By Dr Tony Monda

HAVE you ever wondered why Beatrice Road Infectious Diseases Hospital (Nazareth), the industry and Mbare metropolis are next to each other?
Why the same pattern is repeated in every early colonial African conurbation site that positioned the industrial factories near Mufakose, Highfield, Mabvuku, Tafara and many old former ‘townships’.
Why is it, that there are no infectious disease hospitals in Borrowdale, Mount Pleasant, Highlands or Avondale built in the early days of our colonial industrialisation?
The answers are simple: Chest and lung infections and industrial pollutant induced Tuberculosis (TB) in the early years of industrialisation became the main killer of African people who provided the labour force in the industries and mines-for the settlers.
Therefore, Beatrice Infectious Hospital was strategically positioned to be in the high-density-industrial areas of the city to counter the diseases caused by pollution- that they, (the colonialists) knew would compromise our health.
These clinics also facilitated the introduction of modern Western medical facilities and the selling and commerce of medicine.
Why else?
The Housing Act of Rhodesia stipulated that African people were housed in crowded spaces in order to be kept ‘subservient’.
The Rhodesian Housing Act also facilitated that the indigenous people would provide cheap labour for their burgeoning industry.
What we have not questioned or examined are the debilitating effects living next to an industry has had on our physical, mental and socio- psychological health.
Sociological studies and surveys pertaining to the behaviour of people living in crowded spaces reveal that when a human being is subjected to a confined space they tend to become wholly aggressive and feel physically, spiritually and psychologically oppressed.
The effect of crowded housing also propagates the rapid spread of contractable diseases: cholera, measles, small pox, TB, etc.
Fertile lands of the northern suburbs were deliberately apportioned as farms for the settlers and the native was confined to Tribal Trust Lands and Native Reserves (kumaruzeva) which created a socio-psychological divide between urban and rural spaces.
It was not uncommon in the two decades before independence (1960 – 1970s) for people to commute every month to their rural areas to bring provisions or simply to touch base with their families and experience the countryside space of their ancestors.
Racial segregation was established as early as 1892, when the Salisbury Sanitary Board established a location for ‘huts’ to be built for African workers residing in the town.
In 1900 only 25 huts existed; the municipality (established in 1897) began replacing the huts with a new urban housing scheme.
In 1907 a location of 25 hectares was established four kilometres from the town, next to the (Pioneer), cemetery slaughter poles and night soils disposal works (sewage) – Harare Township, now known as Mbare.
Thatched corrugated iron Kaytor huts and a brick barrack block were built for 328 men, away from the town, “in consideration of the health and security of the Europeans”.
The huts were laid out in rows and numbered.
The first beerhall was established in 1913; and all other sources of African brews were prohibited.
This pattern was perpetuated in many African townships throughout (Rhodesia) now Zimbabwe.
Shops for the convenience and benefit of the indigenous people in urban areas too, were disallowed until 1939.
In the south, urban Bulawayo was declared a town on June 1, 1894 by the British South Africa Company expansionist forces who had invaded Matabeleland in 1893.
So rapid was the expansion in Bulawayo that by 1897 it was declared a municipality.
In the same year, the first railway was built-stretching from Mafeking in South Africa, thus linking Bulawayo all the way down to Cape Town where Rhodes had established his headquarters.
By 1943, Bulawayo was declared a city, following the provision of water and electricity services and an extensive road network as well as the establishment of prospecting and mining activities.
Bulawayo was soon established as the industrial hub for the country.
African townships were also established on the periphery of industrial sites to serve the railway and other industries.
As the working population increased, the shortage of ‘location housing’ grew.
In 1930 the Land Apportionment Act divided the country into ‘African’ and ‘European’ areas.
Population pressures in the rural areas and the need for ‘cash’ employment resulted in large numbers of African squatters on the margins of towns.
As a result, the government at that time established ‘Native Settlements’on former farms closer to the towns.
Among these settlements was the Native Settlement at Highfield, nine kilometres from Harare, initially allocated for 2 500 people.
To be continued
Dr. Tony Monda holds a PhD. in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA (Doctorate in Business Administration) and Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. He is a writer, musician, art critic, practicing artist and Corporate Image Consultant. He is also a specialist Art Consultant, Post-Colonial Scholar, Zimbabwean Socio-Economic analyst and researcher.