SOUTHERN RHODESIA’s Veterinary Services Department was tentatively established in 1896 in an attempt to deal with frequent dis­eases that hampered growth of the beef industry.
The process occurred, however, at ­times deliberately and other times inadvertently, at the expense of long-established African livestock regimes.
Regulations and control of livestock movement were among the most important measures enforced for reducing the spread of diseases.
Quarantine fences were erected along the northern and north-eastern boundaries of Natal in efforts to seal the western border with the Orange Free State. The main Drakensburg Mountains passes were blown up to prevent traffic and movement of animals with Lesotho.
By May 1897, the borders with Transvaal, Orange Free State and Zululand had all been fenced; a number of internal fences were also erected, which in terms of various legislations, both white and indigenous farmers paid for. By June 1897, over 860km of fencing had been erected on areas bordering Natal.
The colonial administration north of the Limpopo also continued with stringent control of stock movement within the territory with the establishment of ‘quarantine stations’ at the border and the destruction of sick animals; later, all imported stocks were inoculated.
These preventive measures were ineffective. ‘Dipping’ (the complete immersion of the animal in a medical chemical to kill ticks), hardly helped. Within days, the ill-fated animals were covered again with new multitudes of ticks. The disease spread unrelentingly throughout the colonies of the Transvaal, Orange Free State and the Cape.
Enforced dipping became very unpopular with the people between the 1950s and 1960s due to the fact that many of their cattle were selectively confiscated during the process, often with the colonial authorities taking the best beasts for themselves.
Cattle and their dipping had become a highly sensitive political issue that was among the reasons for the struggle in Zimbabwe which reached its height during the mid-1970s.
Cattle and cattle husbandry were vital for rural livelihood, providing food and socio-security for the communities.
The loss of cattle disenfranchised the people and deprived them of their means to cultivate their land; the high mortality in livestock, together with control measures and restrictions placed on the movement of animals caused the decreased or loss of draught potential and in some cases loss of milk, meat, hides and manure production.
As a result, whole communities practically became destitute overnight.
By the end of the century, in 1899, the imperial colonial Government in southern Africa (now South Africa), initiated a policy of ‘restocking’ and ‘repatriation’ — putting the people back on the land — that resulted in an unforeseen increase in babesiosis (redwater) disease, killing tens of thousands of cattle and the appearance of other new mysterious diseases.
With the idea of replacing local herds with imported pedigree animals, the colonial Government initiated a scheme of importing pedigree cattle and stud horses (that died from an outbreak of African horsesickness), from overseas, including Catalan jacks (donkeys) from Spain to breed mules.
Immediately these animals succumbed to local conditions and diseases and died.
The idea was soon abandoned by the governing colonial authorities — with the exception of cattle imported from countries with similar conditions such as Argentina, Australia, Texas (in US), Madagascar and East Africa.
On November 11 1902, an outbreak of a virulent form of redwater spread from a consignment of cattle infected with the virus, imported from German East Africa (Tanganyika/Tanzania) that was subsequently ‘wiped out’, not before spreading a virus that consequently also spread through the Transvaal and across the region, including the northern territory of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).
Regulations for the control of diseases were drafted by the Stock Diseases Commission and enacted by the Transvaal Legislative Council on August 22 1897; emulated by The Chartered Company in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), which proved to be unpopular and mostly deleterious to the majority of indigenous people, who bore the brunt of the expenses by way of increased tax demands and a miscellany of other fees.
Under the Animal Diseases Ordinance (1902), stock owners were obliged under law to report the pres­ence of any disease among their herds to veterinary officers in their districts, police and native commissioners. By 1904, state cattle inspectors were granted powers to in­spect and detect diseases among livestock in their districts.
By 1910, cattle-dipping was made compulsory for all cattle owners, though it proved scarcely effective.
I recall my great-grandfather saying dipping was not the answer; many indigenous cattle succumbed to pneumonia as a result of dipping, which also caused various serious rashes to the underbellies of the cattle.
The imposition of dip fees, usually an annual fee between one and two shillings per head, had been imposed from the First World War (1914-1918) onwards on the local populace.
Legislative measures for the control of African cattle infections in colonial imperial Rhodesia included the Cattle Clearance Ordinance of 1920.
The ‘Tuli Circle’ in Tuli, remains a legacy of the rinderpest outbreaks of the late 18th early 19th centuries.
Here, the early pioneers, in agreement with local people, created a 10-mile quarantine grazing area, (16 km) with Tuli in the centre, in an effort to safeguard unaffected cattle.
The Tuli Circle, in the ‘Thuli Parks and Wildlife Lands’, forms part of the boundary between Zimbabwe and Botswana.
In addition to the Great Depression, the 1930s continued to be a decade of unremitting crisis for indigenous African people and cattle owners.
A sequence of natural disasters plagued them and recovery was further hindered by a number of statutory measures imposed by the settler authorities that were calculated to assist European beef producers at the expense of the indigene.
In April 1931, a foot-and-mouth epidemic swept through the south-eastern part of the country that sporadically tied up large numbers of cattle for six successive years, leading to serious over-stocking in the Tribal Trust Lands (communal areas), mainly in Fort Victoria (Masvingo) and Gutu districts.
A series of droughts early in the 1930s halted the increase of indigenous cattle herds.
A moderate rate resumed just before the outbreak of the Second World War and continued until the start of the enforced statutory destocking in 1945, by which time African-owned cattle rose from 55 155 in the previous decade to an estimated 1 911 644 herd .
As the people became more disenfranchised, it became increasingly difficult for them to be independent of white settler-communities for their survival, and powerless to withstand the interloper’s introduction and enforcement of discriminatory measures.
The introduction of hitherto unknown cattle diseases that ravaged cattle herds and caused the decimation of untold numbers of indigenous cattle was a contributory factor in the rapid decline of indigenous traditional societies.
As an increased number of males migrated to urban centres in search of employment, many rural areas were left in a bucolic state of poverty, decline and underdevelopment, further deepening the crisis and sense of despair among the people.
The cultivation of land, that since the introduction of the ox-drawn plough was undertaken by men, was once again being done by women who previously were confined to weeding and harvesting signalled a change in gender relations.
Women assumed more demanding roles that previously were reserved for men. The loss of cattle among indigenous communities also impacted negatively on the institution of lobola.
Land, a source of political conflict since colonisation in Zimbabwe, was another major impediment for indigenous cattle owners, especially those areas reasonably close to towns and the railway lines, where the majority were left to eke out a living in sub-standard and overcrowded areas.
Having failed to trace lucrative gold deposits in the vast claims of 1 500 acres allocated to them by the British South Africa Company (BSACo), individual white settlers and various estate and mining concerns formed by the settlers, turned their attention to agro-ranching, by disempowering the indigenes.
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, lecturer, 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. E-mail: tonym.MONDA@gmail.com