Writing Jasper Savanhu’s biography from his awkward self-narratives

ABSTRACT

Sometime in the mid-1970s Jasper Savanhu (1917–1984), a former MP and parliamentary secretary in the Central Africa Federation government (1953–1963), sketched out a ‘prospectus’ for his memoirs. Savanhu had been living in political obscurity since the end of Federation, but he was inspired by an interview conducted in 1973 to write his memoirs. He wanted to emphasise his ‘behind the scenes’ work that helped Africans rather than his public actions during the Federation, which nationalists had dismissed as ‘sell out’ politics. When he could not find any backers for his project in Rhodesia, Savanhu appealed to the former Federal prime minister, Roy Welensky, for help. Welensky contacted his Federation-era colleagues but they, like nationalists, judged Savanhu’s story as insignificant. Savanhu’s memoir project stalled. However, a 1977 interview with the National Archives gave Savanhu another chance to tell his story. This interview revealed a different set of ‘behind the scenes’ stories in Savanhu’s political life, stories of political betrayal, financial insecurity, threats of violence, and most of all, the very ‘tight corners’ for action that limited Savanhu and exposed him to criticism and charges of opportunism.

KEYWORDS:

• Central African Federation
• Southern Rhodesian politics
• biography

Acknowledgments

I dedicate this article to Oliver Pollak whose original interview with Jasper Savanhu made this article possible and more importantly, inspired Savanhu to write his memoir prospectus. A previous version of this article was presented at the 2017 South African Historical Society Conference, the International Studies Group at the University of the Free State, and the Economic History department at the University of Zimbabwe. My sincere thanks to Ian Phimister, Clement Masakure, and Ushehwedu Kufakurinani for their hospitality. I am grateful to Honest Koke, Takesure Taringana, Mhoze Chikowero, and Brooks Marmon for sending me sources on Savanhu. Nancy Jacobs and Andrew Bank were excellent editors. The anonymous African Studies reviewers and Jocelyn Alexander provided me with valuable feedback. A sabbatical leave grant from Hendrix College made possible my trips to Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Oxford, London and Harare. As always, the inter-library loan department at Hendrix College has been prompt and professional in filling my requests.

Note on Contributor

Allison K Shutt’s book, Manners Make A Nation: Racial Etiquette in Southern Rhodesia, 1910–1963 (2015) was shortlisted for the 2016 ASAUK Fage-Oliver Prize for the best book in African Studies published in 2014–2015. She is writing a biography of Jasper Savanhu.

Notes

1 National Archives of Zimbabwe, Harare (NAZ), MS 797, Prospectus for Memoir.

2 Ibid, point 1.

3 Ibid, point 2.

4 Ibid, point 9.

5 Ibid, point 11. Rhodesia used its own currency system between 1970 & 1980. On the name of the currency and its link to Rhodesian ideas of sovereignty, see Luise White (2015: 123–4). The exchange rate of the currency was fixed as its value dropped throughout the 1970s. Peter Godwin & Ian Hancock (1993: 286–7).

6 Savanhu appears in Welensky’s memoir only as a delegate to the 1952 Federation Talks (1964: 51, 52 & 54).

7 NAZ, AOH/5, Interview with Jasper Savanhu, 42.

8 Ibid, 23.

9 Oliver Pollak interview with Jasper Savanhu, 25 May 1973 (Pollak interview).

10 Savanhu spelled his name as Sawanhu in this instance.

11 Weston Library, Oxford (WL), Mss Perham 605/1, JZ Savanhu to AS Cripps, 16 May 1950; Cripps to Perham, 12 July 1947.

12 For the original manuscript, see WL, Mss Brit. Emp S 365, 99/1, ‘Ndaba Tree Salisbury 10^th February 1946’.

13 Pollak interview.

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid.

20 NAZ, MS 797, Prospectus for Memoirs, point 2.

21 Ibid point 2; Pollak interview.

22 Ibid point 9. Patel remembers encouraging Savanhu but no more than that. Email communication with Hasu Patel, 17 October 2017.

23 NAZ, MS 797, Prospectus for Memoirs. Savanhu mentions an article he wrote about the nationalist party split in March 1975 (point 8 of his prospectus) while in August 1976, Roy Welensky, the former prime minister of the Federal government, wrote to former colleagues to solicit grants for Savanhu’s project. JZ Savanhu, letter to the editor, National Observer (1975: 3). WL, Roy Welensky Papers (WP), 736/6, Welensky to Patsy & Alan (Lennox-Boyd), 20 August 1976.

24 NAZ, MS 797, Prospectus for Memoir, point 10. Savanhu may have been thinking of the newspaper’s praise of him after he voted with the ruling party for the Constitutional Amendment Bill and then resigned his seat in parliament, which he won a few months later. The Rhodesia Herald 1 August 1957: 14 Editorial.

25 The African members of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland delegations refused to attend the conference, which left Savanhu and Nkomo to defend their presence at the conference to their fellows at home and explain their worries about federation to the rest of the conference delegates in London. NAZ, AOH/5: 35–6.

26 NAZ, AOH/5, 36–9.

27 FAD (1957: col 663–4).

28 WL, WP 628/5, Welensky to PS Joelson, editor, East Africa and Rhodesia 1 August1957.

29 WL, WP 666/7, Record of a discussion the prime minister had with Mr Savanhu, 3 January 1958; Savanhu to Welensky, 19 June 1958; Savanhu to Welensky, 2 December 1958.

30 WL, WP 666/7, Record of a discussion the prime minister had with Mr Savanhu, 3 January 1958.

31 WL, WP 666/7, Savanhu to Welensky, 2 December 1958.

32 British National Archives, Kew, CO 1015/1572, MR Metcalf to GEB Shannon, Commonwealth Relations Office, 9 January 1959; JC Morgan to Sir Arthur Benson, 29 January 1959.

33 For vivid examples see WL, WP 158/5, Cabinet partnership implementation committee minutes, 18 November 1960; 23 February 1961, Secret; JM Greenfield to Welensky, 27 November 1959.

34 WL, WP 666/7, Welensky to Greenfield, 14 August 1962. Secret and personal. Welensky to Savanhu, 15 August 1962. Savanhu’s resignation and Welensky’s response were published in the Rhodesia Herald.

35 WL, WP 666/7, ‘Savanhu must resign’, The Daily News 7 November 1962

36 Savanhu blamed unnamed detainees for his exclusion. See NAZ, AOH/5: 53.

37 WL, WP 736/6, Welensky to Patsy and Alan (Boyd), 20 August 1976.

38 WL, WP 736/6, Boyd to Welensky, 6 September 1976.

39 WL, WP 749/6, Harry Grenfell to Welensky, 28 October 1976. The remainder of the paragraph is from this source.

40 NAZ, AOH/5, 1.

41 Ibid, 2.

42 Ibid, 10.

43 Ibid, 22–3.

44 Ibid, 42–4 & 46–7.

45 Ibid, 47.

46 Ibid, 48–9.

47 Ibid, 37; MS 797, Prospectus for Memoirs, point 6.

48 NAZ, AOH/5, 37.

49 Ibid, 51.

50 Ibid, 52.

51 Ibid, 58.

52 Ibid, 41. Savanhu promoted the movement to others in the government. WL, WP 666/7, Savanhu to Malcolm, 10 May 1960.

53 NAZ, AOH/5, 42.

54 Ibid, 54.

55 Ibid, 52.

56 Ibid, 51.

57 Ibid, 53.

58 Ibid, 53.

59 Ibid, 53.

60 Ibid, 54.

61 Ibid, 64.

62 Ibid, 65.

63 Ibid, 54.