3. Severe Conflicts: Frustration-Deprivation
4.2. Ethnicity: pre-Colonial Era – Narratives of ‘Victor and Vanquished’
4.3.3. Urban Violent Clashes of 1929 and 1960
Hints of ethnic hostilities spilled over in two different events in more recent colonial history. The first incidence was the faction fighting that broke out in Bulawayo City in 1929 between what appeared to be Ndebele residents and the new influx of Shona migrant workers. The second occasion surfaced in the urban gang violence that subsumed the city of Bulawayo and its surrounds in 1960. In an attempt to deflect the classic ethnic divide theories (usually subscribed to by the colonial regimes), both of these incidences
354 Sibanda, E. 2004: 25.
355 Cobbing, J. 1977. “The Absent Priesthood: Another look at the Rhodesian Risings of 1896-7”. Journal of African History, 18 (1).
356 Beach, D.N. 1986. War and Politics in Zimbabwe, 1840-1900. Gweru: Mambo Press.
133 were initially cast in terms of economic injustices exploding into violent ‘class
struggles’.357 However, more recently there has been renewed credence given to the xenophobic ingredient of this urban violence358 coupled with a deviation in the direction of explaining this violence as the collision of ethnic antagonisms and the contestation over control of social capital. In this case, ‘control of social capital’ means the power to influence social infra-structure, relational networks, trends that mobilize the people and public recognition or status definition in society at large. 359
In summary, colonial narratives were continually being constructed and deconstructed; evolving around shifting alliances and imagined betrayals between the whites and Africans and between the Africans themselves; Ndebele and Shona. The result was a constant flow of intrigue concerning who was loyal to whom, and who was not.
The Colonisers became masters at breeding suspicions and subsequent accusations of traitors and informants, of rebels and rabble-rousers. This primordial tactic of ‘divide and rule’ returned with a vengeance in the form of labelling ‘dissidents’ and ‘heroes’ during the Gukurahundi violence in the 1980s. Hence, this research asserts that the colonial narratives of ‘splintering and subjugation’ (which were nested in the pre-colonial meta- narratives of Ndebele as ‘victor’ and Shona as ‘vanquished’) were partially successful as they effectively heightened the ethnic competitiveness that set the stage for actual inter- ethnic violence to be perpetrated. The ‘stage’ of ethnic superiority complex was not only set, the ‘actors’ were now armed with the necessary ‘scripts’ and ‘props’ to act out their convictions and grievances. It was this posture of ethnic polarization or ‘combat
readiness’ that catapulted the violent clashes that transpired internally between ZAPU/ZIPRA and ZANU/ZANLA during the time of the Liberation Struggle.
4.4. Ethnicity: Liberation Struggle Years -‘Sons of the Soil’ - ‘Sons of Segregation’
At the inception of the modern-day liberation movement, there was a unified story verbalised in the hearts and minds of both the Ndebele and the Shona vocalising a dream,
357 Phimister, I. and van Onselen, C. 1979. “The Political Economy of Tribal Animosity: A Case Study of the 1929 Bulawayo Location ‘Faction Fight’”. Journal of Southern African Studies, 6 (1): 1-43.
358 Msindo, E. 2006. “Ethnicity, not Class? The 1929 Bulawayo Faction Fights Reconsidered”. Journal of Southern African Studies, 32 (3): 429-447.
359 Ranger, T. 2006. “The Meaning of Urban Violence in Africa: Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia, 1890- 1960”. The Journal of Cultural and Social History Society 3 (2): 218.
134 a future view of freedom from white oppression for the African peoples living in
Southern Rhodesia. As the African nationalist movement took root and formalized its organizational structure under the initial banner of the African National Congress (ANC) in 1957360, they referred to themselves as the ‘Sons of the Soil’.
“…[in] an article which was written by or they interviewed James Chikerema, who was ZAPU vice president, and I agree with what he says – ZAPU has become very powerful as a Nationalist movement by 1962, it was formed in December 1961. By 1962 it was very powerful and there was unity, you know,
‘the son of the soil’ was the slogan.”361
This patriotic, revolutionary slogan invoked a visceral sense of African nationalism at two levels. At one level it spoke of a deep sense of ‘belonging’, of a people formed out of the dust of the earth with an intimate connection to the soil of Africa. This spoke volumes to a people who felt dislocated, displaced in their own country of origin. At another level, it was a nuanced referral to the African’s rightful claim to the land, which had been stolen from them by the coming of the white man, resulting in the issue of land redistribution becoming a central pillar to the pan-African politico-economic platform. This was an alluring vision, a mobilising call to action that drew both Ndebele and Shona to join forces in the Liberation struggle.
“Yes, true. They would fight in union and they were doing that in union, until something happened somewhere. Because…each group that came, it didn’t matter, Shona or Ndebele, I mean each group of fighters – they wanted to
eliminate the enemy who was the white man…the Smith regime. Until in the end when we had our independence, than then they talked about eliminating Nkomo.
But before that, they were in a united front against the White man – that’s what we experienced in the war.”362
However, this rallying battle cry of unity, the ‘Sons of the Soil’ soon became a lament of the ‘Sons of Segregation’ as the struggle movement split apart (between ZAPU and ZANU) in 1963.
360 Martin, M. 1979. The Past is Another Country – Rhodesia 1890-1979. Glasgow, UK: Andre Deutsch Publishers, 11. The ANC, which was banned in 1959, morphed into the National Democratic Party (NDP) in 1960. After the banning of the NDP, the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU) was birthed in 1961 only to be banned in 1962.
361 Interview: PN1, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe - 30/03/07 – (Ndebele historian, author and archivist).
362 Interview: NM1, Mtshabezi, Zimbabwe – 28/06/06 – (Female Ndebele Peace Activist working with rural Matabeleland women).
135
“ZAPU was for everybody. We had Chinamano…we buried Zimbabwe-Rhodesia with Chinamano, a Shona, ZAPU was not like that. ZAPU has Shonas, Ndebeles, Karangas, all the types in Zimbabwe. Only ZANU was for Shona.”363
This separation would remain a ‘thorn in the flesh’ of the nationalist movement for decades to come. The reasons for this political divorce range from conflicting leadership styles, divergent political strategies to personality jealousies and vendettas:
“Dissatisfaction with Nkomo was rife. His opposition urged a more confrontationist approach to the Rhodesian government and wanted a new
political party; they were tired, too, of what they regarded as Nkomo’s vacillation over the years.”364
“Obviously they [Rhodesian government] know Nkomo has no foresight, no plans, and so they will prefer to deal with a muddle-headed opponent. It is much easier…Nkomo sat around and waited for some sort of outside help. We want to teach our people to be dependent on themselves…Nkomo is weak, cowardly, evasive, corrupt…”365
“His [Nkomo’s] ideas came under heavy criticism from Robert Mugabe his Secretary General, Julius Nyerere, then president of Tanzania, and his once trusted friend, Ndabaningi Sithole, who it seems were now becoming alarmed by Nkomo’s popularity at home and abroad. ZAPU split along ethnic grounds a year after its formation…”366
This prevailing antagonism between ZAPU and ZANU was not only contained in the upper echelons of political leadership, it overflowed into the rank and file members of both political camps. In October of 1963, it was reported that “there have been vicious threats and some fighting between ZANU and PCC [the organization that formed after the banning of ZAPU]”367. Then again in November of 1963, an angry violent throng of PCC supporters numbering up to 4,000 surrounded the Barbourfields Sports Stadium in Bulawayo shouting insults at the small group of ZANU supporters who had huddled together inside the Stadium to wait for the arrival of their leader, Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole. Sithole did eventually appear accompanied by heavy security and police protection:
363 Interview: JD1, Johannesburg, South Africa – 15/09/06 – (Female Ndebele activist advocating for women and refugee rights)
364 Couzens, T. (ed.) 1981. Zimbabwe: The Search for Common Ground Since 1890 – From the pages of DRUM Magazine. Harare: NatPrint, 101.
365 Couzens, T. (ed.) 1981. (Interview with Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole - October 1963): 187.
366 http://www.bulawayo1872.com/history/nkomoj.htm - (17/03/09).
367 Couzens, T. (ed.) 1981: 93.
136
“Sithole arrived with a formidable police escort, with all the windows of his car smashed and with one of his lieutenants in bandages. The little band [of
followers] gave a ragged but jubilant cheer. Sithole explained amid the cheers that he had been stoned by ‘Nkomo thugs’ but in the true spirit of dedication had pressed on regardless.”368