Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T03:05:05.804Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Coal, Crisis, and Class Struggle: Wankie Colliery, 1918–22*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Ian Phimister
Ian Phimister
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Despite its pivotal economic position in Central Africa, the history of Zimbabwe's Wankie Colliery has scarcely been explored. Although the historical pattern of capital accumulation and class struggle on the colliery has yet to be traced in any detail, this article suggests that a useful starting point is the protracted labour crisis which convulsed the colliery in 1918. Attempts to expand output through intensified pressure on a dwindling supply of black labour soon established a vicious circle in which workers' health deteriorated rapidly. Hundreds of black miners were incapacitated by ‘tropical ulcers’. An ensuing commission of enquiry exonerated the colliery's management of any blame, but it is nonetheless significant for the light it casts on the British South Africa Company Administration's narrow conception of its role after the Privy Council decision depriving it of ownership of ‘unalienated’ land in the Colony. The article's last section examines the conflict between the colliery's management and organized white workers in the context of the racial division of labour. In doing so, it emphasizes the structural vulnerability of white labour in the colonial era.

Type
Colonial Zimbabwe
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , March 1992 , pp. 65 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Bulawayo Chronicle, 8 Nov. 1902.

2 Report of the Wankie Coal Commission (1949), 9.Google Scholar

3 Gann, L. H., A History of Southern Rhodesia (London, 1965), 160–1.Google Scholar

4 van Onselen, C., ‘The 1912 Wankie Colliery strike’, J. Afr. Hist., XV (1974), 445–56.Google Scholar

5 Ibid. 575.

6 A3/17/12/3, A. R. Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, Salisbury, 31 July 1918. All file references are to the National Archives in Harare, Zimbabwe.

7 Ibid. Medical Doctor to Secretary, Department of the Administrator, 10 Aug. 1918.

8 RC3/9/5/20, Enclosure no. 1031A/1918: Wankie Colliery, copy, Managing Director, R.N.L.B., to General Manager, Wankie Colliery, 27 Aug. 1918.

9 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 31 July 1918.

10 A3/18/30/20, A. R. Thomson, Wankie, to Administrator, Salisbury, 22 Apr. 1918. Ila workers did not, of course, come from Fort Jameson but from the Kafue River region hundreds of miles to the west and much nearer Wankie.

11 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 31 July 1918.

12 A3/17/12/1, General Secretary, Rhodesian Mine and General Workers' Association, to Manager, Wankie Colliery, 6 Nov. 1919.

13 Report of the Chief Native Commissioner for the year 1919, 2.

14 N3/33/2, Report and attached schedules, 22 Nov. 1920.

15 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 31 July 1918.

16 van Onselen, C., Chibaro: African Mine Labour in Southern Rhodesia, 1900–1933 (London, 1970), 121.Google Scholar

17 A3/18/30/20, Thomson to Administrator, 22 Apr. 1918.

18 A32/17/12/1, ‘Notes on Wankie Colliery’.

19 Ibid.

20 H. Mss CH8/2/2/12, Chaplin to Michell, 29 July 1918.

21 A3/18/30/20, Secretary, Department of Administrator, to Managing Director, R.N.L.B., Salisbury, 30 Apr. 1918.

22 See van Onselen, ‘The 1912 Wankie Colliery strike’.

23 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Administrator, 16 July 1918; Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 20 Aug. 1918.

24 A3/18/30/45, Report of Committee appointed to investigate Labour and other Recent Troubles at the Wankie Colliery, 1918.

25 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Administrator, 16 July 1918.

26 Ibid. Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 31 July 1918.

27 A3/18/30/45, Report of Committee appointed to investigate… Wankie Colliery, 1918.

28 Ibid. Confidential, Memorandum to His Honour the Administrator on the Report of the Committee appointed to investigate Labour and other Recent Troubles at the Wankie Colliery, [from] A. M. Fleming, Medical Director, 2 Jan. 1919.

29 Ibid. Report of Committee appointed to investigate… Wankie Colliery, 1918.

30 Ibid.

31 Ibid.

32 Ibid.

33 Paragraph, including direct quotations, based on A3/18/30/45, Report of Committee appointed to investigate… Wankie Colliery, 1918; and A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 31 July 1918.

34 A3/18/30/20, Thomson to Administrator, 22 Apr. 1918.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid.

37 Ibid. Secretary to Administrator, to Managing Director, R.N.L.B., Salisbury, 30 Apr. 1918; H. Mss CH8/2/2/12, Chaplin to Michell, 29 July 1918.

38 A3/18/30/38, Medical Director to Secretary to Administrator, 17 June 1918.

39 A3/17/12/3, Medical Director to Secretary to Administrator, 10 Aug. 1918.

40 A3/17/12/1, Notes on Wankie Colliery.

41 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Administrator, Umtali, 12 July 1918.

42 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Administrator, 12 July 1918.

43 Ibid. Thomson to Administrator, Umtali, 16 July 1918.

44 Ibid.

45 Ibid.

46 Ibid. Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, Salisbury, 14 Aug. 1918.

47 A3/18/30/45, Report of Committee appointed to investigate… Wankie Colliery, 1918.

48 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 14 Aug. 1918.

49 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 31 July 1918.

50 Ibid. Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 14 Aug. 1918.

51 A3/18/30/45, Report of Committee appointed to investigate … Wankie Colliery, 1918; A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 11 Sept. 1918.

52 A3/17/12/3, Thomson to Secretary to Administrator, 14 Aug. 1918.

53 Ibid.

54 A3/18/30/45, Report of Committee appointed to investigate… Wankie Colliery, 1918.

55 RC3/9/5/20, Managing Director, R.N.L.B., to General Manager, Wankie Colliery, 27 Aug. 1918.

56 A3/18/30/45, Confidential, Secretary for Mines and Roads to Administrator, 9 Jan. 1919.

57 Phimister, Ian, An Economic and Social History of Zimbabwe, 1890–1948 (London, 1988), 99.Google Scholar

58 See, for example, Report of the Secretary for Mines for the Year 1918, 1.

59 A3/18/30/45, Report of Committee appointed to investigate …Wankie Colliery, 1918.

60 Ibid.

61 Ibid. Memorandum to His Honour the Administrator… [from] Fleming, Medical Director, 2 Jan. 1919.

62 Ibid.

63 Ibid. Report of Committee appointed to investigate… Wankie Colliery, 1918.

64 For wider discussion, see Onselen, van, Chibaro, 25–6, 161–32.Google Scholar

65 A3/18/30/45, Report of Committee appointed to investigate… Wankie Colliery, 1918.

66 Ibid.

67 Ibid. Memorandum to Administrator …from Fleming, Medical Director, 2 Jan. 1919.

68 Ibid.

69 Ibid. Secretary for Mines and Roads to Administrator, 9 Jan. 1919.

70 Ibid. Report of Committee appointed to investigate… Wankie Colliery, 1918.

71 Ibid. Confidential, Sir Drummond Chaplin to Secretary, British South Africa Company, London, 17 Jan. 1919.

72 Phimister, Ian, ‘The “Spanish” influenza pandemic of 1918 and its impact on the Southern Rhodesian mining industry’, Central African Journal of Medicine, XIX (1973), 143–8.Google Scholar

73 A3/12/30/1, Acting N.C., Wankie, to Superintendent of Natives, Bulawayo, 3 Dec. 1918.

74 Ibid. See also Phimister, , ‘The “ Spanish” influenza pandemic’, 146.Google Scholar

75 A3/12/30/1, telegram, Thomson, Wankie, to Montague, Mines, Salisbury, 24 Oct. 1918.

76 Ibid. Acting N.C., Wankie, to Superintendent of Natives, Bulawayo, 3 Dec. 1918.

77 A3/18/30/45, Secretary to Administrator, Salisbury, to General Manager, Wankie Colliery, 4 Nov. 1918; and attached correspondence.

78 N9/1/21, N.C., Wankie, report for year 1918.

79 A8/3/8, Compound Inspector's report, Bulawayo Division, February 1919.

80 Ibid.

81 Ibid.

82 Ibid.

83 Onselen, Van, Chibaro, 118.Google Scholar

84 This and the preceding paragraph are based on Mackenzie, J. M., ‘Colonial labour policy and Rhodesia’, Rhodesian Journal of Economics, VII (1974), 13Google Scholar; van Horn, L., ‘The agricultural history of Barotseland, 1846–1964’, in Palmer, R. and Parsons, N. (eds.), The Roots of Rural Poverty in Central and Southern Africa (London, 1977), 156–8Google Scholar; A8/3/9, Compound Inspector's report, Bulawayo Division, April 1920; A3/12/30/2, Thomson to His Honour the Administrator, Salisbury, 16 Sept. 1919; and A3/3/19/3, Native Labour Enquiry Committee, Evidence of Mr A. R. Thomson, General Manager of the Wankie Colliery Company Ltd, 12 Apr. 1921. The direct quotation comes from Onselen, van, Chibaro, 115.Google Scholar

85 Wilson, N. H., Notes on the Mining Industry of Southern Rhodesia (Salisbury, 1933), 86.Google Scholar

86 Report of the Secretary for Mines for the Year 1919, 7.Google Scholar

87 ZCB2/2/1, ‘Capital History of the Wankie Colliery Company Ltd’.

88 Wilson, , Mining Industry of Southern Rhodesia, 86.Google Scholar

89 Onselen, Van, Chibaro, 223.Google Scholar

90 M3/11/15, Confidential, ‘Native Trouble Rezende Mine’, Commissioner's Office, British South Africa Police, to Administrator, n.d. [December 1919]; A8/3/9, Compound Inspector, Bulawayo Division, report for September 1921.

91 H. Mss CH8/2/2/11, Malcolm to Chaplin, 19 Oct. 1913.

92 Phimister, , Economic and Social History of Zimbabwe, 91–2.Google Scholar

93 A3/17/12/1, A. R. Thomson, Wankie, to General Secretary, Rhodesian Mine and General Workers' Association, Bulawayo, 11 Nov. 1919.

94 Phimister, , Economic and Social History of Zimbabwe, 92.Google Scholar

95 A3/17/12/1, Herbert Walsh, Rhodesian Mine and General Workers' Association, Bulawayo, to Manager, Wankie Colliery Company, Wankie, 6 Nov. 1919.

96 Bulawayo Chronicle, 23 Dec. 1919.

97 A3/17/12/1, Thomson to the General Secretary, R.M.G.W.A., 11 Nov. 1919.

98 Ibid.

99 Ibid.

100 Ibid.

101 RC2/4/39, Resident Commissioner, Salisbury, to High Commissioner for South Africa, 23 Dec. 1919.

102 Bulawayo Chronicle, 17 Dec. 1919.

103 M3/11/15, Thomson, Wankie, to Secretary for Mines and Works, Salisbury, 19 Dec. 1919.

104 Bulawayo Chronicle, 22 Dec. 1919.

105 Ibid. 23 Dec. 1919.

106 RC2/4/39, Resident Commissioner to High Commissioner, 23 Dec. 1919.

107 M3/11/15, telegram, Major [B.S.A. Police], Wankie, to Adjutant [B.S.A. Police], Salisbury, 22 Dec. 1919.

108 Bulawayo Chronicle, 24 Dec. 1919; Ibid. 26 Dec,. 1919; Ibid. 30 Dec. 1919.

109 RC2/4/40, Resident Commissioner, Salisbury, to High Commissioner for South Africa, 2 Jan. 1920.

110 H.Mss CH8/2/2/6, Chaplin to Gell, 24 Dec. 1919.

111 Report of the Secretary for Mines for the Year 1919, 7.

112 Rhodesia Chamber of Mines Annual Report for 1919, 31.

113 H.Mss RH2/1/2/4, Executive Committee, monthly meetings, 18 Feb. 1920, 21 Nov. 1920; H.Mss RH3/1/1, Rhodesia Mine Owners' Association, Bulawayo conference, 2–4 Dec. 1920.

114 A3/17/5, Petition from Umvuma branch, R.M.G.W.A., to Administrator, Salisbury, 15 Nov. 1920.

115 A3/18/30/9, Local Secretary, B.S.A. Company, Cape Town, to Private Secretary to Sir Drummond Chaplin, Salisbury, 7 Sept. 1920.

116 H.Mss CH8/2/2/6, Chaplin to Gell, 6 Sept. 1920.

117 Lee, M. E., ‘The trade union movement in Rhodesia, 1910–1924’, Rhodesian Journal of Economics, VIII (1974), 234.Google Scholar

118 See, for example, H.Mss CH6/2/9, Secretary, Salisbury Chamber of Mines, to Secretary, Rhodesia Chamber of Mines, 6 June 1922.

119 Phimister, , Economic and Social History of Zimbabwe, 192.Google Scholar

120 Rhodesia Chamber of Mines Annual Report for 1920, 44.

121 Bulawayo Chronicle, 24 Dec. 1919.

122 Ibid. 5 Mar. 1921.

123 Ibid. 29 Jan. 1921.

124 Ibid. 23 Dec. 1919.

125 Ibid. 5 Mar. 1921.

126 Report of the Commission appointed to enquire into the matter of Native Education in all its bearings in the Colony of Southern Rhodesia (1925), 106.Google Scholar

127 S707, Jackson, Bulawayo, to Hemans, Wankie, 8 May 1920.

128 H.Mss CH6/2/9, Secretary, Salisbury Chamber of Mines, to Secretary, Mine Owners' Association, Bulawayo, 12 Feb. 1921.

129 Bulawayo Chronicle, 12 Mar. 1921.

130 Ibid. 5 Mar. 1921.

131 N9/1/22, N.C., Wankie, annual report for 1919; and N9/4/40, N.C., Wankie, report for month of February 1921.

132 Phimister, , Economic and Social History of Zimbabwe, 93.Google Scholar

133 Lee, M. E., ‘An analysis of the Rhodesian referendum, 1922’, Rhodesian History, VIII (1977), 81, 82.Google Scholar