The Sunday Mail
The banning of the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress in February 1959 came when two important developments were occurring in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu
One was that the black people of Southern Rhodesia were publicly demanding the right to vote, and the other was that the overwhelming majority of the black people of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland were actively and loudly clamouring for the dissolution of the Federation, and for the immediate granting by the British government of self-government to those territories.
Both were protectorates, unlike Southern Rhodesia whose white settlers had been enjoying a measure of internal self-government since September 1923.
A few black people were members of the legislative councils in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, but there was no black face in the Southern Rhodesian parliament.
Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland were responsibilities of the British government’s colonial office headed by Iain Macleod. Southern Rhodesia fell under the Commonwealth Relations Office whose secretary of state was Duncan Sandys, recently with the ministry of defence.
It was Sandys with whom Dr Joshua Nkomo and the National Democratic Party, the SRANC’s immediate successor, had to deal qith in 1960.
Political developments in the two northern territories indicated that the two protectorates would achieve self-governments under black administrations sooner than later.
A spilt had, by the way, occurred in the NRANC, resulting in secretary-general Dr Kenneth David Kaunda pulling out of the Harry Nkumbula-led ANC to head a much more militant organisation known as the Zambia African National Congress.
In Nyasaland, the Malawi Congress Party was formed to succeed the Nyasaland African National Congress, which had been outlawed on February 26, 1959.
It is important to understand that the political advancement of both Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland meant their inevitable secession from the Federation, leaving Southern Rhodesia in the status quo ante 1953 when the Federation was inaugurated.
The Federation had brought with it some relaxation in the practice of racial discrimination, particularly in some social aspects such as hotel services in Southern Rhodesia.
From about 1958, some European-type of alcoholic beverages could be sold to and be consumed by black people in Southern Rhodesia, a right that was, for years, enjoyed by black people in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, but denied them in Southern Rhodesia.
The same applied to inter-racial marriages.
In Southern Rhodesia, a black person married to a white one could not live in an urban area since the whole country was controlled by the Land Appointment Act, which divided the country racially.
A very interesting case was that of Patrick Matimba, who brought a white wife from The Netherlands.
He could not live with her in any African township because she was white, nor could he himself live in any European suburb because he was black.
The Methodist Church (Wesleyan) came to his rescue by offering him and his wife a place at Epworth Mission, a farm outside Salisbury where the Land Appointment Act did not apply.
The black people of the two federal northern territories deeply hated the Federation because they feared that the racially discriminatory laws and polices of Southern Rhodesia would eventually be introduced in their countries.
They also felt that the Federal government favoured Southern Rhodesia in terms of social infrastructural development, especially with regard to the construction of hospitals and European schools.
In Southern Rhodesia, African nationalists were, therefore, more concerned with the acquisition of the vote, repossession of land and equal pay for equal work, and the total abolition of racial discrimination (colour bar) than with secession from the Federation, a preoccupation of both Kaunda in Northern Rhodesia and Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda in Nyasaland.
It was in such a socio-economic environment that the NDP was formed in 1960 to succeed the SRANC.
Unlike its predecessor, the NDP was more administratively organised. It had cells, branches, districts and provincial structures.
It was launched in Joshua Nkomo’s absence with Michael Mawema as its interim president.
A national congress was held a few months afterwards and Nkomo was duly elected to replace Mawema.
The NDP soon launched riots, which targeted mainly urban municipal properties such as beerhalls and administrative offices. The rallying cry for those riots was “Zhi! Zhi!”
So chilling was the “Zhi!” experience that the Southern Rhodesian regime deployed military and police forces, all armed to the teeth.
Some people were killed by gunfire, many were arrested.
The British government had, meanwhile, decided to appoint a commission to look into the Federation’s consultation and founding Act.
Its chairman was a British peer, Lord Monckton of Brenchley.
A great deal of controversy characterised the creation and terms of reference of that commission.
Anti-federationists demanded that its terms of reference should include a clause stating that secession from the federation was a right of each constituent territory.
The federalists were of the firm opinion that the right of secession was out of question because, they claimed, an agreement had been made at the Federation’s founding conference at the Victoria Falls to the effect that two things would never be entertained by or about the Federation: One was the changing of its constitutional status from a federation to an amalgamation, and, two, the right of secession would not be entertained.
For their part, the three prominent African nationalist leaders in the Federation – Joshua Nkomo (Southern Rhodesia), Kenneth Kaunda (Northern Rhodesia) and Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda (Nyasaland) – were all opposed to the Federation.
Dr Nkomo said it was unacceptable that an utterly non-representative regime such as that of Southern Rhodesia should have been allowed to drag the country into a federation.
First and foremost, Southern Rhodesia should have a democratic government to enable it to consult the whole population about whether or not to be a part of a federation with the two neighbouring countries.
After the granting of one person one vote to the people of Southern Rhodesia, Joshua Nkomo stated, he would advise the country to enter into a federal relationship with any interested neighbouring country as part of the pan-African continental unity called for by the All-African People’s Conference, which had been held in Accra, Ghana, in December 1958.
Three important developments took place in 1960.
One was Robert Mugabe’s decision to join the country’s nationalist movement; the second was the appointment of this country’s first black medical officer of health, Dr Samuel Tichafa Parirenyatwa whose area was Matobo (Nkomo’s home area); the third was the British government’s decision to hold a constitutional conference for Southern Rhodesia. It was quite historic for the African nationalist movement to have as one of its top leaders as highly educated a person as Robert Mugabe.
At that time, he had two university degrees, Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education.
That added a great deal of respect to Joshua Nkomo’s national executive, which, by then, had only three university graduates; namely Nkomo himself, Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole and Leopold Takawira.
One of the “reasons” the British government and the Southern Rhodesia colonial administrators gave for denying black people the vote was that they were not educated enough to rule a country.
As a matter of fact, attempts had been made in the mid-1950s to get black people with university degrees to lead the SRANC, but none of them agreed.
All said they were not allowed to be involved in politics because they were school teachers.
Those who were approached, but refused were Stanlake Samkange who was by then a BA graudate and teacher at Mzingwane; Enock Dumbutshena who was also a BA graduate and a relief teacher at Empandeni Mission and was studying for an MA; and Gideon Mhlanga, a BA degree-holder and headmaster of a government primary school. He was also president of the Southern Rhodesia African Teachers’ Association.
The people who strongly suggested that Joshua Nkomo should lead the SRANC were Daniel Madzimbamuto and Edward Silonda Ndlovu.
Dr Parirenyatwa raised a storm, particularly in Matobo district where white farmers, miners and shopkeepers said they would not let a “Kaffir doctor” assist their families.
However, the federal health ministry stood firm and Dr Parirenyatwa remained at his Antelope Mine Hospital district office until 1962 when he resigned to join Zapu as Dr Nkomo’s VP in Salisbury.
His decision to join the liberation struggle full-time might have been influenced by the reaction of the white community to his appointment as district medical officer.
The Southern Rhodesia constitutional conference commenced in London on December 4, 1961, a day before the Federal Review Conference.
Joshua Nkomo’s delegation comprised Zapu national chair Rev Ndabaningi Sithole, advocates Herbert Chitepo and Enock Dumbutshena, Nkomo himself and Tarcissius George Silundika, a man with and exceptionally acute mind.
From the beginning, it was obvious that both the British government represented by the Commonwealth relations secretary Sandys, and Southern Rhodesia headed by prime minister Sir Edgar Whitehead, did not take the views and wishes of the black people seriously at all.
It was, however, that conference that ended up in Salisbury on February 7, 1962 when Sandys and Whitehead signed an agreement on a Southern Rhodesia constitution granting the country a 65-member Legislative Assembly. Of that number, 50 were called “Ordinary” or “A Roll” seats, and 15 “special” or “B Roll” seats.
The qualifications were such that the 50 “A Roll” seats were for the country’s 250 000 white people and the 15 “B Roll” seats were for the 4,5 million Africans.
Dr Nkomo and his delegation rejected the document, but claims were made that they had accepted it.
Nkomo repeatedly and emphatically denied that he had at anytime accepted that constitution.
Critics of that constitution were told that it was quite good because it had two safeguards, a Declaration of Rights and a Constitutional Council, the latter comprising 12 members elected by an electoral college.
The British government insisted that the constitution should be introduced, and that the Southern Rhodesia administration should organise a referendum to test its acceptability or rejection.
Whitehead’s regime went ahead with a referendum, whose results were announced on July 26, 1961.
The overwhelming majority of voters were, of course, white people; 41 949 of whom approved the document while 21 846 opposed it.
The NDP, for its part, organised a symbolic referendum to confirm its rejection.
Had the NDP accepted the Southern Rhodesia 1961 constitution, the British government would have granted the country independence under that document with, most probably, a few meaningless amendments shortly after the dissolution of the Federation, which occurred on December 31, 1963.
It is important to point out that when Whitehead was pressed in 1963 to say whether or not Dr Nkomo had indeed accepted the controversial constitution, he said Nkomo had not, and that was why he did not sign the agreement which he and Sandys signed on February 7, 1961. It was rather strange that the rumour that Nkomo had accepted that constitution had emanated from the London NDP office whose chief representative was by then Leopold Takawira.
◆ Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu is a retired journalist based in Bulawayo and a war veteran who worked closely with Dr Joshua Nkomo during Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle.
