Monday 31 May 2010

Prototype of Local Car in 1972

This prototype of a Rhodesian car, with design and over-all concept at 80 per cent, local, is going through its final trials. The manufactured cost is 55 per cent. Rhodesian and the local weight content is 41 per cent.

The "G.N.W." Duiker, produced by Willowvale Motor Industries in Salisbury, is a two-seater with occasional seats, is expected to achieve 137 km/hr and will sell for under R.$2000. Its fuel consumption is 40 miles to the gallon at 62 m.p.h.

The aim was to produce a vehicle with aesthetic appeal and which would fill a gap in the range available. The car has a removable hard top as an option and a fixed hardtop as standard.

The general manager, Mr. G. N. Ward, in a Press interview said the Duiker has export potential. Basically the engine, chassis and braking system of the car are imported and the remainder is being made locally.

The Duiker could be the forerunner of a range of body styles, including station wagon and pick-up. The fibre-glass body is strong, light, easy to repair and has a high safety factor in an accident. The suspension is independent all round with torsion bars.

It will be quite easy for either the factory or the dealer to adjust the riding height of the car to suit the owner's requirements. For a farmer, for example, it could be raised as much as 150 mm (6 in.) above normal clearance.


Recompiled by Eddy Norris, for use on ORAFs, from the Rhodesian Commentary Vol. 6 No. 18
Date September, 1972 which was made available by Diarmid Smith. Thanks Diarmid

First TAP Jumbo Jet Pays a Visit

The latest version of the Jumbo Jet, the 747B, was seen for the first time in Rhodesia when TAP—only the second world airline to buy the model—diverted it from Johannesburg to Salisbury to pick up 160 Rhodesians on September 1, 1972 to take advantage of the off-season fares to Europe.

From the beginning of November, Rhodesians will be able to take advantage of a daylight Jumbo flight which TAP will operate every Saturday from Johannesburg to Lisbon, and which is expected to prove extremely popular.

Recompiled from the Rhodesian Commentary Vol. 6 No. 19 Dated September 1972, for use on ORAFs, which was made available by Diarmid Smith. Thank you Diarmid

Saturday 29 May 2010

Rhodesian Paraplegics Win 19 Medals

Rhodesian Paraplegics Team

A total of 19 medals—4 gold, 9 silver and 6 bronze—were won by Rhodesia at the Paraplegic Games in Israel, to place her third behind America and South Africa.' The picture shows happy members of the team—the women with bouquets—with officials on their return home.

In the cheery gathering at the airport were (on the right) the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Lance Smith, and his wife.

End of Article

Recompiled by Eddy Norris, for use on ORAFs, from the Rhodesian Commentary December 9, 1968 which was made available by Diarmid Smith. Thanks Diarmid

First Rhodesian Trained Doctors Qualify In 1968

Of the 16 students from the Godfrey Huggins School of Medicine at the University College of Rhodesia who qualified as the first Rhodesian-trained doctors, three achieved an honours standard. This was better than at their parent university of Birmingham, where last year two out of 90 students achieved a similar standard.

One student out of a total of 17 was unsuccessful and has been permitted to sit supplementary examinations.

The dean of the faculty of medicine. Prof. Lindsay Davidson, attributed the high standard of the students to the small size of the medical school and the keenness of the staff and the students. He also believed that the original intake of the students was better than average.

A Great Shortage

Sir Frederick Crawford, of the Anglo American Corporation, which awarded a £100 prize to the "top of the class" student, stressing the (real shortage of doctors in the country, pleaded for a new and adequate teaching hospital near the university.

He had been told that 135 Rhodesians had applied to study medicine in l969.

The Rhodesian medical school now provided an outlet in Southern Africa, because the South African Universities of Witwatersrand and Cape Town had ceased to take Africans. Natal University had to close its doors to Rhodesian Africans in order to concentrate its efforts on Africans from the Republic.

In Rhodesia there were 34.000 people to each doctor in the rural areas and 1.800 to each doctor in the urban centres, as compared with 1.000 people to each doctor in the more developed countries overseas.

Enrolment

Presenting the Anglo American Award. Lord Malvern, after whom the Godfrey Huggins School of Medicine is named, congratulated the teaching staff for the very fine effort they had put into producing the first doctors trained in Rhodesia.

The medical school enrolment in the 1968 academic session was 32 in the first year, 25 in the second, 37 in the third. 28 in the fourth, 23 in the fifth and 17 in the sixth, making a total of 162.

1st Rhodesian Doctors
Lord Malvern presents the prize to
Dr. John Knottenbelt for obtaining
the best results at the Medical School.
He passed with distinction in medicine,
paediatrics and gynaecology.


End of Article

Recompiled by Eddy Norris, for use on ORAFs, from the Rhodesian Commentary December 9, 1968 which was made available by Diarmid Smith. Thanks Diarmid

Thursday 20 May 2010

A Guide to the Antiquities of Inyanga

Cover

by
P. S. GARLAKE
Historical Monuments Commission

© Commission for the Preservation of Natural and Historical
Monuments and Relics
P.O. Box 3248, Bulawayo
P.O. Box 8006, Causeway, Salisbury
1st Edition 1966
Reprinted 1972

Published by The Historical Monuments Commission. P.O. Box 3248. Bulawayo, and printed by Mardon Printers (Pvt.) Ltd.. at their Belmont Factory. P.O. Box 8098. Belmont. Bulawayo. Rhodesia

Recompiled by Eddy Norris for use on ORAFs in May 2010

End of Page 2

CONTENTS
Page
Introduction.........5
Rock Paintings.........9
Harleigh Farm.........10
The Inyanga Uplands.......13
The Inyanga Lowlands.......17
van Niekerk Ruins........17
Ziwa -----------25
Nyahokwe Site Museum and Village.....25
Rhodes at Inyanga -.......29
Man and Plant at Inyanga ------- 31
Further Reading........34
Sketch Maps Inyanga District......18-19
Plan of Nyahokwe Site.......28
Plan of van Niekerk Ruins......35

End of Page 3

Page 4
Plate 1
Ziwa Mountain from the van Niekerk Ruins,
showing tunnel entrance and a pit of Enclosure 14.

End of Page 4

Introduction


The Eastern Highlands of Rhodesia, a mountainous backbone of rugged granite hills, deep gorges and numerous streams, rivers and waterfalls, contain some of the country's most beautiful scenery. Lying more than 1 500 m above sea level, they also enjoy a bracing climate. A magnet to the tourist today, with good, fast roads, hotels and many other amenities, yet not, one would think, an easy country in which one would choose to settle when in its original wild condition. On the other hand, for many people it would have provided an ideal area in which to retreat from the perils and bloodshed of rivalry for the areas of Rhodesia rich in game, agricultural land, and precious metals. Whatever the reason, this area contains relics not only of every period of man's existence in Rhodesia but also, from the later stages of prehistory, some of the most widespread and intensive occupation of any primitive community to be found anywhere in the world.

The Stone Age.

Fifty thousand years ago man left his first traces in the area the crude, chipped stone tools of the "Sangoan period" of the Ear!y Stone Age, to be followed by the smaller, more varied, and finely made stone weapons and tools of the succeeding Middle and Late Stone Ages. Radiocarbon dating has shown that these span a period of 48 000 years, flourishing until the start of the Christian era. Despite their widespread presence in the Inyanga area however, these Stone Age sites arc of little interest to any but the true enthusiast and may safely be given only this brief mention — with one exception, the rock art.

Though Inyanga lacks the large, clear painted caves found elsewhere in Rhodesia, small, scattered scenes of animals and their hunters can be found throughout the granite hills between Rusape, Umtali and Inyanga, works of the last Late Stone Age peoples, who may well have survived the coming of more advanced people up till some 300 years ago. They were a people very like the Bushmen of today, so that the popular description — "Bushman

End of Page 5

paintings" — is probably no misnomer. The cave on the farm Diana's Vow contains a most complex painted scene and is described later. (Chap. 1.)

Quite different, artistically, are the small groups of engravings: abstract motifs, mainly circles and dots, spirals and meanders, peeked into the flat surfaces of rocks. In Rhodesia, they seem to be largely confined to a few sites in the Eastern Highlands. They are not related to the Stone Age paintings and are most probably the work of a later people. Two small groups of these engravings occur in the Tsanga valley of the Inyanga Downs, but as they are on private, forested land and the roads are poor they are not described further.

The Iron Age and the Ruins.

Two thousand years ago, the forerunners of a people with a more settled way of life started to infiltrate the country of these Stone Age hunting bands bringing with them domestic animals, cultivated crops and such equipment as pottery, iron tools and weapons. They were able to live as settled communities, and it is these people and their descendants who were responsible for the great number of prehistoric structures for which the Inyanga District is most famous.

The ruins of these were only discovered comparatively late in the opening up of Rhodesia. Soon after they were visited by two redoubtable and romantic German travellers, Dr. Heinrich Schlichter in 1897 and Dr. Carl Peters in 1900, who both proposed exotic theories of ancient Semitic origin. R. N. Hall, Curator of Zimbabwe at the turn of the century, and the greatest advocate of grandiose antiquity to most Rhodesian ruins, correctly believed that they were different in style to and later than Zimbabwe and the many ruins of its type. He attributed them to "Arabs" of the eleventh or twelfth centuries from the East African metropoli of Mogadishu and Kilwa. Dr. Randall Maclver, a professional archaeologist brought out by the Rhodes Trustees on a rapid tour of many Rhodesian ruins in 1905, used the logic of his comparatively new discipline in his book Mediaeval Rhodesia. Here he ascribed all the Rhodesian ruins to Bantu speaking peoples, living between the 13th and 17th centuries.

End of Page 6

Bitter controversy between the disciples of Peters, Hall and MacIver continued until 1948 when the Inyanga Research Fund sponsored a series of excavations by Roger Summers and Keith Robinson. Their results were published in 1958 in Summers' monograph, Inyanga, Prehistoric Settlements in Southern Rhodesia. This is the last published work on the prehistory of the whole Inyanga area and this guide owes much to it. The subsequent work of F. O. Bernhard has contributed much to the study of the earliest Iron Age peoples.

Study of the archaeologists' standbys — beads, pottery, bone and metal work — makes it quite clear that no site shows any exotic influence, let alone a single trace of occupation by an alien people. Indeed, the indications of even the slightest contact with more developed peoples arc so slight that the archaeologists have been forced to fall back largely on a study of the architecture and the techniques used in the stone buildings themselves to explain their origins and dates. As this is a study in which the visitor himself can join, it is used in some detail in this guide. If the romance of the early writers is forced to wither from lack of a single piece of supporting material evidence, the story that remains is still a complex one.

It is essential to realise that four distinct prehistoric Iron Age cultures have superseded one another within the bounds of the Inyanga district. Each culture is largely limited to its own distinctive area and is usually named after it. This is convenient also for this guide book as each chapter can deal with a separate culture. These are:—

1. Ziwa. Fourth to eleventh century A.D. (Chap. 4.)

2. Zimbabwe. A single ruin of a late Zimbabwe type is found on Harleigh Farm. Seventeenth century A.D. (Chap. 1.)


3. Inyanga Uplands, sixteenth to seventeenth century A.D. (Chap. 2.)

4. Inyanga Lowlands. Typified by the van Niekerk ruins. Seventeenth century to eighteenth century A. D. (Chap. 3.)

Some of the Bantu peoples of the Inyanga area built rough stone walling long after the earlier people had left the area.

End of Page 7

Page 8
Plate 2
The First Ruins at Harleigh Farm

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CHAPTER 1

Rock Paintings at Diana's Vow and Ruins on Harleigh Farm

These two sites are well worth visiting as they are unlike anything found in the Inyanga area proper and are able to give the visitor a quick glimpse of the two types of antiquities for which
Rhodesia is most famous - the rock paintings and the many small ruins of similar style to Zimbabwe itself. The roads are good, though not tarred, and access to the sites themselves is easy and involves no climbing. The routes are shown on Fig. 1, p. 18

Visitors from Salisbury intending to visit either of these sites are able to take a short alternative route to the main one, over good gravel roads. Leave the main Umtali Road 145 km from Salisbury and turn left along the Baddeley Road, following the signposts to Inyanga. After 19 km one reaches "Pink Elephants". This is named after a rock painting, high above an overhanging shelter on the summit of the steep little kopje immediately west of the road. The path to the top is signposted. The paintings themselves arc simple, six elephants in a faded red pigment, not by any means great or unusual examples of the rock art but pleasing, full of life and very easily accessible. One and a half kilometres past this site, take the right hand fork to Rusape and after 3½ km the entrance to a much more important painting. Diana's Vow, is reached (see below). Harleigh Farm is a further 13¾ km along the same road.

For visitors starting at Rusape, take the Inyanga road and turn left on the outskirts of town onto the Silver Bow Road; after 14½ km Harleigh Farm is reached and the ruins are along a farm road 3 km to the north. A further 13} km along the Silver Bow Road brings one to Diana's Vow Farm where a sign indicates a gate on the north of the road. Here a road leads down ½ km to the large rock under whose shelter the paintings arc to be found. Immediately past the paintings, Constance Road turns off north and provides a good return route to the main Inyanga

End of Page 9

road, which it rejoins after 13 km, 29 km out of Rusape towards Inyanga.

The paintings at Diana's Vow (National Monument No. 64). are the only surviving fragment of a much larger scene, of which faint traces can still with difficulty be distinguished on the left of the rock. Nevertheless, the portion that remains is the most complex, clear and vivid example of the final splendid flowering of Rhodesian rock art. The main scene depicts two long friezes of human figures, emblazoned with white stripes, dots and head-dresses. Several are masked. Above them is laid out all the panoply of their equipment — baskets with handles, skins, bows, quivers, truncheons and a mass of edible fruits or roots. The whole scene is enclosed in a triple series of curved lines. Above this is a much larger reclining male figure, in similar style to the small ones below, also masked and clothed in an elaborate white dotted garment. Below him a simpler female figure echoes his posture. Dogs, a chicken, a snake and further humans adjoin the central scene. Underneath these figures can be seen isolated animal paintings in an earlier, simpler style — notably a buffalo. It is clear that all the human figures belong to a single scene. Such elaborate compositions only occur in the final phase of Rhodesian Rock Art. The white outlines and embellishments bear out that this is a late painting for white pigment is much more transient than the earth ochres that gave the reds, browns and yellows.

The interpretations of the scene have been many — notably that it represents the burial of a king — the large reclining figure — with his retinue presenting their funerary offerings*. It has also been suggested that it depicts newcomers of an Iron Age culture observed by the Stone Age artists and the apparently domestic dogs and chicken may confirm this. These interpretations may both be correct but neither is certain. Nevertheless, the event recorded remains unique and exciting.

Behind the boulder containing the painting the visitor will find a typical small walled kopje enclosure secluded among the boulders of a small plateau, with lintelled entrances, hut circles, platforms and daga floors. This is an example of a late ruin that nevertheless includes many of the features to be found at Inyanga itself. It is, of course, very much later in date than the paintings.

Harleigh Farm. (National Monument No. 72), contains two ruins of very different date and style. From where the visitor

* This theory is discussed and the painting excellently illustrated in colour by the late Mrs. E. Goodall in Prehistoric Rock Art of Rhodesia and Nysaland, R. Summers ed.. National Publications Trait. Salisbury. 1959.

End of Page 10

leaves his car, a path leads west through small wooded granite kopjes. After about 90 m the stone wall of the First Ruin is visible on the north of the path (Plate 2). The granite blocks of the massive outer enclosure wall have been squared, trimmed and laid in straight, close fitting courses with a simple rounded entrance, all in a style very like the finest walling of Zimbabwe itself. Of the interior, little remains on the surface. When it was excavated in 1959 the pottery, finely made hut floors, benches and walls of daga that were revealed, confirmed that this is truly an outlying example of the late Zimbabwe ruin period, and so probably of the seventeenth century. Here also one of the very few skeletons of the period was recovered from a grave beneath a hut floor. After this building was deserted by the original builders, the area was later reoccupied briefly. The first European travellers, at the end of the nineteenth century, record that this ruin was held in great awe and a chief Chipadze was buried within it. Thatched pole mortuary huts were seen over his and three other graves. Their remnants are probably the stone circles to be seen today amongst the boulders beyond a second wall to the north east of the main wall.

Ninety metres further up the path just the First Ruin a large boulder stands on a low outcrop of bare granite — on this will be found a few simple examples of painted human figures.

Returning to the car park, an isolated kopje with "balancing rocks" on its summit is visible beside a stream, across farmland 180 m to the north west. This is the site of the Second Ruin. Two earth ditches surround the kopje, a very unusual feature. On the inner bank of the outer ditch the original wooden palisade has taken root to form the present line of trees. Within, the visitor will notice heaps of stone which would seem to be graves, but examination has shown that this is not the case — they are probably simply the result of clearing the land for building and cultivation. The central rocky outcrop is encircled by a wall with a lintelled entrance and on this kopje and the rocks adjoining it are many circular bases for both huts and grain stores while, under the highest rock, daga plastered walls enclose typical Shona graves.

This ruin has been described in detail by several travellers in the early 1890's including the famous explorer Selous*. They describe the palisade, ditches or "moat" and the ground within them heavily cultivated with tobacco and surrounded on the line of the ditch with a loopholed wall built of stone laid in mud mortar. It was known as "Chitekete and was the old kraal of Chipunza or Chipadze, chief of the Ungwe tribe who, under the same ruling dynasty (Makoni), still live in the area.

* F. C. Selous Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa. London. 1893. P. 340.

End of Page 11

Page 12
Plate 3 -
An upland Pit structure. Tunnel entrance,
platform and hut foundation are all visible


End of Page 12

CHAPTER 2

The Inyanga Uplands

In the sixteenth century, the climate of the high downs of Inyanga seems to have been generally somewhat drier than today, enabling grain crops to be cultivated. It was also a period of great tribal unrest. Probably as a result of these conditions people sought refuge in this comparatively inaccessible area. Many sites of this period are within easy reach of Troutbeck Inn and. more particularly, the Rhodes Inyanga Hotel.

Every visitor will have already heard of Inyanga's most famous feature named, from their first discovery, "Slave Pits". No evidence has ever been produced to support this popular name and so the less restrictive or dogmatic name "Pit Structures" is now used (Plate 3). Among many interpretations, the pits have also been considered fortified refuges for women and children in case of attack; grain stores; gold washing tanks; cattle, goat or sheep kraals; and. most recently and romantically of ail, as "symbolic representations of the Phoenician fertility goddess Astarte's womb". Let us examine all the features of a typical site to try to determine their true function.

The first thing that one notices is that they are almost always on sloping ground and are only partly, if at all. dug into the ground. Instead, they form the centre of an artificial platform, about 20 m across, which is retained by a stone wall on the lower slopes of the hill. On this platform will be found five or six stone circles of varying size linked by walls and forming the foundations of huts (daga floors, kerbs and low internal dividing walls still survive in the least disturbed examples). From the upper slope of the hill the pit itself is entered through a low tunnel, walled and roofed with flat stone slabs. The tunnels are curved so that the exit is never visible from the entrance. Halfway along, a gap in the roof now opens to the sky but this invariably originally opened into the centre of the door of the largest hut on the platform. This roof opening provided a method of closing the tunnel so that all access to the pit was controlled and protected by the occupants of the hut. The pits themselves arc beautifully made of close fitting stones laid without mortar. No traces of roofing have ever been found either round the tops of the pits or has fallen fragments, within them. They must always have been open. All this would seem to indicate that they could not have been intended for people to live in. Even should slaves have been housed in such cruelly exposed conditions.

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the method of barring the tunnel would seem to be too insecure against a person intent on escape, for the tunnel is otherwise unguarded and undefended.

The floors of the pits were paved in stone, sloping down to a large stone lined drain, which ran under the platform and away. Frequently, large ditches lead from the drain to small earthwork dams or to the tunnel of a second pit, lower down the hill slope, and so through this pit and drain and away. This is evidence of a regular flow of water flushing the pits; and would seem to rule out any possibility of the pits being used for the storage of grain which would need, above all, protection from damp. The only reasonable explanation left is that the pit was used to house livestock. It has been suggested that dwarf cattlc were stalled in the pits but the only bones so far recovered from these structures give no support to this. It is more likely that the pit housed such animals as pigs, sheep or goats. In fact, Hall records that in the late nineteenth century, they were used precisely for this by Africans living in huts on the platforms. Pit structures, (singly, or more rarely, grouped in pairs in a single platform) occur alone or in groups of up to twelve or more. As one drives along the roads of this area, an isolated clump of trees or thick bushes can be taken as a strong indication that there is a pit beneath them. This is a country of intense grass fires and the pits provided good protection for saplings during the fire season.

More dramatic, but much less common, are the Forts. They are always in fine, commanding situations on hills and promontories, with wide views, and partially surrounded by steep rocky slopes. Their main features are the thick, high walls of large, close fitting, blocks of stone with low lintelled entrances, similar in size and construction to the pit tunnels. Frequently the walls are pierced at varying heights by small, square loopholes. These loopholes seem strangely purposeless and even useless to modern eyes for they are not splayed and so give such a restricted view or field of fire that no weapon could be discharged effectively through them. The walls are often thickened to provide a raised walk inside, below the parapet. Usually there are low stone hut circles within the Forts.

The most convincing evidence of the engineering skill of the Upland builders are the water furrows, simple earth ditches leading from perennial streams in a gradual gradient to the living sites. Often they run for several kilometres. Many have been destroyed and others adapted for use today, still feeding such places as the Rhodes Inyanga Hotel and several private houses and swimming pools. A little simple, shallow terracing, built up only of earth, is sometimes found (for example, on the hillside behind Inyanga Township).

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GUIDE (sec Fig. 2, p. 19).

Rhodes Inyanga Estate (National Monument No. 10).

The most easily accessible Pit Structure near the Rhodes Inyanga Hotel is reached by turning right from the Inyanga Village road (¾ km beyond the junction where the road to the Hotel meets the main Rusape — Umtali road). This Pit Structure, probably the one most closely examined by Maclver in 1905, has suffered greatly from constant visitors and the platform structures arc now scarcely visible. This also applies to a second pit in the trees a few yards north cast of this one.

If, from the Hotel, one takes the Old Umtali Road, 275 m from the Hotel one crosses a large water furrow. This is still in use and can be followed along a picturesque footpath to its junction with the Mare river. Continuing along this road, 6 km from the Hotel, turn left along the "Dry Weather Route to Pungwe View". Just under 5 km along this road there is a sign posted Pit Structure immediately east of the road. It is intact and the massive stone foundation walls of three huts remain on the platform. Two-hundred and seventy five kilometres north east of it, across a small stream and valley, a clump of trees marks a pit where some of the very few remaining moulded daga walls divide two of the huts on the platform.

Returning by the same route to the Hotel, 3 km from the Pit one notices a small stone building, visible above the trees on the crest of a bare granite kopje. This is Bideford Fort (MacIver's Southern Fort) and to visit it one must leave the car at the small stream, crossed immediately after rejoining the Old Umtali Road, and follow the stream in a steep climb up to the fort, now invisible from the road. This bleak, windswept little building, a single circular enclosure, is the simplest of the forts and seldom visited. It has all the features of a typical fort, in particular numerous loopholes.

Nyangwe Fort, (MacIver's Eastern Fort), 5 km east of the Rhodes Inyanga Hotel (see cover), is the most complex fort, crowning a rocky promontory with a steep drop to the streams below the northern and southern sides. The summit is crowned by the original enclosure, which is surrounded by five further enclosures. All of these have loopholes and most contain low stone circles of hut bases. The quarry from which the stone for the walls was probably obtained is the very overgrown pit on the east side of the fort. From a small enclosure 275 m west of the fort, Summers re- covered the only skeleton of the Upland Culture known. It is typically African and is discussed in detail by Professor Philip Tobias in the monograph Inyanga.

End of Page 15

On the road to Troutbeck and the Inyanga Downs, 4 km after turning right off the main Inyanga Village road, Chawomera Fort is visible immediately east of the road. (Maclver's North Eastern Fort, Summers' Site XXXV.) The single enclosure of the Fort has all the typical features seen before and so needs no further description. Notice, however, a few grooves, in which grain was ground, on the bare granite of the path leading from car park to fort. More important, strung along both sides of the road below the fort, there are at least twelve pit structures which, with the fort, formed a complete village. Clumps of trees mark the positions of these pits. Particularly good examples are the pair just below the car park of the fort and the southern example of a further pair, 180 m further north along the road towards Troutbeck and just cast of it. Between each pair of pits one will notice earthern hollows or depressions, from which the earth fill of the pit platforms was dug. Continuing to Troutbeck or the Inyanga Downs, ¾ km after passing the road that leads down to Inyanga Village, a further Fort will be noticed. ½ km cast of the road. It is in the most dramatic position of all, with precipitous slopes on three sides, and connected only by a narrow ridge to the hills beside the road. It is however, scarcely worth visiting for it is very overgrown with aloes and access to it is difficult.

Inyanga Downs.

From Troutbeck Inn, a well-known signposted path leads about 2½ km east through private lands to two typical pit structures but these have been disturbed and the platform structures are no longer clear.

Much more worthwhile is the journey north along the Nyamaropa Road for 5 km from Troutbeck Inn. Here, just before entering Rukotso Forests, about ¾ km east of the road and lower than it, a level, uncultivated plateau will be visible, falling away in steep slopes on its eastern and southern sides to the Tsanga river valley below. In the clumps of trees on the edge of the plateau and fringing the cliffs, a great number of pit structures occur in unspoilt surroundings*. Here will be found features not seen before. One platform contains two separate pits, each with its own tunnel. Most notable arc the large furrows linking the drain of one pit to the tunnel of a pit below and then leading to what seem to be earth dams, (though some of these are certainly pits robbed of their stonework). Notice how the tunnels often start from excavated hollows.

* Called Site D by Mrs. Enid Finch who described the area in a paper in Vol. XLII of the Proceeding of the Rhodesia Scientific Association. 1949

End of Page 16

CHAPTER 3

The Inyanga Lowlands and the van Niekerk Ruins

In the seventeenth century, as the Inyanga Uplands became infertile and the climate deteriorated sufficiently to cause crops to fail, people moved westwards to the hill country below the Downs and established the Lowland settlements. Here the rocky slopes of almost every hill or kopje were cleared and encircled by stone built terraces. It seems that every stone over hundreds of square km has been moved by man and incorporated in his vast designs. Though the quality of workmanship may be unexceptional, the sheer quantity of labour involved has put all. from the first discoverers, in awe.

It is often presumed that a huge population must have been involved in the construction of the Lowland terraces and buildings. This is by no means certain. Under primitive agriculture the terraces would quickly lose their fertility and so the farmers would have to move, after a few years, to new ground. This would again be cleared of stone and the terraces and enclosures may well have been as much a means of disposing of the stone as a strongly desired end in
themselves. With shifting agriculture in this type of terrain for. say. two centuries, no great population would be necessary for the striking results to be seen today.

The van Niekerk Ruins (National Monument No. 53), named by Maclver in 1905 after the early Inyanga settler who guided him round the ruins, are only a small portion of land 40 sq km in extent, in the ccntre of the ruin area, ceded to the Historical Monuments Commission in 1946. Even within this area only a tiny, though representative portion has been opened up to the visitor. The magnitude and scale of the total Lowland culture must always be borne in mind as one views the small fraction visible at any one time. Much is still unexplored and months could be spent in the examination of new areas.

GUIDE.

To reach the van Niekerk Ruins, turn left from the main Inyanga Village road. 7¾ km from the fork to Rhodes Inyanga Hotel. A short way along this road, the view across the western

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Page 18

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Page 19

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Page 20
Plate 4
van Niekerk Ruins. The typical pit of Enclosure II with Enclosure 7 visible in the
back ground.

End of Page 20

lowlands opens out and to the north west the great conical, granite mountain, Ziwa, will be seen, reaching 400 m above the plain. Just west of it and equally prominent, though 220 m lower, Hamba rises; while stretching east the range rises to the further flat topped summit of Nyahokwe, only 45 m lower than Ziwa itself. It is at the foot of these hills that the terraces and ruins lie. Following the signposted road, after a further 15{ km one crosses the Nyarewe river and enters the ruin field. 1± km further again (ignoring the turnoff to Ziwa and Nyahokwe) one reaches the first site. Posts will be seen marking and numbering the sites, and this numbering is followed in this guide.

Site 1 is an isolated granite kopje on the east of the road (Summers' Site III) and the walls defending it are clearly visible. The path leads up to a loop holed wall with low, lintelled entrance. Here the horizontal slots for both a draw bar and a further bar to lock it in position can be seen. The entrance is protected by a small enclosure or bastion immediately opposite, again entered through a lintelled doorway. Turning left and through vet a further lintelled entrance, one reaches the living area, a scries of asccnding platforms with the decomposed daga fragments of former huts upon them. From the top. looking south west, a stone walled lane can be seen leading to the rear entrance of the site, cairns of piled stone adjoin it — probably only the result of clearing the land for cultivation.

One is now in the ruin area proper and the slopes of the kopjes all along the west of the road are terraced from top to bottom, with retaining walls of untrimmed dolerite blocks following the contours. The terraces arc usually 2 —3 m apart and 1 m high. The soil they were intended to retain has largely disappeared through erosion leaving the walls free standing.

The road skirts the foot of Hamba and 3{ km beyond the fort Enclosure 2 is found on the left of the road. This is a very well preserved, typical example of the simplest basic type of Lowland living site. Close fitting dolerite blocks face both sides of the circular enclosure wall, and the space between is filled with dolerite chips and gravel. A typical lintelled entrance with draw bar led to a tiny enclosure, almost an entrance hall, from which a tunnel of exactly the same size as those in the Upland pit structures led down to a central circular pit. This is much smaller and shallower than those of the Uplands but has the usual drain opposite the entrance, coming out at the base of the outer enclosure wall. The level of the ground within the enclosure is artificially raised well above that outside. It is immediately apparent that this typical Lowland enclosure has much in common with the Uplands pits. The great

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difference is that the Lowland enclosures are built on level ground and make use of the very abundant stone. As a result, a free standing outer wall replaces the Upland platform, and protects the living area. The central pit, though small, must also have been used for keeping such livestock as sheep or goats. Of course, as the tunnel is above ground level, no hut could be built on it, so the sunken entrance hall and the doorway (with slots for a wooden draw bar) replace the security devices of an Upland Pit.

Such enclosures — homes of the people who worked the terraced lands — are scattered amongst the terraces, sometimes concentrated in certain areas and within easy reach of each other, but never forming true villages. Enclosure 4 marks the start of such a concentration of at least 15 enclosures. This area is right in the middle of the ruin field and since MacIver described it in 1905 (Area N.II) has been very frequently visited. A sad result is that little of the fragile daga structures of the interiors will be found.

Ignoring Site 3 for the moment, the visitor may park his car near Enclosure 4 and using the plan (Fig. 4) choose the extent of his tour. The enclosures numbered 4—16 have much in common with the typical enclosure already described. It is therefore not essential to visit all.

Enclosure 4 has no pit. The interior contains several lengths of wall and fragments of buttressing. These probably originally ran between hut walls and so formed separate divisions, one of which doubtless housed livestock and replaced the pit. The outer wall is greatly thickened at the entrance, and a tortuous approach results — a feature very common where there is no "entrance hall". Just within the entrance a low stone bench makes the approach even narrower. The walls pass over many large natural boulders and so incorporate them in the fabric.

Enclosure 5 has many interior walls, one of which bisects the original pit. Outside the entrance, a large upright stone or monolith was set up, probably as a marker. Such stone markers are a feature of both the Upland and Lowland buildings. The stone lined paths such as those connecting Enclosures 4, 5 and 6 will be described later.

Enclosure 6 is the largest enclosure and most worth visiting. Here the circles of at least seven huts can be traced and their method of construction clearly seen. Flat slabs were set on end in the ground and further slabs laid across them to form a horizontal platform clear of the ground. This was then thickly plastered with

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daga to form the hut floor. The collapsed remains of several such floors can be seen. Grain stores today are constructed in a similar way and the smaller circles in this enclosure probably served a similar purpose. In the interior many natural flat rock surfaces bear grooves caused by grinding grain, while several quern stones lie loose in the enclosures. Grain must have formed the principal crop and diet. The inner dividing wall has a semicircular recess with a raised floor, barred by two upright stones. These may have been the backrests of seats under a roofed shelter or verandah. It again divides and destroys an early pit. Examination of the outer enclosure wall shows that it was not a single continuous circle but built as a series of separate adjoining arcs, often adapted to the curve of a hut. The huts were therefore sometimes built before the wall. These enclosures are not therefore primarily defensive but simply protective shelters from the penetrating winds and rain of the Inyanga winter. There is a single loophole in the outer wall.

Enclosure 7 is very simple. The collapse of the two entrances reveals the draw bar slots particularly well.

Enclosure 8 has important historical associations, for it was probably here that MacIver in 1905, saw the many remains of hut daga and daga floors, and for the first time realised the strong relationship between the ruin builders and present Bantu techniques. As a result, for the first time he advocated an indigenous origin for all the Rhodesian ruins.

Enclosure 9 is a very simple one with pit and collapsed tunnel.

In Enclosure 10 there is a large circle, built directly on the ground and clearly divided down the centre, with only the raised eastern half having a daga floor. This type of building is a
characteristic feature of the ruins and Summers has suggested that they were grinding and winnowing places, and, though the daga floor was protected by a low wall, that they were not roofed.

Retracing this path, one passes Enclosure 11, very simple and typical, and continues up towards Enclosures 13 and 14.

One is now clearly following the original stone lined trackways or lanes that are an outstanding feature of the Lowland Ruins. These narrow paths run for long distances through terracing, and connect the enclosures with open land. Here one soon reaches a main junction, from which one can go north to enclosure 14, east to 13, south to 12 or south east for several hundred metres past 12 to our starting point near 6, all following the original lane, still intact. Their purpose was mainly to protect the crops growing on the

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terraces from the livestock as they were driven from grazing to shelter within the enclosures. A recent startling romantic explanation is that they were training tracks for domesticating the local African elephant by Phoenicians, apparently putting Hannibal's experiences in the Alps to local advantage. It seems however, that the admittedly more mundane reason given meets the problem rather better.

Enclosure 13 is interesting for the raised and sheltered grinding place on the right of the entrance and for the large circular cairn constructed in the centre. Such cairns have not been satisfactorily explained. In an enclosure such as this (without a pit) they were probably intended as granary bases out of reach of livestock.

Enclosure 14 adds nothing further, though it is large and elaborate and has terraced platforms for the huts.

Enclosure 15 adds little further. Its central pit appears again to have been abandoned and to have been purposely filled with stones.

Finally, one climbs to Enclosure 16. This massive structure, much larger than any other enclosure, was most probably a Fort. It commands magnificent views over the ruins, particularly west towards the long mountain of Jowani, whose southern end is terraced from top to bottom. North west and northwards further terracing is clearly seen. Here we get some idea of the magnitude of the ruins. The Fort has a massive external wall, stretching across large boulders, complete with parapet walk, but none of the loop-holes of the Upland forts. The interior has traces of several large huts, not all on stone bases. Within is a second complete stone enclosure; its main entrance, protected by a drawbar and horizontal lock is in a portion of wall added to the inside of the original wall to form a raised walk over the entrance.

One now returns past Enclosure 14 and then follows the long trackway to Enclosure 12. This is of little interest save for the unusually large pit, again partially blockcd in its own separate lower enclosure. The main entrance to the enclosure has also been blocked. Continuing on the same trackway one reaches Enclosure 6 and the starting point.

It only remains to draw the visitors attention to Site 3 from whence one can follow an original terrace towards the east and so see how well the terracing follows the contours. One then reaches a viewpoint from which one sees something of the terraces stretching eastwards towards Ziwa mountain.

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CHAPTER 4

Ziwa, Nyahokwe Village and Site Museum

Just before entering the van Niekerk Ruins, a signposted road forks right to Nyahokwe Site Museum. This is reached 8 km from the fork, the road passing through the Ziwa farm.

On this farm arc several sites of the Ziwa people, the earliest Iron Age inhabitants of Mashonaland. In 1905 MacIver had found large quantities of their pottery at a place he consequently named the "Place of Offerings". (This is actually within the van Niekerk Ruins, about ¾ km north of the saddle between Ziwa and Hamba.) He did not however realise the full significance of his finds. Although the culture lasted for at least 700 years from 300 A.D., visible remains are very few for the people lived in flimsy huts on small secluded plateaux in the hills, and only rarely did they build rudimentary terraces in stone. Analysis of the bones from Ziwa graves shows the people to have been predominantly Negroid. Though these sites cannot be visited, examples of the Ziwa pottery and ironwork are exhibited in the Site Museum.

From the Site Museum paths lead to several points of interest. The white painted poles lead a few yards west to the reconstruction of an iron smelting furnace. The low, circular stone enclosure wall, the size, daga fabric and supporting arms or buttresses of the furnace are typical of "Iron Age" and later Shona furnaces. The rectangular shape and particularly the small human figurine arc more unusual, though many Shona furnaces have human breasts and scarification modelled on them. Behind the furnace is a simple pit structure with an unusually small pit.

The red and blue poles lead the way up to Nyahokwe mountain. After a short distance the blue poles diverge east to a further simple enclosure and typical pit structure. The red poles lead on a steep climb of about i km past terracing and a further pit structure to the Nyahokwe Village site (National Monument No. 99), crouched under the cliff face of the very summit of the mountain. This is a complex settlement, not at all usual in the Lowlands, with several elements most commonly found in the Uplands. It may have formed the quarters of a ruling group or chief. Granite replaces the dolerite used in the van Niekerk Ruins. There are four separate elements.

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Nyahowke Village, below Nyahokwe Mountain. The "dari" is seen in the foreground.

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1. Just east of the path as it approaches the village, and about 100 m below it, the level plateau of bare granite is scarred by a great number of grinding grooves, often six or more purposely grouped within reach of one person seated at their centre. It has been suggested that these were probably used in the preparation of ores for smelting rather than for grinding grain. The visitor will have already noticed the great number of loose querns in the area, which one would certainly think would have proved ample for any grain grinding.

2. The great level circle, 18 m in diameter, with upright stones set round its perimeter formed, from local African parallels, a "dari" or meeting place of the village elders.

3. Leading off the dari to the north east is a large pit structure whose typical features of tunnel, pit, platform and particularly hut circles are very clear.

4. The Village site itself is enclosed by a rough wall and entered through the usual lintelled entrance, which gives onto an inner passage. The sloping ground within contains numerous stone slab foundations of what were probably grain stores and also one strange circular cairn, almost a small "conical tower", whose real function is unknown. On the inner face of the outer wall are several small square niches or "cupboards" — a feature occasionally found elsewhere in the Lowland buildings. Evidence from the base of excavations of the village showed that the Ziwa culture preceded the stone building on this site and that from the eleventh century an apparently gradual and peaceful Transitional phase occurred, marked by elements of both the Ziwa and Lowland cultures, from the eleventh to perhaps the fifteenth centuries, when the builders in stone took complete possession. The village was excavated by Mr. F. O. Bernhard, the owner of Ziwa farm, who gave the land on which the village and museum stand to the Historical Monuments Commission. On returning, notice the terracing of the hills immediately to the west of the museum and village site.

The Site Museum provides exhibits, and a comprehensive summary, of the many cultural phases described in this guide. The exhibits, all of local origin, range through the Stone Age, the Ziwa culture, the two Inyanga cultures themselves, up to late nineteenth century Shona, particularly Unyama, material. Here are pottery, weapons, metal work, beads: the sparse relics of the households, whose remains and whose life have been glimpsed in this guide.

Instead of returning via the van Niekerk Ruins, the visitor may use a slightly shorter route and continue eastwards past the museum, reaching the Dutch Settlement Road after 5i km, where one turns right to reach the turnoff to Inyanga Village after a further 15 km.

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Fig 3

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CHAPTER 5

Cecil Rhodes and Inyanga

Cecil Rhodes, who first developed the Inyanga National Park, on which so many of the antiquities lie, found at Inyanga, as he did in the Matopos Hills, a place exactly in tune with his character. Here again the wide landscapes and rugged country exemplified, for him, his own Rhodesia and echoed his broad vision. Three times, at critical points in his career, he turned to Inyanga for rest and inspiration.

Early in 1896, after the debacle of the Jameson Raid, Rhodes had resigned as Premier of Cape Colony and came to Rhodesia, then in the throes of rebellion. At the end of October, he had personally and almost alone brought the Peace Indabas of the Matopos to a triumphant conclusion. He now had to face a Select Committee of the House of Commons enquiring into the Jameson Raid. On his way from Salisbury to Beira and then to England he was persuaded to visit Inyanga for the first time. Its attraction was immediate and his reaction characteristic. "Dear McDonald, — Inyanga is much finer than you described. I find a good many farms are becoming occupied. Before it is all gone, buy me quickly up to 100,000 acres and be sure you take in the Pungwe Falls. I would like to try sheep and apple growing. Do not say you are buying for me. Yrs. C. J. Rhodes." Thus he wrote to his Rhodesian agent while on his way to England.

At the end of 1897 Rhodes, the Enquiry over and his health failing, was on his way back from Rhodesia to re-enter politics and fight the Cape elections. Again he made for his new Inyanga estates. On the way from Salisbury, he was attacked by malaria. With a weakened heart, for several weeks he lay ill at his Inyanga

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homestead with Jameson at his side, both as doctor and friend. As he recovered, they spent long periods in the veld riding, exploring shooting and initiating the experimental farming which the Estate still continues.

For a last time, after the relief of Kimberley where he had been besieged, Rhodes returned to the Eastern districts, and particularly Inyanga, during July and August of 1900, again riding and camping in the veld he loved.

On his death, eighteen months later, he left his Inyanga Estate to the people of Rhodesia to be used for the "help and instruction of the settlers". This Estate was proclaimed a National Monument and is now the centre of the Inyanga National Park. The homestead and stables built by Rhodes form the core of the present Rhodes Inyanga Hotel and still contain furniture and photographs of the period.

Characteristically, Rhodes actively encouraged and assisted the settlement of many Boer families at Inyanga, a fact commemorated in the name of the "Dutch Settlement Road". One such settler was Major P. H. van Niekerk, who had distinguished himself in both the Africander Corps in the Matabele Rebellion and in the Boer War. He was a friend of Rhodes and settled on Bideford Farm about 1903. His archaeological interests and assistance to MacIver are commemorated in the name van Niekerk Ruins.

Page 30
Aloe

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Man and Plant at Inyanga
By
G.L. Guy B.Sc.

Visitors to the Ruins, particularly the Lowland area, often ask
"Why not date the ruins by tree rings?" "Haven't they done something like that in America.


The truth is that it has been tried but the great majority of indigenous trees, either show no marked annual rings or put on false rings due to drought, or unseasonal rains, or defoliation caused by fire or insect attack. Ring counts of Mlanje cedar offered the greatest hopes, but present techniques are incapable of dealing with such resinous woods. Recent experiments with baobab are proving interesting, though, and this species may well prove to be the oldest living thing.

The Uplands of Inyanga are a sad reflection of what happens when man is unrestrained in his use of natural resources. It is probable that the vast grassy areas were clothed in the same type of forest that now clings in isolated patches to the eastern slopes of Mt. Inyangani, slopes too steep or inaccessible to make the exploitation of their timber worthwhile, even with modern methods. One of the world's finest timbers Mlanje cedar (Widdringtonia whytel) which must have been common in the original forests, is now found only as fire scarred stunted small trees in rocky places or along streams, while Rhodesia's other beautiful conifer, Yellowwood (Podocarpus rnilanjianus) is found only in the depths of the surrounding forest.

The forests have vanished mainly through fire, which must have been used to clear land for cultivation, to provide fuel for household purposes and for iron smelting. Once the forest was
replaced by grass, fires lit to provide fresh grass for domestic animals, to drive out game and other animals, and to make wide open short grass areas to prevent surprise attacks from invaders, the fires nibbled annually at the forest verge and each year the forest shrank a few feet, and the housewife had a few more yards to travel for her fuel.

Today, a few surviving tree ferns are found in the deeper stream beds, a few of the more fire-resistant trees such as Waxberry (Myrica pilulifera), white elder (Nuxia florlbunda), cabbage tree (Cussonia spicata) and Mlanje cedar survive on rocky outcrops where fires barely reach them, and the great forests have vanished. But those who have the time will be well repaid by visits to the surviving

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Plate 6
Terracing in the Inyanga lowlands

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forests where such beautiful flowering trees as the Cape Chestnut (Calodendrum capense), Kannabast tree (Dais cotinifolla), Forest fever tree (Anthocleista grandiflora) with its giant leaves and sweet scented flowers, the brilliant Kaffirboom (Erythrina lysistemonl the shiny leaved Wild holly (Hex mitis), the tube flowered Notsung (Halleria lucida) arc to be found, together with a great wealth of annual flowers including a giant Haemanthus and a great variety of arboreal orchids. Among the trees without conspicuous flowers are the yellowwood Cape beech (Rapanea melanophloeos). Assegai wood (Curtisia dentata), with brown hairy twigs and opposite leaves, wild peach with crushed leaves smelling of almonds (Kiggelaria africana), wild lemon wood (Xymalos monospora), Croton sylvaticus and Macaranga mellfera.

The western slopes of the mountains carry "forests" of miniature Msasa (Brachystegia spiciformis), perfect in shape but only a few feet high, and nearly every rock outcrop carries clumps of the wild medlar (Vangueria infausta).

But the flowers of the Uplands are wonderful; flame lilies arc common, but are often more yellow than red, there are all sizes of Aloe, particularly in the ruins, and the red fire lily, which springs up on burnt ground is outstanding. Gladioli are worth looking for and so are the varieties of ground orchids, there are several heathers and the "everlastings" are also prominent. Wet places have sundew and other lovely flowers; as high as the summit of Inyangani are Chirona palustris and several of the Dissotis family. There are too many flowers to be listed here and visitors are advised to enjoy themselves by counting the number of species they can find. Those fortunate enough to come on the shy Streptocarpus cyanandrus will agree it has few equals.

In comparison with the indigenous forests, the man-made forests of wattle, pine and eucalyptus are dull indeed, but they do save the natural beauty from further spoliation.

The Lowland sites by contrast are well wooded with tree species much more resistant to fire and capable of springing up from the roots after being burnt or cut.

The dwellers in these parts were great fruit caters, if one can judge by the variety of edible fruit trees and shrubs found within the ruins. Not all arc palatable to those accustomed to cultivated apples, pears, peaches, plums, etc., but they are edible and many must have been brought in by parties of women and girls, to grow from discarded seeds. The few baobabs on the hills must have been brought in by human agency and the presence of the recently discovered juniper (Juniperus procera), is bound to cause argument:

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it has previously been known only 1000 km to the north. But interested visitors should look for the more than 30 wild fruits to be found and in an area still to be properly covered botanically, some clues of the origins of the peoples may be found. Common fruits are muhash (Parinari curatcllifolia) mzhanzhc and mahobohobo (Uapaca kirkiana) numnum (Carissa edulis) — (Flacourtia indica) several wild figs and further north, the delicious marula (Sclcrocarya caffra).

The aloes of the lowland ruins arc particularly beautiful, the brilliant flowers set off by the dull rock walls, but in their season the equally beautiful but smaller Babiana hypogea, Bells of St. Mary richodesma physaloides), Rhodesian bluebell Lapeyrousia rhodesuina) some of the ground orchids (Eulophia spp) mostly the brilliant pimpernel (Worniskioldia longepedunculata), and a long list of others, are well worth looking for; even the parasitic witchwood (Striffa asiatica) has its beauties.

Further Reading

Carl Peter's The Eldorado of the Ancients (London 1902). contains the first full description of the exploration and antiquities of the Inyanga area. It is, besides, a very illuminating and entertaining example of the Victorian approach to travel in the interior and to the romantic origins and purpose of the ruins.

Dr. Randall MacIver's Medieval Rhodesia (London 1906) is the earliest description of the ruins to make real use of archaeological techniques. His descriptions, plans and photographs arc very detailed particularly for the van Niekerk Ruins while many of his conclusions have stood the test of time. It also studies Zimbabwe and many other well-known Rhodesian ruins.

Roger Summers' Inyanga, Prehistoric Settlements in Southern Rhodesia (Cambridge 1958) should be consulted by anyone wishing to understand the prehistory of this area. Not only does it give detailed accounts of a large number of excavations, with man} plans and diagrams, and the dating evidence gathered from them, but the pottery, beads, skeletal remains, botany and Stone Age remains are all separately analysed in detail by different specialists. Finally, a general picture of the place Inyanga holds in the pre-history of Rhodesia and further afield is reconstructed.

Since its publication, F. O. Bernhard has given an account of the earlier Iron Age period in a paper "Notes on the Pre Ruin Ziwa culture of Inyanga" in Rhodesiana (The Rhodesiana Society. P.O. Box 8628. Causeway. Salisbury. 1964).

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Page 35

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Back Cover
Back Cover

End of Article

Thanks to P.S. Garlake and the Commission for the Preservation of Natural and Histrorical Monuments and Relics, and to the printers.
Thanks to Diarmid Smith for making a copy of this document available to me and thanks to Robb Ellis for his assistance.

Eddy Norris
Napier
May 20, 2010



Labels:

Monday 17 May 2010

The New Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland

Prepared by the
FEDERAL INFORMATION SERVICES
GOVERNMENT OF RHODESIA AND NYASALAND
and issued by authority 1954

Recompiled by Eddy Norris, for use on ORAFs in May 2010

Cover of the Booklet

CONTENTS

THE NEW STATE ADMINISTRATION

Federal
Territorial

ECONOMY

Agriculture
Mining
Manufacturing
Trade
National Income

BASIC SERVICES

Railways and Roads
Aviation
Power Supplies
Tourist Amenities
Defence
Education
Health

PRINCIPAL TOWNS

HISTORY

Lord Llewellin
The Right Hon. The Lord Llewellin G.R.B., M.C., T.D.,
first Governor-General of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.


FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RHODESIA AND NYASALAND
GOVERNOR-GENERALS OFFICE,
P.O. BOX 136, CAUSEWAY.

This booklet is designed, to give a brief introduction to the geography, constitution, history and economic situation of the new Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Its scope has been deliberately limited in order to facilitate publication as early as possible in the lifetime of the Federal State and to allow for the widest possible distribution in Africa and overseas.

It is planned to follow this introductory publication with more detailed factual reviews of various aspects of the subject. There can be no doubt that Commonwealth, indeed world, interest has been stirred by the inauguration of the new British State in Africa and that there is a strong demand for information. It is hoped that this booklet will help to meet that demand and will be of assistance to those who may be thinking of making their living or investing their money in this land of great opportunity.

Signature
GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

THE NEW STATE

THE FEDERATION is situated in South Central Africa, extending about 1,000 miles north and south from latitude 22*30' South to latitude 8°I5' South.

On the South it is bordered by the Union of South Africa, on the West by the Bechuanaland Protectorate, Portuguese West Africa, on the North West and North by the Belgian Congo, on
the North by Tanganyika and on the East by Portuguese East Africa, The total area of the Federation is over 485,000 square miles, made up of:

Southern Rhodesia 150,333 square miles.

Northern Rhodesia 287,640 square miles.

Nyasaland 49,000 square miles approximately (including 12,000 square miles of water).

This is larger than the whole of Northern Europe (including the British Isles) except Scandinavia;

Larger than the Union of South Africa; or Larger than the combined area of the American states of Texas, California and New York.

The Federation as a whole is as yet relatively sparsely populated. The total population is nearly 7,000,000, comprising—

215,600 European
6,500,000 African
14,200 Asian
10,000 Mixed races made up of:

Southern Rhodesia: 160,000 European, 2,130,000 African, 4,700 Asian, 6,700 mixed races.
Northern Rhodesia: 50,000 European, 1,980,000 African, 3,500 Asian, 1,300 mixed races.
Nyasaland: 5,600 European, 2,400,000 African, 6,000 Asian, 2,000 mixed races.

Though the entire Federal area lies within the tropics most of Southern and Northern Rhodesia lies at an altitude of between 3,000 and 5,000 feet above sea level. Except for the Lake littoral and the Shire Valley, the elevation of Nyasaland varies between 2,500 and 7,000 feet above sea level. Over much of the area, therefore, climatic conditions favour permanent European settlement.

The main rainfall throughout the area is concentrated into a season extending from about November to March. Average rain- fall (except for certain somewhat arid low-lying regions on the one hand and some high altitude areas of very heavy rainfall on the other hand) is in the vicinity of 25 to 30 inches a year.

Portions of the Zambezi River, Lake Nyasa, Lake Bangweulu, the Luapula River and the Chambeshi River are navigable and are extensively used by waterborne transport. The Federation has, however, no great natural waterways to provide access to the sea or to connect major industrial centres. But there are a number of large rivers which could be brought into the service of agriculture for irrigation and of power supplies for hydro-electric schemes. The principal rivers of this type, in addition to the Zambezi, are:

In Southern Rhodesia:

The Sabi River and its tributaries (irrigation and power potentialities),
The Hunyani River (already dammed at several points), and
The Umfuli River (irrigation potentialities);

In Northern Rhodesia:

The Kafue River (power potentialities),
The Mulungushi River (already supplying hydroelectric power to Broken Hill mine and town),

The Lunsemfwa River (already supplying hydro-electric power to Broken Hill mine and town),
The Zambezi River at the Victoria Falls supplies hydroelectric power to Livingstone;

In Nyasaland:

The Shire River (power and irrigation potentialities).

THE AFRICAN PEOPLES

The 6,500,000 African peoples of the Federal area range from primitive tribes living under bare subsistence conditions to prosperous businessmen and highly educated professional men such as clergymen, school teachers, journalists and trade union organisers. The proportion of those who are by Western standards sophisticated is still small, but is growing year by year with the extension of educational facilities and the development of economic opportunities.

Between these two extremes the African peoples are at all stages of development, but the large majority still live an agricultural life in their tribal areas. There is, however, a growing class which seeks a permanent livelihood in urban areas in the two Rhodesias working in industry and mining, commercial concerns and government offices.

In Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland the tribal Africans are governed by the system of Indirect Rule and Chiefs and their Councils can make and administer local laws. They also have Courts in both rural and urban areas which take the greater part of the petty criminal and civil cases involving Africans only.

In Southern Rhodesia a more direct system of rule is followed although the African Council policy is being developed.

Health Services in all three territories are provided free of charge by State and mission hospitals. Of recent years, with the breaking down of the suspicion of the "white man's medicine" there has been a very marked increase in the demand for these services, not only in the large urban centres but also in the more remote rural areas where African orderlies and nurses play a large part in supplementing the efforts of European doctors.

In the field of education, the main brunt of the work is borne by the missions subsidised by the Governments but direct educational facilities are now provided in the urban areas of Southern Rhodesia and in urban and rural areas of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. In all three territories teacher training and vocational training are provided by the Governments and missions.

In many rural areas in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland the Native Authorities provide primary schools which are supervised by the Government. There are 30 such schools in Northern Rhodesia.

There are secondary schools for Africans in all three territories and Southern and Northern Rhodesia each have schools going up to University entrance standard.

In Southern Rhodesia the land is apportioned between Europeans and Africans. In the European areas Africans may not own land freehold and in the African areas no other races may own land. The greater proportion of the African areas is communally held but there are a number of districts, the Native Purchase

Areas, in which over 3,000 African farmers own their own farms freehold. In Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland most of the land is reserved for African occupation where it is communally held on die traditional basis, although in Northern Rhodesia a system of peasant farming by groups is being established in several parts of the territory.

The Protectorate of Barotseland, with its own Resident Commissioner is part of Northern Rhodesia.


The ILALA
The motor vessel ILALA, photographed at Monkey Bay, Lake Nyasa.

ADMINISTRATION

FEDERAL

THE representative of Her Majesty the Queen is the Governor-General of the Federation.

There is a Cabinet presided over by the Prime Minister. The members of the Cabinet are drawn from the Federal Assembly which consists of 35 members.

They are made up as follows:

Twenty-six elected members of whom fourteen are elected in Southern Rhodesia, eight in Northern Rhodesia and four in Nyasaland;

Six African members of whom two are elected in each territory;

Three European members charged with special responsibilities for African interests of whom one is elected in Southern Rhodesia and the other two are appointed, one each by the Governors of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

A Standing Committee of the Federal Assembly, known as the African Affairs Board, consists of the three European members representing African interests and one of the elected African members from each territory.

The functions of the Board are to make representations to the Federal Government on matters within the authority of the Federation in the interests of Africans and to assist a Territorial Government, at its request, in the study of matters affecting Africans.

It is also the function of the Board to draw attention to any Federal legislation of a differentiating character and to ask that it should be reserved for the signification of Her Majesty's pleasure.

The main matters on which the Federal Legislature has power to make laws are;

external affairs, defence, immigration, financial and economic affairs, inter-territorial roads, railways, European agriculture in Southern Rhodesia, posts and telegraphs, education except African primary and secondary education, Federal courts.

In addition, there are a number of matters on which both the Federal and Territorial Legislatures have powers to make laws. They include:

The development of industries, electricity, scientific and industrial research, health, town planning archives, census and statistics.

In many instances of the latter list (the "concurrent" list) a Federal agency or Government department will be responsible for administration and the carrying out of functions. The reason for empowering the Territorial legislatures also to legislate is to ensure that legislation or regulations will be applicable to local conditions, e.g., in the collection of statistics or archives or the formulation of town planning schemes.

The Federal Cabinet is as follows:

Prime Minister, Minister of External Affairs and Defence:
The Right Hon. Sir Godfrey Huggins, C.H., K.C.M.G.

Minister of Transport and Communications:
Sir Roy Welensky C.M.G.

Minister of Commerce and Industry:
Sir Malcolm Barrow, C.B.E.

Minister of Finance:
Mr. Donald MacIntyre, C.B.E.

Minister of Agriculture and Health:
Mr. J. M. Caldicott.

Minister of Home Affairs and Education:
Mr. J. M. Greenfield, C.M.G., Q.C.

As a result of the first Federal general election held on December, 15, 1953, the composition of the Federal Assembly is as follows:—

Southern Rhodesia:
Border: Mr. B. D. Goldberg
Bulawayo: Mr. D. Macintrye
Bulawayo Suburbs: Mr. W. H. Eastwood
Darwin: Mr, J. M. Caldicotc
Midlands: Mr. I. D. Smith
Mrewa: Mr. N. G. Barrett
Salisbury: Mr. L. M. N. Hodson
Salisbury South: Mr. W. A. E. Winterton
Salisbury Suburbs: Sir Godfrey Huggins
Salisbury West: Mr. J. W, Swan
Sebakwe: Mr. J, R, Dendy Young
Umguza: Mr. J. M. Greenfield
Umniati: Mr. L, M. Cullinan
Western: Mr. R. F. Halsted

Specially elected European member for African interests: The Rev. Percy Ibbotson

African member for Mashonaland: Mr. J, Z, Savanhu
African member for Matabeleland: Mr. M. M. Hove,

Northern Rhodesia:
Broken Hill: Sir Roy Welensky
Kafue: Mr. G. F. M. van Eedcn
Livingstone: Mr. J. C. Gravlin
Longways: Capt. F. B. Robertson
Luanshya-Mufulira: Mr. V. T. Joyce
Lusaka: Dr. A. Scott
Ndola: Mr. F. S. Owen
Nkana-Chingola: Mr. G. W. R. L'Ange

Nominated European member for African interests: Dr. J. F. C. Haslam

African members: Mr. Mateyo Kakumbi and Mr. D. L. Yamba

Legislative Assembly's building
The Southern Rhodesia Legislative Assembly's building, Salisbury.
Temporary meeting place of the Federal Parliament
.

Nyasaland:
Mr. R. C. Bucquet, Mr. John Foot, Mr. P. F. Brereton, Sir Malcolm Barrow

Nominated European member for African interests: The Rev. A. B. Doig.

African members: Mr. W. M. Chirwa and Mr. C. R. Kumbikano.

The Federal Patty holds 24 of the 26 seats for ordinary elected members and has three supporters among the remaining nine members of the Assembly.

RELATIONS WITH OTHER COUNTRIES

The Federation's relations with the United Kingdom are conducted through the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations,

The Federation maintains a High Commissioner in London and the United Kingdom Government a High Commissioner at the Federal capital.

The Federation also has a High Commissioner in the Union of South Africa and the latter a High Commissioner in Salisbury.

In addition, there is a Consul at Beira in Portuguese East Africa and a Commissioner at Nairobi in East Africa.

The following countries are represented by resident consuls de carriere:

United States of America: Consul General.
Belgium: Consul General.
Federal German Republic: Consul General,
Portugal: Consul,
France: Consul.
Italy: Consul.

The following countries are represented by honorary consuls:

Netherlands: Hon. Consul General (with a vice consul de carriere).
Sweden: Hon. Consul.
Denmark: Hon. Consul.
Finland: Hon. Consul.
Austria: Hon. Consul.
Greece: Hon. Consul,
Norway: Hon. Consul.

The Commissioner for the Government of India in Nairobi has jurisdiction in the Federation.

The following consular officers have jurisdiction in the Federation:

Brazil: Consul General at Cape Town.
Spain: Consul at Cape Town.
Austria: Consul General at Johannesburg.
Switzerland: Consul at Johannesburg.

TERRITORIAL

The territories continue to enjoy the same constitutional status as before Federation.

Southern Rhodesia is formally described as a self-governing Colony. It has a single-chamber Parliament of 30 elected Members with a Cabinet formed of Members of the Legislative Assembly. The only limitation on the full responsibility of Southern Rhodesia for its own affairs is that differential legislation in respect of the treatment of Africans and Europeans is reserved for Her Majesty's assent.

With the transfer of powers to the Federal Government, the main functions for which the Southern Rhodesia Government will be responsible will be Native administration (including education and agriculture) local government, justice, police, industrial relations, territorial finance, roads other than Federal roads, and mining.

Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland: Both Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland are Protectorates administered by the Secretary of State for the Colonies on behalf of the United Kingdom Government, although Northern Rhodesia has a considerable degree of self-government. The status of the two countries remains unaltered under Federation though many former functions of the territorial Governments are being assumed by the Federal Government. Broadly speaking, the responsibilities of the territorial Governments of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland are similar to those of the Southern Rhodesia Government.

Executive power in Northern Rhodesia is vested in an:

Executive Council of live official and four unofficial Members which is presided over by the Governor. The Legislative Council has a Speaker, eight official members and eighteen unofficial including four African Members. A unique situation exists whereby the views of the unofficial Members carry die same weight in Executive Council as they do in Legislative Council. Obviously, therefore, the vote of the unofficial Members, if unanimous, is the determining voice
in the management of the Territory's affairs.

In Nyasaland the Executive Council consists of four official and two unofficial Members and it is presided over by the Governor. The Legislative Assembly comprises nineteen Members, nine of them being senior officials while the remainder are nominated by the Governor on the recommendation of unofficial bodies and include seven Europeans, one Asian and two Africans. The Governor presides over the Council and has a casting vote.

Wankie Colliery
A view of the Wankie Colliery in Southern Rhodesia which supplies coal to both Rhodesias.

ECONOMY

It is generally accepted that the economic potentialities of the Federation are considerable. In all directions, mining, agricultural and manufacturing, it has resources which,, with further development, will make it a major economic force not only in the Continent of Africa but. in the British Commonwealth.

This forecast, valid though it is, should not be allowed to over shadow the progress already made which, indeed, makes the estimates of the future possible.

It is, therefore, necessary to indicate briefly the present economic state of the Federal area.

AGRICULTURE

The first concern in agriculture is food production. The most important single food crop in the area is maize, staple food of a large proportion of the African peoples and widely used for animal feed.

In general terms, in all but unfavourable conditions, the three territories produce sufficient maize for their combined requirements. Detailed statistics for African production are not available but it can be stated that, after providing for the subsistence of the African agriculturists, it provides in all but the worst years a surplus for sale. For example, Nyasaland, where maize production is almost entirely African, has built up in recent years an export surplus ranging from 15,000 to 40,000 tons a year.

Similarly, in Southern Rhodesia, African producers sell large quantities of maize annually, the amount varying between 20,000 and 90,000 cons according to season.

European farmers in the three territories have nearly half a million acres planted to maize (about 375,000 in Southern Rhodesia, 100,000 in Northern Rhodesia and 10,COO in Nyasaland) with a production of between two and three hundred thousand tons, according to season.

In addition to maize, Africans produce large quantities of small grains (sorghums and millet), rice, groundnuts and cassava in certain areas, mainly as subsistence crops, although Nyasaland is building up an export crop of groundnuts.

Southern Rhodesia is the most important meat producer with a cattle population of about 3,000,000 head, of which some 60 per cent, are African owned. Northern Rhodesia has rather less than 1,000,000 head and Nyasaland about quarter of a million, giving a total for the Federation of more than 4,000,000 head.

It has to be borne in mind that large areas of the Federal State are still unsuited to cattle raising as a result of the presence of tsetse fly.

Further, both Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland have important fisheries on Lakes Tanganyika, Mweru and Bangwelu and the Luapula, Kafue and Zambezi Rivers and on Lake Nyasa which help to maintain protein supplies. Production of fresh and dried fish in Northern Rhodesia alone is estimated at 10,000 tons

while Lake Nyasa also produces several thousand tons annually. Fish farming is being developed in Southern and Northern Rhodesia.

The territories can supply their requirements in whole milk and cheese but some butter is imported, though margarine production from locally grown groundnuts helps to meet the deficiency.

Tea is one of the chief exports of Nyasaland with an annual production of about 15,000,000 lbs. several times greater than the consumption of the Federal area. Tea is also being increasingly produced in the Eastern highlands of Southern Rhodesia; production has exceeded 1,000,000 lbs. a year.

The principal basic foodstuffs in which the Federation is not at present self-sufficient are sugar and wheat.

There is a small production of sugar at the Triangle Estates in the southern part of Southern Rhodesia and private enterprise is planning much larger production in the Zambesi Valley on both northern and southern banks.

Wheat production is very small and unlikely to be much increased until large irrigation schemes are developed.

CASH CROPS

Tobacco holds pride of place as thee most important cash crop of the Federation.

Production of all types of tobacco in the three territories is at present between 140,000,000 and 150.000,000 lbs. a year valued at well over £20,000,000.

Of this total the largest production is in Southern Rhodesia with a crop of about 1.00,000,000 (mainly of Virginia type flue-cured leaf which finds a ready market in the United Kingdom, Australia and many other countries). Nyasaland produces some 30,000,000 lbs. a year, chiefly of fire-cured and Burley types grown by Africans, and Northern Rhodesia about 10,000,000 lbs. a year.

The emphasis, particularly in Southern Rhodesia, is on greater production per acre and on higher quality.

Cotton is the next most valuable cash crop. Nyasaland is the principal producer with an annual production of up to 18,000,000 lbs. Southern Rhodesia produces about half that quantity.

Other crops which are still in the development stage are tung, to which 18,000 acres have been planted in Nyasaland, and wattle to which many thousands of acres arc being planted in the eastern areas of Southern Rhodesia. Two extraction factories are planned.

The principal source of hardwoods in the Federation are the forests of the Zambesi Valley in Northern Rhodesia, west of the Victoria Falls, and of Matabeleland in Southern Rhodesia, while considerable softwood afforestation schemes are being developed in both Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland and to a lesser extent on the Copperbelt in Northern Rhodesia.

MINING

Mining is the economic mainstay of the Federation and has from the earliest days been the principal support of the two Rhodesias.

Incomparably the most important factor is the great copper mining industry of Northern Rhodesia with an output of 313,000 tons in 1952 valued at approximately £75,000,000. The Copperbelt of Northern Rhodesia is one of the world's chief sources of copper, the largest in the Commonwealth and the third in the world, ranking only after the United States and Chile. There are four producing mines at present and more are being developed. There are prospects of copper production in Southern Rhodesia

There is also considerable production of lead (14,000 tons in 1952), zinc (22,500 tons) and cobalt (37,000 cwts.) in Northern Rhodesia.

Southern Rhodesia's most valuable mineral product in 1952 was asbestos, 85,000 tons valued at £6,650,000, closely followed by gold (497,000 fine ounces worth £6,500,000).

Production of chrome ore was over 350,000 tons worth nearly £2,000,000 and coal 2,820,000 tons valued at £1,820,000. Both Rhodesias also produce a wide variety of other minerals including limestone, vanadium, beryllium, iron ore, tin, and tungsten. Mineral deposits are being investigated in Nyasaland which possesses deposits of bauxite on Mlanje Mountain and coal.

The most striking comment that can be made on current mineral production is that, with the possible exception of gold, it can be substantially increased given additional power supplies and railway facilities,

MANUFACTURING

Up to the present, the most significant development of manufacturing industry has been in Southern Rhodesia where, at the end of 1952, there were over 1,000 factories. The net value of the output (after deducting the value of raw materials used) was £22,000,000 in 1951, The most important industries are those producing tobacco, cotton, textile and metal products. In these cases as well as those of processed foodstuffs the raw materials were supplied wholly or in large part from local sources.

In Northern Rhodesia at the end of 1952 there were 209 factories including 19 saw mills (one of them the biggest in southern Africa) and woodworking factories and 17 flour mills.

Again it can be stated that with the stabilisation of the very much larger local market in the new Federation and with increased power supplies and improved communications, the outlook for expanded industrial production in both Rhodesias is much enhanced.

TRADE

The best illustration of the economic development of the Federal area is that in 1952 the combined external trade of the three territories was worth nearly £300,000,000. Of this over £150,000,000 represented exports and nearly £140,000,000 imports,

A proportion of these figures represented trade between the three territories themselves. After allowing for this factor, a little over ten per cent, of the total, the Federal area remains an important trader on world markets, on current figures.

The 1952 trade figures were:—

Imports - Exports

Southern Rhodesia: £88,475,000 - £61,237,000
Northern Rhodesia: £42,760,000 - £82,605,000
Nyasaland: £8,745,000 - £6,299,000

In each case, and most notably in that of Southern Rhodesia, a very high proportion of the imports were made up of producers' goods (i.e., capital equipment), itself an indication of an expanding economy.

The most important exports in 1952 were:—

Southern Rhodesia:
Tobacco £18,800,000; asbestos £7,150,000; gold £6,649,000; textiles and cotton goods, etc., £3,500,000; chrome ore £2,000,000.

Northern Rhodesia:
Copper £74,700,000; zinc £2,800,000; lead £1,417,000; tobacco £1,120,000.

Nyasaland:
Tobacco £2,157,000; tea £2,029,000.

NATIONAL INCOME

The 1952 figures of the national income of the three territories:

Southern Rhodesia - £118,000,000
Northern Rhodesia - £62,000,000
Nyasaland £16,000,000

The significance of these figures is that they are showing,particularly in the Rhodesias, a steady annual increase.

Map of Federation
Map of Federation

BASIC SERVICES

RAILWAYS AND ROADS

THE two Rhodesias are served by the Rhodesia Railways which connect with the South African Railways at Mafeking. The main line forks at Bulawayo; the northern branch runs via the Victoria Falls through Northern Rhodesia to the Copperbelt and on to the Belgian Congo Border where it connects with the Belgian system. Hie eastern branch runs along the watershed of Southern Rhodesia to serve the main centres and ends at Umtali where it joins the Portuguese system to provide access to Beira.

With branch lines the total mileage of the Rhodesia Railways is nearly 2,500 miles, but an important new line, linking the Midlands of Southern Rhodesia, with the fine port of Lourenco Marques in Portuguese East Africa is under construction.

Nyasaland is served by the Nyasaland Railway system (the Trans-Zambesian Railway, the Central Africa Railway and the Nyasaland Railways) which connect Beira with Nyasaland. The total length of the system is nearly 500 miles.

Main roads, which are in process of modernisation, connect all the main centres of the Federation with one another and with adjacent territories and secondary roads serve rural areas. The total route mileage of roads is over 51,000 miles (28,500 miles in Southern Rhodesia, 18,000 miles in Northern Rhodesia and nearly 5,000 miles in Nyasaland) of which some 11,000 miles are designated as main or principal roads (6,000 miles in Southern Rhodesia, excluding roads in towns, 4,300 miles in Northern Rhodesia and 1,700 miles in Nyasaland). Major bridges, the gift of the Beit Trustees, span the larger rivers on main roads, noteworthy being the Beit Bridge over the Limpopo, the Ottobeit Bridge at Chirundu over the Zambezi and the Birchenough Bridge over the Sabi River.

Tobacco Crop
A field of tobacco, most important cash crop of all three of the Federal territories.

American financial aid has been given for the up-grading of the Northern Rhodesia section of the Great North military road which links railhead at Broken Hill with Nairobi in Kenya.

AVIATION

Civil aviation has made rapid progress in the Federal area since the war. The existing airline was reconstituted in partnership between the three territories as the Central African Airways Corporation. Flying Viking, Dakota and Beaver aircraft Central African Airways provide daily services between the major towns of the Federation and between them and Nairobi and Johannesburg as well as a weekly service to London and services to outlying parts of the Federation.

In addition there are many air charter firms and the major world airlines link the Federation with overseas countries.

The international airport at Livingstone whose main runway is over two miles long can carry aircraft of about 150,000 lb. all-up weight, whilst both Salisbury and Lusaka have airports that can carry Comets and other big aircraft.

POWER SUPPLIES

The rapidly developing mining and manufacturing industries and the growing towns of the Rhodesias demand large supplies of electric power.

Three hydro-electric schemes already exist in Northern Rhodesia. (See first section—The New State').

There are plans for the building of large hydro-electric schemes on the Kafue River in Northern Rhodesia and, later on, on the Zambesi River at the Kariba Gorge.

Meanwhile, power is mainly supplied from thermal generating stations operating mainly on coal from the Wankie collieries.

In Southern Rhodesia the capacity of these stations totals some 250 megawatts from the generators of the Salisbury and Bulawayo municipalities and of the Electricity Supply Commission, and in Northern Rhodesia the capacity is 180 megawatts, most of which is produced by the stations operated by the mining companies in the Copperbelt.

Nyasaland is investigating the possibilities of hydro-electric power from the Shire River scheme which would also stabilise the level of Lake Nyasa and provide for the irrigation of the lower Shire Valley.

TOURIST AMENITIES

The Federal area has much to offer the holiday maker.

It has the Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River, the greatest waterfall in the world, many intriguing remains of former civilisations of which the best known are the Zimbabwe Ruins in Southern Rhodesia, and game reserves in both Rhodesias at Wankie and Kafue, where the wild animals of Africa ate to be seen in their natural environment. With a splendid climate during the winter months, usually bright and sunny and rarely very cold, the Rhodesias and Nyasaland also possess a number of the more conventional tourist attractions—the lake shores of Nyasa and Tanganyika and the mountain resorts of Southern Rhodesia's eastern border.

Apart from this variety of tourist appeal, the Federation provides for the visitor the spectacle of a great new State in the making with the evidence in all directions of sustained and balanced progress.

DEFENCE

All three territories have consistently given a good account of themselves in war by sending contingents for service abroad. The permanent forces are small consisting of a battalion of the Rhodesian African Rifles in Southern Rhodesia, a battalion of the Northern Rhodesia Regiment and two battalions of the King's African Rifles (in Nyasaland) and a fighter squadron of the Southern Rhodesia Air Force (now re-equipping with Vampire jet fighters).

Southern Rhodesia has, however, a large European Territorial Force of approximately brigade group strength of all arms except tanks. This could be quickly expanded in time of emergency


A Territorial Force is now to be formed in Northern Rhodesia.

All the military forces in the Federation are now grouped together under the Central Africa Command.

EUROPEAN EDUCATION

Apart from African education most educational facilities are provided by the State though there is in Southern Rhodesia a growing number of private schools most of which are sponsored by religious organisations.

With its larger European population, Southern Rhodesia has provided more extensive educational facilities than the other territories. In addition to the schools there is a technical college and evening classes are provided in the larger towns.

The first steps have been taken towards the setting up of a university. A site has been acquired in Salisbury where the first classes are already being given. The university is to be open to all students who can fulfil the educational qualifications regardless of race or colour.

HEALTH

Though precautions are necessary against tropical diseases such as bilharzia and malaria, health conditions throughout the Federation are good. Modern hospitals are maintained by the State in all major centres of population and preventive health services are operated by Government and local authorities. In addition, large industries such as the copper mines in Northern Rhodesia and the larger mining concerns in Southern Rhodesia have their own hospitals and health services. Important research work and practical applications of the results have been carried out in Southern Rhodesia on bilharzia and malaria and on the Copperbelt on silicosis.

Copper Mine
Surface installations of one of Northern Rhodesia's great copper mines, producers of the
Federation's greatest economic assets.


PRINCIPAL TOWNS

SOUTHERN RHODESIA

Salisbury (4,8.51 feet):
Capital city of Southern Rhodesia and provisional capital of the Federation, Salisbury is built round the site where the Pioneer Column ended its march into Mashonaland in 1890. Situated in die north-east of Southern Rhodesia it is on the main railway line which traverses the more closely settled areas of the Colony. Branch railway lines run north-east to Shamva and north-west to Sinoia. Headquarters of Central African Airways. Centre of the tobacco industry—the tobacco auction sales at Salisbury are the largest inthe world—and an industrial centre of considerable importance. Estimated population, including townships on the periphery of Salisbury, 50,000 Europeans; 115,000 Africans; 3,300 Asians and Coloured (mixed race).

Bulawayo (4,405 feet):
Second city of Southern Rhodesia, Bulawayo is the headquarters of the railway system and an important industrial centre. Situated in the south-west of the Colony. From Bulawayo the main railway line from the south forks north-westwards to the Victoria Falls and thence into Northern Rhodesia and north-eastwards through the Midlands to Salisbury from where it runs south-east to the Portuguese border. Close to Bulawayo is Rhodes' burial place in the Matopo Hills. Bulawayo was originally the site of the capital of Lobengula, last King of the Matabele (his own kraal was on the site of Government House). Estimated population, including that of adjoining townships: 40,000 Europeans, 90,000 Africans: 3,200 Asians and Coloured.

Umtali (3,672 feet):
Port of entry for Southern Rhodesia by rail and road from the port of Beira; situated within a few miles of the Portuguese East African border. Important railway, industrial and distribution centre. Surrounded by hills and mountains, Umtali is probably the most picturesquely situated town in Southern Rhodesia. Estimated population: 6,800 Europeans; 17,000 Africans.

Gwelo (4,632 feet):
Centrally situated, about 100 miles north-east of Bulawayo, with important mining areas nearby. An industrial centre of growing importance near to the point at which the new rail link with Lourenco Marques (now under construction) will join the existing main railway system. Estimated population: 6,100 Europeans; 15,000 Africans.

Que Que (3,957 feet):
Situated about 50miles north of Gwelo in an important mining area. The large Globe and Phoenix gold mine is in Que Que and the Rhodesian Iron and Steel Commission's iron ore mine and works are a few miles away. A growing industrial centre. Estimated population, with figures for the Iron and Steel Commission township given in brackets: 2,200 (1,000) European; 8,000 (3,000) Africans.

Gatooma (3,796 feet):
Approximately 100 miles south-west of Salisbury. Centre of the cotton industry, site of the State cotton spinning mills and of several textile factories. Also the centre of an important agricultural and mining area. Estimated population: 1.900 Europeans; 8,000 Africans.

Shabani (3,3CO feet):
Situated about 60 miles south of Gwelo in the centre of the asbestos mining area, to-day Southern Rhodesia's most valuable mineral export. Estimated population: 1,700 Europeans; 12,000 Africans.

Wankie (2,567 feet):
Situated in the north-west of Southern Rhodesia, about 80 miles from the Victoria Falls. Site of the coal mining industry which supplies both Rhodesias with coal. To the west of Wankie is the 5,000 square mile Wankie Game Reserve. Estimated population: 1,200 Europeans; 13,000 Africans.

Fort Victoria (3,562 feet):
Situated on the main road from Beit Bridge to Salisbury, about 180 miles from Beit Bridge, The oldest settlement in Southern Rhodesia, Fort Victoria was the first: township established by the Pioneer Column in its march into Mashonaland in 1890. Centre of an important ranching area with a number of mines in the district. Estimated population: 1J00 Europeans; 5,000 Africans.

Note: Estimates of the Asian and Coloured population have been omitted, except in the eases of Salisbury and Bulawayo, as they are a small proportion of the total population. The figures for African population of towns are estimates based on the assumption that the African labour force has increased at the same rate as the European popu- lation since the 1951 census.

NORTHERN RHODESIA

Lusaka (4,198 feet):
Capital of Northern Rhodesia, centrally situated in the southern area of the territory on the main railway line to the north and on the main road route. Centre of an important agricultural area. Industries are developing in Lusaka. Estimated population: 7,200 Europeans; 40,000 Africans.

Ndola (4,087 feel):
As the commercial and distributing centre for the Copperbelt, Ndola is one of the most important towns in Northern Rhodesia. It is the northernmost terminal station on the Rhodesia Railways system, 520 miles north of Livingstone and 169 miles south of Elisabethville in the Belgian Congo. In addition, Ndola has a variety of manufacturing industry. Estimated population: 4,500 Europeans; 35,000 Africans.

The Copperbelt Towns:

The four main Copperbelt towns (others are being developed) have a good deal in common in that they are all based on the important copper mining industry and are inhabited principally by employees of the mines and their families. The mining companies have built most of the houses and have provided excellent recreational and welfare amenities. The four largest townships are:

Tea Factory
A tea factory in Nyasaland. Tea is one of the Protectorate''s most important crops.

Kitwe (4,112 feet):
Forty miles north of Ndola. With the adjacent mining township of Nkana, Kitwe is the largest centre of European population in Northern Rhodesia. The Nkana Mine is the largest of the Northern Rhodesian copper mines. Hie Kafue River, providing good fishing and boating, is close by. Estimated population 7,200 Europeans-, 65,000 Africans.

Luanshya (4,055 feet):
Twenty-three miles from Ndola. Adjoins the Roan Antelope Mine, Estimated population: 5,600 Europeans; 55,000 Africans.

Mufulira (4,227 feet):
Forty-eight miles from Ndola, The Mufulira mine employs most of the town's population. Estimated population: 4,700 Europeans; 45,000 Africans.

Chingola (4,331 feet):
Associated with the Nchanga mine, Chingola is the youngest of the big Copperbelt towns, having been established some 15 years ago. Estimated population: 3,400 Europeans; 25,000 Africans.

Broken Hill (3,879 feet):
One of the oldest townships in Northern Rhodesia. Important mining and railway centre, associated with the Broken Hill mine which produces lead, vanadium and zinc. Estimated population: 4,000 Europeans; 30,000 Africans.

Livingstone (2,997 feet):
Until 1935 capital of Northern Rhodesia. Situated seven miles from the Victoria Falls, it lies in the extreme south on file border between the two Rhodesias. Oldest municipality in Northern Rhodesia and a town of considerable commercial and industrial importance. Has one of the finest international airports in Africa. Estimated population: 3,700 Europeans; 25,000 Africans.

Note: No estimates of the Asian and Coloured populations have been given as they form a small proportion of the total.

NYASALAND

Zomba (2,900 feet):
Capital of the Protectorate. Picturesquely situated at the foot of Zomba Mountain. Estimated population: 500 Europeans; 400 Asians; 5,000 Africans.

Blantyte (3,400 feet):
Headquarters of the Southern Province and an important commercial centre. Three hundred and fifty-five miles from Beira by rail. Main airport for Nyasaland.

Estimated population: 1,000 Europeans; 1,000 Asians; 9,000 Africans.

Limbe (3,800 feet): Important commercial centre five miles from Blantyre. It is the headquarters of the Nyasaland railways and is a centre of the tobacco industry. Estimated population 1,000 Europeans; 1,500 Asians; 15,000 Africans.

HISTORY

THE whole of South Central Africa was the scene of the mass movements of peoples which characterised the history of much of Africa south of die Equator between the 16th and 19th centuries. The original inhabitants of the southern portions of the continent were primitive peoples, Bushmen and Hottentots. From equatorial regions came successive waves of the more highly developed Bantu. Some remained in what are now the Rhodesias and Nyasaland; others swept southwards till they met another human wave coining northwards, the Boer trekkers fanning out from the Dutch settlements at the Cape. Some of the Bantu tribes,offshoots of the militaristic Zulu nation, headed northwards again to become the founders of the Matabele people of Southern Rhodesia, the Lozi of Northern Rhodesia and the Angoni of Nyasaland.

Inheriting their social system and their traditions from the Zulus, these tribes dominated their neighbours through their aggressive, militaristic way of life.

For the mass of the native African peoples life was little different from what it had been for centuries till the coming of the white man towards the end of the 19th century. Generally speaking. it was a subsistence economy based on the keeping of cattle and a shifting system of agriculture, without any permanent settlements or architecture, written language or wheeled transport.

A further restrictive factor in Nyasaland and parts of Northern Rhodesia was the impact of the slave trade operated by Arabs from East Coast bases. It was, indeed, the powerful voice of David Livingstone inspiring the crusade against the slave trade which focussed European attention on Central Africa for the first time in the middle years of the nineteenth century.

The missionary work of Livingstone himself, his father-in-law, Robert Moffat, and their successors in the Rhodesias and Nyasaland; the reports of gold occurrences in Mashonaland; and the Imperial strategic vision of Cecil Rhodes were the decisive elements in introducing the British influence into this part of Africa.

The coming of the white man changed completely the course of its history and led directly to die economic advances which have been noteworthy in recent times.

Though there was something in common between the early story of British influence in the Rhodesias and in Nyasaland—Livingstone and Rhodes are associated with both—they are in the main separate stories.

SOUTHERN RHODESIA

As far as the Rhodesias are concerned 1890 is the decisive date. Modern European contacts go back nearly half a century earlier in the form of missionary endeavours, trading and hunting expeditions and journeys by gold prospectors. In 1890, however, all the previous efforts culminated in the march into Mashonaland of Cecil Rhodes' Pioneer Column to take up the concession granted by Lobengula, King of the Matabele.

The European settlement of what was to become Southern Rhodesia began with this event under the direct inspiration of Rhodes, For the first 33 years of its existence as a British dependency Southern Rhodesia was administered by Rhodes' British South Africa Company which was also responsible for Northern Rhodesia. Though there were some common services the territories were separately administered. Each, was in fact, first administered in two parts.

Southern Rhodesia consisted originally of Mashonaland. As a result of the Matabele War in 1893 Matabeleland was annexed. The name Rhodesia was adopted for all the territories ruled by the Chartered Company in 1895. For a time both Matabeleland and Mashonaland had their own Administrators but a unified administration was soon set up.

In the first decade Southern Rhodesia's progress was interrupted by the Matabele War in 1893 and three years later by the Matabele and Mashona Rebellions. Meanwhile progress was being made in building the railway lines from Beira and the Cape, the former reaching Umtali in 1898 and the latter Bulawayo the previous year.

Then came the South African War which brought the slow but steady progress of the first nine years almost to a halt. After the war was over development was more rapid; the towns grew, more mines and farms were developed, experiments were made with new crops and the main rail system was completed. More political responsibility was accorded to the settlers through the granting of more seats for elected members of the Legislative Council.

War in 1914 was again a setback to progress though gold production, the mainstay of the Colony's economy, was maintained and increased.

After the war the demand for full responsible government, which had been a live political issue for many years, was pressed more vigorously. In May, 1920,

the Legislative Council (which by this time had a majority of elected members) passed a resolution approving responsible government. On October 27th, 1922,a referendum on whether Southern Rhodesia should have responsible government or join the Union of South Africa resulted in a decision in favour of responsible government by 8,774 votes to 5,989.

On Occupation Day (September 12), 1923, Southern Rhodesia was formerly annexed to Great Britain, Sir John Chancellor having assumed duty as first Governor.

The first elections for the Legislative Assembly under Responsible Government took place the following year.

The first ten years of responsible government were a period of consolidation rather than spectacular progress. In the thirties, however, expansion of the economy, particularly in the industrial field, and the improvement of communications and power supplies paved the way for the war-time production effort and the post-war expansion of industry and population.

Mine Workers
African mine workers photographed underground in a Northern Rhodesian copper mine.

When self-government was granted to Southern Rhodesia it provided for an elected Parliament and a Cabinet responsible to that body on the Westminster model. Southern Rhodesia was given full responsibility for its own affairs except that the British Government continued to control foreign affairs and that legislation differentiating between European and African was "reserved" for the Royal Assent. A common voters' roll open to all citizens possessing the necessary citizenship, literacy and property qualifications has been a feature of die Southern Rhodesian electoral system.

NORTHERN RHODESIA

The origins of British influence in Northern Rhodesia are comparable with those of Southern Rhodesia and are mainly attributable to missionary enterprise and the driving power of Cecil Rhodes.

In his great missionary and exploring journeys of the fifties of the nineteenth century Livingstone visited Barotseland—and, incidentally, discovered the Victoria Falls in 1855.

At about the same time as the London Missionary Society established its first mission in Matabeleland at Inyati in 1861 another party (also inspired by Livingstone) went to the Makololo people on the Zambezi. The hostility of the natives and the ravages of the climate were insuperable obstacles. Only two members of the party survived and the mission was abandoned.

It was not till 1885 that Francois Coillard, a French Protestant, established a permanent mission north of the Zambezi on behalf of the Evangelical Missions Society of Paris. He established himself at the seat of the Paramount Chief of die Batotse. In face of much initial discouragement Coillard earned the respect of Lewanika, the Barotse Chief. It was in part on Coillard's advice that Lewanika in 1889 applied for a British Protectorate.

A non-committal reply was given by the British Government, but Rhodes sent his emissary to Lewanika to secure a mineral concession. Eventually in 1890 mineral and commercial rights

over the whole of Barotseland were granted to the B.S.A. Company in return for the Queen's protection, a British Resident and an annual subsidy of €2,000.

It was seven years before the first British Resident appeared in Barotseland to implement the agreement with Lewanika, He was Robert Coryndon one of the most notable figures in early Rhodesian history. Assisted by Coillard he, too, won the respect of Lewanika who made further concessions to the Company which culminated in the whole of North-Western Rhodesia becoming the property of the B.S.A, Company except Barotseland which was excluded from British settlement and prospecting. Coryndon became the first Administrator of North Western Rhodesia, a post which he held till 1907.

Events took a different course in the remainder of what is now Northern Rhodesia. The British claim was staked out from Nyasaland at the instance of Rhodes and with his financial assistance. By 1891 the whole of North Eastern Rhodesia had been peacefully claimed on behalf of the B.S.A. Company and in 1895 Major Patrick Forbes was appointed Deputy Administrator. The short-lived Angoni Rebellion in the Fort Jameson area in 1898 was the only disturbance.

The key figure in the peaceful development of North Eastern Rhodesia was Robett Codrington who then became Administrator and who quickly created an orderly system of administration.

In 1911 the two administrations were amalgamated and a policy of consolidation was embarked on. Mineral output—mainly of copper—was increasing, farming was developing.

The outbreak of war in 1914 was a serious check. Not only did Northern Rhodesia have to supply men for active service but the northern areas of the country were within the East African theatre of active operations. There were sporadic attacks on Northern Rhodesian posts in the first year of the war and in the last days of the war General von Lettow Vorbeck entered the territory on the last lap of his remarkable flight from the British forces.

As in Southern Rhodesia, the political future of the territory was the dominant issue after the war.

When Southern Rhodesia was granted responsible government in 1923, Northern Rhodesia was annexed to the Crown. Sir Herbert Stanley look office as first Governor on April 1, 1924, A legislative Council was constituted of official ex-officio members and nominated official and unofficial members.

Over the years since then the constitution has been amended to provide for a majority of elected unofficial members, and nominated unofficial members representing African interests, including two Africans. Two elected members hold the equivalent of Cabinet Office.

On die economic side Northern Rhodesia's progress in the last 20 and particularly the last 10 years has been remarkable mainly due to the enormous increase in copper production and the higher price of copper.

In 1924 the value of copper exports was £7,000; in 1952 it was about £75,000,000 out of a total export trade of £81± million.

This great stream of wealth from the rich mines of the Copper Beit' has had a profound effect on the general commercial and industrial development and on the extension of social services.

NYASALAND

The story of British influence in Nyasaland begins about the same time as in the Rhodesias. Livingstone first visited the area in 1858 in company with Dr. (later Sir John) Kirk when they explored the Shire River. The Universities' Mission to Central Africa's ill-fated pioneer party reached Chibisa in 1861. Their work was abandoned for the time being in 1864 but the Church of Scotland and the Free Church sent out parties in 1875 and 1876. These established themselves successfully and other missions followed in the next 20 years.

The most important direct consequence of the founding of the Scottish missions was a trading venture, the Livingstonia Central Africa Company (afterwards the African Lakes Company) in response to Livingstone's appeal for legitimate trading facilities as a necessary weapon in the war on slave-trading.


Salisbury
A view of the business area of Salisbury illustrating the development of large modern buildings, progress which is typical of all main centres of the two Rhodesias

In 1883 a British Consul was appointed to Blantyre. The attempt to stamp out the slave trade caused the first Mlozi war and Britain was forced to exercise more direct control. In 1889 a British protectorate was declared and was internationally accepted by July, 1891, when the frontiers with Portuguese East Africa were agreed.

The first five years of the new administration were largely taken up with the suppression of certain Yao chiefs who resented interference with slave raiding, and in stopping inter-tribal raids.

Despite these troubles progress was made in setting up a stable administration. In 1893 the country was designated the British Central Africa Protectorate, but in the Order-in-Council of
1907, which introduced a new constitution, the name was changed to Nyasaland. Under this constitution the title of the head of the administration was changed from Commissioner and Consul-General to Governor.

The system of government of Nyasaland with an official Executive Council and a Legislative Council of nominated official and unofficial members took shape under this Order-in-Council
and remains operative in its essentials.

On the economic side the major factor in Nyasaland's history' has been the development of communications, which stimulated the progress of agriculture and the production of cash crops, notably tea, cotton, tung and tobacco. Originally, access from the coast was by river transport up the Zambezi and Shire to Chiromo and Katunga, overland to the Upper Shire and water transport up the Shire to the Lake.

The first railway was the Shire Highlands Railway from Port Herald to Blantyre to connect the river routes. This was opened in 1908 but was extended to the Zambezi in 1915. The line was
further extended from the Zambezi to Beira in 1922. The most important subsequent development was the completion of the rail bridge over the Zambezi at Sena in 1935.

CLOSER ASSOCIATION

The brief historical survey has indicated that in their origins as British settlements the three territories had much in common though they were never governed by a single authority. As the territories grew their interests became more closely inter-related: both Rhodesias were administered till 1923 by the British South Africa Company, the Resident Commissioner at Salisbury represented the United Kingdom in respect of both countries, the Rhodesias shared the same railway system, all three countries made use of the same port, Beira. In more recent years the two northern territories have provided an important and growing market for die manufactures of Southern Rhodesia and the three countries have shared in the provision of a number of technical services such as airways, currency, statistics, archives, town planning and broadcasting.

Over and above these considerations, the broad picture of three neighbouring British territories, peopled by people, both European and African, of similar stock, with complementary resources and problems of a similar type attracted attention to the possibility of a form of closer political association at least between the two Rhodesias for over 40 years.

The suggestion seems to have been mooted first about 1910 when there is is evidence of the Southern Rhodesian leader, Sir Charles Coghlan, opposing it.

The proposal to amalgamate the Rhodesias was first officially made by Dr. Jameson in 1916 on be half of the British South Africa Company but it was opposed by the settlers of Southern Rhodesia who feared that amalgamation would defer indefinitely hopes of responsible government.

The changes of status of the two Rhodesias in 1923 diverted attention for the time being from the question of closer association but the issue was raised a few years later. From then on it remained a focus of attention till, in response to a request from the Rhodesias, the Bledisloe Commission was appointed in 1938 to enquire into the whole matter.

It reported against immediate amalgamation but recognised the community of interest between die three territories by suggesting the creation of a body to co-ordinate common services.

The war which broke out soon afterwards made it impossible to implement this suggestion till 1945 when the Central African Council was established. This body succeeded in arranging for the extension or creation of common services, but the fact that the Council was consultative was held to rob it of much of its potential value. Experience of die working of the Council convinced its leading members that a much closer working arrangement was necessary if the potentialities of the three countries were to be fully realised,

A series of conferences to examine the possibilities and to frame recommendations began in January, 1951, when a group of civil servants representing the

United Kingdom, the Rhodesias and Nyasaland met in London. Their recommendations were the basis of further conferences on the political level held at the Victoria Falls later that year and in London in 1952 and early 1953.

The final proposals were endorsed by a referendum in Southern Rhodesia in April, 1953, by approximately a two-thirds majority. Later, the proposals were approved by the United Kingdom Parliament and the Legislative Councils of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

The Order-in-Council to set up the Federation was approved by Her Majesty the Queen on August 1, Lord Llewellin being appointed first Governor-General.

He arrived in Salisbury on September 4 to take up his duties and the interim Federal Ministry, headed by Sir Godfrey Huggins, for 20 years Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia, was sworn in on September 7.

Enquiries may be addressed to:—

Federal Information Services,
P.O. Box 140, Causeway
(Salisbury), Southern Rhodesia.

High Commissioner for the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland,
Rhodesia House, 429 Strand, London, W.C.2.

High Commissioner for the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland,
P.O. Box 153, Pretoria, and P.O. Box 2831, Cape Town, South Africa.

Acknowledgments.
The photographs in this booklet were produced by the Information Department of Northern Rhodesia and the Public Relations Departments of Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

End of Article.

Tkanks to Diarmid Smith and Robb Ellis for their help.

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