Zambezin (2003), XXX (i)Ukubhinya1: Gender and Sexual Violence inBulawayo, Colonial Zimbabwe, 1946-1956KONI BENSON AND JOYCE CHADYA*My sister screamed; she did not use words. She only screamed. 1 lookedout and saw the accused in bed with my sister ... the accused was on topof my sister. My sister was crying . . . My sister was stretching her legs.She pushed the accused with her hands to try and push him off [NationalArchives of Zimbabwe, Case No. 7337, 1953].AbstractUsing criminal court cases of the rape and sexual assault of African women andgirls in Bulawayo, 1946-1956, tliis article focuses on sexual violence and diangingAfrican gender dynamics in relation to colonial rule and urbanisation. It centralisesAfrican women's lived experiences and strategies of resistance to sexual assault,focusing on how they used tlie colonial courts. It questions the sliort and long termgendered and generational ramifications of colonial appropriation of the power tojudge and determine punishment for all criminal offences including rape. Centralare tlie multiple battles for the power to define the city, both in terms of behaviour,and in terms of the use of space.On June 3rd, 1953, eight-year old Katherine, who witnessed her sister,Vuyiswa, being raped, gave the above testimony in court. Katherine'sdescription of her sister's rape is typical of the kind of testimonies that formthe backbone of this article. Drawn from over 300 criminal court cases ofrape and sexual assault for the District of Bulawayo between 1946 and 1956,these records provide a rare opportunity to hear African women spenkingabout their lived experiences in a city undergoing rapid physical and socialtransformation. Within these stories of rape are reflections of gender relationsKoni Benson is Canadian and Joyce Chadya is Zimbabwean. They are both AfricanHistory PhD students and MacArthur Scholars in the Interdisciplinary Programmeon Global Change, Sustainability and Justice, at the University of Minnesota. Wewould like to thank Helena Pohlandt-McCormick for her encouragement andinvaluable feedback throughout the process of developing this article. We wouldalso like to thank Terence Ranger and Yvonne Vera for their comments on earlierdrafts of this article.Uknbhiin/n is the Ndebele word for rape. In order to avoid stereotypes and inawareness of the sensitivities of the readership the authors have taken out the mostsexually explicit language found in the original texts. For a longer and more graphicversion of this article, please contact the authors.108K. Benson and J. Chadya 109and power struggles, which informed, and were influenced by, urbanisation.While to European colonists, the city of Bulawayo was evidence of thesuccess of their civilising mission,2 rural African people spoke of the city,with its unexpected dangers and unknown species and experiences, as ajungle. Unlike the European belief that the city was an orderly space,African elders waxed poetic about the jungle-like nature of the city.This study's attempts to map the physical and social geography of violencewere guided by a number of questions. How did different women experiencethe city? Who was raped and where? How did women use the colonialcourts? What kinds of questions did the judges ask? What was therelationship between discourses of morality and material and social reality?How did urban influx control, segregation, and colonial urban planningaffect gender dynamics? What role did the mounting political and economictensions of the period have on sexual violence?At the centre of these court records was struggle. African women weretaking men who raped them to court. In some cases, fathers took rapists tocourt on behalf of their girl children. These were battles for the power todefine the city, both in terms of behaviour, and of the use of space. However,Bulawayo was a colonial city, and Europeans had appropriated the powerto judge and determine punishment of all criminal offences including rape.The trials of rape cases provide a window into tensions between both thecoloniser and the colonised, between African men and African women, andamongst African men.Limits and Challenges of the SourcesThis study is based on a close analysis of 81, out of 303, cases of rape thatwere tried in the city of Bulawayo between 1946 and 1956.3 In theirtestimonies, poor and working class African women spoke of their livedexperiences of rape and provide valuable insights into the social, economic,and political dynamics4 of urbanising Bulawayo. Moreover, as Pohlandt-Ranger argues that by the 1930s Europeans felt they had "civilized" Bulawayo. SeeRanger 1999 "Towards an Environmental History of Southern African Cilies,Bulawayo in the 1930s", University of Zimbabwe Economic History Seminar Paper.From Koni's research in the National Archives of Zimbabwe in 1999, we had accessto cases for 1946, 1947, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, and part of 1956. All cases ofrape were tried in the criminal court. For a discussion on the court's rationale fordivision of who tries which crimes and how this changed over time, see ClairePalley 1966 The Constitutional History and Lairof Southern Rhoilesia, 1888-l%5, London:Oxford University Press.For a discussion of the use of court records as a window into the political andeconomic contestations that are audible throughout colonial legal cases, see KristinMann and Richard Roberts eds 1991 Introduction to Law in Colonial Atria, Portsmouth:Heinemann.110 Gender and Sexual Violence in Bulawayo, Colonial ZimbabweMcCormick argues, court cases are more than records of criminality andvictimhood.5 In the cases under study, the mere fact that women weretaking their attackers to court suggests the need to think beyond the courtsystem's boxes of "criminal" or "victim".The strength of such written records as historical sources is acknowledgedin Ranger's discussion of his use of criminal court records for Matobo andGwanda districts from the 1890s to the 1950s. He notes:I shall unashamedly tell stories and allow African voices to be heard. Forthis, in the end, is the main advantage of the court records. The cases dealwith individual people, however frustrating it may be to know littleabout their earlier lives and nothing about their later. They throw brightshafts of light into a darkness, which it is difficult to illuminate eventhrough oral interview.6Unfortunately, it was not possible to conduct any oral interviews, partlybecause women may not have been willing to talk about rapes that theysuffered those many years ago and to publicise their experiences to theirfamilies and friends. This is unfortunate if only because there are severalaspects of the court proceedings, gender relations, and experiences of rapethat cannot be reconstructed from court records, which oral sources wouldsupply.Contextualizing BulawayoIn order to understand these violent crimes against women, it is necessaryto look at the physical and social spaces where they took place. Influencedby Vogelman's work on rape crime in South Africa, this study uses afeminist analysis, which places society and the attitudes and behaviour ofmen and women within an economic, political, and cultural totality.'The 1940s and 1950s were times of intense political, economic, and socialchange in Bulawayo. As more and more Africans became urbanised, spacesand activities that were once relatively safe for women in rural areas becameincreasingly dangerous in the city,8 while certain times and spaces became5. Helena Pohlandt-McCormick June 1999 "I Saw a Nightmare..." Doing Violence toMemory: The Soweto Uprising, June 16, 1976", PhD Thesis, University of Minnesota.6. Ranger 1994 "Murder, Rape and Witchcraft: Criminal Court Data for Gender Relationsin Colonial Matabeleland", University of Zimbabwe Economic History DepartmentSeminar Paper.7. L. Vogelman 1990 "Violent crime: Rape", in Brian McKendrick and Wilma Hoffmaneds People and Violence in South Africa, Oxford University Press: 96.8. This is not to imply that violence against women did not occur in rural areas.However, the dynamics in which sexual violence took place in the countrvside weredifferent from those of the city. This research focuse- on sexual violence in greaterBulawayo. In the future, we plan to look at similar court records for rural areas. Inthe meantime, we do not want to make oversimplified or romanticized generalisationsabout rural Matabeleland.K. Benson and J. Chadya 111gendered as male. For example, women could not safely walk alone atnight, and secluded spaces, such as the bush, became sites of sexual assault.For example, when she was raped in 1946, Margaret had gone to gatherfirewood with another woman, Mokokeri. Margaret told the court,She went one direction and 1 in another to look for wood ... The accusedgrabbed hold of me round the waist and threw me to the ground. I waswearing a dress and other clothes, but no knickers. After he threw me tothe ground, he had intercourse with me.9As open spaces in urban areas became dangerous for women, nighttimealso became unsafe, as evident in the fact that Fani was almost raped in thecentre of Makokoba when she went to buy cigarettes at a grocery shop afew blocks from her home on 4th street. She described to the court that, onher way home, "it was completely dark, [when] he grabbed me."10Like all cities of Southern Rhodesia, Bulawayo was androcentric. Statepolicy between the 1890s and 1940s restricted African women to ruralareas, both to pacify the African patriarchies whose migrant labour wasrequired for the farms, mines, and industry of the ruling white minority,and so that African women would reproduce the labour force at little or nocost to the white economy. Furthermore, until the late 1940s, colonistslinked African women in urban areas with a permanent urban population,which they feared as "fertile ground" for nationalist resistance.11 Hence,the colonial obsession with control of African female labour, offspring,mobility, and sexuality, whose many forms is eloquently highlighted in thework of Teresa Barnes, Diana Jeater, Lynette Jackson, and Elizabeth Schmidt.In the colonial period, women's unremunerated work as agriculturalproducers and "official" labour force reproducers was, as Schmidt calls it,the "backbone" of the colonial capitalist economy /system. Seen as the"gateway'' to the African population, and potential competitors of Europeanwomen, African women were targeted for control. They were regarded as9. NAZ, 6107, 1946.10. NAZ, 6932, 1950. Samson was found guilty of assault with intent to commit rapeand received 18 months of imprisonment with hard labour and eight cuts.11. Preben Kaarsholm looks at how policies before independence fluctuated betweenattempts at keeping African urban residents "temporary", and underlining theirrural identities, and "modernizing" efforts at integrating them into town in a way a^to control and avoid the development of political demands for rights and citizenshipequal to those of white residents. See, Kaarsholm 1995 "Si Ye Pambili Š Which wayforward?: Urban development, culture and politics in Bulawayo", loumal olSoullici nAfrican Stiuties, 21 (ii): 1.112 Gender and Sexual Violence in Bulawayo, Colonial Zimbabwelegal minors and venereal-disease-spreading prostitutes who needed to becontrolled.12In practice, however, there had always been African women in the colonialtowns of Southern Rhodesia. From the late 19th century to the 1930s,African women and men alike built their own houses in what was referredto as the Location, the Bulawayo African Township, or Makokoba. Colonialauthorities turned a blind eye to these African women as they thought it agood idea for there to be a small number of single African women in thecity to serve the sexual needs of African men and, thus, deter them fromdesiring white women. White women, for their part, were anxious to keeptheir husbands away from single African women, so they refused to hirethem as domestic workers and urged the colonial state to force them tocarry passes.13Colonial influx control measures established that there would be fewwomen in town, and that the women who were there would be consideredas prostitutes. Accordingly, urban accommodation was male centred.Beginning in the late 1920s, in the name of "sanitation" and "segregation,"all independently built African accommodation had been demolished bythe colonial state, and replaced with bachelor hostels and semi-attachedsingle rooms. Therefore, for the women who made it to town, findingaccommodation was dependent on forming some kind of union with aman. These unions ranged from formal marriage, to "mapoto"relationships,14 to prostitution.1512. For a discussion on the association of mobile African girls and women withimmorality and disease as the justification for venereal disease examinations forcedupon African women in Southern Rhodesia's urban areas until 1958, see LynetteJackson 2002 "'When in the white man's town': Zimbabwean women rememberchibeura", in Allman, Geiger, and Musisi eds Women in African Colonial Histories,Indiana: Indiana University Press: 191-215.13. Barnes, Teresa 1999 "We Women Worked So Hard:" Gender, Urbanization and SocialReproduction in Colonial Harare, Zimbabwe, 1930-1956, Portsmouth: Heinemann: 155;For more information see John Pape 1990 "Black and white: The 'perils of sex' incolonial Zimbabwe," Journal of Southern African Studies, 16 (iv): 703; Elizabeth Schmidt1992 Peasants, Traders, and Wkvs: Shona Women in the History of Zimbabwe, 1870-1939,London: James Currey: 155.14. "Mapoto" refers to temporary male-female relationships of varying length wherebythe woman would perform wifely tasks (cooking, cleaning, providing sexual services),without the formal inter-family unification represented by lobola (bride wealth).Colonial officials used the term "concubinage" to describe "mapoto" relationships,which they believed were the predominant kind of union between African womenand African men in the townships of the 1940s. The term "concubine" does notadequately describe these relationships. See Barnes, "We Women Worked So Hard":26-27.15. The definition of the term "prostitute" is a contested one. In most of colonial Africa,colonial authorities referred to any form of union between an unmarried Africanman and woman as prostitution. This notion is problematised and contextualised byLuise White (1990) in her book, The Comforts of Home: Prostitution in Colonial Nairobi,University of Chicago Press.K. Benson and J. Chadya 113The colonial state was responsible for the urban infrastructure that createdprostitution, as well as assumptions that all women who were in the citywere prostitutes. Underlying assumptions about urban women as prostitutesare reflected in both the questions that rape victims in the 1940s and 1950swere asked, and by the fact that almost all rapists justified their actions bytrying to offer women cash.Native Urban Areas Accommodation and Registration Act of 1946:Social Engineering and African Urban HousingTo understand the social and physical geography of these violent crimes itis therefore necessary to start by contextualising the broader issue of colonialcontrol policies of the 1946 Native Urban African Accommodation andRegistration Act (NUAARA), and the realities of a quickly changing urbaneconomy. From the Second World War onwards, industrialisation, an influxof white immigrants, rural degradation, and an increasingly politicisedAfrican workforce compelled the settler state to implement policies to"stabilise" urban labour.The urban boom of the 1950s took place in the context of a European andpatriarchal ideology championing the notion of the nuclear male-headedhousehold. This ideology was reflected in married accommodation schemesand new legislation under the 1946 NUAARA, an Act that sought to regulatethe provision and usage of African urban housing.16 As the Act stipulatedthat the State would build and administer housing and that rent would bepaid by employers, in theory, only employed African men who had workpasses could be granted accommodation. Women could only legally live inthe city if they were "properly married wives" and had the certification toprove it. In this way, writes Barnes, many practices of co-habitation, whichthe authorities had previously turned a blind eye on, became glaringlyillegal,17 while residents involved in non-formal employment were nowconsidered criminals.18 The majority of women living in the township werenot "properly married wives" and, until the 1950s, very few of them wereemployed "formally" by the State. Meanwhile, under the new law, Africanswere subjected to curfews and periodic house raids to search for womenliving in these houses illegally.16. For a history of the contentious debates between the State and the BulawayoMunicipality over accepting and implementing N(UA)ARA (in particular over whoshould foot the bill for building African housing and paying African rents) seeRanger 23 April 2001, "City, State and the Struggle Over African Housing: TheNative (Urban Areas) Accommodation and Registration Act and the Transformationof Bulawayo, 1946 to 1960", Economic History Seminar Paper, University ofZimbabwe.17. Barnes "We Women Worked So Hard": 138.18. Starneechia, 286.114 Gender and Sexual Violence in Bulawayo, Colonial ZimbabweWhat was the relationship between discourses of morality and materialand social reality? How did urban influx control, segregation, and colonialurban planning affect gender dynamics? What role did the mounting politicaland economic tensions of the period have on sexual violence?By the 1950s, Bulawayo's social organisation had been re-arranged inaccordance with the growing trends of segregation and industrialisation.19However, the NUAARA was not being uniformly implemented, partlybecause Municipalities did not have enough married accommodation tooffer those who did qualify for it, and partly because not all employers co-operated. The Act legislated a tied-housing system in an attempt to regulateand control the labour market and to keep the number of Africans in theurban areas to a minimum. However, the country's rapid industrialisationand the labour shortages that accompanied it made employers' compliancewith the Act problematic, especially since paying their workers'accommodation would increase the employers' labour costs significantly.Moreover, the NUAARA came in as African workers were striking forbetter wages and living conditions. It, thus, became increasingly attractivefor employers to employ women workers who could be paid less than maleworkers.20 Not surprisingly, employers began to call for housing to be builtfor African women.21 In addition, the increase in European immigration tothe colony created a demand for domestic workers and many Africanwomen were hired as "nannies".22 "Unattached" urban African women ininformal employment fell through the cracks of the State's plan, as therewas zero housing available for women who were not "wives."Clearly, this policy put non-married women in a precarious position. Forexample, one woman told the courts that she was almost raped in the veldtwhere she slept because she had no accommodation.23 However, mostwomen who took their cases to court did have a roof over their heads, onlysometimes it belonged to a "mapoto man".24 "Mapoto" relationships referredto arrangements in which women lived with men and performed wifelytasks, such as cleaning, cooking and providing sexual services, withoutformal marriage represented by the payment of loboln (bride wealth) to the19. Ranger, "Towards an Environmental History."20. See Barnes "We Women Worked So Hard": 157 for narratives of women fighting forequal pay.21. Scarnecchia, 297.22. Ibid.23. NAZ, S2286, 145, 1955.24. "Mapoto" is usually used to describe the woman in a "mapoto" relationship. As theterm prostitute is used to refer to women alone, men in "mapoto" relationships havenever been referred to as "mapoto" husbands by researchers, but in Zimbabwewomen refer to these men as "mapoto" husbands.K. Benson and J. Chadya 115woman's parents. These relationships could last from a few weeks to a fewyears but were seen as temporary and were not eligible for marriedaccommodation, as the women were considered to be concubines by thestate.Barnes argues that marriage afforded access to housing, defence againstpolice harassment, enrolment of children in school, legal self-employment,and access to the maternity hospital.23 At the same time, marriage enabledwomen to assert themselves as "proper", "respectable", and "moral". Inthis context, married women asserted their morality against the immoralityof independent or single women, while righteousness became the oppositeof independence.26 Yet, the majority of women never achieved "properlymarried" status.27 Evidence from the court records, however, confirmsBarnes' observation that marriage upgraded one's social class and increasedwomen's protection from physical harassment by both European and Africanmen. The court records show that mainly women from poor and workingclass backgrounds were most vulnerable to rape.In Bulawayo of the 1950s, married quarters that were being constructedin what were known as the newer African locations were beyond the meansof the poorer or working class residents of the township who were officiallyconfined to live in Makokoba, the oldest section of Bulawayo, originallybuilt for working "bachelors." Although NUAARA stipulated that employersshould pay their employees' rent, in practice, many employers gave workersa stipend or a portion of the salary for rent payments. This stipend waspegged on the value of bachelor rents and was, thus, almost always too lowfor African workers to afford the rents of married accommodation in thenewly built African "Locations" where home-ownership schemes wereintroduced.28 In any case, the state was slow to build marriedaccommodation, so that even those who could afford the rents often couldnot find a vacancy.Because of the insufficiency of housing in the town, many African workershad been living on the white farms peripheral to the city, otherwise knownas the private locations. Therefore, to define the boundaries of Bulawayo25. Barnes, "We Women Worked So Hard": 27.26. /bid: 111.27. Ibid: 94.28. It is important to note that provision of housing was not as clear-cut a» the NUAARAwould have us believe. For example, those employed by the Municipality had theirrents paid directly by the city. In fact. Ranger pointed out to us that marriedaccommodation for municipal workers was subsidized by bachelor rents to ensurethat married housing was no more expensive than single accommodation. Underthese circumstances therefore, married accommodation and class did not alwaysconflate.116 Gender and Sexual Violence in Bulawayo, Colonial Zimbabweaccording to a colonial city map would be to misunderstand the reality ofthe urban geography of Bulawayo at the time. Many African people livedand worked in the city centre in the day, but commuted to "bedroomtowns"29 on the private locations, which surrounded Bulawayo, whichwere beyond the jurisdiction of city legislation, N(UA)ARA included.30The rape cases analysed in this study were tried in the court in the city ofBulawayo. While most people involved in these cases commuted toBulawayo for work everyday, some lived in the townships, while otherslived on private locations in what has been described as "urban,"31 or theperi-urban areas that surrounded the city. Despite municipal efforts tominimise the number of Africans living in the city, court records show thatthere was daily interaction between those who resided in the city properand those who lived on private locations. In any case, people who lived inprivate locations considered themselves urban. In this study, therefore,Bulawayo will be taken to include both the municipal area and itssurrounding private locations.With respect specifically to the incidences of rape, available evidenceshows that it was women and girl children from poorer and working classbackgrounds that were being raped. Many lived on the private locationssurrounding Bulawayo because they could not afford to pay the high rentscharged in the city centre.32 None of the cases reviewed here involvedwomen living in the more secure and prestigious married housing,33 for, asBarnes observed for Salisbury, in the married quarters, women wereprotected from many of the city vices and violence that plagued the lives ofpoorer women.34Poorer women, on the other hand, lived in crowded conditions withoutany privacy. Often they had to walk far to collect vegetables, look for a job,or to go to school. Mothers sometimes had to leave their children withstrangers, increasing the risk of exploitation and abuse. Most women in thisgroup were likely to be new to town and, thus, vulnerable to being exploitedby unscrupulous men, mostly equally poor men working as manuallabourers or 'house boys', or as general hands in the railways.3329. Takavafira M. N. Zhou 1995 "A History of Private Locations Around BulawayoCity, 1930-57", MA thesis, Department of History, University of Zimbabwe: 2.30. A private location was a farm on the periphery of urban centres where urbanworkers could seek accommodation and, at the same time, be able to grow crops astenants.31. For more information see Zhou, "A History of Private Locations".32. Zhou, "A History of Private Locations": 4.33. West, Michael O. 1997 "Liquor and libido: 'Joint drinking' and the politics of sexualcontrol in colonial Zimbabwe, 1920s-1950s", journal of Social History, 30 (iii): 645-667.34. Teresa Barnes 1992 "The fight for control of African women's mobility in colonialZimbabwe, 1900-1939," Signs, 17 (iii): 586-608.35. NAZ, 7287, 1953.K. Benson and J. Chadya 117The co-relationship between the poor African working class and sexualviolence that is reflected in the court records does not necessarily implythat poor men were naturally inclined to rape. What it does suggest, however,is that, in the context of colonial oppression in which poor African workersfaced innumerable frustrations stemming from abuse by employers andsupervisors and the ever-present poverty, there was the increased dangerof aggressive behaviour on the part of the workers towards those theyconsidered weaker than themselves, more so given the absence of usualtraditional social checks on male sexual aggression of rural African society.In rural areas, extended family support networks created an environmentof intergenerational responsibilities. Every old woman was everyone'sgrandmother and every young person was seen as everyone's child. While'traditional' values and the extended family system did not altogetherdisappear in the city, it is true to say that they were under considerablepressure in the urban environment. Moreover, coming from disparatebackgrounds and treated as mostly single bachelor migrants, many citypeople were estranged from each other.Race and the Geography of Sexual ViolenceMost of the rape cases studied here involved African men raping Africanwomen in Bulawayo's African residential areas, although there were a fewcases of white men being charged with raping African women, mainlydomestic servants working in white homes. For example, Ntombitombiwas raped on the 19th of August 1950 by one Malcolm Duncan KennethCampbell, described in the court record as being a young European malepainter. Ntombitombi had started working as a nanny for Malcolm and hiswife at the beginning of August. She described how Campbell:chased me ... caught hold of me and made a woman of me ... I thenreported to the mistress on her return, telling her that I was leaving thepremises because I was afraid that the accused might do it again.1''Ntombitombi's courage in telling her "mistress" and in taking Campbelland winning the case was unusual, as many African women would nothave reported abuse by their white employers given the unequal racial andgender power dynamics of the colonial era. Campbell was found guilty ofrape and sentenced to two years imprisonment, with hard labour. In anothercase, William Henry George Hawer was found guilty of raping Emma,1'who gave her age as sixteen. Emma, then working for a Mrs Van Eck as ahouse girl, was raped by Hawer when her employer left her alone at home36. NAZ, 6926, 1950.37. NAZ, S2286 73?6, 1953.118 Gender and Sexual Violence in Bulawayo, Colonial Zimbabweas she had to visit a relative in hospital. The questions that were fired atEmma during Hawer's trial are indicative of the trauma which rape victimswere subjected to in the courts. First, the court wanted to know whetherMrs Van Eck's premises were used as a brothel or not. Then, Emma wasasked about her marital status, her virginity, and whether or not she was aprostitute.Generally, however, the cases reviewed here dealt with African menraping African women, some of whom were recent immigrants into the cityin search of employment. Unused to the ways of the city, many suchwomen became easy prey to city males out to exploit their relative innocence,as can be seen in the following cases of Manganayi, Agnes, and Panhliwe.Mangayi had come to the city for the day from Mzilo's 'kraal' in Essexvaleto sell baskets. A man who pretended to take her to his employer's home toenable her to sell her baskets raped her.38 Similarly, Agnes from theBechauanaland Protectorate,39 aged 12-14 years, had been in Bulawayo forless than a month when she was raped. She told the court that she waslooking for work when the accused approached her and said that he knewof a job in the suburbs and then offered to take her there. When the man ledher down a riverbank instead of across the bridge, she had becomesuspicious. She testified: "I at first refused and wanted to know why hewanted to go down below. He indicated a house on the other side of theriver and said that is the house where there is work. So we left the line andwent down under the bridge. Then I was raped."40Equally, like Mangayi and Agnes, Pandhliwe had just arrived in Bulawayoin search of employment when a man named Welcome raped her. She toldthe Court,1 told the accused I was looking for work. He said he should take me tohis employer who wanted a nanny. I wenl with him south past Famona.We reached a small town. The accused suggested following a line ofelectric standards, which he said, led to the employer's home. Then hewanted to have intercourse with me. 1 told him 1 was only looking forwork not for sex intercourse ... 1 have never lived in a town before.41After raping Pandhliwe, Welcome added insult to injury by accusing herof infecting him with a sexually transmitted disease and demanding 10/-from her to pay for treatment, thus proving to be not just a rapist but also anextortionist.38. NAZ, 7049, 1951.39. Now Botswana.40. NAZ, 1952, 7188.41. NAZ, 1952, 7204.K. Benson and J. Chadya 119Other cases included that of Mtobela, described in the court records ashaving "just arrived in town and ... [with] no experience of town life". Shehad been walking in the Bulawayo Location gossiping with her friendabout a black woman who had given birth to a coloured child, when anAfrican policeman threatened to arrest them for such talk. "He showed ushandcuffs then said Ok, I won't arrest you, I will just reprimand you", andthen proceeded to rape Mtobela.42 Mtobela and other women new to townthus found out that, in Bulawayo of the 1940s and 50s, they could not eventrust those empowered and employed to protect them from sexual assault.Children as VictimsWomen who lived with their children in the city were, sometimes, forced toleave their children with strangers for long periods while they went towork and, thus, exposed them to all sorts of dangers. Available evidenceshows that girl children were sometimes victims of rape. The situation wasnot helped by the fact that 12 years was considered the age of consent forAfrican women. Indeed, girls as young as three years old were sometimesvictims of rape. For example, in 1954, Chamiso [sic], a three-year-old girl,was raped by a man named Dick at Plot 1, Woodville South, Bulawayo.Giving testimony, Chiedza, her father told how he had caught the rapist inthe act of molesting his daughter.43The evidence given by Fundi, Chamiso's mother, exposes not only horribleand graphic details about rape, but reveals the harsh realities of urbanindividualism where women could no longer rely on extended family andcommunity support to care for children. She told the court, Chamisois 3 yrs old... I left our quarters to go to a store. I have not been inBulawayo long ... 1 left my two kids in our quarters and took my smallbaby with me. I came back; two of them were running up-to me crying.Chamiso had white stains on her thighs and near her private parts. Sheappeared to have difficulty in walking. She appeared to be in pain. Shesaid, Dick called me to his hut. 1 went to his hut. He picked me up and putme on his bed...pulled up my dress and [raped me] ...uDick was found guilty of rape and was sentenced to eight cuts and twoand a half years of imprisonment with hard labour.In another case, Jesta was only 13 when she visited her mother inBulawayo in order to undergo an eye operation at the hospital. While42. NAZ, 7001, 1951. The rapist received three years of imprisonment with hard labourand warned of an indeterminate sentence.43. NAZ, S2286, 80, 1954.44. Ibid.Ł120 Gender and Sexual Violence, in Bulawayo, Colonial Zimbabwewaiting for her mother, sjh,e was lured to a secluded place in the veldt andraped by a man called John who had promised to take her to her mother.45In yet another case, twelve^year-old Elita, who had come from Plumtree tovisit her sister Silinganiso in the Bulawayo Location, went to MzilikaziLocation to visit a woman called Nonziwa, soon after arrival While shewas sleeping at night, she was raped by one Sililo. To silence her, he offered
her some money. She ran away and reported the case to the police. Sililowas tried, found guilty of indecent assault, and sentenced to two yearsimprisonment with hard labour.46Similarly, Sipo, aged between five and seven years, was going to fetchwater from a well near Lower Rangemore, in the Bulawayo peri-urban areawhen she was followed and raped by one Antoni. In her testimony, she toldthe Court of how Antoni had thrown her to the ground and threatened her
with a knife. Annie, Sipo's aunt testified in court:Sipo is my niece. Her father lives at Kezi and her mother has been stayingin the Location. I don't know her whereabouts. I have been the guardianof Sipo for 5 years ... Next thing I knew, Jessie [her son] was shouting out
that a person was killing the child ... I rushed out of the hut. I saw a manrunning away. My husband and another man, Petros, and myself gave
chase until we caught the accused. My husband caught him. Sipo was
upset, and when she saw me she started to cry. I examined her and foundthat she was wet in her private parts, and she was bleeding. There wasblood coming from her.private parts. When I examined this witness, itwas quite clear to me it was semen on her private parts and stretching to
her thighs.47Antoni was found guilty of indecent assault and sentenced to four yearsof imprisonment with hard labour and eight cuts. Even more disturbingwas the fact that it was not just strangers who raped girl children, assometimes they were victimised by their male relatives. The case of Silombi,who was found guilty on three counts of raping his underage niece, isrepresentative of girls being vulnerable within their own family circles.Between the 15th and 17th of June, 1953, Silombi consecutively rapedtwelve-year-old Josephine at his firewood store in Barbourfields, BulawayoLocation. While other children were going to school, Silombi had luredJosephine to his shop and sexually abused her.4845. NAZ, 7157,1952. John was found guilty of rape and sentenced to six cuts and threeyears of imprisonment with hard labour.46. NAZ, 6870,1950.47. NAZ, S2286, 31,1954.48. NAZ, S2286, 7371, 1953.K. Benson and J. Chadya 121Surprisingly, Silombi received only ten months of imprisonment withhard labour for his crime, most likely because, at twelve, Josephine wasconsidered an adult by the colonial court and because she had returned toSilombi's store of her own will in two separate occasions. But without thecolonial legal rules of evidence and sentencing, it is hard to say for certain.However, it is certain that it was not uncommon for men to take advantageof the confusion and vulnerability of twelve or thirteen-year-old girls.In another case, in 1954, one Shamanga was charged with raping Gracie,an eleven-year-old girl, at Pendennis Farm in Bulawayo District. Gracietold the court that she did not know her age, but that she had not startedmenstruating.49 She explained that she sneaked out from home to go to adance at the neighbouring village with the accused, when he suggested thatthey should sleep in the Veldt, where he raped her.50These cases indicate how vulnerable children were especially whenquestioned in an adult court. It thus raises the question of what protectiondid minors get from the State at the time. The answer is that, while thecolonial legal system ruled that a European male must be 21 years of age orolder to get married without parental consent,51 the same system declaredthat 12 was the age of sexual consent for African females. Any girl who was12 years old, therefore, was, legally, a "woman".52 This raises importantquestions about racial constructions of age in a colonial system. Although12 was the colonial legal age of consent for African girls, a close analysis ofthese criminal cases reveals that there were many factors involved indetermining who was a girl and who was a woman. The definition ofgirlhood was not easy to pin down as it was a fluid concept that wascontested by both European and African cultures and could change overtime.For example, one girl, Emma, guessed her age to be about 17, and statedthat she was still in school and lived with her mother. She had gone tocollect some grass in the bush when the accused, Takawira, raped her.Takawira was sentenced to six 'cuts' and three years of hard labour.33Because she was in school, Emma was depicted as a girl, whereas another49. African people saw menstruation as a marker of lite stages, and more significantthan the precise number of years a woman had been alive.50. NAZ, S2286, 37, 1954.51. Southern Rhodesia, Law Reports 2952: Decisions ot the High Coiut of Southern Rhodesiafor the Yem 1951: 58.52. For a similar discussion on the differential treatments and constructions of normsaccording to race under colonial rule, see Mamdani's analysis of the concepts otcitizen and subject in Mahmood Mamdani's (1996) Citizen and Subject: CimtcmpornujAfrica ami the Legacy of Late Colonialism, Princeton University Press.53. NAZ, S2286, 7357, 1953.122 Gender and Sexual Violence in Bulawayo, Colonial Zimbabwerape victim, Sarah, was considered a "woman" at 16. Similarly, Gracie,another rape victim, was considered a child at 14 years when one Kalaraped her on Asmania Farm.54 Yet, in other cases, girls of only 12 or. 13 wereregarded as women. What is also interesting is that, according to the coloniallegal system, rape was regarded as a criminal offence against the state, andnot, as in civil crimes, against an individual. Therefore, all rape cases had tobe tried in a colonial criminal court. This deprived Africans the power tosettle disputes in their own way, and in the case of rape, to set the criteria ofwomanhood and consent as well as to establish who was being harmed in acrime. Whereas, dispute resolution within the African communities in therural areas focused on collective punishment and responsibility, the colonialcourts were trying the rapists without considering the harm done to thevictim and her family.Because of this, some African parents arranged for out-of-court settlementswith the men who raped their children, as in the case of one Nkani whodemanded damages from Ncube who had raped Nkani's daughter, Batombi.By taking matters into his own hands and demanding "damages", Nkaniwas rejecting the colonial notions that one, the crime was committed againstan individual and the colonial state instead of against him and his family/and two, by incarcerating an individual justice would prevail. The familiesof the victims knew that they would get no compensation from settling incourt.55 This leaves us wondering about the prevalence of out-of-courtsettlements that went undocumented in the archives. It also opens thequestion of a changing urban environment where many women with nofamily connections had no choice, or a new choice, of using the colonialcourts.Also significant is the fact that colonial courts did not always apply thelaw equally between white and African rapists. Evidence shows that, wherethe rapist was a white male who had sexually assaulted a black female, hewas always given the option of paying a fine instead of going to prison.56This was never an option for African men found guilty of rape. There couldbe a number of explanations for this racial discrimination. It is possible, forinstance, that the courts did not offer African offenders the option of payinga fine because it was assumed that Africans would not have the money forthe purpose. Yet, even in a situation where employers were willing to lendtheir workers money with which to pay fines, the courts routinely sentenced54. NAZ, S2286, 25, 1954. Kala was found guilty and received six cuts and two years ofimprisonment with hard labour.55. Clearly, there are hints of transformation as to how to deal with such issues, whichpepper these accounts. More research, particularly through oral histories, is neededin order to understand how issues of justice and redress were dealt with in the past.56. NAZ, 44, 1951.K. Benson and J. Chadya 123them to hard labour. Other possible explanations would be the fact that thecourts did not want to have rapists on the loose, particularly given thepossibility that they might attack white women in future, and therefore,sought to lock them away,57 or the fact that the colonial economy neededcheap African labour and this was one way of servicing this labour demand.White offenders were seldom sent to prison because it was felt that thestigma of imprisonment was much worse for Europeans than for Africans.58The Monetization of Sex and the Justification of RapeFor the Africans, the city was first set up by European men as an Africanmale space with European men running the city, and African men there aslabourers with accommodation and wages geared to bachelors. Africanwomen were supposed to stay in the reserves, reproducing the labour forcefor free and supplementing their husbands' wages through agriculturalproduction. There is a long and contested history over controlling Africanwomen's mobility, and Diana Jeater in particular has written about thediscourses of immorality that were used to justify keeping women onreserves.59 Generally, colonists feared that allowing African women in thecity would lead to a politicized proletariat and African patriarchs fearedthat permitting women in the city would leave no one to work the land andsecure usufractuary land rights for absent husbands. There was also ageneral fear that women in the city would become "loose" and"uncontrollable," which would challenge the patriarchy. Both the Africanand European patriarchy was dependent on the unremunerated productiveand reproductive work of women. While wages and accommodationmotivated European employers to keep African women on the reserves,European men turned a blind eye to a small number of African women inthe city on the assumption that they were prostitutes who would act as abuffer against African men's "libido." ** However, European women, fortheir part, had similar fears of their husbands liaising with African women.57. For more information, see Pape, 699-720. Despite the fear of bl.ick peril in thecolonial setting, we found zero cases of African men accused of raping whitechildren. We did come across one case where a seventeen-year-old African man wasfound guilty of indecent assault of a three-year-old white girl. See NAZ, 7296, 1953.58. Southern Rhodesia, Law Reports 1951: Decisions of the High Court ot Southern Rhodesiafor the Year 1951.59. For a detailed discussion of Diana Jeater's (1993) study on moral discourses, seeMarriage, Penvrsion and Power: Vie Construction of Moral Discourse iu Southern Rhodesia,1894-1939, Oxford: Clarendon Press.60. Pape, 669-720.124 Gender and Sexual Violence in Bulawayo, Colonial ZimbabweTogether with missionaries, they opposed large-scale entrance of Africanwomen into the city, arguing that the city "corrupted" African women.61Despite the colonial government's assumptions about African women intown, and despite its influx control policies, African women lived andworked in the cities from the beginning. These women were wives, mothersand sisters, daughters who worked as nannies, vegetable vendors, beerbrewers, cooks, washerwomen, and prostitutes. In fact, until the municipalitystarted pulling down African-built accommodation (otherwise known as"sanitation segregation" policies) in the 1930s, some Atrican women ownedtheir own homes and ran their own businesses. Since employers controlledurban housing for African male labourers, and because African womencould not own houses in their own right, women had to form relationshipsthat were not sanctioned by the family with African men in order for themto find a place to stay in the city. "Mapoto" "marriages" were an example ofsuch living arrangements.The provision of married accommodation did not eliminate the stigmaassociated with unattached, or independent, urban women as prostitutes.Thus, in most cases of rape, the court asked the victim about her virginityand marital status.62 implied in the courts' reaction to victims' ranges ofanswers about co-habitation was the assumption of immorality and ofpotential prostitution.Questions of marital status were often closely followed by questions thataddressed prostitution directly. For example, Pandhliwe, who had justarrived in the city and was staying with her uncle in the Bulawayo Location,was out looking for work when Pula offered to take her to his employerwho, he claimed, was looking for a nanny. On the way to the "employer",Pula raped her.'1-1 In her testimony, Pandhliwe stated that she was notmarried, had had a child with a man that she had since broken up with, andnow had another lover whom she planned to get married to. In addition toasking her if she had ever ''charged anyone money for intercourse," thecourt went on to ask her if she had ever received any gifts for sex. Shereplied, "My boyfriend gave me a dress, but he is in love with me.""4 A gift61. Schmidt 1990 "Negotiated spaces and contested terrain: Men, women, and the lawin colonial Zimbabwe, 1891)-1939", in U'unuil nf Southern African Stiuiiss. 16 (iv): 622-648.62. For some examples of cases where marital status was key see. NAZ, 6147, 1946;NAZ, 7146, 1952; and NAZ, 7, 1954. For some examples of cases where dress waskey, see NAZ, 6850, 1950, and NAZ 7371, 1953. For examples of cases where virginitystatus was key, see NAZ, 7188, 1952, and 7371, 1953.63. NAZ, 1952, 7204.64. NAZ, 7295, 1953. Interestingly the court record mentions that Sarah had been thecomplainant in a previous rape case, but unfortunately, we could not locate thatcase.K. Benson and J. Chadya 125between lovers was something that society would have regarded as normal,but the Court was implying that this represented the monetization of sexualrelations in the city.Similarly, Naria, a married woman who was visiting her friend Julia, inMzilikazi, told the court how a man had suddenly grabbed her.I said why do you touch me like that young man? And he said, this isRhodesia, I am making love to you ... Before he threw me to the ground,he offered money. I refused saying that I was a kraal woman and knewnothing about that. I have never accepted money to allow a man to haveintercourse with me."The court was, apparently, not convinced that Naria and Julia wereinnocently walking in the street, so it called Julia up as a witness. FromJulia's response we get a sense that she was not being asked about whathappened to Naria, but rather the court was trying to determine the moralitystatus of the two women. Julia stated: "I am not a prostitute as far as I know,because I do not even know what a prostitute is. I have never acceptedmoney for allowing men to have intercourse with me."It was not only the colonists who assumed the women in town to beprostitutes, for, in over 90% of the cases that were dealt with by the courts,African men offered African women money either before or after rapingthem. For example, according to one rape victim, Manana, her rapist,Munyoli, "caught me and took some money out of his pocket. He whispered,here is some money, I took the money and threw it on the ground." Munyolichallenged her testimony, maintaining that sexual intercourse had occurred"with her consent and he paid her [saying:] you wanted 7/6 and I told youI only had 2/-."bb Unfortunately for Munyoli, the court did not believe himand found him guilty.07The following testimony by Violet shows that some women understoodthat, when a man offered money, he was looking to buy sex. In 1954, Violet,a seventeen-year-old, was walking alone to her home in Douglasdale,Bulawayo, when Odreki caught up with her. She described how lit.1 offeredher 2/-, which she refused because she knew that he expected her to sleepwith him in return. She testified: "He repeats his request. I refused. He triesto catch me. He chased me and lied on top. I then get a way. [sic]"68 Thesecases show that, while men sought to justify their abuse of women by65. \AZ. 1952, 7231.66. NAZ, S2286 32, 1954.67. He was given three years of imprisonment with hard labour and six cuts.68. NAZ, S2286 86, 1954. Odreki was found guilty of assault with intention to commitrape and received six months of imprisonment with hard labour and six cuts.126 Gender and Sexual Violence in Bulawayo, Colonial Zimbabwepaying them money, women resisted, not just by fighting off physicalattacks, but also by refusing the cash compensation that was offered.That the men could have the temerity to stand up in a European courtand talk about paying for sex is testimony to the fact that the colonial statewas not serious about its laws against prostitution. The courts neverreprimanded men who openly talked about buying sexual services. Thecourts were at one with African men in assuming that all women in the citywere potential prostitutes. As elsewhere in the world, the courts in Rhodesiaat the time were androcentric in their perception and roles in trying tomonitor or solve social problems, including prostitution. Despite the factthat prostitution was illegal, it was only the women who were punished forthe infringement of the law and not their male partners.69 By not chastisingor reprimanding these men for attempting to buy sex, therefore, the courtswere not being even-handed. Nevertheless, as is clear from the aboveexamples, African women challenged the men's definition of whatconstituted acceptable city behaviour, especially when men were trying todictate that women's roles be that of sexual objects.The preoccupation and consistency of the court's questions aboutprostitution and sexual experience suggests that issues of virginity, dress,and marital status influenced the court's determination of the morality ofthe complainant and the guilt or innocence of the accused. However, thesentences do not seem to reflect these underlying assumptions, as mostwomen who appeared before the courts for cases of rape did succeed inputting rapists behind bars. Thus, without a guide of the colonial court'srules of evidence, it is difficult to know exactly what the court was lookingfor to be able to declare a man guilty or not guilty of rape.70Gendered Struggles to Define Acceptable Sexual BehaviourUnlike the rural areas, the city was a place of convergence of people fromdifferent racial, ethnic, and geographic backgrounds where social relations,including gender relations, were bound to be redefined. Central to genderdynamics in Bulawayo at the time was the question of who had the powerto define "normal," acceptable behaviour in the city? Although colonialurban planners and the judiciary had the administrative and legal power toplan the physical and social infrastructure of the city, the norms of "normal'behaviour were a contested terrain in which race, gender, and generationaland class struggles were key factors.69. Jackson and Barnes both describe how there were sporadic raids staged by theMunicipality to "round up" and "examine" unmarried African women living in thecity. See Barnes, "We Women Work So Hard"; and Jackson, "When in the WhiteMan's Town": 201.70. These issues await further research.K. Benson and J. Chadya 127Because testimony before the courts was recorded verbatim, it is evidenthow the language of the witnesses reflected the desperations and frustrationsengendered by life in the city. Studies of rape have stressed that rape isabout power and control.71 These studies usually suggest that it is"powerless" men who are trying to assert what they had been socialised tosee as their heterosexual masculinity by forcing themselves on women.72Force, therefore, is used to control and define social interactions. In the caseof Bulawayo, this seems to have been compounded by the men's belief thatan urban environment called for different norms of morality, reflexive ofthe new modernity associated with urbanisation. This is evident in manycases here in which men justified their violent actions with expressionssuch as: "This is Rhodesia, I am making love to you,"73 or "I am going toshow you how people live in Bulawayo."74 One woman told the court: "Hetold me that I was in town now and that I was not to behave like a kraalgirl"-75The statement, "this is Rhodesia, I am making love to you, was made byone Mbi, when his would-be victim, Naira, who was much older than him,refused the money that he had offered and asked him: "Why do you touchme like that young man?" By saying "this is Rhodesia," Mbi was sayingthat in the new urban setting, not only were age differences irrelevant, butthat the monetization of sex and sexual violence were acceptable. Equally,by refusing his offer and by taking him to court, Naira was rejecting hisdefinition of Rhodesia and the role that it prescribed for her as a woman.Similarly, there was the case of an old woman named Muntuwani, whotold the court that she did not know her age, but remembered that, "whenthe Europeans came to this country, I was a girl... I am completely blind inmy left eye and I can't see very much from my right eye."76 She told thecourt that the accused, Mashanduka, had come into her hut and "raped mefrom behind ... I recognized the accused as the boy who lives at the staff'shouse. After this, the man said lie down my wife.... I did not consent. I aman old woman."77 By calling Muntuwani "my wife," Mashanduka wasinsinuating that what he had done was nothing unusual and that he could71. Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and NetwOUc 1997 Woman Plus: Women andRnpe, ZWRCN.72. Ibid.73. Naira's case, NAZ, 7231,1952.74. Esther's case, NAZ, 7287, 1953.75. Juliette's case, NAZ, 7158, 1952.76. NAZ, S2286 87, 1954.77. Ibid.128 Gender and Sexual Violence in Bulawayo, Colonial Zimbabwehave sex with her when and how he liked.78 On her part, by callingMashanduka a "young man," Muntuwani reminds him of the respect thatis traditionally due to elderly people such as her. However, in a changingcolonial context, generational differences were quickly losing weight, asyoung men like Mashanduka used the power that they felt they acquired inthe city as males, as opposed to what would be expected of them in therural areas. Clearly, Muntuwani, despite being old, blind, and alone, hadno interest in being Mashanduka's "wife" in this so-called new Rhodesia.In another case, a rapist told Juliette that she should not complain aboutbeing raped, as she was now living in town and should, therefore, notbehave like a "kraal girl". He also offered her money, which for him,signified the way of life in Bulawayo.79 Refusing to conform to his idea ofher as a city girl, Juliette rejected both his money and the implication thatshe was a prostitute and reported him to the police. By reporting him to thelaw, she contested how life ought to be in Bulawayo and defended her rightto move about the city freely and to be in full control of her own body. Inyet another case, before raping her, Taurayi told Esther, a widow with twochildren and who admitted to be a prostitute, that he was going to "showher how people live in Bulawayo".80 She described how Taurayi raped herin the bush on her way to work, saying:I heard the sound of someone running toward me ... I said to accused,'you are running for me? Do you know me?' He said 'are you asking if Iknow you? Are you asleep? I am going to show you how people live inBulawayo.' As he said this, he put his hand in his right hand trouserpocket and pulled out a pocket knife ... and said 'I have been in Bulawayofor 15 yrs'... he was holding the knife with the blade pointing at me andsaid, 'walk fast. I may kill you just now ... I was very afraid ... we thenwalked into the veld ... then he told me to lie down ... He first told me totake off my knickers. I did so and then lay down. He was still holding theknife ...8INot only did Taurayi use physical force, but he also used intimidation toassert his "power" over Esther. By saying that he had been in Bulawayo for15 years, Taurayi was claiming to be an expert on the ways of the city. Byasking Esther if she was asleep, he was implying that she was behind thetimes with regard to gender relations in Bulawayo.78. For another example of whete the rapist calls his victim, "my wife," sue NAZ, 6064,1946.79. NAZ, 1952, 7158.80. He was also convicted in Rusape for theft, 8-3-39, 3 months IHL; at the High CourtSalisbury, 16-7-42, rape, 2 years IHL, and 10 cuts cane; and at the High CourtUmtali, 6-10-48, rape, 4 years IHL and 10 cuts.81. NAZ, 1953, 7287.K. Benson and J. Chadya 129Esther, of course, was not entirely unschooled in the ways of the city andhad her own ideas about the protocol of relationships between prostituteand client. By asking, "do you know me?" Esther was saying that, even inthe city, sexual relations had to be properly negotiated. She was making itclear, therefore, that her vision of Bulawayo was different from that ofTaurayi and that she was not prepared to accept the men's definition ofwhat was "normal" sexual conduct in the city.Defiance and Resistance: Concluding RemarksWomen were, by no means, passive victims of men's sexual attacks. Theyresisted in a variety of ways. For instance, some women tried to reason witlitheir attackers, using their age or their menses, or the dirtiness of the placewhere they were being asked to lie down, to dissuade their attackers."How successful this strategy was is not clear from the records. Anotherstrategy was to "raise the alarm." Women who were attacked in publicspaces were sometimes able to shout for help. For instance, one night in1946, Esther left her quarters to go to the communal lavatories, which shedescribed as being some distance away. She reported that, she thennoticed a male standing near the first lavatory ... he told me to lie downand I asked why ... to have intercourse with you ... I asked him if he knewme and he said, don't question me. I said: but have we agreed to do this?With that, the accused raised a long knife ... Lie down or else I will cutyou ... I said, Well I am not going to. We didn't agree to do this. He said,Well lie down now ... if you refuse to do this, I will kill you. 1 said, No letme go. ..Then he went round the back of me and said, well seeing thatyou refuse to lie down on your back, well, lie down on your stomach. Isaid, I'm not going to do it. If you want to kill me, do so, he said ... olherwomen came in ... I left the lavatory and I raised the alarm.s:>Women also fought back physically, for, as Terence Ranger found out inhis study of rape in the Matobo and Gwanda districts from the 1890s to the1930s, while "women are all too often the victims of violent crime, theimpression given by the case records is not at all one of femalehelplessness."S4 Some women who were attacked by rapists successfullyfought back. For example, when Odreki threw Violet to the ground andattempted to rape her, she successfully fought him off and ran away,hl82. NiAZ, S2286, 145, 1955, and NAZ, 6150, 1946.83. NiAZ. 6150, 1946.84. Ranger, "Murder, Rape and Witchcraft."85. N'AZ, S22H6 86/54. For this failed attempt to rape Violet, Odreki received sixmonths of imprisonment with hard labour and six cuts. Note the discrepancy insentences between this case of attempted rape, and that of Esther's case where theaccused received five years imprisonment with hard labour and ten cuts.130 Gender and Sexual Violence in Bulawayo, Colonial Zimbabwewhile, on her part, fourteen-year-old Gracie bit her attacker's thumb andmanaged to flee to safety.8*' Admittedly, the cases of women who successfullyrepelled sexual attacks are few in the court records examined for this study.Nevertheless, it is significant that some women put up a fight against theirattackers.Most significant is that women who were raped or attacked took theirattackers to court and had the courage to testify despite the stigma associatedwith rape and traditional taboos concerning talking openly about sex. Intraditional Ndebele culture, women were not allowed to speak freely aboutsexual matters in the presence of men. Thus, it could not have been easy forwomen to describe the circumstances of their rapes in generally unfriendlycourtrooms full of strange white and African men.87 Moreover, womenwere often blamed for being raped and the stigma attached to rape oftendestroyed a marriage or strained the raped woman's relations with othermembers of the family. Yet, despite all these constraints, women testified incourt, spoke about their rapes in intimate detail, and did so with remarkablecourage. It is not clear, however, to what extent the women's resistance tosexual assault and determination to prosecute offenders deterred attacks.In the city, even when women were supported by relatives or friends intaking their cases to court, publicizing the fact that one had been rapedinevitably led to social stigma that could ruin the chances of marriage, andwas also likely to destroy the respect one received from one's own family.Because women were often blamed for the rapes perpetrated on them, girlchildren were afraid to tell their mothers what had happened lest they get abeating. Nevertheless, urban women still took their molesters to court.How can this be explained?The answer is partly that, in the urban environment, without theprotection and support of traditional extended family and communitynetworks, women had no alternative but to depend on colonial legalstructures. For example, in a rural setting, if a woman or a girl was rapedshe would tell a senior woman in the community who would speak on herbehalf when the two families got together to resolve the offence.88 While theŁcolonial court was no replacement for a system that prioritised collective86. NAZ, S2286/25, 1954. David was found guilty of assault with intent to commit rapeand received two years of imprisonment with hard labour and six cuts.87. Likewise, girl children who were raped had to testify in a male dominatedenvironment that was probably not very child-friendly.88. Very little research has been done into the social dynamics of sexual violence inrural Matabeleland and unfortunately, it is beyond the scope of this paper. See,Ranger, "Murder, Rape and Witchcraft." Harold Child, a colonial ethnographerwrites that "Rape, ukiidlova, was not regarded seriously unless accompanied byaggravating circumstance, as, for example, where one of the King's wives wasconcerned, in which case both parties were executed. Usually the payment of a fineby the offender was sufficient to meet the claim of the aggravated person." SeeK. Benson and J. Chadya 131responsibility,89 if a woman kept silent, the rape remained an incidentbetween her and the rapist who could remain unpunished. Women clearlywanted justice, whether their decision to take their attackers to courttarnished their reputations or not. There were, clearly, costs to either speakingout or keeping quiet. However, by exposing rapists, women were alsoprotecting other women by warning them of men who were likely toremain potential rapists for the rest of their lives.In the introduction to an article reassessing his acclaimed work, TheInvention of Tradition, Terence Ranger acknowledges the "significant absence... [and] the importance of the 'invention' of gender roles in the legitimizationof colonialism."90 Analyzing the colonial "punishment" of rapists partlyanswers this call. After all, it is now widely accepted that prosecutingcriminals is merely dealing with the symptom rather than the cause ofcriminal behaviour. Colonial authorities introduced a predator-centricsystem, which is based on the extraction of the criminal from society andhis/her incarceration, but which, unfortunately, did not deter rape. Incontrast, there is evidence that traditional African approaches common inthe rural areas focused more on redress and mending relationships amongfamilies rather than meting out punishment. Not only were such casesresolved through the involvement of the community at large but also theguilty party's family was required to compensate the woman's family forChild 1968 The nmaNdebele, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rhodesia Government: 32.In The History and Extent of Recognition of Tribal Law in Rhodesia, the same author talksabout seduction, which is significant here if rape was seen as an "aggravated formof seduction." He writesa girl's father or guardian is entitled to compensation for her seduction byany man who has not been recognized as her prospective husband. A suitormay be liable should his seduction of the girl result in her pregnancy. Thefather, or guardian of the girl, is the aggrieved party, and not the girl. It is hewho receives her dowry on her marriage, and it is her lobolo value, which isreduced if she is seduced prior to marriage. African law does not considerthat the girl has suffered any loss entitling her to damages.For this case, he footnotes De Souza v. Munjonm, 1951, SNR 260. See Child1965 The History and Extent of Recognition of Tribal Law in Rliodcsiu, Ministry otInternal Affairs, Rhodesia Government: 100. In our opinion, feminist oralhistories would be needed before confidently asserting claims about thegendered dynamics of how rape took place in rural areas.89. For a description of the Ndebele law and how the justice system featured collectiveresponsibility, see Child, The amaNdebek: 32. For a discussion on dispute resolutionin African legal anthropology, see John L. Comaroff and Simon Roberts 1981[Rulesand Process, the Cultural Logic of Dispute in an African Context, University ot ChicagoPress.90. T. Ranger 1993 "The invention of tradition revisited: The case of colonial Africa", inT. Ranger and Olufemi Vaughan eds Legitimacy and the State m Twentieth LcntunjAfrica, Oxford: Macmillan: 65.132 Gender and Sexual Violence in Bulawayo, Colonial Zimbabwe"damages" to their daughter, to the family honour, and to the chances ofthe daughter to be properly married, as well as the family's chances ofreceiving lobola for their daughter.'" This is not to say that the system ofjustice in the rural areas was in any way more gender sensitive to women,as the transgressors did not compensate the victims directly but their familiesand, therefore, the system was equally embedded in patriarchy andmarginalised the victim.1'2In the colonial Western system, who benefited from court judgementsagainst rapists? If rape is regarded simply as the violation ot an individualwoman by an individual man, then the woman benefited from thesatisfaction that the rapist had been incarcerated as well as from the factthat her view of what was decent behaviour had been vindicated. However,if the rapes are seen within the colonial context in which African valuesystems were pitted against the newly introduced and dominant colonialworldview, it is clear that the latter marginalised the former. His isparticularly so given the fact that the African women's status as perpetualminors under the colonial law promoted their subjection to African men,narrowed their economic options, and, thereby, curtailing their physicalmobility.93 Under colonialism, rape cases were legally regarded as conflictsbetween the State and the rapist, with the State arrogating to itself the rightto determine what was right and what was wrong, as well as deciding theappropriate punishment. In addition, as the aggrieved party, the colonialstate was to be compensated by the offender. Thus, the implication wasclearly that it was neither the woman nor the African patriarchy that hadbeen violated but the state; it was the state, therefore, that benefited fromthe free labour of the convicted rapist. Thus, while the rural patriarchyreceived cattle94 under the African legal system, and the new colonial91. Woman, being a minor in "traditional" Ndebele law, had no locu< stnndi m judicio.Her guardian represented her in all cases. Although a woman had no standing incourt, in the absence of her husband she had the right to initiate actions to protectfamily property but her husband's senior male relative was obliged to assist her. SeeHarold Child' 1968, The nmnNdcbele, Ministry of Internal Affairs, RhodesiaGovernment: 33.92. Women's ways of healing and coping with acts of sexual violence is another avenueawaiting further research.93. Barnes, "'Am I a man?": 59-81. To this John Pape and Ian Phimister would add thatsome women in urban areas were desirable for keeping African men away fromEuropean women. See Pape, "Black and White": 709; Phimister 1994 VVim^i kolui;Coal, Capitalism mid Labour in Colonial Zmibabu-e 1894-1954, Harare: Boabab: 66. InZimbabwe, women only became of legal majority age in 1982. See Eddison ZvobgoMarch-April 1983 "Removing laws that oppress women", in Africa Revolt: 45.94. In Tlic Hislon and Extent of Recognition ot Tribal Law in Rlunkiiu: 4. Harold Childargues that in Ndebele law, rape was not a serious matter unless followed by injury.It was thought to be a more aggravated form of adultery or seduction resulting inthe payment of vindictive damages.K. Benson and J. Chadya 133authorities received free convict labour, the real victims of rapes, the women,were marginalised and received no compensation for their abuse.Moreover, under colonialism, men were never asked why they rapednor were they ever asked to apologize to the victims. The courts left womenwho had been violated to deal with the psychological and social effects ofrape alone. In pursuing this "fire-extinguisher" approach to the problem,the colonial justice system never addressed the root causes of the sexualabuse of women. Indeed, as long as the cases of rape involved only Africanwomen, they were seen simply as an African problem. Thus, the colonialgovernment was quite content to let rapists off unless they were judged tobe habitual criminals, saw no moral problems in declaring thirteen-year-old girls mature enough to consent to sex, and gave surprisingly shortsentences, averaging three years, to convicted rapists.The cases reviewed in this study reveal the ongoing struggle over thepower to define the city and raise questions about women's safety and theability to make decisions concerning their own bodies. It has been shownthat urbanisation, capitalism, and the monetisation of sex were integral tosituations of sexual violence. Beyond the moment when the crime wascommitted, rape records raise questions about consent and the socialconstruction of girlhood and womanhood, as well as questions abouthistorians' neglect of children when studying colonialism and its impact onurban African society. They raises questions about the Western way ofdealing with crime and the long term effects that the colonial courts havehad on rape as a social problem in contemporary Zimbabwe. A criticalanalysis of these cases demanded that we unpack the category of "woman"and look at who exactly was raped, by whom, when, and why. This approachhas allowed us to glean from the evidence an understanding of the systemicnature of rape in colonial Bulawayo.