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| Tshabalala Game Sanctuary - Background |
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There is no reason to suppose that the first human
effects on Tshabalala Game Park differed from most other
areas in Zimbabwe, beginning with the hunting/gathering
of the nomadic Bushmen tribes who roamed the entire
country and were followed, after the Bantu migrations,
by the Karanga and Monomatapa dynasties, probably adding
prospecting to their activities before being overtaken
by the Rozwi people, to whom the many stone ruins in the
proximity of Tshabalala are attributed. At the time of
the Ndebele invasion, an offshoot of the Rozwi tribe,
the Makalanga, occupied the south western areas of what
is now Zimbabwe.
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| The first recorded settlement
of what is now Tshabalala Game Sanctuary came in the
1840's, with the arrival of the AmaNdebele
people, led
by Mzilikazi, when they settled in the environs of what
is now Bulawayo. One of Mzilikazi's many wives, Fulata,
came from the Swazi Clan of Tshabalala, and the family
village was set up south of the present day Bulawayo
under Chief Tshabalala. Fulata's son, Lobengula, is said
to have been born in this village and is known to have
spent some of his early years there. |
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In
1883, after Lobengula had been appointed King, a
European sailor, Fairburn Usher, having jumped his ship
in Cape Town, arrived in Matabeleland. He became
accepted by the people who gave him the name of Pondwene
and later he married one of Lobengula's daughters and
was given an extensive tract of land known as Tshabalala,
on which to settle, by Lobengula.
Usher lived in traditional Ndebele style with his family
on the banks of the Phekwe stream and evidence of this
habitation can be found in the terraces made on the
stream bank where Usher made a vegetable garden and in
the remains of a stone wall that formed part of his
cattle pens, alongside which is his grave. |
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It can
be assumed that with the occupation of this area of land
by both Chief Tshabalala and Usher that a fair amount of
the indigenous woodland was utilized in the construction
of villages, cattle pens and firewood.
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| In
1897 Usher's farm was purchased from him and
incorporated in the Rhodes Estate and became part of
what is still known as the Sauerdale Block, Sauer having
negotiated the purchase of the farms involved on behalf
of Rhodes. The area of the Sauerdale Block known as
Tshabalala was leased to Messrs. Hull and Betts to
develop but their attempts came to an abrupt end with
the Rinderpest and then the East Coast Fever epidemics,
which must also have affected any wildlife in the area. |
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Mr.
Jock Brebner had arrived in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)
in 1902 to
work on the Rhodes Estate Research station and, in 1905,
after the death of Rhodes, he was asked by the
administrators of the Estate to develop the Tshabalala
Section on a lifelong lease, conforming with the proviso
in Rhodes Will that the farms involved were to be
developed for the instruction of the people of Southern
Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). |
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many years the farm was managed purely as a dairy farm
and provided the only source of milk for the growing town of Bulawayo. Arduous bush clearing was undertaken
by hand and an area of cultivation was gradually
established and utilized entirely for the production of
stockfeeds. In 1960 dairy operations on the farm were
discontinued and the farm utilized entirely for beef
production with crop production continuing to provide
stockfeed. |
| A regime of Range
Management was established which included a
rotational paddock system with hay mowing and controlled
burning used to ensure the survival of
palatable grass species and at the same time bush
encroachment measures were practised. |
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| The lease
given to Mr. Jock Brebner in 1905 expired in July
1978. Tshabalala was redesignated as a Game Park
under the auspices of the Zimbabwe Department of
National Parks and Wildlife Management. |
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References:
Oliver
Ransford
Bulawayo:
Historic Battleground of Rhodesia (A.A. Balkema
Cape Town 1968).
Oliver
Ransford
Rulers
of
Rhodesia
(John Murray).
R.B.
Brebner
Historical
Prespective of Cultural Landscapes Case Study of
Rhodes Estate & Chabalala Farm - 1977. |
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