The History of the BSAP (Vol 1 – The First Line of Defence)
By Peter Gibbs
Published under the authority of the Commissioner of Police, S.F.S. Bristow, P.C.D (1972)

IT must have been shocking and indeed depressing for the Zimbabwe Heritage Trust (ZHT) team that was in Zvishavane recently to learn that the memory of the crucial part of the country’s history, the liberation struggle, was slowly being wiped away.
With some of the ZHT team members not only having witnessed the gruesome war, but taken part in it, it must have dawned on them that if something was not done very soon, future generations will not know it took the blood of thousands of people to bring freedom and independence.
Forget about the barrel of the gun and bullet that birthed the country’s independence, the ‘new’ version of history gives credit to the ballot.
But who should be blamed; the young generation for being ignorant or is it that those who witnessed that part of history have neglected their role of educating the young?
We all are to blame, it is our history and it belongs to us all.
If it vanishes like dew at daybreak we all stand to lose.
One thing for certain which the white man has beaten us to is putting his version of events into writing.
The white man has devoted resources, time and energy not just to tell the history of Rhodesia, the war, but even that of independent Zimbabwe.
This week the book under review is The History of the BSAP (Vol 1- The First Line of Defence) by Peter Gibbs.
It covers the period from the formation in 1889 of the original force known as the British South Africa Company’s Police (BSAP) till 1903 when the unit reorganised.
Reading through the book, the reader is given the impression that the BSAP was a ‘necessary’ tool that helped promote order and peace.
The white man had a mission when he set out to conquer Africa and nothing was to stop him in this quest.
Gibbs acknowledges that there was something really important about Rhodesia such that a police force was created first before the occupation of the land.
“It is a little unusual for the police force of a country to be created before that country actually exists,” writes Gibbs.
“The first troops of what were to become the British South Africa Company’s Police had been established and recruiting had been started outside the country, as early as November the previous year.”
One cannot fault Gibbs for portraying the likes of Cecil John Rhodes and Leander Starr Jameson as ‘heroes’ because to him yes they are his heroes who by hook and crook manipulated the African so that their kith and kin could exploit Africa.
However, as our side of history has taught us, there is nothing to celebrate Rhodes and company for they were villains who took over the country by brute force supported by superior firepower.
“The men who played their parts in history have been similarly treated: they have been applauded, condemned, sometimes even derided,” he writes.
“Even so, whatever merits or demerits have been attributed to them, their real motive has been unmistakable: to extend their national influence, to acquire for themselves what Africa has had to offer.”
Gibbs heaps praises on the BSAP for conquering the Southern African territory and defeating the natives during the Mashonaland and Matabele uprisings.
The BSAP might have been that conquering force Gibbs and company would want to honour and praise, but Zimbabwe Republic Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri aptly describes what the BSAP really stood for in his book The History of Policing in Zimbabwe.
“The BSAP was born out of Rhodes’ desire to colonise Zimbabwe as the armed wing of the British South Africa Company went through various transformational phases as it mutated from a fully fledged paramilitary force into a ‘professional’ racist apparatus of the settler regime,” writes Dr Chihuri.
For the indigenous people, Dr Chihuri’s narratives would be the ideal for the nation to hold on to and use as reference compared to Gibbs’ version.
Gibbs acknowledges that the history of Southern Africa has many interpretations and they depend on who is telling the story.
“The history of southern Africa, after the advent of the white man in 1652, has been written many times and has been given as many interpretations,” Gibbs writes.
“Especially where the British are concerned, the interpretations range from the heroic to the iconoclastic- from a blind reverence for honourable intentions to accusations of undiluted perfidy.”
For how long will we continue to fold our hands and watch while the white man continues to distort our history?
It is our country; the sons and daughters of the soil sacrificed a lot in the fight for independence.
It is time we tell our story by writing it, for the benefit of the coming generations.
That way our history will not be distorted by the likes of Gibbs and company.