HomeOld_Posts‘Keeps’ fail to solve Smith’s problems

‘Keeps’ fail to solve Smith’s problems

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AS the liberation war escalated in 1976, Ian Smith addressed Churchill School pupils in the then Salisbury, Rhodesia, in 1976.
He was close to tears when he said: “We are fighting today for the same ideals and principle of 1940.
“It is a privilege of all time.
“It is better that we perish in battle than look at the outrage of our country.”
Some pupils opted to live with their outrage while others chose to join a highly dejected Rhodesian army.
It was an army which was not only founded upon British traditions, but which also used British tactics.
For example, the establishment of protected villages (PVs), which cut off supply of food to guerillas was based on the system which had been pioneered by the British in the Boer War and developed with great sophistication in Malaya.
The whole panoply of amnesties, executions and collective punishments had all been refined by the Rhodesian Army although with not much success.
Studies of the British concept of the PVs in Malaya and of the Portuguese aldeiamentos in Mozambique were conducted and a total of 228 ‘Keeps’ and PVs were established across the country.
As the Rhodesians panicked, the first PVs were constructed in Mount Darwin and spread to other areas throughout the country.
A curfew was declared in most areas and gates were locked at sundown.
Patrols were mounted throughout the villages.
The gates were unlocked at dawn and villagers were allowed to go about their business.
This, according to some villagers who were confined in PVs, provided them with an opportunity to mix and mingle with liberation war fighters where they provided vital information of what was needed to dislodge the Rhodesian Army.
Information gleaned from Rhodesian archives indicates there was Nyakasoro ‘Keep’ in Murehwa, Chimoyo ‘Keep’ in Mtoko, Mtoko Protected Village, Fort Dislocation, Charewa ‘Keep’ and Pachanza Protected Village in Mount Darwin.
In an attempt to counter the ‘fish and water’ guerilla tactic whereby the guerillas depended on the people for sanctuary, the Rhodesian Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1976 introduced PVs in war-zones, especially those along border areas.
The Rhodesians anticipated that PVs would cut contact between guerillas and the povo.
They believed this would deny guerillas material supplies, food and intelligence information.
In the long term, it was hoped PVs would pacify the povo.
In south-eastern Zimbabwe, several PVs were set up, but were never effectively managed, especially given the fact that civilians were not involved in their management.
The chronic deficiency of finances led to shortages of food as the diet was mainly dry fish, salt, sugar and water.
The PVs were often constructed too far from the peasants’ villages.
The most vivid example was the removal of the Chilohlela people away from their ancestral burial sites where they venerated their ancestors.
The two reasons why the Chilohlela people were relocated was first, to deny interaction with ZANLA guerillas and second, to establish the Malvernia-Crooks Corner minefield.
To this end, researchers noted that: “In Malaya the concept had worked because it protected a Malayan majority against a Chinese minority, whereas in Rhodesia the guerillas were sons of the village.”
The shooting of cattle, burning of granaries and the use of defoliants on crops in areas from which the peasants had been removed contributed to the suffering of the people in PVs as shortage of food worsened.
The Internal Affairs District Assistants (DAs) and the Guard Force (modelled on the Kenyan Emergency Kikuyu Guard) who protected the PVs were shunned for their morally decadent behaviour such as rape and prostitution.
The conditions in the PVs were exacerbated by the introduction of ‘dusk to dawn’ curfew and the ‘free firing zone’ regulations.
The curfews stipulated times when people in the PVs would be allowed to move. For example, at Mpagati people stopped loitering at 6pm until 6am the following morning.
The ‘free firing zones’ ranged from one to five kilometres. This was a kill-zone for people who violated this prohibitive regulation.
People were placed between seven and 10km away from the fields and these distances differed from one PV to another.
To worsen the situation of the povo, the imposed dawn-to-dusk curfew made proper tending of crops and cattle difficult, thus food became scarce.
In addition, the establishment of PVs impoverished people.
Many lost wealth such as farming equipment (ox-drawn and tractor drawn ploughs, shovels, picks, mattocks and hoes), livestock (goats, cattle, donkeys, pigs, sheep, ducks and chickens), cooking utensils, boreholes, homes, fences and orchards.
In 1976 when people were forced to relocate to the PVs, they were only permitted five bags of grain as well as clothes and no livestock or farm machinery.
Therefore, the PVs were characterised by violence, impoverishment, home destruction and acts of cruelty.
All the Native Purchase Areas of the Gonakudzingwa area, from farms number one to 29, were razed to the ground.
The people of Matibi II Reserve had their homes destroyed as everyone was compelled to live in PVs.
The PVs had poor sanitary facilities and other PVs had no sanitary services at all. Medical facilities were poor in most PVs except at Chikombedzi where a mission hospital remained operational.
Due to the absence of comprehensive medical support systems, most people who contracted diseases such as malaria, measles or whooping cough died.
When PVs were closed in 1978, people were allowed to return to their homes.
They found their homes and grain storages burnt down and their cattle killed, stolen or gone astray.
The establishment of PVs, ‘Keeps’ or Concentration Camps by Rhodesians was a failed attempt to separate the guerillas from the povo.

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