By Maidei Jenny Magirosa

IN our traditional Shona or Ndebele society an agreement was reached through consultation and consensus.
The chief spoke to his advisors until they made a decision.
There was no paper work at all since we were a non literate society.
Then the white missionaries came and introduced writing and signatures as a sign of agreement to a decision made.
How did a signature using a thumb translate to a permanent handover of the country and all its mineral wealth, the way King Lobengula did when he signed the infamous Rudd Concession?
King Lobengula succeeded his father Mzilikazi in 1870.
At the height of his power, Lobengula ruled over some of Southern Africa’s richest and most sought after lands by the invading colonialists.
He commanded an incredible army modelled similar in discipline and structure to that of Shaka the Zulu.
In character, Lobengula was an astute and shrewd king.
Many prospectors, traders and hunters were moving rapidly up north from Johannesburg, crossing the Limpopo river looking for gold.
At first, Lobengula was very friendly to the missionaries, hunters and prospectors, thinking they were just visiting.
He allowed the London Missionary Society to establish centres near his capital at Bulawayo.
Robert Moffat was the first Christian missionary to arrive and he found a mission at Invati in 1858. 
Among some of Lobengula’s close friends was the hunter and naturalist Frederick Courteney Selous whom he called ‘a young lion’.
But Lobengula’s friendship to the European visitors did not last long.
He soon realised that they wanted to take over the land and the minerals.
At the same time, the missionaries wanted to capture African souls and convert people to Christianity.
Lobengula was very wary of the power behind the various nationalities seeking to make concessions to explore and hunt in the land.
Among the prospectors and explorers were concession hunters of various nationalities.
These Europeans carried armed artillery and Maxim guns and this was an increasing cause for concern for the King.
At one time, King Lobengula compared his position to that of a fly in front of a chameleon that “advances slowly and gently, one leg at a time until he finally darts out his tongue”. 
Through various tactics of diplomacy, Lobengula decided to protect his country by playing off the English, Germans, Afrikaners and Portuguese against one another.
There was an 1853 agreement between Piet Potgieter and Lobengula’s father Mzilikazi, protecting Boer hunting and trade interests in Matabeleland.
Then there was another treaty signed with a man from the Transvaal called Pieter Grobler in 1886.
During a later meeting, Grobler obtained from Lobengula a ‘peace and friendship’ treaty dated July 30, 1887.
Earlier on John Smith Moffat had been persuaded by Rhodes to talk to Lobengula to sign the Moffat Treaty.
The treaty stipulated that the Matabele were not to enter into correspondence or treaty with any foreign power without the authority of the British High Commissioner for South Africa.
In response, the Transvaal and Portuguese Governments objected to the Moffat Treaty while the British government remained adamant because they wanted to claim territory, having heard of the good land and gold fields up north.
The British feared Boer expansion in the north.
Their concern was given weight by Sir Sidney Shippard, the Bechuanaland commissioner and a friend of Cecil Rhodes.
He said the Boer advances were proceeding into gold rich and fertile Mashonaland, a place adjacent to Lobengula’s kingdom.
By that time, at least five major concessions had been signed from September 2 1880 to October 6 1888.
Lobengula would not entertain Rudd’s request.
As a representative of the Queen, Sir Sydney Shippard the British Commissioner for Bechuanaland came to meet with Rudd and his team.
Lobengula liked Sir Sydney Shippard.
Sir Sydney Shippard was joined by the missionary, Charles Helm, also trusted by Lobengula.
It was the combination of Charles Helm and Sydney Shippard that was responsible for convincing Lobengula that Rudd and his team offered Lobengula the best protection from any other treaties and concession seekers.
Helm helped translate the agreement to Lobengula including assurances that no more than 10 white men would be allowed to work in his country.
They also agreed that all their firearms would be surrendered on arrival.
Trusting the missionary and the Queen’s representative, at midday on October 30 1888, Lobengula put his elephant seal as a stamp and signature to the agreement. That is how he lost the land by giving “the complete and exclusive charge over all metals and minerals in his kingdom.”
Lobengula soon discovered that he had been tricked.
His efforts to send envoys to England to intercede with Queen Victoria were too late.
As noted by one historian, Lobengula had been, “duped into  signing a document that contained few of the assurances promised to him during the negotiations and one which was to lead to the annexation of his country five years later by Cecil John Rhodes and his British South African Company.”
Of all the treaties and concessions signed with Lobengula, the most critical one was the Rudd Concession because it gave wide sweeping commercial and legal powers on Cecil John Rhodes.
Cecil Rhodes then proceeded to obtain a charter that granted the British South Africa Company the right to operate in all Southern Africa including north of Bechuanaland (Botswana), north and west of the Zuid-Afrikaanse Republiek (Transvaal), and west of the Portuguese possessions, Mozambique.
At that stage of power, Rhodes was unstoppable.
He convinced the BSAC officials in London to finalise documentation and confer power political, administrative, economic and military authority over all land north of the Limpopo River.
This was granted by Queen Victoria in July, 1889 giving Cecil Rhodes justification to send the First Pioneer Colum of 180 men and 500 troops from Kimberley to Rhodesia in May 1890.
The Pioneer Column then claimed territory by raising the Union Flag and BSAC Flag at Fort Victoria.
Then they continued north to Fort Charter, ending their journey at Mount Hampden where Salisbury was eventually built.
They raised the flag at Cecil Square (now Africa Unity Square) on September 13, 1890.
Three years later The Union Flag was raised at Bulawayo, on November 4 1893.
In response to the theft of the country, both the Shona and Ndebele rebelled and that was the beginning of the Ndebele War, the Battle of the Red Axe and the First Chimurenga.
It took many years and the Second Chimurenga to outdo, the impact of the thefts caused as a result of the Rudd Concession.