HomeOld_PostsChief Wozhele dies...as blacks are evicted from Gatooma

Chief Wozhele dies…as blacks are evicted from Gatooma

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AT a meeting held by members of the Native Department in September 1950, it was decided that: “All families moved from Rhodesdale Estates would by force of circumstance be accommodated in the areas mentioned even if the size of what was regarded as an economic unit had to be reduced.” 

December 11 1950 was the deadline set by the Native Department for the final evacuation of people residing on the Rhodesdale Estates, Gatooma (now Kadoma). 

Accordingly, at short notice and in a show of excessive force, the evicted residents were all loaded into waiting lorries and transported unceremoniously into the inhospitably, hot, malarial lowlands of the Sanyati and Sebungwe areas. 

Most of the early evictees, or ‘new immigrants’ were settled in villages under their own village heads and headmen, but formally under the ultimate jurisdiction of indigenous chiefs. Among the first evictees from Rhodesdale were 470 families under Chief Wozhele and his headmen who were brusquely dumped in the Sanyati Reserve.  

Chief Wozhele

Chief Wozhele was one of the staunchest opponents of eviction from Rhodesdale.

Another group consisting 1 000 families under headmen Myambi and Chirima were forcibly settled in the Gokwe ‘Special Native Area’.  

The new areas created from unassigned area were designated as ‘Special Native Areas’ to distinguish them from the Native Reserves already provided for in the Constitution, but to all intents and purposes, the rights to land and methods of production within the special areas were no different than those in the native reserves.

The area set aside for habitation by those families relocated to Sanyati comprised very poor sandy soils that received little rainfall.  

Parts of it were tsetse-fly infested and crop cultivation in such an area was risky.  

It was here that the ‘immigrants’ dislodged from Rhodesdale were allocated land under the Native Land Husbandry Act (NLHA) of 1951.

In 1951, just before the second wave of evicted ‘immigrants’ was dispatched to Sanyati, Chief Munyaka Wozhele died.  

A deeply touching story of the pain, agony and anguish that accompanied the forced evictions was narrated in Sanyati by informants after his death; among them, the late Chief Wozhele’s grandson, who asserted the trauma caused by the eviction from Rhodesdale, led to his grandfather’s death.  

During the process of eviction, as the Chief helplessly watched the proceedings of hauling and wrecking his possessions, acquired from many years of hard work, onto the lorries waiting to take them to Sanyati, he crumbled under the weight of the pressure, collapsed and died on August 9 1951.  

Since he suffered from high blood pressure, he must have suffered a sudden and severe stroke. 

Unperturbed by his death, the Native Department’s officials still insisted the people should depart for Sanyati; and under an Acting Chief Wozhele appointed with effect from September 1 1951, they were moved to the Reserve. 

As if to add insult to injury, the acting producer of the Central African Film Unit in Salisbury (now Harare), was frantically preparing to film the movement of people to Sanyati.  

In his correspondence he did not hide his excitement at filming, “the movement of Africans from the Que Que (Kwekwe) District to the Sanyati Reserve, Gatooma district… likely to take place shortly.”   

Although the purpose of such filming was not clear, it is probable this must have been used for propaganda purposes.

Opposition to eviction persisted. 

Presumably, out of fear that resistance to eviction might escalate to unmanageable proportions; thus, in 1952, armed soldiers were deployed ‘to deal with the situation’.  

Huts and granaries belonging to persons who offered the last remnants of resistance were tied in chains and pulled down by lorries or bulldozers as the soldiers simultaneously went on the rampage destroying huts and forcing people to move to Sanyati. 

The scene was described in the words of one evictee: “Police, soldiers, guns and dogs were used to evict people and sacks were provided by government to pack goods and not every possession could be taken on board as a lot of personal belongings and a myriad other things were left behind, leaving an ineradicable sense of loss and deprivation in the minds of the victims.” 

The eviction must have undoubtedly been carried out with the approval of the newly-appointed Native Commissioner for Gatooma, as no dissenting voice was heard from him through his callous and reprehensible way of handling any resistance.  All the people from Rhodesdale had been moved to Sanyati by 1953, the third year and last wave of ‘immigrants’ was settled. 

The following year, on April 1 1954, the Acting Chief whose personal name was Ndaba was installed as the substantive Chief Wozhele. 

Just as Chief Rekayi Tangwena and his people had stood their ground when evicted from their area, the eviction from Rhodesdale was not taken without resistance. 

In 1950, Benjamin Burombo stepped into the Rhodesdale saga ferociously encouraging people to refuse being moved.  

His contribution marked the beginning of full-scale resistance to the calculated massive movements of persons to various other destinations throughout the country.  

Burombo, affectionately known simply as BB to his legion of supporters, came into the political limelight in 1947, when he formed his British African Workers Voice Association — The Voice, in Southern Rhodesia.  

It’s headquarters were in Bulawayo.  

The association’s aim was to unify Africans politically and to fight for better economic opportunities and social advancement.

Dr Michelina Andreucci is a Zimbabwean-Italian researcher, industrial design consultant, lecturer and specialist hospitality interior decorator. She is a published author in her field.  

For views and comments, email: linamanucci@gmail.com

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