State writing, subversion and citizenship in Southern Rhodesia’s state of emergency, 1959–1960

ABSTRACT

This article takes a moment of political upheaval – Southern Rhodesia’s 1959 State of Emergency – to explore the uses of writing in the remaking of state authority and citizenship. The 1950s had produced a powerful bureaucratic state, a shaky attempt at multi-racial “partnership,” and African aspirations to a citizenship able to encompass equality, rights and self-determination. The Emergency brought the tensions in these modes of government and citizenship to the fore. The article explores the working out of these tensions in two instances: the bureaucratic attempt to manage political detainees, and the police evidence used to substantiate charges of subversion on the part of nationalists in court. The article traces the limits of the state’s “lawfare” and the means by which detainees and nationalists developed new understandings of citizenship as aspirational imaginary, legal condition and practical tool, through the written word.

RÉSUMÉ

Cet article se penche sur un moment de bouleversement politique – l’état d’urgence de la Rhodésie du sud en 1959 – pour explorer les utilisations de l’écriture dans le renouvellement de l’autorité de l’État et de la citoyenneté. Les années 50 avaient produit un État bureaucratique puissant, une tentative hésitante de « partenariat » multiracial et des aspirations africaines à une citoyenneté capable d’englober l’égalité, les droits et l’autodétermination. L’urgence a mis au jour les tensions existant dans ces modes de gouvernement et de citoyenneté. L’article explore la nature de ces tensions dans deux cas: la tentative bureaucratique de contrôle des prisonniers politiques et les preuves utilisées par la police pour étayer les accusations de subversion portées à l’encontre des nationalistes devant les tribunaux. L’article souligne les limites de la « guerre de la loi » de l’État et des moyens par lesquels les prisonniers et les nationalistes ont élaboré, grâce à l’écriture, de nouvelles compréhensions de la citoyenneté ravivant l’imaginaire de l’aspiration, un statut juridique et un outil pratique.

KEYWORDS:

• Rhodesia
• law
• citizenship
• detention
• state writing

MOTS-CLÉS:

• Rhodésie
• loi
• citoyenneté
• détention
• écriture de l’État

Acknowledgments

My thanks are owed to Sarah Jane Cooper-Knock and Olly Owen for their encouragement and comments and to Allison Shutt and to the journal’s anonymous readers for their sharp insights.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Much of the excellent literature on state writing (much of it concerned with bureaucratic functions) does not address the use of writing in reply to, or addressed to, the state. But see e.g. the approaches of Gready (1993) and Vaughan (2005).

2. White is discussing late 1950s Southern Rhodesia but refers to wider work on post-World War II African colonial contexts (notably Cooper 1996), which has argued for seeing citizenship as far more than a formal set of rights and obligations. This is of course not just an African or post-war debate. See e.g. Banerjee (2010) and Sieder (2001).

3. The Terence Ranger Papers (TRP) are held in the Weston Library, Oxford University. When I read them, they were in Terence Ranger’s possession, and I use the box designations he used. Ranger’s memoir (2013) relies on these sources, offering them as political and personal narrative. The state archives used here are held in the National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ), Harare. Many other actors supported detainees and nationalists in this period, some of whom, such as Eileen Haddon, have left private papers, and there are a handful of memoirs by detainees (Alexander 2008). For a fascinating study of the archive of a South African Bantustan, and discussion of a wide-ranging literature on the archive and state making, see Ally (2015). Also see Peterson and Macola (2009) and Barber (2006).

4. See Darwin’s (1993) overview of all three emergencies. For a recent history of the Central African Federation, see Cohen (2017).

5. On these questions in Southern Rhodesia, see Karekwaivanane (2017) and White (2015).

6. See Barber (1967), Bhebe (1989), Bowman (1973), and more recently White (2015).

7. On the introduction of repressive legislation, see Tredgold’s personal account (1968, chapter 22), and the comprehensive study of Palley (1966).

8. There is a large literature on pass and related laws used to control movement, labour and urban residence. For a classic on Southern Rhodesia, see Van Onselen (1976).

9. See Shutt (2015), West (2002), and Ranger (1995) on the politics of middle-class Africans, multi-racialism and respectability. See Karekwaivanane (2017) and Alexander (2006) on law and expert bureaucracy.

10. See accounts in McCracken (2011, 540–541), Nyagumbo (1980, 125, passim), and Tekere (2007, 57–59). For the wider history of political prisoners, see Munochiveyi (2014). The official number of detainees was 511: 311 from Southern Rhodesia, ninety-eight from Northern Rhodesia, and 102 from Nyasaland. NAZ, S3338/2/2/1, Restrictees, 1959–63, Statistical Analysis of the Arrests and Disposal of Persons Arrested during the Emergency in Southern Rhodesia in February 1959, n.d. [c. January 1960].

11. NAZ, S3338/2/2/1, Restrictees, 1959–63, M. Campbell, PNC, Mashonaland East, to SNA, 9th March 1959; S. E. Morris, CNC, to all Native Department Stations in Southern Rhodesia, Circular Minute No 35, 1959, Public Order Act, 1955, 19th March 1959.

12. On the establishment of this system, see the detailed correspondence, reports and circulars in NAZ, S3338/2/2/1, Restrictees, 1959–63, and S3338/2/1/1/4, Detainees’ Arrangements, Que Que, Shabani, Buhera and Selukwe, 1959.

13. See NAZ, S3338/2/2/1, Restrictees, 1959–63, H. A. K. Simpkins, Curator, to S. G. A. Hinds, Under Secretary for Justice and Internal Affairs, 18th April 1959.

14. See the debates on these topics in NAZ, S3338/2/2/1, Restrictees, 1959–63, and the instructions set out in S. E. Morris, CNC, to all Native Department Stations in Southern Rhodesia, Circular Minute 52/59, Emergency (Temporary Detention) Regulations, 1959, 21st April 1959, and revised in Circular Minute No. 143 of 1959, 24th December 1959.

15. Ranger (2013) details such interactions from the point of view of the LAWF.

16. These complaints are amply recorded in correspondence in NAZ, S3338/1, Political Detainees and Restrictees, 1959–62, see especially Peter Mtandwa, J. Ruredzo Makoni, Wonder Shawah Mutsagu, Thomas Magwenzi, D. Munyoro Mbidzo, G. Nyandoro and M. A. Gudza Mabvuku, to H. J. Quinton, Minister of Native Affairs, 7th February 1961; S3338/2/2/1, Restrictees, 1959–63; S3338/2/1/1/4, Detainees Arrangements, Que Que, Shabani, Buhera, and Selukwe. Edgar Tekere (2007, 57–59) reports that his wife sued for divorce during his first stint in detention. Over half of the Northern Rhodesian detainees were deported, and over two-thirds of those from Nyasaland. The remainder were “released” in Southern Rhodesia after “screening.” NAZ, S3338/2/2/1, Restrictees, 1959–63, Statistical Analysis of the Arrests and Disposal of Persons Arrested during the Emergency in Southern Rhodesia in February 1959, n.d. [c. January 1960].

17. See e.g. S3330/T1/1/8A/1/3, Emergency (Temporary Detention) Regulations, 1959. Account required to be lodged by the Curator in terms of Section 7(7), Salisbury, 12th June 1959, Albert Wegani Kangomi.

18. NAZ, S3338/2/2/1, Restrictees, 1959–63, S. E. Morris, CNC, to all Native Department Stations in Southern Rhodesia, Circular Minute No. 49/59, Emergency (Temporary Detention) Regulations, 1959, 21st April 1959.

19. NAZ, S3338/2/1/1/1, Political Detainees and Restrictees, 1959–62, E. D. K. Maclean, NC, Nkai, to PNC, Matabeleland, 3rd May 1961.

20. NAZ, S3338/2/1/1/4, SNA to the Secretary for Justice and Internal Affairs, 10th June 1959, Re: Claim for losses due to detention: Daniel Matongo, R.C. 5958 Mazoe. This file contains many complaints lodged by detainees.

21. NAZ, S3338/1, Political Detainees and Restrictees, 1959-62, Peter Mtandwa, J. Ruredzo Makoni, Wonder Shawah Mutsagu, Thomas Magwenzi, D. Munyoro Mbidzo, G. Nyandoro and M. A. Gudza Mabvuku, to H. J. Quinton, Minister of Native Affairs, 7th February 1961.

22. NAZ, S3338/1, Political Detainees and Restrictees, 1959–62, Peter Mtandwa, J. Ruredzo Makoni, Wonder Shawah Mutsagu, Thomas Magwenzi, D. Munyoro Mbidzo, G. Nyandoro and M. A. Gudza Mabvuku, to H. J. Quinton, Minister of Native Affairs, 7th February 1961.

23. NAZ, S3338/1, Political Detainees and Restrictees, 1959–62, S. E. Morris, SNA, to Peter Mtandwa, Mabvuku, 24th February 1961.

24. See e.g. NAZ, S3338/2/1/1/4, Detainees Arrangements, Que Que, Shabani, Buhera and Selukwe, 1959, H. A. K. Simpkins, Assistant CNC, to the Acting NC, Buhera, 3rd June 1959, and S3338/1, Political Detainees and Restrictees, 1959–62R. C. H. Wood for SNA, to PNC, Mashonaland East, 27th June 1960. Such cases are dotted throughout the files on detainees. On the role of the LAWF, see Ranger (2013, 46).

25. See e.g. NAZ, S3338/2/1/1/2, Political Detainees and Restrictees, 1959-62, Kefas Chimutsa, HM Prison, Khami, to the Master of the High Court, Salisbury, n.d., R. C. H. Wood for the SNA to Master of the High Court, 17th December 1959.

26. The quote is from NAZ, S3338/2/2/1, Restrictees, 1959–63, NC H. L. George, Sipolilo, to PNC, Mashonaland East, 3rd April 1959. Also see cases in NAZ, S3330/T1/1/8A/1/2, Emergency Temporary Detention Regulations 1959, such as Simon Bhebhe, Marandellas [Prison], to Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs, 16th September 1959; H. A. K. Simpkins for SNA to Simon Bhebhe, 28th October 1959; H. A. K. Simpkins to Secretary for Justice and Internal Affairs, Re: Education Expenses: Dependents of Detainee Hatiwenda Temba Chiweshe, n.d.

27. On debates over the patriarchal alliance of the NAD and African men, see Schmidt (1990), Jeater (1993), and Barnes (1997).

28. NAZ, S3330/T1/1/8A/1/3, Emergency (Temporary Detention) Regulations, 1959. Account Required to be Lodged with the Curator in Terms of Section 7(7), Salisbury, 20th May 1959: Matakala Legwane, Victoria Falls, 18th June 1959.

29. NAZ, S3338/2/1/1/4, Detainees Arrangements, Que Que, Shabani, Buhera and Selukwe, Emergency (Temporary Detention) Regulations, 1959. Account Required to be Lodged with the Curator in Terms of Section 7(7), Salisbury, 20th May 1959: Order made against Bethwell Hlambelo.

30. NAZ, S3338/2/1/1/4, Detainees Arrangements, Que Que, Shabani, Buhera and Selukwe, Daniel Tongo (Detainee) to the Native Commissioner, Que Que, 31st March 1959.

31. NAZ, MS335/1, The Detention Cases, Memorandum by Mr Holderness on action taken by Scanlen and Holderness in relation to the detention of Mr Clutton Brock and others from St Faith's by the Southern Rhodesian Government, n.d.

32. NAZ, MS335/1, The Detention Cases, Memorandum by Mr Holderness on action taken by Scanlen and Holderness in relation to the detention of Mr Clutton Brock and others from St Faith’s by the Southern Rhodesian Government, n.d.

33. See S3330/T1/1/8A/1/3, Emergency Temporary Detention Regulations 1959, Assistant CNC H. A. K. Simpkins (Curator), Salisbury, 1st November 1959, Emergency (Temporary Detention) Regulations, 1959, Account Required to be lodged by the Curator in terms of Section 7(7), 17th April 1959: Edson Malibona Hikwa; Goga Koga, Marandellas Prison, to Minister of Justice, 19th September 1959; Peter Kapita Katanda, Marandellas Prison, to Minister of Justice, Salisbury, 19th May 1959; Thomas Kutshwa Ncube, Forest Camp, Gokwe, to the Administering Government Officer, Salisbury, 14th October 1959; Joseph Hlamba Moyo, The Forest Area, Gokwe, to Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs, Salisbury, n.d.

34. See extensive correspondence in S3338/2/2/2, Restrictees, 1959–63.

35. F220/LP/615/4, Press Criticisms, “Gestapo Prison,” Rhodesia Herald, 5th April 1963. The men accused were Mandishona Matimba, Philip Foya and Mishek Makena.

36. S3338/2/2/2, Restrictees, 1959–63, H. H. Morley Wright, Methodist Minister, Gokwe, to the Prime Minister, Salisbury, 11th September 1961.

37. See Ranger’s account of such events (2013, 73–76), and TRP, Box 86, 1960 Trials of Sketchley Samkange, Stanlake, Malianga, Nkala, “Notes by TOR.”, beginning “On the morning of Monday, August 22cnd [sic], a number of Africans were arrested outside the magistrate’s court…”.

38. See TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina versus Michael Andrew Mawema, 8th August 1960, which sets out the original charges. See also Karekwaivanane (2017, 100–102).

39. On Maisels’ career, see Maisels, Maisels, and Trisk (1999). T. Ranger’s handwritten notes in TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema, indicate that Maisels commanded a fee of some £700 per day. The use of NDP funds to pay for legal costs caused deep divisions in the party, eventually leading to Mawema’s resignation (Karekwaivanane 2017, 101).

40. TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Notes on Proceedings in Magistrates Court No. 14, Regina – v- Michael Mawema, 10th August 1960 [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

41. TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina – v- Michael A. Mawema, Proceedings in the Magistrate’s Court, Salisbury, on 22nd August 1960 [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

42. See, e.g., account in TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, Proceedings at Magistrate’s Court, Inkomo, 23rd August 1960 [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

43. See TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, Proceedings in the Magistrate’s Court, Inkomo, 6th September 1960.

44. See TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, Proceedings at Magistrate’s Court, Inkomo, 23rd August 1960; 24th August 1960, 25th August 1960 [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

45. See multiple examples in TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, Proceedings at Magistrate’s Court, Inkomo, 23rd August 1960; 24th August 1960, 25th August 1960 [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

46. TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, Proceedings in the Magistrate’s Court, Inkomo, 24th August 1960 [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

47. See for multiple instances Magama’s testimony, TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, Proceedings at Magistrate’s Court, Inkomo, 23rd August 1960; 24th August 1960, 25th August 1960; and Hode’s testimony, in the 25th August 1960 Proceedings [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

48. TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, 25th August 1960, Inkomo, Cross Examination of Magama continued [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

49. TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, Proceedings in the Magistrate’s Court, Inkomo, 24th August 1960 [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

50. TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, 25th August 1960, Inkomo, Cross Examination of Magama continued [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

51. See e.g. TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, Proceedings at Magistrate’s Court, Inkomo, 23rd August 1960 [notes by Shelagh Ranger]. This strategy was deployed by other lawyers in political cases, such as Leo Baron. Allison Shutt, pers. comm., 24th July 2017.

52. See TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, Proceedings in the Magistrate’s Court, Inkomo, 24th August 1960 [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

53. See TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, 25th August 1960, Inkomo, Cross examination of Magama continued [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

54. TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, Proceedings in the Magistrate’s Court, Inkomo, 24th August 1960 [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

55. See the testimonies of Magama and Hode in TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, Proceedings in the Magistrate’s Court, Inkomo, 24th August 1960, and Regina v. Michael Mawema, 25th August 1960, Inkomo, Cross Examination of Magama continued [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

56. TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, 26th August 1960, Cross-examination of Hode by Mr Maisels continued [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

57. TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Extracts from Court Proceedings, Regina v. Michael Mawema, Inkomo, Southern Rhodesia, 26th August 1960 [noted by Terence Ranger].

58. TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, Proceedings in the Magistrate’s Court, Inkomo, 24th August 1960 [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

59. TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Extracts from Court Proceedings, Regina v. Michael Mawema, Inkomo, Southern Rhodesia, 26th August 1960 [noted by Terence Ranger].

60. The meeting, which took place on 28th August 1960, in the midst of the trial, was attended by Terence Ranger. This is his account (Ranger 2013, 76).

61. TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, 25th August 1960, Inkomo, Cross examination of Magama continued [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

62. TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, Proceedings in the Magistrate’s Court, 26th August 1960, Inspector Wickenden, B. S. A. Police, Gwanda.

63. TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, Proceedings in the Magistrate’s Court, Inkomo, 24th August 1960; 25th August 1960, Inkomo, Cross Examination of Magama continued; 26th August 1960, Cross-examination of Hode by Mr Maisels [notes by Shelagh Ranger].

64. For the testimony of Hode, see TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michal Mawema, 25th August 1960, Inkomo, Cross Examination of Magama continued; 26th August 1960, Cross-examination of Hode by Mr Maisels [notes by Shelagh Ranger]. The nationalist story of Lobengula is recounted in a number of places in the Ranger papers. See TRP, Box 86, 1960 Trials of Sketchley Samkange, Stanlake, Malianga, Nkala, Leopold Takawira, Statement taken by A. C. Bowles, on 8th August 1960; Mark Nziramasanga, Statement taken by A. C. Bowles, on 8th August 1960; Regina v. Morton Malianga, Monday, 15th August 1960 [notes by Shelagh Ranger]. In the Mawema trial, the story is referred to in Count V of the charges and in the Prosecutor’s questioning of police witnesses. The sense of the story is clear in Maisels’ cross-examination of Hode, and its coherence there is likely due to his knowledge of nationalist uses of the story in depositions and other sources.

65. In other political trials, Chitepo would do much more: when he took a lead role in cross-examining white policemen in one such, he “inverted the racial hierarchy in a way that made the magistrate very uncomfortable,” as Karekwaivanane (2017, 106) writes.

66. See TRP, Box 86, Trial of Michael Mawema 1960, Regina v. Michael Mawema, Judgement given by Mr Justice St John Burton at Inkomo Magistrate’s Court on 22nd November 1960 [notes by Terence Ranger].

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Jocelyn Alexander

Jocelyn Alexander is Professor of Commonwealth Studies at the University of Oxford. She has written widely on southern African social and political history and is currently completing a monograph on political imprisonment in Zimbabwe.