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Lashers and Leviathan: The 1954 Coalminers' Strike in Colonial Zimbabwe*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2009

Ian Phimister
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In 1953 Southern Rhodesia's (Zimbabwe's) only coal mine, Wankie Colliery, was taken over by the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa. The colliery's new owners soon discovered that the elimination of “hand lashing” (shovelling of coal) was the key to better productivity and expanded output. Coal cutting machinery was installed wherever possible, but in the colliery's two oldest shafts existing mining methods were too deeply entrenched and consequently too expensive simply to be swept away. Instead Anglo American attempted to reinforce colonial production relations. Supervision underground was tightened up, and the degree of “self-regulation” enjoyed by lashers in determining the amount of work they did was limited. The introduction of a new mine tub designed to increase productivity precipitated strike action in February 1954 by the colliery's entire black labour force.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , August 1994 , pp. 165 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1994

References

1 For a general overview, see especially Marks, S., “Southern and Central Africa, 1886–1910”, in Oliver, R. and Sanderson, G. (eds), Cambridge History of Africa, VI, 1870–1905 (Cambridge, 1985)Google Scholar.

2 NB3/I/6, Native Commissioner, Sebungwe, to Chief Native Commissioner, Bulawayo, 23 March 1906. Unless otherwise stated, all file references are to the National Archives, Harare, Zimbabwe.

3 Report of the Wankie Coal Commission (1949), p. 9.

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9 Wankie Colliery Company Ltd, Report of the Directors for the year ended 31st August 1955, p. 14. See also Report of the Directors for the year ended 31st August 1954, p. 7.

10 [Garfield] Todd Papers, “Notes on Events leading up to, and the possible causes of the Wankie Strike, February 1954”, Wankie, 7 January 1955. Privately held.

11 ZCB2/2/1, proof of evidence, Martin.

12 ZMM, File 361/1376, “Production of Coal and By-products: Wankie Coalfield”, November 1959.

13 Bulawayo Chronicle, 9 June. 1949.

14 ZCB2/2/1, proof of evidence, Martin.

15 Report of the Wankie Coal Commission, p. 21.

16 ZCB2/2/1, evidence taken from Martin and Oertel.

17 ZMM, File 361/1376, “Production of Coal and By-products: Wankie Coalfield”. See also Report of the Directors for the year ended 31st August 1954, p. 7.

18 Ibid.

19 Phimister, “Coal, Crisis and Class Struggle”, p. 122.

20 ZCB2/2/1, proof of evidence, Oertel.

21 Ibid., evidence taken from Hastings.

22 Ibid., proof of evidence, Martin; evidence taken from Martin and Oertel.

23 Ibid., evidence taken from Martin and Oertel.

24 Bulawayo Chronicle, 10 June 1949; and Report of the Directors for the year ended 31st August 1954, pp. 6, 7.

25 Interview with Mose Kayombo, Zambezi, 19 March 1990.

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27 Interview with D. Nyambe, 17 February 1990.

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32 Bulawayo Chronicle, 14 June 1949.

33 ZCB2/1/1, evidence taken from Martin and Oertel.

34 Ibid.

35 Ibid.

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37 ZCB2/1/1, evidence taken from Martin and Oertel.

38 Ibid., evidence taken from Hastings.

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42 H.Mss, RH16/1/4/6, Kidd to Ibbotson.

43 ZMM, File 361/1376, Government Mining Engineer, Bulawayo, to General Manager, Wankie Collieries Ltd, 2 August 1952.

44 Bulawayo Chronicle, 10 June 1949.

45 F114/427, Assistant Government Mining Engineer, Bulawayo, to Chief Government Mining Engineer, Salisbury, 9 February 1950. See also Todd Papers, “Notes on […] the Wankie Strike, February 1954”.

46 ZCB2/1/1, evidence taken from Oertel.

47 Ibid., evidence taken from Martin.

48 Ibid., proof of evidence, Mr G. W. D. Kidd, 10 June 1949.

49 Interview, R. D. Hutchings, Bindura, 10 April 1990.

50 ZMM, File 361/1376, “Production of Coal and By-products: Wankie Coalfield”; ZCB2/1/1, evidence taken from Martin.

51 Todd Papers, “Notes on […] the Wankie Strike, February 1954”.

52 Paragraph, including direct quotations, based on Todd Papers, “Notes on […] the Wankie Strike, February 1954”; and Todd Papers, Cabinet, minutes of a meeting, 24 November 1953.

53 Todd Papers, Cabinet, minutes of a meeting, 24 November 1953.

54 Ibid.

55 Ibid., Cabinet, minutes of a meeting, 21 September 1953.

56 Ibid., Cabinet, minutes of a meeting, 29 September 1953.

57 Ibid., Cabinet, minutes of a meeting, 1 December 1953.

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59 Todd Papers, Cabinet, minutes of a meeting, 24 November 1953.

60 Ibid., Cabinet, minutes of a meeting, 8 December 1953.

61 Ibid., Cabinet, minutes of a meeting, 1 December 1953.

62 Ibid.

63 Todd Papers, “Notes on […] the Wankie Strike, February 1954”.

64 Todd Papers, Cabinet, minutes of a meeting, 8 December 1953.

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74 Todd Papers, “Notes on […] the Wankie Strike, February 1954”.

75 Ibid.

76 Ibid.

77 Ibid., Annexure “A”, List of leaders and speakers in February 1954 strike.

78 ZMM, File 361/1376, Government Mining Engineer, Bulawayo, to General Manager, Wankie Collieries Ltd, 2 August 1952.

79 Todd Papers, “Notes on […] the Wankie Strike, February 1954”.

80 Ibid., Cabinet, minutes of a meeting, 29 March 1954. See also ZCB2/2/1, evidence taken from Kidd; and from Major P. J. Kenworth, Salisbury, 8 June 1949.

81 Interview with A. G. Koen, 18 August 1986.

82 Todd Papers, “Notes on […] the Wankie Strike, February 1954”. For a classic account of company attitudes towards mine safety on the Rand in this period, see Simons, H. J., “Death in South African Mines”, Africa South in Exile, 5 (1961)Google Scholar.

83 Wankie Colliery Company Ltd, Report of the Directors for the year ended 31st August 1957, p. 8.

84 Interview with R. D. Hutchings, 10 April 1990. A metal pole used against rock might have caused a spark, igniting the methane gas always more or less present in coal mines.

85 Ibid.

86 Interview with M. Kayombo, 19 March 1990.

87 Interview with D. Nyambe, 17 February 1990. See also, interviews with W. Namumbi, 6 February 1990; and G. Mulemba, 8 August 1990.

88 ZCB2/1/1, proof of evidence, Kidd; and Annual Report of the Chief Government Mining Engineer and Chief Inspector of Mines, Southern Rhodesia, for the year ending 31st December 1953, p. 34.

89 ZMM, File 361/1376, Chief Surveyor to Chief Government Mining Engineer, 4 May 1950 and attached correspondence.

90 Todd Papers, “Notes on […] the Wankie Strike, February 1954”.

91 Annual Report of the Chief Government Mining Engineer [… for […] 1953, p. 34.

92 ZCB2/1/1, evidence taken from Kidd.

93 Interviews with M. Kayombo, 19 March 1990; A. Kwibisa, Lusaka, 6 April 1990; and K. Mbombi, Mbenga, 22 January 1990.

94 Interview with G. Mulemba, 8 August 1990.

95 Interview with D. Nyambe, 17 February 1990.

96 Todd Papers, “Notes on […] the Wankie Strike, February 1954”.

97 Ibid.

98 Interview with M. Kayombo, 19 March 1990.

99 Interview with S. Mulemba, Mumbwa, 2 March 1991.

100 Interview with M.-N. Sitali, Mumbwa, 9 February 1991.

101 Todd Papers, “Notes on […] the Wankie Strike, February 1954”.

102 Ibid.

103 ZMM, File 361/1376, “Wankie Colliery Statistics: March 1950”.

104 Outpost, April 1954, p. 12.

105 Todd Papers, “Notes on […] the Wankie Strike, February 1954”.

106 Ibid.

107 ZCB2/1/1, evidence taken from Kidd.

108 Interview with M.-N. Sitali, 9 February 1991.

109 Ibid.

110 Interview with S. Mulemba, 2 March 1991.

111 Interview with M.-N. Sitali, 9 February 1991.

112 For further discussion, see, variously, Chauncy, G., “The Locus of Reproduction: Women's Labour in the Zambian Copperbelt, 1927–1953”, Journal of Southern African Studies, 7, 2 (1981)Google Scholar; Parpart, J., “The Household and the Mine Shaft: Gender and Class Struggles on the Zambian Copperbelt, 1926–64”, Journal of Southern African Studies, 13, 1 (1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Schmidt, E., “Negotiated Spaces and Contested Terrain: Men, Women and the Law in Colonial Zimbabwe, 1890–1939”, Journal of Southern African Studies, 16, 4 (1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

113 Interview with S. Mulemba, 2 March 1991.

114 Interview with M.-N. Sitali, 9 February 1991.

115 Ibid.

116 Outpost, April 1954, p. 13.

117 Todd Papers, “Notes on […] the Wankie Strike, February 1954”.

118 Ibid.

119 F248, Federal Defence, Standing Ministerial Committee on Security: Wankie Strike: Police Review (confidential). Note by the Secretary, n.d. (March 1954).

120 Wood, J., The Welensky Papers. A History of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (Durban, 1983), p. 404Google Scholar.

121 ibid.

122 Bulawayo Chronicle, 5 February 1954.

123 Rhodesia Herald, 2 February 1954.

124 Ibid. 4 February 1954.

125 Ibid., 2 February 1954; ibid., 4 February 1954.

126 Ibid., 3 February 1954.

127 For further discussion, see Phimister, I., “White Miners in Historical Perspective: Southern Rhodesia, 1890–1953”, Journal of Southern African Studies, 3 (1977)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

128 Rhodesia Herald, 4 February 1954.

129 Interview with S. Mulemba, 2 March 1991.

130 Rhodesia Herald, 9 February 1954.

131 Ibid.

132 Wood, Welensky Papers, p. 404.

133 Rhodesia Herald, 4 February 1954.

134 Southern Rhodesia Legislative Assembly Debates, 5 May 1954, col. 811.

135 Ibid., cols 809–810.

136 Holderness, Lost Chance, p. 141.

137 Rhodesia Herald, 6 February 1954.

138 Todd Papers, “Notes on […] the Wankie Strike, February 1954”; and ibid, Cabinet minutes, 10 February 1954, and attached correspondence.

139 Rhodesia Herald, 4 February 1954.

140 Ibid.

141 Bulawayo Chronicle, 5 February 1954.

142 Rhodesia Herald, 4 February 1954; 6 February 1954; ibid., 9 February 1954.

143 ibid., 5 February 1954.

144 Ibid., 4 February 1954.

145 Interview with K. Mbombi, 22 January 1990.

146 Outpost, April 1954, p. 13.

147 Bulawayo Chronicle, 5 February 1954.

148 Ibid.

149 Rhodesia Herald, 9 February 1954.

150 Outpost, April 1954, p. 13.

151 Bulawayo Chronicle, 5 February 1954.

152 Ibid.

153 Todd Papers, “Notes on […] the Wankie Strike, February 1954”.

154 Rhodesia Herald, 6 February 1954.

155 Ibid., 8 February 1954.

156 Outpost, April 1954, p. 14; and Rhodesia Herald, 9 February 1954.

157 Rhodesia Herald, 8 February 1954.

158 S[outh] A[frican] S[tate] A[rchives] P[retoria], HEN710 vol. 12, High Commissioner, Salisbury, to Secretary for External Affairs, Pretoria, 10 May 1954, and attached correspondence.

159 Wankie Colliery' Company Ltd, Report of the Directors for the year ended 31st August 1954, p. 6. See also, Southern Rhodesia Legislative Assembly Debates, 5 May 1954, cols 772–774.

160 Rhodesia Herald, 4 May 1954.

161 SASAP, HEN710 vol. 12, High Commissioner to Secretary for External Affairs.

162 ZMM, File 361/1377, Chief Government Mining Engineer, Salisbury, to the Secretary, National Native Labour Board, 19 March 1954.

163 Southern Rhodesia Legislative Assembly Debates, 28 April 1954, col. 395.

164 Todd Papers, Cabinet minutes, 29 March 1954.

165 Wood, Welensky Papers, p. 404. See especially, Report of the Select Committee on the Subject of the Native Industrial Workers' Union Bill, March, 1956, passim: and Clarke, “Underdevelopment of African Trade Unions in Rhodesia”, p. 11.

166 Southern Rhodesia Legislative Assembly Debates, 5 May 1954, col. 772.

167 Todd Papers, “Notes on […] the Wankie Strike, February 1954”.

168 Ibid., Cabinet minutes, 23 March 1954.

169 Wankie Colliery Company […] Report of the Directors for […] 1954, p. 6.

170 Todd Papers, Cabinet minutes, 3 August 1954.

171 Ibid., “Notes on […] the Wankie Strike, February 1954”.

172 Interview, A. Kwibisa, Lusaka, 6 April 1990.

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175 Notable exceptions would include Burawoy, “The Hidden Abode of Underdevelopment”; and Guy, J. and Thabane, M., “Technology, Ethnicity and Ideology: Basotho Miners and Shaft-sinking on the South African Gold Mines”, Journal of Southern African Studies, 14 (1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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177 Interview with Mose Kayombo, Zambezi, 19 March 1990.