Race Policies in RhodesiaW. R. WhaieyThe manner in which European authoritywas established in Rhodesia originally wascompletely different from that which appliedin other British African territories. There hasnever been any question of Europeans residingin Rhodesia on a temporary basis in order todevelop the land and then hand it back toearlier settlers. The principle of paramountcyof African interests was the cornerstone ofBritish colonial policy in Africa between thetwo world wars. This principle decreed thatwhere African and European interests clashedthose of the former would prevail, but it hasnever applied to Rhodesia.The background to current race relations inRhodesia is not only historical. It comprisesalso the principles and policy announced fromtime to time by the present government whichhas been in office since 1962, and it embracesalso various laws including particularly the1969 constitution and its complementary laws.That is to say the Land Tenure Act and theElectoral Act, both of 1969 also. These three,the 1969 Constitution, the Land Tenure Actand the Electoral Act will be referred to lateras the Constitutional Documents.BASIC FEATURESAt the centre of the policy of race relationsin Rhodesia are the following five main features.The first is that Rhodesia is a home for allracial groups. The Shona, the Ndebele and theEuropeans were all migrants, conquerors andsettlers and all of them know now no otherhome. Thus they have established for them-selves and their successors the right to remainin this country in perpetuity. For these reasonsit has been accepted as a fundamental principlethat Rhodesia is the permanent and rightfulhome of people of different origins and back-grounds and does not belong to one race alone.It follows from these beliefs that a cardinalprinciple of government policy is that it willensure the permanent establishment in Rho-desia of all races including the European.The second feature basic to the current racerelations policy deals with the individual; andhere the policy is to recognise the rights ofall people of all races within the framework oflaw and order through freedom of worship, ofspeech, of association and of opportunity todevelop their abilities to the full. I lay stresshere on the qualification that these rights andfreedoms must be exercised within the frame-work of law and order.The third feature is the co-existence andpreservation of identities of racial groups. Aguiding principle is to ensure that conditionsare created and maintained whereby racialgroups and communities in Rhodesia may co-exist with due regard and respect for themajor differences between them. The thinkingis that whether this position is likely to changeis a matter for conjecture, but for the present3!these differences of background, tradition,history and culture are realities that will per-sist for some considerable time. The beliefis that the co-existence of people comprisinga number of groups can only be achieved whengroups and communities have the rights and theopportunities to preserve their own identities,their own traditions and their own customs.It follows from this that compulsory integrationis opposed and that Rhodesians must beafforded the opportunity of contributing toand sharing in the development of their groupsand their communities, subject to their accept-ance of a competence to assume the responsi-bilities thereby imposed. This, related to thepolicy on land which I deal with a little later,involves the adoption of the principle ofcommunity development, the promotion of localand regional authorities of government, theestablishment of industries in the rural areas,the provision of separate amenities for the useof each main race and multiracial amenitieswhere these are required or necessary, and therecognition of the responsible position of thechiefs in the tribal structure.The fourth feature concerns land. Thepolicy of land is based on the principle of ap-portionment of land between Africans andEuropeans as entrenched in the Land TenureAct of 1969, and in particular on the principleof preserving the Tribal Trust Lands for Afri-cans living under the tribal system. The subjectof land tenure has been considered in a numberof well-documented reports. Policy on landtenure is based on the principle that the appor-tionment of land between African and Euro-peans is justifiable in all respects. Some mayargue that such a system is morally indefensible.Economists emphasise that land apportion-ment prevents the fullest use of land compatiblewith modern forms of production in a moneyeconomy, and that there is no escape from thedeleterious effect of eliminating freedom ofeconomic action and mobility resultantfrom a system of land apportionment. Thevalidity of these arguments in ideal situationsis indisputable; but the realities of the situationare that land apportionment and the differentsystems of land tenure have been woven intothe fabric of Rhodesian society since 1894,and that there are still deep and fundamentaldifferences between the races.The fifth and final feature revolves aboutgovernment and franchise. The policy is toensure that the government of Rhodesiaremains permanently in responsible hands. Thebelief is that Europeans because of their greatercompetence and experience should exercise themore authoritative voice at national governmentlevel for a period which cannot be measuredby the clock or the calendar. At the same timeEuropeans must concede to Africans a voicein government at national level which with thepassage of time must be allowed to gain in-creasing but not limitless bounds. Thus theonly acceptable solution is one based sub-stantially on racial parity of political representa-tion. It is around this core that the frameworkof the 1969 Constitution is built. This type ofsolution is the most likely to produce bothimmediate and long-term confidence andstability. It does not follow from this thatinevitably there will be permanent polarisationof political forces along racial lines. The hopeis that with the passage of time the boundariesof politico-racial cleavage may become blurredand finally eliminated. But if these hopes arenot fulfilled and people divide on racial linesthe parity principle may produce a politicalbalance in which the power of each will beequally rated. Thus both Europeans and Afri-cans will be reassured by being able to conducttheir political activities in the knowledge thatthe constitution does not permit either raceto dominate the other after parity is reached.These then are the features basic to thephilosophy of race relations in Rhodesia atthe present day. Their application in variousareas of human endeavour is to be found inthe Constitutional Documents, other laws,ministerial pronouncements and practice. Firstcomes land, for the belief is that the svstemof land tenure is intimately bound up with thesocial, cultural and economic aspects of Rho-desian life, and as far as most Africans areconcerned it is of greater significance thanmost other facets of the Constitutional Docu-ments. Europeans also lay great stress on thesecurity of their land rights. Apportionment ofland is a subject about which people and racesare politically sensitive. In the Land TenureAct there are definitions of the terms Africanand European. African denotes any member ofthe aboriginal tribes or races of Afr'ca and theislands adjacent thereto, including Madagascarand Zanzibar, or any person who has the bloodof such tribes or races and who lives as a mem-ber of an aboriginal native community; and this32definition includes also a company that is con-trolled by an African, for such a company isdesignated under the Land Tenure Act as Afri-can, and vice versa, a company controlled byEuropeans is designated as European.LANDAll land in Rhodesia is classified intothree areas: the European Area which is18,150,000 ha. in extent, the African Areawhich is 18,200,000 ha. in extent, of which16,100,000 ha. is attributed to the Tribal TrustLands; and thirdly a National Area which is2,668,000 in extent. A section of the LandTenure Act entrenches the extent of the Euro-pean, the African and the National areas. Inother words these particular areas cannot bechanged without following the special proce-dure in the Constitution for amending the Con-stitution. The European and African Areas areareas in which the interests of Europeans andAfricans respectively are paramount in termsof the Land Tenure Act. Practically, this meansthat subject to many exceptions a European isprohibited from owning or occupying land inan African area and vice versa. The reasonfor the many exceptions lies in the need, existingand future, for members of one race to occupyland in the area of another. For example theneed for townships for one race in the area ofanother. The need for occupation for membersof one race in the urban and rural land of thearea of another and the need for non-racialresidential, commercial and industrial land, inthe two areas.As has already been stated there are bothsocial and economic considerations why thepolicy of land apportionment should continue.Firstly the African Area includes the TribalTrust Lands wh'ch are reserved and protectedunder the Land Tenure Act for Africans livinga communal existence under the tribal system.Africans, it is held, must be presented withthe opportunity of moving into the cash andthe capitalistic economy. Therefore in the TrjbalTrust Lands there is provision for procedureswhich with the consent of tribesmen will en-able areas in the Tribal Trust Lands to be con-verted to freehold tenure. Therefore also, thereare rural areas in which African farmers maylease and own farms, that is the African Pur-chase land. Therefore also in business areas inAfrican Townships African businessmen areprotected from competition by Europeans. Be-cause of social differences, and also for theeconomic interests of the country as a whole,an area of Rhodesia is set aside for use andexploitation by Europeans. On this subjectProfessor Sadie of the University of Stellen-bosch had this to say:A study of the Bantu peoples of Africareveals the absence at this stage of mostof those elements which are conduciveto economic development . . . breakingthe fetters of tradition is a most difficultoperation . . . Until this has eventuated. . . [an] increase in the standard of liv-ing, of the African population will bedependent upon an adequate . . . Euro-pean population . . . from [whose] ranksemanates the spirit of enterprisewhich is the [fount] of economic ad-vancement . . . [Their necessary skillsand experience] cannot simply be im-parted to an economically under-developed people by way of a crashprogramme of education and instruc-tion.1Finally owing to social differences, separateresidential areas are retained for Europeansand Africans within urban areas. Due to theproblems which arise, not the least of whichis intermarriage between Africans and Euro-peans, multiracial residential areas are pro-vided within the urban area. There is provisionalso in the legislation for multiracial industrialand commercial areas, and these in fact exist.CONSTITUTIONNow I turn to National Government andFranchise. In the 1969 Constitution the defini-tions of African and European are the sameas in the Electoral Act. They differ from thedefinition of African and European in the LandTenure Act in that they refer to natural per-sons only and do not include a company.Legislative power in Rhodesia is vested in alegislature consisting of the President of thestate and Parliament which in turn comprisesa Senate and a House of Assembly. ThePresident may be a person of any race. Mem-bers of the Senate for the most part and ofthe House of Assembly entirely are electedand appointed according to race. In this con-nection it is interesting to note the views ofSir Robert Tredgold a former Chief Justice ofRhodesia and of the Federation of Rhodesiaand Nyasaland, in his autobiogaphy:33My second conviction is that the timehas passed when we can hope, as animmediate prospect, for a multiracialstate [in Rhodesia] in which differencesof race play no major part in the politi-cal field. No one has worked harder thanI have to attain this ideal, yet, in thelight of what has happened here, inZambia, and in South Africa, I now ac-cept that, for a long time to come, poli-tics in countries in Africa where thereis a mixed, permanent resident popula-tion, will follow racial lines. This doesnot mean that 1 despair of the noblerconcept prevailing in the end. It doesmean that for an interim period, per-haps of fairly long duration, there mustbe an approach that accepts present-day realities, and that these must begiven full account in the making ofconstitutions if they are to have anychance of working.2Legislatively the Senate can only reviewand delay legislation, except that the Senatecould vote the amendment of a specially en-trenched clause of the Constitutional Docu-ments in certain circumstances. The power-house of Parliament in Rhodesia is the Houseof Assembly. Significant in the Constitution isthe section which confers on the legislaturethe power to make laws providing for thedivision of Rhodesia into various provinces andother regional divisons. This of course fore-shadows the creation of provinces, in otherwords the policy of provincialisation. TheSenate consists of 23 persons of whom10 are European elected by an electoralcollege comprising the European membersof the House of Assembly, and 10 areAfrican Chiefs of whom 5 are Chiefs inMatabeleland and 5 Chiefs in Mashonaland,and they are elected by the Council of Chiefs.In addition there are three persons of any racenominated by the President. The proceedingsin the Senate are conducted in all three langua-ges, Shona, Ndebele and English. In the Houseof Assembly there are 66 members, 50 of whomare Europeans elected by enrolled Europeans.Sixteen are African members of whom 8 areelected by enrolled Africans (referred to asAfrican Roll members) of whom 4 are fromMashonaland and 4 from Matabeleland; afurther 8, referred to as the Tribally Electedmembers, are elected by Electoral Colleges inMashonaland and Matabeleland, again 4 forthe Tribal Trust Lands of Mashonaland and 4for the Tribal Trust Lands of Matabeleland.Each Electoral College comprises all Chiefs,Headmen and Elected Councillors of the Afri-can Councils in the Tribal Trust Lands, inMashonaland and Matabeleland respectively.There is provision in the Constitution forthe increase in the number of African membersof the House of Assembly to parity with Euro-peans, so that there would be 50 Africanmembers and 50 European members. The in-crease is based on the contribution to incometax by Africans, and it works this way. Theincrease takes place at the rate of 2 or integralnumbers of 2 when the aggregate income taxpayable by Africans exceeds 16/66ths of theaggregate income tax payable by both Africansand Europeans. The excess over 16/66ths mustbe sufficient however to justify an increase of2 African members of Parliament or an in-tegral number of 2 at a time, and the first 2to be elected according to this system will beTribally Elected Members, then 2 AfricanRoll Members and so on. Thus in both theSenate and the House of Assembly the provi-sion for representation is strictly along thelines of the three main racial groups, Shona,Ndebele and Europeans.Now to take a look at the second limb ofgovernment, that is the Executive. TheExecutive Government of Rhodesia is vestedin the President acting on the advice of theExecutive Council, consisting of the PrimeMinister and such other persons being minis-ters as the President on the advice of thePrime Minister may appoint. And here again,I would draw your attention to the fact thatas far as the law is concerned, these people,that is the Prime Minister and other membersof the Executive, can be members of anyrace. The President appoints as Prime Ministerthe person who in his opinion is best able tocommand a majority of the members of theHouse of Assembly.The third limb of the Government is ofcourse the judicature but this is not directlyrelevant to this subject. There are, however,some miscellaneous provisions in the Constitu-tion which are of interest and of relevance here.For example, an African, generally speaking,is not entitled to vote in any election for orto be elected or appointed as a member of aCouncil or of a Local Authority established in a34I XEuropean area, and the same restrictions andprohibitions generally apply to Europeans inrelation to Local Authorities in the Africanarea. Another provision of the Constitution isthat the Senate is the guardian of a restrictednon-justiciable Declaration of Rights; section20 of this Declaration provides that every per-son is entitled to the enjoyment of fundamentalrights and freedoms set forth in the Declara-tion of Rights without discrimination on thegrounds of race, tribe, political opinion, colouror creed, but this general right is extensivelyqualified.The Electoral Act of Rhodesia providesthat every person, European and African, mayqualify for the vote who is a citizen of Rho-desia, is of the age of 21, has the requisiteresidential qualifications, has an adequateknowledge of English and is able to write in hisown handwriting and complete and sign theclaim form; to actually qualify for their res-pective rolls, Europeans and Africans are re-quired to have prescribed means and educa-tional qualifications. The European levels aresubstantially higher than those of the Africans,but the means and educational qualificationsfor Africans for their Roll will be graduallyincreased, so that when the number of Africanmembers in Parliament is equal to the numberof Europeans the qualifications for both Afri-can and European will be the same. A Euro-pean cannot be enrolled as a voter on the Afri-can Roll and vice versa. The taxpayer is re-quired to state in his return for assessment ofincome whether he is European or African forobvious reasons. As far as married women areconcerned, if a married woman does not havethe means of qualification in her own right sheis deemed to have that of her husband unlesshe is married polygamously in which event onlythe wife married the longest takes the meansqualification of her husband.Now in each of these fundamental issues,that is to say land, national government andfranchise, it will be seen that the ConstitutionalDocuments clearly reflect the current policyof differentiation between the main racialgroups. It now remains to follow the thread ofthe policy through other areas of endeavour.Local Government policy in Rhodesia isfounded on the concepts, principles and practiceof Community Development. Responsibility forlocal government is divided and the division isbased on race. The Ministry of Local Govern-ment administers European areas, and theMinistry of Internal Affairs the African areas,as one of its responsibilities. The policy is toblanket the country with Local AuthorityCouncils. In the European areas this has beenachieved by rural and municipal councils, Afri-can areas are estimated to have a total capacityof 260 African Councils of which 148 are inexistence. African Councils are empoweredby warrant to carry out specified functionswhich now number 52; and these Councils aremaking increasing use of the powers grantedto them especially those pertaining to educa-tion, health, roads, veterinary services andwater supplies. They also have certain taxingpowers.The policy of Government is to enhancethe office and stature of the Chiefs, firmly be-lieving in the chiefly assertion that they arethe true leaders of the African people. Hencesince 1969 the Government has passed legisla-tion conferring criminal jurisdiction on theChiefs and increasing their civil jurisdiction incertain cases. Tribal Land Authorities, that isto say Chiefs and those appointed by them,have wide powers of controlling the allocationof land in the Tribal Trust Land. The Govern-ment is also intent upon introducing its policyof provincialisation, which has been referredto already, but details of this scheme are not yetavailable.The Ministry of Internal Affairs is re-presented throughout the country by DistrictCommissioners of 50 districts, and they con-stitute the liaison between the Government andthe community whether European or African.The economic development of the Tribal TrustLands is high on the list of priorities, throughirrigation schemes, agriculture and generallythrough the promotion of commerce and sec-ondary industry. Promotion of commerce, bothprimary and secondary, is the responsibility of abody set up by the Government known as theTribal Trust Land Corporation. In additionto founding a complete pattern of local gov-ernment in the European areas, official policyis also to introduce autonomous local authori-ties in African Townships in European urbanareas:This Government has always acceptedthe need to distinguish, at all levelsof Government, between our two socie-ties: African on the one hand and Euro-pean, including the minority races, on35the other. It is also accepted that at thelocal government level there should beseparate local authorities for Europeansand Africans. In the urban context ofAfrican townships, it is Governmentpolicy to sponsor and encourage theprogressive evolution of these townshipsand that they be governed at local levelby the African residents.3But the handing over of such authority mustbe matched by the competence, capacity andwillingness to assume the responsibility. Hereit must be borne in mind that the sophisticatedurban township is new to the African and hehas some way to go before he has the skill andexperience to administer and undertake fullfinancial responsibility for local government ofthese concentrated residential areas with thecostly and complex services on which theydepend. Government supports the policy ofhome-ownership in these townships, believingthis to be the essential prerequisite for stabilityand a sound basis for African advancementtowards autonomy in these townships.EDUCATIONIn education there are two systems, onefor Africans and the other for Europeans. Theydiffer substantially at the primary school stagebut are the same practically speaking insecondary school. Each system is administeredby its own division but both come under oneMinister. Education is and always has beencompulsory for Europeans, presently up tothe age of 15 years. For financial reasons thesame compulsion cannot be brought to bear onAfricans. Since education began in Rhodesia,much more has been spent on the educationof each European child than on each Africanchild. Limitations of finance prevent the sameexpenditure on each African child, but moreis being spent on Africans collectively eachyear. The European system would not functionwere the finances available to educationto be distributed between each African andeach European child equally. Rapid progressis being made towards the objective of offeringa full primary course to all African children.The policy was inaugurated in 1971 to ac-celerate the pace at which African Councilsare taking over the responsibility for primaryeducation.There is no integration in Governmentschools, but limited integration is permittedin private schools. In inter-school sport thepolicy is to be no compulsory integration.Training for trades according to standards pres-cribed by industrial legislation is available toall races at the two technical institutions in thethe country, one in Bulawayo and one in Salis-bury. The possibility of establishing a technicalcentre to provide various forms of vocationaltraining specifically to cater for the needs ofAfricans is being explored by the African Divi-sion of the Ministry of Education. The Univer-sity of Rhodesia is open to all who qualifyfor admission regardless of race.In the field of labour, there are two mainpieces of legislation, the Industrial ConciliationAct and the Apprenticeship Act. The provisionsof these two Acts apply non-racially. The In-dustrial Conciliation Act provides for the pro-cedures for conciliation between employers andemployees and for terms and conditions ofemployment. The principle here is the ratefor the job. The Apprenticeship Act, establishedan apprenticeship authority which in turn laysdown the standards for apprenticeship and thediscplincs and conditions governing training.I have already mentioned that there are twotechnical colleges for trade training.Socially people of all races may meet andmix in their homes and they also contractmarriages across the colour line but the officialpolicy is to discourage miscegenation. As faras immigration is concerned the Prime Ministerstated on 28 June 1972 that rapid cconom'cgrowth is always accompanied by a shortage ofskilled labour. In order to attract therequired volume of skilled labour, conditionsmust be offered that are competitive withthose which prevail in other countries whichare competing for the same skills. It is a knownfact that an increasing European populationresults in the provision of a proportionatelygreater number of employment opportunitiesfor Africans. Since the natural rate of increaseof Rhodesia's European population is rela-tively low, immigration of skilled Europeanshas played and will continue to play an im-portant part in the development of this country.CONCLUSIONThe conclusion of this brief survey of racerelations policy in Rhodesia is to note that theaim of the policy is not to achieve complete36separation of the races, but to distinguish be-tween them for the various reasons and pur-poses already stated. The premise of this policyis that Rhodesia is one nation, I repeat onenation, made up of three main racial groupswith different cultural backgrounds; that forthe foreseeable future, and in the interests ofall inhabitants, leadership at national levelmust rest predominantly, but not exclusively,upon Europeans acting in concert with theChiefs as the leaders of the majority of theAfrican people; that this responsibility forleadership derives only from the European'sknowledge and experience in the administrationand operation of a sophisticated form of gov-ernment, and a complex industrialized economy,and does not affect the essential dignity ofRhodesians of all races; and finally that at thelocal level power of administration must in-creasingly be transferred to the racial groupsand communities as they show evidence of acapacity and a competence to accept the res-ponsibility.REFERENCESiRhodesia, Report by J. L. Sadie on Planning for the Economic Development of Rhodesia, Sessional Papers, 1967,C.S.R. 35, pp. 2-3.*The Rhodesia That Was My Life, London, Allen & Unwin, 1968, p.221.3Rhodesia, Parliamentary Debates, The Senate, First Session, Twelfth Parliament . , . from 28th May, 1970 to . . .15th April, 1971, 1, Salisbury, Government Printer, [1972] c.386, IS.viii.l 970, Minister of Local Government.CENTRAL AFRICAN JOURNALOFMEDICINEFIRST VOLUME 1955Eighteen Years' Record of Diseases of Central AfricaARTICLES AND SUPPLEMENTSDealing with Medical History of Rhodesia, Zambia and MalawiMost Back Issues Still Available,CURRENT SUBSCRIPTION: $10 A YEARP.O. Box 2073,Salisbury.37