Few people realise that the native population of Zimbabwe is made up of the bits and pieces of a large number of tribes, all of whom have a history of migration from some other part of the continent of Africa. The largely known tribes are the Shona and the Ndebele. There is abundant evidence that for many centuries this country was subjected to waves of migration first from the north and in more recent times from the south and also in invasions by people from outside Africa, possibly more in the nature of trading ventures and acquisition of slaves than territorial conquest.

The Bushmen, Amasile, Abatwa or Watwa, probably in many respects the most culturally intact tribe and in some respects are considered to be the most backward tribe, we find that these small but sturdy people who are credited with having roamed over most of southern Africa and who are alleged to be the artists of the superb paintings of animals, humans and hunting scenes in nearly every cave in the country, still cling to their nomadic life.

Their home is the wild game country on the western border of Zimbabwe, they live in the open without huts or other dwellings, sheltering when desired under an overhanging branch. They do not cultivate crops and their diet consists of wild roots, berries, fruit, bird and game meat, fish, snails, mushrooms, honey and grass seeds.

They are expert hunters, using the bow and arrow and assegai. They can run down an eland or giraffe and,in fact, the dowry fur a wife is a live eland or giraffe driven to and killed at the bride’s camp. A mother carries her child strapped in a skin on her back facing the direction she is coming from so as to give her warning of any follower be it beast or man. The language is monosyllabic with a profusion of clicks, for example mother is ma, father is ba, elephant is zho, some of the place names are fascinating, e.g., Cansikulu, Cgoboholo, Lingombe Lishanku, Sholo Len Zho.

They wander around the veld in ones and twos, rest and sleep anywhere, completely unperturbed by lions, elephant or other wild game. I was once tracking an elephant in the Gwayi (formerly Gwaai) reserve when I noticed a slight movement at the foot of a broken mopani tree, about fifteen yards from the elephant track. Investigation revealed an old granny who had spent the night alone sheltering from the heavy rain under this tree and was quite unconcerned about the elephant which had passed by her some twenty minutes earlier. I asked her what she was doing there and she said this was her home because the nearby pan provided her with water and snails sufficient or her daily diet. Now and then her son would visit her and supplement this diet with roots, bulbs, fruits or perhaps if he was lucky a tortoise or a piece of porcupine meat.

One thing about these Bushmen that impressed me was their very detailed knowledge of vast areas, and their ability to locate their friends scattered and roaming over this wide area. I knew many of them personally. They could always tell me where any member of the tribe could be located. It was usually something on the lines of “Yes, Gumbo, he is in the Bambadza pan area. he is catching some wild duck there, you will find him in the thicket near the big mtswili tree on the sunset side of the pan. Next week he will be at Manzituba pan“.

Written by W. H. H. NICOLLE

 The Wesleyan Methodist Mission in Mashonaland began operations in September, 1891, the staff consisting of one English minister and one native teacher. By 1899 there were seven Wesleyan minsters and over a dozen evangelists. Church services in Salisbury (now called Harare) were commenced in a very primitive fashion, first in a hut, and then expanding in various stores and hotel dining-rooms. In March, 1892, Dr. Jameson laid the foundation stone of the present church—the first brick church in Rhodesia—and since then the work has become firmly established in this part of the country. Early in 1895, Methodist services were begun in Bulawayo. Through the kindness of the magistrate, the congregation worshipped every Sunday in the Court House, but as soon as possible a brick- lined iron church was erected.

Bulawayo Methodist Church, 1897

This, however, was soon found to be too small, and a valuable site was purchased in the main street for a larger building. In July, 1897, the foundation stone of the present church was laid by Mr. Rhodes,and a few months later the building was opened for service. It was built to accommodate six or seven hundred persons, and the total expenditure was nearly £7,000, a fact which speaks well for the enterprise and energy of the fledling young and growing methodist community. In 1888, the first steps were taken to start a Methodist cause in Mutare, a minister was appointed, and soon it was hoped that a suitable church would have been be erected.

Churches were also built at native locations, both in Harare and Bulawayo, Mission stations have been established in various parts of Mashonaland, and vigorous efforts were  made to induce the natives to live on a higher moral and social level. Notwithstanding many drawbacks, this work has been attended with considerable success.  This responsibility was fully recognised by the Rhodesian government. Land was granted for Mission purposes, as well as town plots for the erection of English churches, and in every way the officials showed their sympathy with all efforts for the advancement of the people generally.

The industrial side of Mission work came into greater prominence every year, and it was the intention of the Wesleyan Church to establish a training institution at their Mission station in Gambo’s District, Matabeleland.  The line of thinking that of being that the native must be taught the necessity of discipline and the dignity of labour, as part of the gospel of the New Testament, and thus he will gradually develop into a contented and useful citizen, and become a valuable factor in the commercial life of a new colony. 

As is well-known and documented, the progress of Mission work was been much retarded by plague and wars which were known as the Matabele and Mashona rebellion. During the last revolt in Mashonaland, two Wesleyan evangelists lost their lives, one named Molele being killed whilst bravely trying to rescue a wounded white man. This deed of heroism had a widespread influence, for it showed the natives in actual life the self-sacrifice of practical Christianity.

The mission of the London Missionary Society among the Matabele may be said to have commenced when Robert Moffat first visited Mzilikazi, on the banks of Moriko river, in 1829, shortly after the King and his tribe had settled in that district after their migration from Zululand. Moffat paid a second visit to them in 1835 and stayed with them two months, and the King agreed to receive missionaries to teach his people. 

Before long, however, the immigrant Boers and the Matabele came into contact, and Mzilikazi and his warriors began their forward march into the wilderness, ultimately finding their way to what has since been known as Matabeleland. Dr. Moffat visited Matabele in their new home in 1854, and was very heartily welcomed as an old friend.

From that time down to the present a staff of missionaries has constantly been maintained in the country. The outward success of the mission during the rule of Lobengula was exceedingly small. Christian teaching conflicted entirely with the most cherished ideas of the people and aroused the suspicion of the autocratic King. Not a few were known to have received Christianity, and not a few of the children were taught the elements of knowledge, but it was impossible to carry on schools with any prospect of permanence, and an open confession of Christianity meant death. With the change of Government the mission and the people enjoyed a new freedom, which it was hoped would have proved to profitable. 

By 1899 four stations were occupied;  these are hope fountain, Centenary Farm, south-west of Hope Fountain, and Bulilima, among the large Kalanga tribe on the west side of the Tegwane river. The London Society tried to establish an Industrial Training Institution at Hope Fountain, being convinced that, if the natives were to become permanently useful under the new conditions of life, it would have been quite as important that they should learn habits of regular work and acquire the mastery of tools as that they should learn to read and write.

Perhaps the greatest triumph over the resistance by blacks to move to the locations {also known as lokishi by the locals} came with the authorities’ success in moving churches to the locations by 1910.
In the early years of the 20th century, a large number of Shona and Ndebele Africans were becoming Christians. Meetings of these early black Christians were held in the town but soon the white authorities would have none of it.

Demands for the removal of these Christian church meetings from the town soon led to their eviction. The first to be affected was the Anglican church. The Anglicans had been having services since 1899 in a wood and iron building near the old cathedral along 2nd street in the then Salisbury town {now known as Harare}. Due to increase in membership and the need for an African church, the council in 1905 had allocated land for a new church, ST Michaels, outside the township near then Umtali road.

Soon the authorities were dissatisfied by this site and started advocating for a new one. This was because Africans were still shunning the new location settlement created in 1907. To encourage Africans to settle in the location, the council then made it compulsory for all missionary churches to be located within the location. In addition, missionaries were offered plot to engage in missionary work and among the first to accept these new offers were the Salvation Army and Presbyterians.

However, security concerns soon forced the council to rescind its decision of having the churches within the location. This was after realizing that in Bulawayo, the location which had a population of 700 people was attracting as much as 2000 people all coming to attend church services. The council felt that this was giving strangers a chance to enter the location in the guise of attending church services.

As a result a church reserve was created in 1909 outside but adjoining the location. Despite opposition to this new development, the church reserve came into being and the Catholics were the first to move to the reserve.

In 1910, the Presbyterians laid out plans to build an African church and school in the Kopje area. This was much to the ire of the white living in that area. In reaction to these plans, Kopje residents sent a petition to the council arguing that church services by the new church would render the their residence unsuitable for their families. The Presbyterians were urged to shelve their plans and as a compromise they were allowed to build on the southern side of the railway station not far from the location. Later on, this site became the headquarters of the Presbyterian church.

As such, African religious services disappeared from Salisbury town by 1910 and all the churches were located around the location except for the Anglicans who had their church located to the east of the town. The resultant effect was the luring of African Christians and school pupils to the unpopular location area. Before long, the location and its surroundings became a religious and education centre for blacks in Salisbury.

As evictions of dissenters, police raids, resettlement and church removals climaxed, the location dwellings were slowly taken up and were soon filled.

By the start of the First World War, there were 156 huts in the location, accommodating over 400 adults and over 50 children. The location, slowly though, seemed to be becoming an acceptable home for African urbanites

The colonial administration for a long time chose to ignore political developments that were slowly heating up in the Shangani. Widespread discontent over land husbandry, memories of violent evictions and the prospect of a better life through nationalism all made the Shangani a hot bed for the breeding of nationalism in the Matabeleland area.

By 1961, chiefs in the Shangani were beginning to confront with the presence of nationalist violence. The colonial administration, only a decade early, had dismissed the prospects of such activity, believing that nationalism would die down like a small fire. They were proved wrong.

Now as violence and resistance was manifesting itself all over Nkayi and Lupane, they believed that nationalism had come into the districts as a poison. They believed things were happening not from within, but because of external elements in the districts. This they chose to believe despite the fact that there were some of the evictees who had settled in the Shangani who had been nationalist activists in the areas from which they were evicted. The authorities had made the mistake of comforting themselves into believing that these men and women would forget about nationalism and settle to a life of agriculture in their new land.

However, things heated up in the Shangani in 1959 when some nationalist restrictees arrived in Lupane. The administration had split up a group of African National Congress (ANC) restrictees held in detention. Some of the restrictees were sent to Lupane and one of the members of this group was the famous politician, James Chikerema

Soon the group was being blamed for sudden change from passivity to active nationalism in the Shangani district. Frequent political meetings were reported and greater violation of agricultural regulations, on a wide scale raised the fury of the administration. The rural folk were now described as arrogant and reckless and the National Democratic Party, the nationalists’ political party active at that time, was blamed for all the insurgence.

Nationalists from the district felt differently though. In their eyes, nationalism was not a new phenomenon in the Shangani. To them, it went back to a decade ago way before the coming of the restrictees. They viewed political parties like the National Democratic Party (NDP), ANC and ZAPU in latter years, as only part of a series of nationalists who had simply made their way to the Shangani, however they were not the ignitors of nationalism, it was already there.

One evictee from Bubi recalled how she was already a member of the African People’s Voice before bring evicted to Nkayi in 1950. She said that when she got to Nkayi, there were no members of the Voice and she started recruiting women into the party and it was in 1957 that she suffered her first arrest for her activities. She was described as danger to the public.

She pointed out that her struggle was never really about land husbandry but it was against white authority and soon, the need to harness the support of the originals was realized.

Critically considered, nationalist opposition to white minority rule did not suddenly appear in the Shangani in 1961. Developments following the coming in of restrictees in the area only added to what was already happening and what had already happened in the past decade.