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Poor Women and Nationalist Politics: Alliances and Fissures in the Formation of a Nationalist Political Movement in Salisbury, Rhodesia, 1950–6*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Timothy Scarnecchia
Timothy Scarnecchia
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Extract

The relationships between specific groups of women and men are explored during a formative period of urban nationalist politics, showing the failure of nationalists to incorporate women's demands, rather than the absence of women's struggles. It is important to view historical events as they occurred within larger processes of class formation and gender contestations, but it is no longer sufficient simply to prove the historical role of women in the nationalist movements themselves. Women's contributions still need to be written about, but gender history needs to be addressed as the relation between the sexes in order to avoid facile and rather confused accounts of class-and gender-defined struggles. This article first explores the Reformed Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union attempts to capitalize on an alliance with poorer women during the early 1950s. Secondly, new opportunities created by spatial and economic transformations in the urban economy in the 1950s are discussed in terms of a social mobility that led a minority of women to new social status. The Bus Boycott in 1956, led by the City Youth League, is then addressed as an event in nationalist history, but also as the interaction of women's class mobility and the violence which threatened it, either on a day-to-day basis or in the particular events of the Bus Boycott. The implications of these two separate events for the relationship of specific groups of women to nationalist politics, and nationalist historiography, are analyzed.

Type
New Perspectives on Southern African History
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , July 1996 , pp. 283 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

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11 For the East and West African trend in colonial discourse toward stabilized workers, see Cooper, Fred, ‘From free labor to family allowances: labor and African society in colonial discourse’, American Ethnologist, XVI (1989), 745–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the Southern Rhodesian case, see Johnson, David, ‘The impact of the Second World War on Southern Rhodesia, with special reference to African labour, 1939–1948’ (D.Phil, thesis, SOAS, University of London, 1989)Google Scholar; and Scarnecchia, Timothy, ‘The politics of gender and class in the creation of African communities, Salisbury, Rhodesia, 1937–1957’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Michigan, 1994)Google Scholar. The lack of attention in South African historiography to state discourse on specific African women's roles is criticized in Malcolm, Linzi, ‘Ruling relations: rethinking state and gender in South African history’, J. Afr. Hist., XXXIII (1992), 441–65.Google Scholar

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13 RICU, ‘Ndaba Tree’, Salisbury, 10 02 1946Google Scholar, NAZ HM SR 9/1/1/6.

14 For Mzingeli this lesson had been learned with the failure of the ICU in Salisbury during the 1930s after initial attempts at organizing the majority of migrant workers around issues that were largely the concerns of a small number of skilled workers and businessmen, such as builders and taxi-drivers. Interview, MrNyakauru, Shato, National Section, Mbare, 4 07 1992Google Scholar. Shato's Hotel and Domestic Workers' Union is the oldest continuing African worker's organization in Salisbury, established by Shato in 1929. Ruben Jamela, founder of the African Builders' Association and another of Rhodesia's most important trade unionists, had the same suspicion when drawn to the RICU as a young man. Interview, MrJamela, Ruben, Cranborne Park, Harare, 1 07 1992.Google Scholar

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17 ‘Interview with C. L. Mzingeli Harare Township’, Harare, 15 09 1970Google Scholar, by Professor Ray Roberts, Murray Steele and Tobias Mapuranga (University College of Rhodesia). The reason Mzingeli became the mediator for the government was that he had obtained a promise from Prime Minister Godfrey Huggins to recognize the RICU and other African trade unions as official representatives of African workers for the first time. Interview, MrJamela, Ruben, Cranborne Park, Harare, 1 07 1992.Google Scholar

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19 Interview, MrNhapi, Tobias, National Section, Mbare, 1 06 1992Google Scholar. This interview, and all others cited in this article, were interpreted by Joseph Seda and transcribed and translated by Simba Handiseni.

20 Mzingeli, Charles, ‘Oral evidence to the National Native Labour Board Commission of Inquiry into the Employment of African Women’, Salisbury, 1953Google Scholar, University of Zimbabwe Library Godlonton Collection [UZ].

21 Mzingeli, Charles, ‘Minutes of the RICU General Meeting’, Salisbury, 3 06 1951, RC NAD R7.Google Scholar

22 Ibid.

23 For the history of women's struggles in the rural areas and the importance of urban migration, see Schmidt, Elizabeth, Peasants, Traders, and Wives: Shona Women in the History of Zimbabwe, 1870–1939 (Portsmouth NH, 1992).Google Scholar

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25 Mzingeli, for his part, could not fail to admit that these women became the backbone of RICU support in the early 1950s. By 1952, the continued sweeps of the Township resulting in arrests of women now became a threat to the RICU itself, as two-thirds of its 6,000 members were women. The name of the RICU was threatened by association with some of these women, as shown in one case where a woman, when refused entry into the township beerhall, showed her Union card to the police ‘as the badge of her right to do what she liked’. According to Mzingeli, if the claim turned out to be true, the woman would be suspended from the Union. Mzingeli, , ‘Minutes of the RICU’, 3 06 1951.Google Scholar

26 Ibid. July 1951.

27 Ibid. 2 March 1952.

28 The Municipality was clearly worried by Mzingeli's capacity for organizing a protest against the N(UA)ARA. According to Mzingeli, during one Municipal police raid, a pregnant woman went into labor and gave birth while being detained by the police. Mzingeli told the woman's husband that he would investigate the matter further with the authorities; however, before anything more could be made of the case for political purposes, the Municipality had provided the couple with their own house and had instructed them to stay away from Mzingeli. Roberts, et al. , ‘Interview with C. L. Mzingeli’.Google Scholar

29 The government in Southern Rhodesia spent a great deal of effort in the early 1950s trying to convince the British government and British popular opinion that Southern Rhodesia's laws were more ‘just and humane’ toward the African population than was the case in the British colonies of Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia, and the apartheid segregation laws of South Africa. The amount of effort spent making this point should have been sufficient evidence of its contrary nature. As it turned out, however, Federation was approved and subsequently profited Southern Rhodesia far more than the two British colonies. For a useful contemporary critique of Southern Rhodesia's policies toward Africans prior to Federation written by a South African living in Salisbury at the time, see Mnyanda, B. J., In Search of Truth: A Commentary on Certain Aspects of Southern Rhodesia's Native Policy (Bombay, 1954)Google Scholar; and Lawrence Vambe's personal observations and analyses in Vambe, Lawrence, From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe (Pittsburgh, 1970).Google Scholar

30 Historical examples from African-American women's involvement in political and social movements present similar cases where poor women are often responsible for starting or radicalizing larger social movements. The emphasis on the male-dominated leadership in much of the historiography of African-American social and political movements has often obscured poor women's initial and vital contributions. See Davis, , Women, Race and ClassGoogle Scholar, and Hooks, Bell, Feminist Theory, from Margin to Center (Boston, 1984).Google Scholar

31 In 1946 there were 777 African women with certificates of service in Salisbury, and 1,894 in 1951. But these numbers were almost certainly low as many European employers of African women domestic servants evaded getting certificates of service for their employees, as they would then have been required to provide them with accommodation. National Native Labour Board, Report on conditions of employment of native women in certain industries (Salisbury, 1952), 10.Google Scholar

32 Ibid.

33 MrAitken-Cade, S. E., Tobacco Warehouse, Oral evidence to the National Native Labour Board's ‘Enquiry into the employment of African women’, Salisbury, 1952, UZ.Google Scholar

34 Mzingeli, Charles, Oral evidence to the National Native Labour Board's ‘Enquiry into the employment of African women’, Salisbury, 1952, UZ.Google Scholar

35 Interview, MrNhapi, Tobias, National Section, Mbare, 1 06 1992.Google Scholar

36 Carter, Herbert, ‘Hostel for African women and girls’, 08 1941Google Scholar, NAZ S2805/FNWS/60; and Mzingeli, Charles, Reformed ICU Newsletter, VII (1951)Google Scholar, NAZ HM RH 16/1/3/4. See Barnes, , ‘The fight for control’Google Scholar; and Schmidt, , Peasants, Traders, and WivesGoogle Scholar, for the context of men's earlier opposition to women's presence in urban areas.

37 The advocates of the women's hostel had wanted to build a number of hostels away from the ‘corrupting influences’ of the African Location and closer to where the women were employed in the European part of town. Municipal officials floated this idea among the various Town Management Boards (TMBs) representing the European suburbs, but TMB opposition led to building only one large hostel located in the Harare Township. Ibbotson, Pery, ‘Report of an investigation into…a hostel and club room for African females employed in Salisbury’, 1943, NAZ S2805/FNWS/60.Google Scholar

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40 The first 85 tenants in the hostel were employed as follows: domestic service 26; shops 10; charwomen 16; hospitals 27; industry 4; hostel staff 2. The relatively higher incomes of the first hostel occupants is reflected by the evidence that ten of these women were approved for the New Highfield Home-ownership scheme in 1956, with an additional nine former tenants moving into New Highfield as lodgers. City of Salisbury, Annual Report of the Native Administration Department for the Year 1955–1956 (Salisbury, 1956), 80Google Scholar; and ibid, 1956–7, 65.

41 According to women who lived in Harare Township at the time, many of the hostel tenants were divorced women and often single mothers who had no choice but to keep their children in the rural areas with relatives. Interviews with former ‘Old Bricks’ residents: Mount Pleasant, Harare, 06 1991Google Scholar; and National Section, Mbare, 30 04 1992.Google Scholar

42 AW, 5 02 1958.Google Scholar

43 Mr Nhapi went on to explain that this issue would come up at Reformed ICU meetings, and finally the hostel dwellers permitted escorted women to pass through the yards. Mr Nhapi said that they did this only after the residents of the Old Bricks section threatened in retaliation to keep the men out of their area. Interview, MrNhapi, Tobias, National Section, Mbare, 1 06 1992.Google Scholar

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45 Mzingeli, Charles, ‘Minutes of Reformed ICU Public Meeting’, Harare, 19 10 1952Google Scholar, NAZ RC NAD R7. For more discussion of Elena Solomon's role in township politics see Barnes, , ‘The fight for control’Google Scholar; and Scarnecchia, , ‘Politics of gender and class’, 284–8.Google Scholar

46 The history of the formation of the CYL and the SRANC remains contested in the secondary literature. See Bowman, Larry, Politics in Rhodesia: White Power in an African State (Cambridge MA, 1973), 45–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Chigwendere, I. T., White Aristocracy with a Black Proletariat (Lusaka, 1975)Google Scholar; Moore, David, ‘The ideological formation of the Zimbabwean ruling class’, J. Southern Afr. Studies, XVIII (09 1991), 484–95Google Scholar; Mothibe, T. H., ‘African labour in colonial Zimbabwe in the 1950s: decline in the militancy or a turn to mass struggle?’, Labour, Capital and Society, XXVI (11 1993), 226–50Google Scholar; Scarnecchia, , ‘The politics of gender and class’, 288–307Google Scholar; and West, , ‘African middle-class formation’, 399–407.Google Scholar

47 Calling a European administrator, especially a Native Commissioner, a ‘thief’ was a favorite rhetorical antic attributed to Mzingeli, Chikerema, Nyandoro and others. The significance was that rural people were expected to show deference by addressing Native Commissioners as ‘chief’, which the nationalists enjoyed substituting with the word ‘thief’, as in ‘Thief Native Commissioner’. Interview, Nhapi, Tobias, National Section, Mbare, 1 06 1992.Google Scholar

48 Ibid.

49 On the vanguardist model of ANC Youth Leagues imported from South Africa, see Lodge, , Black Politics.Google Scholar

50 American Consul General to US Department of State, Confidential US State Department Central Files, 7 03 1958Google Scholar. US Library of Congress, Mf93/347, reel 2, 745C.00/3–758.

51 There is much more research to be carried out on the development of the CYL and SRANC, particularly the link between their rural and urban components. Many CYL and ANC leaders worked tirelessly each weekend visiting the rural areas to recruit support. This support was forthcoming given the implementation of the Native Land Husbandry Act, which was destocking cattle and limiting pasture and cultivation for many peasants and farmers. This convergence of urban and rural discontent needs to be more clearly defined. For the political implications of post-Second World War economic transformations in the countryside, see Machingaidze, Victor, ‘Agrarian change from above: the Southern Rhodesian Native Land Husbandry Act and African response’, Int. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, XXIV (1991), 557–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Phimister, Ian, ‘Rethinking the reserves: Southern Rhodesia's Land Husbandry Act reviewed’, J. Southern Afr. Studies, XIX (1993).Google Scholar

52 Nyandoro, George, ‘Testimony given at meeting of officials of Native Department with representatives of African organisations in Salisbury’, 21 09 1956, NAZ S2819/9.Google Scholar

53 See Green, , ‘The Salisbury Bus Boycott’Google Scholar; and Scarnecchia, , ‘Politics of gender and class’, 308–16.Google Scholar

54 Mr Johnny Maoko, a manual laborer at Lever Brothers at the time, remembered walking to work in the morning from the hostel in Harare, and seeing new men being hired to replace those who stayed away during the boycott. After work, he hurried home to assist the gangs of protesters who were beating up men who had gone to work. Interview, MrMaoko, Johnny, National Mbare, 24 02 1992.Google Scholar

55 Interview, MrNhapi, Fidelis, Mablereign, Harare, 10 04 1992.Google Scholar

56 Ibid.

57 Ibid.

58 Daily News [DN], 17 09 1956.Google Scholar

59 Ibid.

60 Nyandoro, George, ‘Letter’ [n.d.]Google Scholar as quoted in Green, , ‘The Salisbury Bus Boycott’, 3.Google Scholar

61 DN, 18 09 1956Google Scholar. The Salisbury Native Administration Department listed the material damage at the hostel as: ‘233 window panes broken, 47 doors smashed and locks broken, 10 door panels broken, 25 vent grills broken,…’ etc., Salisbury Native Administration Department, Annual Report for the Year 1956–57 (Salisbury, 1957), 65.Google Scholar

62 DN, 18 09 1956Google Scholar. The Nyasaland Government Representative complained to the Chief Native Commissioner about the allegations that most of the rioters were Nyasas. The Representative claimed, according to police reports, that ‘the Southern Rhodesian and PEA [Portuguese East African] natives arrested during the riot outnumber the total of Nyasas arrested by 5 to 1’. He also claimed ChiNyanja is spoken as well by Africans from PEA and Northern Rhodesia. AW, 19 09 1956.Google Scholar

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66 AW, 3 10 1956Google Scholar. Mzingeli's own experiences with migrant workers had taught him how difficult they were to control, thus his public critique of the CYL can be interpreted as part of his rather bitter campaign in the African press to smear the reputation of its leaders, just as they were in the process of doing to him. In a 1970 interview, Mzingeli expressed the sorts of prejudice, fear and respect which he held for migrant workers over the years – in this case Shona men from the Eastern regions bordering Mozambique: ‘The Manyika were worthy – they were very strong chaps… a very strong people. They are easily organised and they are very emotional, and one had to be careful in working with them. Because if you tell them to put petrol bombs in that window, they will do it. So one had to control them – they are really destructive from these other tribes, in braveness and I must say, give them that credit. And if you are not a good leader, they stone you…’ Roberts, et al. , ‘Interview with C. L. Mzingeli’.Google Scholar

67 AW, 26 09 1956.Google Scholar

68 Shamuyarira, Nathan, Crisis in Rhodesia (London, 1965), 43.Google Scholar

69 Nyagumbo, Maurice, With the People: An Autobiography from the Zimbabwe Struggle (London, 1980), 105.Google Scholar

70 The relationship of rape to male dominance, both privately and publicly, is expressed by Catharine MacKinnon as follows: ‘Sexuality is a form of power. Gender, as socially constructed, embodies it, not the reverse. Women and men are divided by gender, made into the sexes as we know them, by the social requirements of het-erosexuality, which institutionalizes male sexual dominance and female sexual submission. If this is true, sexuality is the linchpin of gender inequality’. Rape, therefore, is the ‘abuse of sex’. MacKinnon, Catharine, ‘Feminism, Marxism, method, and the state: an agenda for theory’, in Keohane, N. O., Rosaldo, M. Z. and Gelpi, B. C. (eds.), Feminist Theory: A Critique of Ideology (Chicago, 1982), 19Google Scholar. For a relevant discussion of the class and race politics of sexual violence toward African-American women see Davis', Angela chapter, ‘Rape, racism, and the myth of the Black rapist’, in her book, Women, Race, and Class (New York, 1981), 172–201.Google Scholar

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72 The Highfield branch of the SRANC ‘Women's League’ elected its first 11-member executive in December 1958. The executive included the ‘chairman’, a 35-nyear-old woman from Nyasaland, Mrs Mupandamwara; Mrs E. Mushonga-wife of the Treasurer General of the SRANC-as ‘vice-chairman’; Mrs Murape (general secretary); Mrs Makwangwara (vice-secretary); Mrs Chavunga (treasurer); Mrs Chiota (organizing secretary); and Mrs Kadani (assistant organizing secretary). Four other members were elected, including ‘Mrs George Nyandoro, wife of the vociferous Secretary General of the Congress’, and Mrs Augustine Mutyambizi, Mrs Mwaera and Mrs Mugadza. DN, 2 01 1959.Google Scholar

73 Chapupu [Witness], 06 1952.Google Scholar

74 The image of the woman as wife in the movement, however, was to change as the militancy of the movement developed in the 1960s. How much this image changed and how it specifically reflected social transformations in gender relations is an area of important future research. The literature on women's involvement in the liberation struggle has thus far concentrated on the contributions of individual women, while also emphasizing the roles of rural women and women in leadership. See, for example, Weiss, Ruth, Women of Zimbabwe (Harare, 1984)Google Scholar; Stauton, Irene (ed. and comp.), Mothers of the Revolution (Bloomington, 1991)Google Scholar. For a more specific social analysis of gender, class and age differences in rural mobilization during the Liberation War, see Kriger, Norma, Zimbabwe's Guerrilla War: Peasant Voices (New York, 1992).Google Scholar