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(TALKZIMBABWE) How blacks lived before Zimbabwe independence

How blacks lived before Zimbabwe independence
By: Chase Mhango
Posted: Thursday, April 8, 2010 4:26 pm

ON 18 April, Zimbabweans shall be celebrating 30 years of freedom from British oppression. This independence is indeed worth celebrating in style, especially for those who went through the bitter years of racist segregation, oppression and exploitation.

In Salisbury (now Harare), the capital city of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), people were allocated residential areas according to their race or colour. The railway line from Bulawayo to Mutare was part of the boundary for the different races.

On the left side of the railway line from Bulawayo going towards the Harare Railway Station, where the city is located, was a whites-only area.

All the white suburbs of Mabelreign, Eastlea, Greendale, Borrowdale, Belvedere and others were on this side of the railway line.

The Indians, who were closer to the whites because of their colour and straight hair, occupied the area just below the Harare Kopje, but also close to the railway line.

The bi-racial (Coloured) people lived in a place called Arcadia across the Makuvisi River (Mukwisi as it was called then) on the right side of the railway line.

The black people lived on the right side of the railway line and separated from the Coloured people by the Makuvisi River.

The place where the blacks lived was called Harare African Township.

This township was divided into six sections of Old Bricks, which were the first residential houses for black married families.

These were double semi-detached houses comprising a bed-sitter and a small kitchen.
This meant that each block had two families living in this bed-sitter irrespective of how big the family was.

And also there was the Jo’burg Lines and New Lines built almost in the same pattern as the Old Bricks.

In these sections of the township, residents used communal toilets and bathrooms.

The toilets at that time were the bucket system. Every evening, a worker would come to collect the excreta from the buckets and empty them into a tank on a mule-drawn wagon.

The human waste collectors came in the evening because they did not want to be identified.

The township children mocked these excreta collectors and they would hurl insults at them, nicknaming them “Chimbangu”.

If the Chimbangu identified where the child who insulted him stayed, he would empty the bucket of the human waste on the doorsteps of that house.

The bathrooms for both men and women had no roofs and had a cold shower.

After some years, improvements were made on the bucket system toilets and water toilets were installed.

These toilets flashed automatically at given times. These new toilets were now combined with shower cubicles and were semi-detached to separate males from females.

The toilets did not have lighting at night. It was as if black people did not use them after dark.

What used to happen was that some people would excrete on the shower cubicle, instead of the toilets because of the fear of darkness.

In the morning, one would take a shower while trying to avoid stepping on the floor.

Some people got their clothes stolen while taking a shower.

Thieves waited for one to smear some soap on the head and as one went into the shower with the eyes closed to remove the soap, the thieves grabbed the clothes and left.

People could be heard shouting that their clothes had been stolen and left naked in the bathroom.

Then there was the section called Cottages.

This section was on the other side of Ardbennie Road and comprised some very neat houses all on their own.

These houses were specially built for the well-to-do Africans, but all the same they did not have private toilets and bathrooms.

The people there shared the facility with those in the New Location.

The difference with Old Bricks, New Lines and Jo’burg Lines was that the Cottages and New Location had a small yard to do some gardening.

The National Housing Co-operative erected concrete semi-detached blocks comprising two bedrooms, lounge and kitchen and an outside shower with a flashing toilet.

Families rushed for these new houses, as they were more comfortable as compared to the rest.

The Old Bricks, New Lines and Jo’burg Lines were then turned into single quarters where four males shared a room.

In the lounge would be four beds at each side of the wall.

For the privacy of the four men, each installed curtains to cover their beds.

There was no restriction for women visiting their male counterparts, as they would spend the night in the room.

The coming of the National Housing Co-operative also saw the removal of white people from the Beatrice Road compound known as kumaTariana.

These compounds were said to have been built by Italian prisoners of the Second World War.

The whites were removed from this area so as to place them far from the blacks that were now resident in the new township of National.

The Municipality of Harare African Township (kwa kaTsekera, as it was then called) was very strict on its residents.

They knew the number of people staying in each household and no one was allowed to spend some days in the township without the council's permission.

Visitors would be accounted for and given days to stay in the township.

Municipal police would carry out house inspections at night to see if there were unauthorised visitors. From the council offices near the Recreation Hall, now Mai Misodzi Hall, they had their small broadcasting station that beamed music and announcements to the residents through various speakers mounted on electrical poles.

Every worker in those days carried a pass called a “Situpa”.

Both the British South Africa Police (BSAP) and the municipal police would ask for these documents at any time. If found without, it was a fine or imprisonment. Every African who got employed was to have a thorough medical examination for TB and sexually transmitted diseases before being accepted as a worker.

Only nannies (housemaids) and garden boys were allowed in the whites section, but only in their backyard cabin.

They were not allowed to roam the streets of the suburbs or the city centre.

In the city centre, Africans were not allowed to walk on the pavements, these were reserved for whites.

Shops like Barbours, Meikles, Sanders and others were no-go areas for black shoppers.

Most of the blacks did their shopping at some Indian-owned stores such as Mehta & Sons, Nagarji, CT Stores and many others, but if a white person walked into such a shop, the storekeeper would stop serving the blacks and rush to serve the white person.

The restaurants and hotels were strictly white areas and blacks bought whatever they wanted through a small window on the side of the restaurant.

In the African township, there was at that time only one beerhall that sold opaque beer and it was located between Old Bricks and New Lines.

No clear beer could be consumed by black people.

Entertainment, in the form of concerts and bioscope (movies), was done at the Recreation Hall.

There were a number of musical groups that imitated American and South African artistes.

Among some of the popular groups of that time were De Black Evening Follies, Bantu Actors, King Cole Brothers, African Melodians, Expensive Bantus and Epworth Theoretical Strutters.

These were mass groups with more than 15 members. Then came some modern groups such as The City Quads, Milton Brothers, Safe Brothers, Broadway Boogies and Star Gazers, who comprised not more than four artistes.

They performed mostly at the Recreation Hall or Runyararo Hall. This was before the Stodart Hall was built.

The bioscope shows featured mostly Western cowboy films of Bob Steel, Roy Rogers — “King of the Cowboys”, Tex Ritter, Gene Autry, Tarzan and some war films.

Some cartoons of Donald Duck, Pope Eye and comedies of Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy as well as some serials that were popularly known as “maContinue” were shown.

They were called “maContinue” because at the end of each episode of the serial, it had the words: “to be continued”.

Football was played at Number Two Grounds that is now Rufaro Stadium.

The ground would host the Red Army from Bulawayo against Yellow Peril of Salisbury or sometimes a select from Umtali (Mutare) or Wankie (Hwange).

The ground did not have a turf as it is today, but was full of dust and one would see more dust than the football.

There was even once a one-armed footballer nicknamed “Dust King” because he raised more dust to confuse the opponents and as such was an entertainer on the field and a good striker.

The colonial government and the town councils made certain that the teams involved members of the same tribe.

There were teams like Mashonaland United, Matabeleland Highlanders and teams from Manicaland.

The same applied to boxing matches: Shonas would be matched against Mozambican, Malawian or Zambian nationals.

The same applied to Ndebeles and Manyikas. The idea was to keep Africans divided on tribal lines. Foreign nationals of Nyasaland (Malawi), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique) initially occupied the hostels of Matapi, Mbare and others around Harare.

Most of these foreign nationals were unskilled and did odd jobs such as keeping the streets of the township clean, collecting human waste and cleaning the toilets.

At that time, there were no government schools for black children. There was only a municipal-run school conducted at the Recreation Hall.

Other better organised schools were those run by the missionaries such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Methodist Church, the Salvation Army and other religious organisations.

When the township grew, they built the first government school that they called Salisbury West School (now Chitsere).

Harare Secondary School was the first to offer secondary education to black students.

In the township, those who went to Goromonzi, Kutama Mission, Howard Institute, Waddilove, Domboshawa, Tegwani, Empandeni and other mission schools were the envy of many children.

The whites had their own schools and so were the Indians and Coloureds.

African education catered for black people and the syllabus was different from that of the whites and Coloureds.

The most common profession for educated males at that time was to be a carpenter, bricklayer, teacher, clerk or agricultural demonstrator.

African females had to go for nursing or teaching professions.

As the black townships grew, more beer-drinking places were opened such as Mapitikoti, so named because the house girls who frequented the place showed-off their petticoats hanging below their dresses.

Other new drinking places included Marengenya, so named after the many people in tattered clothes who hung around the beerhall.

They would be sent to buy beer for the well dressed.

Matapi Beerhall was named after Matapi Hostels that also got its name from the very large rats that used to be caught in that area.

The Matapi Hostels were built at a place called kuMagaba, because most tinsmiths operated from that area.

Then they built the Stodart Hall and the Community Centre as well as several satellite police stations around the township that kept a close eye at the now politically aware blacks.

At least four miles away, kuFour Mayira (as it was known) was Highfield, which at that time was a residential area for African civil servants who were mostly government office messengers.

These were placed far away so as to distance them from the rest of the blacks in Harare African Township.

The coming of New Highfield sections of Jerusalem, Egypt and Canaan changed everything and the thinking of the oppressed black people.

Black policemen also lived in camps, separated from the rest of the black civilians.

The black constables wore khaki shorts and jumpers, brown boots and wrapped some putty around their legs representing some stockings.

They wore a funny-looking small helmet on their heads and rode bicycles.

Their white counterparts had boots, stockings and wore caps on their heads.

The highest rank for a black policeman was sergeant and there were no black inspectors or commissioners.

Every white policeman had a rank higher than a black one irrespective of experience or length of service in the force.

At the height of the liberation struggle, especially from the time of the National Democratic Party and all the parties that followed thereafter, and which were all banned one after the other, it was not surprising to find that when you woke up one morning you would find the township surrounded by the Rhodesian army and the BSAP.

It was not surprising that the army and police would be conducting a house-to-house search for weapons in the township.

It was not surprising that one would be arrested for looking at a policeman with what they termed a scornful eye.

It was not surprising that one would be fined or jailed for talking to a white man or woman while wearing a hat.

Some Africans sheepishly took off their hats when talking to a white man, even over the phone.

Using a white man’s toilet was a very serious crime.

This was part of the oppression that black Zimbabweans experienced throughout the country.
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Chase Mhango is a local veteran journalist who started his career during the colonial period. This article was first published in the Zimbabwe News magazine.

Labels: INDEPENDENCE, LIBERATION, RACISM

posted by MrK @ 4:03 PM