Narratives of Scarcity: Colonial State Responses to Water Scarcity in Southern Rhodesia, 1890–1965

Contextualised within a settler state characterised by racial discrimination and unequal access to natural resources, this article examines the ideological, environmental and economic considerations surrounding the formation of the Native Reserves Trust (NRT) and the role it played in the exploitation of timber resources in the African reserves of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Cognisant of the fact that the colonial state set aside marginal and less productive reserves for the Africans, the paper uses the NRT as a lens to view the process by which the settler society penetrated African reserves and exploited timber resources that were needed for the white-owned enterprises, while at the same time, Africans were barred from exploiting the same resources in European domains. The study further discusses the significance of timber in the African reserves, analyses the role of the NRT in regulating timber exploitation processes and the relations between the state, timber concessionaire companies and the African communities. Lastly, it assesses the extent to which timber exploitation contributed to environmental destruction, and how this prompted a policy shift, leading to the implementation of state-initiated afforestation programmes in these reserves and how these re-shaped state-African relations. On the whole, we note that the exploitation of timber resources in African areas replicated the larger colonial policy that favoured whites at the expense of Africans.

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“A Naughty Child with a Pen”: Gahadzikwa Albert Chaza as an African Policeman and Author in Colonial Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) 1936–1963

History in Africa ◽

10.1353/hia.2010.0024 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 37 ◽

pp. 159-187 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Tim Stapleton

Keyword(s):

Law Enforcement ◽

Colonial Era ◽

Colonial State ◽

Police Service ◽

Revolutionary Violence ◽

1960S And 1970S ◽

Southern Rhodesia ◽

The 1960S ◽

Colonial Police ◽

Thin Volume

Those who have visited book stores in Zimbabwe in recent years, even the small one in Harare international airport, will have seen a thin volume authored by G.A. Chaza and entitled Bhurakuwacha: The Story of a Black Policeman in Colonial Southern Rhodesia. Bhurakuwacha is the longest and most detailed first hand account by an African member of the British South Africa Police (BSAP), Southern Rhodesia's paramilitary law enforcement organization, and as such constitutes an important source for studying the experience of black security force members in a white settler state.Chaza was typical of the moderate and loyalist black middle class of the 1940s and 1950s that wanted equality with whites as part of a civilized imperial citizenry but became less significant during the anti-colonial and revolutionary violence of the 1960s and 1970s. Unfortunately, the book only hints at Chaza's early interest in writing which began when he was a young constable in the late 1930s and continued through his post-retirement involvement in politics in the early 1960s.The aim of this paper is to examine the first three decades of Chaza's publications within the context of African police service in the colonial era. Bhurakuwacha was written after African nationalists had come to power in independent Zimbabwe and promoted a version of history that lionized those who had resisted colonial rule and vilified those, such as African policemen, who had worked for the colonial state. Therefore, it is tempting to see Chaza's book as an effort to rehabilitate his image by portraying African colonial police as victims of racism against which some, like the author, struggled. Looking at his now forgotten earlier writings will illustrate how Chaza's views changed over the years and reveal whether or not Bhurakuwacha represents an accurate account of African colonial police service.

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