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Land in Zimbabwe and the constitution

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When the British reached Matabeleland in the 1880s, they deceived Lobengula into signing concessions that would grant them mining rights in the region.  

Lobengula was led to believe that the said treaty was a ‘treaty of friendship’ with Britain, and that no more than ten men would mine in Matabeleland. 

Thus, the Rudd Concession of 1888, fraudulently obtained from Lobengula, became the instrument through which colonialists obtained mineral rights in Mashonaland. 

Cecil John Rhodes, then the Prime Minister of the Cape and through his British South Africa Company (BSAC), had become obsessed with the idea of finding gold and developing a second Witwatersrand or ‘Second Rand’ in the colony.

The Rudd Concession provided Rhodes with the impetus to obtain a Royal Charter in 1889, which among other things, granted his British South Africa Company (BSAC), authority to administer and govern the region that encompasses present day Zimbabwe. 

The Charter was granted, notwithstanding Lobengula’s protestations that he had been deceived and repudiated the Rudd Concession stating that he would “not recognise the paper, as it contains neither my words nor the words of those who got it” 

In response to Lobengula’s protestation to this development, Queen Victoria replied that it “…would be unwise to exclude white men”.  

In actual fact, the document Lobengula signed stipulated that the mining companies could do “whatever they deemed necessary…” in their quest to extract wealth from the land. 

This deceptive treaty was a first step in the British acquisition of land, and it allowed Rhodes to persuade the British government to grant the British South Africa Company (BSAC), a Royal Charter over Matabeleland and its erroneously assumed “subject state”, of Mashonaland.

The loss of their land, and thus their livelihood, initially stimulated the Ndebele to rise up against the British in 1893; this was the First Matabele War, which ended with the defeat of the Ndebele in 1894. 

With this defeat and the death of Lobengula, Europeans migrated to modern-day Zimbabwe in larger numbers than before.  

In 1896, the Ndebele rose up again, this time with the Shona, in the Second Matabele War or First Chimurenga, as it is known today.  

They were defeated in 1897, and thereafter the whole of Zimbabwe became subject to the administration of Rhodes’ British South Africa Company (BSAC).

The 1893 defeat of the Ndebele led to the creation of the Gwayi and Shangani reserves: the foundation of the ‘Native Reserves’, the start of land appropriation and the germination of racial discrimination and oppression.

When Southern Rhodesia became a self-governing colony in 1923, a white minority government was established and it implemented laws and policies that kept land and other resources and means of production entirely in the hands of the minority white settlers. 

The indigenous population became economically and politically disenfranchised as a result, sealing the deal in the colonisation of Zimbabwe.

In the aftermath of the two ‘wars’, mass settlement to the newly-founded British colony of Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe) was vigorously encouraged. 

Rhodes and the colonial administration in the BSAC encouraged many whites to settle in the region.

In 1891, after the colony first came under British control, more whites gradually began migrating to Rhodesia, until 1945, in the aftermath of the Second  World War, when the number of white settlers to Rhodesia began to rise steeply, encouraged by the wide availability of land for settlement – all of which was taken from the  indigene, and the post-war economic prosperity being experienced at the time.

The new settlers, who came to settle in the region were diverse; while many of them were former British servicemen, others were immigrants from Eastern Europe and former service personnel from other parts of the British Empire, most notably British India.

The Rudd Concession was countered by the Lippert Land Concession of April 1889, which was also deceitfully obtained from Lobengula. 

This Concession reflected competing European interests and German interests and aspiration to acquire territory in Africa

With the connivance of the British Government and without Lobengula’s knowledge, the Lippert Concession was soon purchased by the British South Africa Company (BSAC).  

Nevertheless, by the time the company bought the Lippert Concession it had already granted extensive land awards to the foreign settlers in Mashonaland.

In 1920, the Reserves were gazetted by Order-in-Council, and their special status was enshrined in the (Rhodesian) constitution which established ‘Responsible Government’ three years later.

In 1926, the Carter Commission recommended the permanent segregation of all land; summarised in its own report accordingly: “… until the Native has advanced very much further on the path of civilisation, it is better that the points of contact between the two races be reduced”

The Land Apportionment Act of 1930, was based on the Carter Commission’s recommendation whereby 49 060 000 acres were apportioned as European Area for white settlers only, and 21 600 000 acres as Native Reserves with 460 000 acres put aside as Native Purchase Area, the only area, where Africans were permitted to purchase and own their own land.

The Land Apportionment Act was superceded by the Land Tenure Act then the Native Land Husbandry Act.   Each Act more repugnant to, and loathed by, the indigenes.

The Land Apportionment Act had no bearing whatsoever on the status of the Native Reserves. These were enshrined in the 1923 (Rhodesian) constitution.  

No amount of amendment or even the repeal of the Land Apportionment Act could have affected the 21 600 000 acres; but could be altered by simple vote in parliament as and when circumstances made it desirable. 

In fact, between1931 and 1962 many amendments were made regarding land.  For example, in 1954 an Amending Act was passed to permit a multi-racial university and other inter-racial organisations; to allow African advocates to have Chambers in the central area of Salisbury, and to “provide for black MPs and other (black) visitors to the Federal Capital” – i.e.: Salisbury/Harare.  

An amendment later permitted the operation of multi-racial hotels.

Over the years all the so-called ‘Unassigned Area’ was gradually allocated to other categories.  By 1964, as a consequence of changes, the distribution of land was such that the Tribal Trust Lands (formerly the Native Reserves) comprised of over 40 000 000 acres, whereas the European Area had contracted to    35 710 000 acres. 

This caused the Rhodesian Front Government to refuse any further transfers and decided that the time had come to ‘fix’ the distribution of land within Rhodesia on a permanent, segregated, basis.  

The Land Tenure Act, 1969 was then promulgated under the new (Rhodesian) republican constitution of that year.

Overtime there were many treaties, concessions and acts, but at no point did any of them make any concessions or compensation for the dispossessed, disfranchised, marginalised and dehumanised people of Zimbabwe.  

Dr. Michelina Rudo Andreucci is a Zimbabwean-Italian Researcher, Industrial Design Consultant, Lecturer and Specialist Hospitality Interior Decorator.  She is a published author in her field.  For Comments E-mail: linamanucci@gmail.com

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