In order to meet the labour and administrative needs of Matabeleland districts, an African native police force of 200 men was hastily recruited and trained in May 1895, writes Dr Felix Muchemwa in his book The Struggle For Land in Zimbabwe (1890 – 2010) that The Patriot is serialising.

IT was estimated that, by September 30 1894, European settler-farmers in the Bulawayo Fiscal District held more than 5 676 cattle on their farms (Stigger, 1980: p.29), but the earliest official figure was given by the Civil Commissioner for Matabeleland who, for the year ending March 31 1895, reported that 8 108 cattle were on 150 European-occupied farms.
The figure rose to 15 000 cattle by August 31 1895 (BSAC Directors’ Report 1894 – 1895) which was later adjusted to 30 000 in the British South Africa Company (BSAC)’s audited books of the Chief Native Commissioner for Matabeleland.
In a letter dated July 21 1897 from the BSAC to the Secretary of State for Colonies, the adjusted figure was communicated as being the correct figure of cattle on European settler-farms before the final distribution of Ndebele ‘loot’ cattle in December 1895.
The allocation in the final distribution in December 1895 was 17 020 and it brought the total number of ‘loot’ cattle on European settler-farms to 47 020.
Sir John Willoughby was separately allocated 8 850 cattle which brought the total number of Ndebele ‘loot’ cattle on European settler-farms to 55 870.
Allowing for 13 percent of the cattle stolen by European settlers by August 31 1895 (Stigger,1980), the number of cattle on European settler-farms rose to a staggering grand total of 58 321 by December 1895.
Also, allowing other chicaneries, the figure of 72 161 cattle on European settler-farms has also been touted.
By August 1895, there were 1 400 European settler-farms on 8 890 000 acres (3 556 000 hectares) of land, holding 58 321 Ndebele ‘loot’ cattle in Matabeleland.
In the absence of machinery to plough meaningful acreages of land, the same ‘loot’ cattle provided the necessary draught power that made crop cultivation possible. Thus, apart from cattle ranching, every district in Matabeleland started some form of cultivation, so that by 1898, the Belingwe District had 19 000 acres, Bulawayo District 8 000 acres, Bulilima District 20 000 acres, Gwelo District 4 400 acres, Insiza District 5 484 acres, Maluna District 6 000 acres, Umzingwane District 2 500 acres and Selukwe District had 3 000 acres of land under cultivation (Rhodesia, Volume 2, p. 232).
By 1898, land under cultivation had risen from an initial 1 000 acres to 96 000 acres and this was despite the 1896 war (BSAC Directors’ Report, 1894 – 1895, p. 67 – 68; Rhodesia, Volume 2, p. 232).
It should be pointed out that although by February 1896, on the eve of the First Chimurenga, there had been a drought as well as a locust outbreak.
There was nothing unusual about these occurrences.
Neither of these phenomena had any significant impact on European progress on the farms and mines.
After all, the economic boom in post-conquest Matabeleland had come about despite the drought and locusts.
Only rinderpest affected the herds of European-settler-looted cattle, causing some panic among the European settlers because of their little knowledge of viral animal diseases.
Nevertheless, tens of thousands of cattle survived the exaggerated epidemic.
On the eve of the First Chimurenga, Matabeleland was booming, not only in the city of Bulawayo, but also in the mining and administrative districts.
Capital in the form of land and stock was in abundance and so was potential labour in the form of young Ndebele males in the newly created ‘locations’.
The demand for labour on European settler-farms and mines suddenly skyrocketed in the early part of 1894, after mining and development companies had been successfully floated in London on the basis of their land holdings and gold claims (Stigger,1976:p.47).
The mushrooming of cattle ranching farms and cultivation as well as the registration of numerous mines and mining districts meant there was a need for a guaranteed regular labour supply.
The Land Commission of 1894, in its final report, directed that:
The BSAC without delay appoint officials entrusted with the duty of exercising supervision over the natives and cattle in the reserves and periodically reporting to the Land Commission or Judicial Commissioner. (Stigger, 1976: p.43)
As already stated, Matabeleland was divided into administrative districts run by native commissioners who, among other duties, were required to compel the local Indunas, headmen or chiefs to supply European settler farms and mines with ‘forced’ labour from their respective ‘locations’.
Consequently, in order to meet the labour and administrative needs of these Matabeleland districts, an African native police force of 200 men was hastily recruited and trained in May 1895.
This was in addition to an already existing native police force of 150 that had been recruited in April 1894 after the volunteers had been disbanded. (Stigger, 1980) Later on, another 350 to 400 men were recruited and trained for other provinces.
Two important points are worth noting regarding forced labour and the Matabeleland native police force recruitment.
On the one hand, when local Indunas, headmen or chiefs were compelled to supply European settler farms and mines with ‘forced’ labour, many of them put forward young Shona and Kalanga males.
On the other hand, the BSAC seems to have deliberately recruited native police from ‘friendlies’ (Shona and Kalanga collaborators) as a divide-and-rule measure that saw Native Commissioners use such native police to force the Enhla and the Zansi to work in the European settler mines and farms as the demand for labour increased in the increasing European mines and farms. (Gann, 1965: p.124)
An almost all-European mounted police assisted the Matabeleland native police in its duties, the most important of which was to raid Ndebele villages at dawn in search of young African males who were resisting ‘forced’ labour on the mines and on European settler-farms. (Stigger,1976)
Between October 1893 and March 1896, anything from 100 000 to 200 000 cattle were seized from the Ndebele.
Armed gangs of settlers and contingents of BSA Police equipped with Maxim guns roamed across the countryside, taking what they could.
Although the invaders were sometimes driven off by a show of force, refusal to reveal where cattle were hidden could end in death, as indeed it did for four women ‘shot in cold blood.’ (Phimister, 1988: p.16)
But the Africans who suffered most were those around Inyati in the Bubi District. In and around the Inyati Mines and Bulawayo District settler-farms native commissioner Graham the ‘bully’ treated Africans like slaves. (Stigger, 1976: p.51)
Graham the ‘bully’ of Inyati was the equivalent of Dunbar Moodie the ‘bully’ of Melsetter (Chimanimani).
He terrorised Ndebele people around Inyati so fiercely that there was massive desertion and depopulation of the entire district as young African males trekked north.
Many also escaped into Mashonaland, possibly into Chief Mashava’s territory in the Charter District where they told the most gruesome stories of the conquest of Matabeleland and the horrors of human enslavement carried out by Graham, the ‘bully,’ and his European kind.