigrants and the White population rose from 80 500 in 1945 to 219 000 by 1960 (Hanyama Undated; Selby 2006, 55). On the other hand migration from the depressed Reserves saw the burgeoning an urban black working class and the emergence of trade unions (Esterhuysen 2004; Hanyama Undated; Selby 2006, 51). In the urban areas Africans were segregated and economically controlled by the Native Urban Areas Act and the Industrial Reconciliation Act, while in the rural areas, between 1945-55, over 100 000 people were forcibly moved to the already crowded Reserves (Esterhuysen 2004; Hanyama Undated; Selby 2006, 61). The economy expanded rapidly, led by tobacco exports and between 1945 and 1965 farming production rose six-fold (Selby 2006, 55). Between 1939 and 1953 manufacturing production expanded by an average of 11.7% per year and the African workforce had increased three-fold to 469 000 (Gwisai 2002).

The first African trade union to emerge was the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU), modeled on that in South Africa, but it was unable to weather the unfavourable conditions for labour created by the depression of the 1930s (Gwisai 2002). As Gwisai (2002) points out, "Settler policy remained mired in an ideology that viewed black workers at best as a pre-industrial, semi-migrant force that would eventually retreat to its rural hinterland, and at worst as unwanted vagrants in the white man's growing cities". The concrete manifestation of this was the 1934 Industrial Conciliation Act, which extended unionization rights to whites only and created collective bargaining structures but restricted the right to strike (Gwisai 2002; Machigaidze 1991). However, as a settled urban African labour force emerged, so an organised trade union movement began to take shape. A strike of railway workers led by the Railway African Workers Union in took place in 1945 and a general strike in April 1948, through which some concessions were wrung from the government such as the right to form unions and the setting of a minimum wage (Gwisai 2002). The strike further the stimulation of the trade union movement through the formation of the Southern Rhodesia Trade Union Congress (SRTUC) in 1954 led by Joshua Nkomo (Gwisai 2002).

References

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NATIONS 2007 "Zimbabwe: History", [www] http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Zimbabwe-HISTORY.html [opens new window] (accessed 6 Dec 2007).

ESTERHUYSEN, P 2004 "Zimbabwe: an historical overview", Institute of Strategic Studies, [www] http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-9396258_ITM [opens new window] (accessed 6 Dec 2007).

GWISAI, M 2002 "Revolutionaries, resistance and crisis in Zimbabwe" FROM Zeilig, L (ed), Class Struggle and Resistance in Africa, New Clarion Press, Cheltenham, UK, [www] http://www.dsp.org.au/links/node/77 [opens new window] (accessed 12 Dec 2007).

HANYAMA, M UNDATED "Background to Land Reform in Zimbabwe", Embassy of Zimbabwe in Stockholm, [www] http://www.zimembassy.se/land_reform_document.htm [opens new window] (accessed 6 Dec 2007).

MACHIGAIDZE, VEM 1991 "Land Reform in Colonial Zimbabwe: The Southern Rhodesia Land Husbandry Act and African Response", IN Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review, January, [www] http://www.ossrea.net/eassrr/jan91/machigai.htm [opens new window] (accessed 2 Jan 2008).

SELBY, A 2006 Commercial Farmers and the State: Interest Group Politics and Land Reform in Zimbabwe, Doctoral Thesis, Oxford University, [www] http://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/1842/493/1/thesis+final.pdf [PDF documnet, opens new window] (accessed 11 Dec 2007).

STOCKING, MA 1978 "Relationship of Agricultural History and Settlement to Severe Soil Erosion in Rhodesia"; Zambezia, 6 (2 ), [www] http://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/Journal%20of%20the%20 University%20of%20Zimbabwe/vol6n2/juz006002006.pdf [PDF documnet, opens new window] (accessed 10 Dec 2007).

WIKIPEDIA 2007a "Elections in Southern Rhodesia", [www] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Southern_Rhodesia [opens new window] (accessed 6 Dec 2007).

WIKIPEDIA 2007b "Colonial history of Southern Rhodesia", [www] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_history_of_Zimbabwe [opens new window] (accessed 6 Dec 2007).

WIKIPEDIA 2007c "Matabeleland", [www] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matabeleland [opens new window] (accessed 6 Dec 2007).