Urban Migrants and Religious Networks: Malawians in Colonial Salisbury, 1920 to 1970

Abstract

Non-indigenous migrants dominated the African population of Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia's capital city, until the mid-1950s. ‘Nyasa’ labour migrants (from British colonial Nyasaland, now Malawi) enriched urban popular culture and played a major role in the development of the country's industrial and rural economies. Despite this, people of Malawian origin have been marginalised from political life during both the colonial and postcolonial periods, and neglected in Zimbabwe's urban historiography. This article foregrounds ‘Nyasa’ migrants in the city, highlighting three of their religious expressions that emerged in Salisbury and became a prominent feature of the city's urban culture and religious landscape. The ‘Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian’ (CCAP), Yao or ‘Chawa’ Muslim associations and the ‘Nyau’ society became well established in colonial Salisbury and continue to be associated with people of Malawian ancestry in contemporary Harare. These religious groups played a role in the construction of new urban identities and helped migrants to create a sense of belonging in the city particularly during periods of rapid urbanisation and political change. By exploring life histories and archival sources, this study furthers our understanding of Zimbabwe's urban past while informing current debates on identity politics, citizenship and belonging in the region. It raises two new issues: firstly, ‘Nyasa’ labour migrants were among the first Africans to work and settle in Salisbury during the colonial period, and many used religious networks to establish themselves within new urban communities. Secondly, despite the longevity and depth of their commitment to urban life in Salisbury (and later Harare) these migrants have been targeted by exclusionary state policies at moments of political and economic crisis, during both the colonial period and since 2000. The Zimbabwean government's selective accounts of national identity ignore these histories of migration and marginalise important minority groups because they lack cultural ties to the land, despite their central role in the shaping of Zimbabwe's cities.

Notes

^*This article is based on the author's doctoral research and fieldwork in Malawi and Zimbabwe between 2007 and 2009, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Humanities Research Institute at Keele University. Earlier versions of this article were presented at the African Studies Seminar, Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham, October 2010, and the Britain Zimbabwe Society's Annual Research Day in Oxford, June 2010. I thank David Maxwell and Jens Andersson for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper, and I am grateful to Lyn Schumaker and the anonymous readers from the Journal of Southern African Studies.

¹ By definition, labour migrants were temporary residents. For an overview of regional labour migration policies, see B. Paton, Labour Export Policy in the Development of Southern Africa (Harare, University of Zimbabwe Publications, 1995).

² Labour migrants from the Union of South Africa and to a lesser extent, Tanganyika (Tanzania) and the Belgian Congo (DRC) also worked in Southern Rhodesia. Nyasas (those from Nyasaland) outnumbered other labour migrants in Salisbury, from the early 1900s until the mid-1950s.

³ Those who made (Southern) Rhodesia and later Zimbabwe their permanent home today mostly reside in Dzivarasekwa (created primarily to house domestic workers), Epworth and Mbare (previously Harare African Township). T. Scarnecchia, ‘The Politics of Gender and Class in the Creation of African Communities, Salisbury, Rhodesia, 1937–1957’ (PhD thesis, University of Michigan, 1994), p. 335; D. Potts, Circular Migration in Zimbabwe and Contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa (Woodbridge, James Currey, 2010), p. 212.

⁴ Greater attention has been paid to the plight of migrant labourers in the mines. Notable works include C. Van Onselen, Chibaro: African Mine Labour in Southern Rhodesia, 1900–1933 (London, Pluto Press, 1980); I. Phimister, Wangi Kolia: Coal, Capital and Labour in Colonial Zimbabwe 1894–1954 (Harare, Baobab Books, 1994). For research into the lives of farm workers in colonial and contemporary Zimbabwe, see D.G. Clarke, Agricultural and Plantation Workers in Rhodesia: A Report on Conditions of Labour and Subsistence (Gwelo, Mambo Press, 1977); S. Moyo, B. Rutherford and D. Amanor-Wilks, ‘Land Reform and Changing Social Relations for Farm Workers in Zimbabwe’, Review of African Political Economy, 27, 84 (2000), pp. 181–202; L. Sachikonye, ‘The Situation of Commercial Farm Workers after Land Reform in Zimbabwe’, A report prepared for the Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe (2003).

⁵ T. Ranger, ‘Chapter Three: The South African Influence, 1898–1918’, in The African Voice in Southern Rhodesia (London, Heinemann, 1970), pp. 45–63.

⁶ A significant exception to this is the study by C.F. Hallencreutz, Religion and Politics in Harare 1890–1980 (Uppsala, Swedish Institute of Missionary Research, 1999). The dominant non-indigenous population of Salisbury has also been noted in the following studies: T. Yoshikuni, African Urban Experiences in Colonial Zimbabwe: A Social History of Harare before 1925 (Harare, Weaver Press, 2007); B. Raftopoulos, ‘Nationalism and Labour in Salisbury, 1953–65’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 21, 1 (1995), pp. 79–93; R. Parry, ‘Culture, Organisation and Class: The African Experience in Salisbury 1892–1935’, in B. Raftopoulos and T. Yoshikuni (eds), Sites of Struggle: Essays in Zimbabwe's Urban History (Harare, Weaver Press, 1999), pp. 53–94; T. Scarnecchia, ‘The Politics of Gender and Class’; R. Gray, The Two Nations: Aspects of the Development of Class and Race in the Rhodesias and Nyasaland (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1960); L. Vambe, From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe (Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1976). The profound influence of Nyasas on religious culture in Salisbury was noted briefly by D. Maxwell, ‘Christianity without Frontiers: Shona Missionaries and Transnational Pentecostalism in Africa’, in D. Maxwell with I. Lawrie (eds), Christianity and the African Imagination: Essays in Honour of Adrian Hastings (Leiden, Brill, 2002), p. 295. The term ‘northern’ was used broadly to describe migrants from Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia and Portuguese East Africa, but could include all migrant labour from north of the Zambezi.

⁷ Chewa migrants to Southern Rhodesia came from Nyasaland and eastern parts of Northern Rhodesia. Chewa is used broadly in this article referring to Chewa-speaking people, including the Mang'anja and Nyanja (lake people).

⁸ In the 1980s E. Mandivenga identified this as a topic for further research, ‘The Migration of Muslims to Zimbabwe’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 10, 2 (1989), pp. 507–19.

⁹ B. Raftopoulos, ‘The Crisis in Zimbabwe, 1998–2008’, in B. Raftopoulos and A. Mlambo (eds), Becoming Zimbabwe. A History from the Pre-Colonial Period to 2008 (Harare, Weaver Press, 2009), pp. 212–13.

¹⁰ Following the parliamentary election in 2000 (in which ZANU(PF) narrowly claimed victory) Mugabe used these terms to describe the residents of Mbare, many of whom were born in Zimbabwe to parents from Malawi and Zambia. Potts, Circular Migration, p. 212; B. Raftopoulos and T. Savage, Zimbabwe: Injustice and Political Reconciliation (Cape Town, Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, 2004), p. 227.

¹¹ Potts, Circular Migration, p. 212.

¹² The impact of land reform on farm workers is examined in I. Scoones, N. Marongwe, B. Mavedzenge, J. Mahenehene, F. Murimbarimba and C. Sukume, Zimbabwe's Land Reform: Myths and Realities (Woodbridge, James Currey, 2010), pp. 127–46. On the causes and consequences of ‘Operation Murambatsvina’ see ‘Fractured Nation. Operation Murambatsvina: Five Years On’, A Report by the Solidarity Peace Trust, Johannesburg (July 2010); Potts, Circular Migration, pp. 211–33.

¹³ The Land Apportionment Act designated urban areas as ‘white’ or ‘European’.

¹⁴ For a detailed account of early missionary activity in northern colonial Malawi, see J. McCracken, Politics and Christianity in Malawi, 1875–1940: The Impact of the Livingstonia Mission in the Northern Province (Blantyre, CLAIM, 2000 [1977]); and T.J. Thompson, Christianity in Northern Malawi: Donald Fraser's Missionary Methods and Ngoni Culture (Leiden, Brill, 1995). On the presence of Scottish missionaries in the south of the territory, see A.C. Ross, Blantyre Mission and the Making of Modern Malawi (Blantyre, CLAIM, 1996).

¹⁵ J. Clyde Mitchell, The Yao Village: A Study in the Social Structure of a Malawian People (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1971 [1956]), pp. 17–31.

¹⁶ D.S. Bone, ‘Islam in Malawi’, Journal of Religion in Africa, 13, 2 (1982), pp. 126–38. Muslims in Malawi were estimated at 15 per cent of the total population, including Asian, Yao and Chewa Muslims.

¹⁷ E.A. Alpers, ‘Towards a History of the Expansion of Islam in East Africa: The Matrilineal Peoples of the Southern Interior’, in T.O. Ranger and I. Kimambo (eds), The Historical Study of African Religion (California, University of California Press, 1972), pp. 172–201.

¹⁸ On the Mang'anja in the southern part of Nyasaland, see E. Mandala, Work and Control in a Peasant Economy: A History of the Lower Tchiri Valley in Malawi 1859–1960 (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1990). Nyasaland underwent a degree of agricultural development in the form of coffee and cotton plantations in the area around the Shire Highlands in the south.

¹⁹ Chewa men migrated for wage labour in greater numbers following the introduction of taxation in 1891 by the Commissioner Sir Harry Johnston, whose administration was desperately short of capital.

²⁰ T. Stapleton, ‘Extra-Territorial African Police and Soldiers in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) 1897–1965’, South African Journal of Military Studies, 38, 1 (2010); T. Stapleton, ‘The Composition of the Rhodesia Native Regiment during the First World War: A Look at the Evidence’, History in Africa, 30 (2003), pp. 283–95.

²¹ J.M. Schoffeleers, ‘The Meaning and Use of the Name Malawi in Oral Traditions and Precolonial Documents’, in B. Pachai (ed.), The Early History of Malawi (Evanston, IL, Northwestern University Press, 1972), pp. 91–103.

²² J.W.M. Van Breugel, Chewa Traditional Religion (Blantyre, CLAIM, 2001), p. 126. In Malawi, under Banda's rule, the Nyau would perform at national political events and in more recent times, at weddings and on the request of chiefs or important officials offering performers a fee. See L. Vail and L. White, ‘Tribalism in the Political History of Malawi’, in L. Vail (ed.), The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa (Berkeley, California University Press, 1989), pp. 151–92.

²³ Chinamwali is a female initiation ceremony performed by Yao and Chewa communities in Malawi and Zambia.

²⁴ D. Kaspin, ‘Chewa Visions and Revisions of Power: Transformations of the Nyau Dance in Central Malawi’, in J. Comaroff and J.L. Comaroff (eds), Modernity and its Malcontents: Ritual and Power in Postcolonial Africa (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1993), p. 35. For a more recent historical and gendered perspective on the Nyau see H. Kachapila, ‘The Revival of “Nyau” and Changing Gender Relations in Early Colonial Central Malawi’, Journal of Religion in Africa, 36, 3 (2006), pp. 319–45.

²⁵ I. Linden, ‘Nyau Societies and Holy Liberalism’, in Catholics, Peasants and Chewa Resistance in Nyasaland, 1889–1939 (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1974), pp. 117–37.

²⁶ On the political significance of so-called ‘secret societies’, see D.H. Johnson, ‘Criminal Secrecy: The Case of the Zande Secret Societies’, Past and Present, 130, 1 (1991), pp. 170–200.

²⁷ For example, the Chewa version of the Gule Wamkulu (the great dance) involved a number of dancers – the akapoli – who appeared practically naked, their bodies coated in clay. Their behaviour was overtly sexually provocative, women playing an active role in responding to the male dancers. This was not the case when practised by the Mang'anja. See M. Schoffeleers and I. Linden, ‘The Resistance of the Nyau Societies to the Roman Catholic Missions in Colonial Malawi’, in T.O. Ranger and I. Kimambo (eds), The Historical Study of African Religion (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1972), p. 257.

²⁸ For an explanation of the impact of Christianity and colonialism on the Nyau societies and the chisumphi rain shrine at Bunda, see P. Probst, ‘Expansion and Enclosure: Ritual Landscapes and the Politics of Space in Central Malawi’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 28, 1 (2002), pp. 179–98. On interactions between the M'Bona cult and Christianity, see M. Schoffeleers, ‘The Interaction between the M'Bona Cult and Christianity, 1859–1963’, in T.O. Ranger and J. Weller (eds), Themes in the Christian History of Central Africa (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1975), pp. 14–29. For more on the clash between the Nyau societies and the Catholic Missions, see I. Linden with J. Linden, Catholics, Peasants and Chewa Resistance (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1974). On the transformation of Nyau societies, see Kaspin, ‘Chewa Visions and Revisions of Power’, pp. 34–57; Kachapila, ‘The Revival of Nyau’, pp. 319–45.

²⁹ Probst, ‘Expansion and Enclosure’, p. 183. Probst calls for a cosmological and socio-political analysis of ritual landscape in order to understand the Nyau and historical change. The societies also operate among the Chewa in Zambia and, to a lesser extent, Mozambique.

³⁰ Zimbabwe National Archives (hereafter ZNA), S85, Native Affairs Commission on Salisbury Location, 1930. Salisbury Location became known as Harare African Township and, later, Mbare. These figures relate to the number of men only.

³¹ ZNA S1906/1, Evidence presented to ‘The Howman Committee – Appointed to Investigate into the Economic, Social and Health Conditions of Africans Employed in Urban Areas, 1943–44’, Salisbury, 7 December 1943.

³² T. Barnes, ‘“So that a labourer could live with his family”: Overlooked Factors in Social and Economic Strife in Urban Colonial Zimbabwe, 1942–52’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 21, 1 (1995), pp. 95–113.

³³ Ulendo is a Chewa (or Nyanja) word meaning ‘party of travellers’, or journey. Independent migrants (those not recruited by labour agencies) travelled in groups of between 10 and 30 people for security from attack, particularly in Portuguese East Africa. See E.P. Makambe, ‘The Nyasaland African Labour ‘Ulendos’ to Southern Rhodesia and the Problem of African ‘Highwaymen’, 1903–1923: A Study in the Limitations of Early Independent Labour Migration’, African Affairs, 79, 317 (1980), pp. 548–566.

³⁴ Parry, ‘Culture, Organisation and Class’, p. 60. The Church of Central Africa Presbyterian was a confederation of the Scottish Free Church Mission in Livingstonia, the United Church of Scotland Mission in Blantyre and the Dutch Reformed Church Mkhoma Mission, formalised in 1926. Another branch of the Presbyterian Church (later known as the City Presbyterian Church) stemmed from South Africa and worked closely with the CCAP from the north.

³⁵ The term MaBhurandaya, meaning ‘one from Blantyre’, was used broadly to describe migrants from Nyasaland and was considered by some derogatory. The name ‘Blantyre boy’ was noted in an official government report on migrant labour in Southern Rhodesia: J.C. Abraham, Nyasaland Natives in the Union of South Africa and in Southern Rhodesia (Zomba, Government Printer, 1938).

³⁶ E. Msindo, ‘Ethnicity not Class? The 1929 Bulawayo Faction Fights Reconsidered’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 32, 3 (2006), p. 433.

³⁷ T. Yoshikuni, ‘Black Migrants in a White City: A Social History of African Harare, 1890–1925’ (DPhil. thesis, University of Zimbabwe, 1989), p. 4. In Malawi, chiNyanja became known as chiChewa after independence. Outside of Malawi, chiNyanja is more commonly used. I use chiNyanja and chiChewa interchangeably here.

³⁸ Hallencreutz, Religion and Politics, p. 45.

³⁹ Hallencreutz, Religion and Politics, p. 56.

⁴⁰ See ‘African Christians by Ethnicity, Salisbury, 1911’, in Yoshikuni, African Urban Experiences, p. 158.

⁴¹ Meaning ‘the Church of the Chawa’ in reference to Yao and Chewa Muslims.

⁴² Van Onselen, Chibaro, p. 185.

⁴³ Mandivenga, ‘The Migration of Muslims to Zimbabwe’, p. 515. J.C. Abraham found that most of those employed at the mine had been there for more than ten years, see ‘Nyasaland Natives in the Union of South Africa and in Southern Rhodesia’ (Zomba, Government Printer, 1938); Van Onselen, Chibaro, pp. 185–86; p. 205.

⁴⁴ Mandivenga, ‘The Migration of Muslims to Zimbabwe’, p. 514.

⁴⁵ ZNA S1219, Police CID Headquarters – Circulars, 17 February 1926 – Watch Tower Church.

⁴⁶ ZNA S1219, Police CID Headquarters – Circulars, 1932.

⁴⁷ ZNA S138/106, Chief Native Commissioner, ‘Control of Unrecognised Religious Denominations’, 1923–28. The African teacher referred to was John Chilembwe, founder of the Providence Industrial Mission and responsible for the Nyasaland African uprising in 1915. See G. Shepperson and T. Price, Independent African: John Chilembwe and the Nyasaland Rising of 1915 (Blantyre, CLAIM, 2000 [1967]). There was no proven connection between the Watch Tower and Chilembwe's church.

⁴⁸ The Watch Tower movement has been examined elsewhere, see for example: K. Fields, Revival and Rebellion in Colonial Central Africa (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1985); S. Cross, ‘The Watch Tower Movement in South Central Africa, 1908–1945’ (D.Phil. thesis, Oxford University, 1973); T. Ranger, The African Voice; J.R. Hooker, ‘Witnesses and Watchtower in the Rhodesias and Nyasaland’, Journal of African History, 6, 1 (1965), pp. 91–106; Shepperson and Price, Independent African. The Watch Tower Movement in Salisbury is discussed in Hallencreutz, Religion and Politics, pp. 63–67.

⁵¹ ZNA S715/1, Police CID Headquarters, ‘Native Dances’, Report by Trevor Alfred Wright, Salisbury, 20 September 1926.

⁵² ZNA S715/1, Police Headquarters, Detective Barham Reports, Makwire R.C.A II/8/26, ‘Malicious Injury to Property’, Gatooma, 6 September 1926.

⁴⁹ ZNA Local Government (LG) 52/6/4, Native Location Department Report, 30^th May 1922.

⁵⁰ ZNA S1219, Police CID Headquarters – Zvinyao Dance: Salisbury Location, 12 May 1926. Zvinyau or Zinyao are variations on the spelling of Nyau.

⁵³ One of the first actions by a Nyau initiate was to run through his wife's village and steal his mother-in-law's chickens. This signified the male association's place within a matrilineal society: the Nyau mask grants its wearer licence to reverse the natural order of society. For this ‘logic of opposition’, see Kaspin, ‘Chewa Visions and Revisions of Power’, p. 39.

⁵⁴ Rhodesia Herald, 28 August 1923. Another headline read, ‘Sworn to Secrecy: Further Details of the Mystery Dance’, Rhodesia Herald, 29 August 1923.

⁵⁵ ZNA S715/1, Reported in the Rhodesia Herald, 11 October 1927.

⁵⁶ ZNA S85, Native Affairs Commission, Salisbury Municipal Location, Government notices relating to the Location, 3 December 1930. For a comparative look at culture, leisure and social control in a South African mining town, see C. Badenhorst and C. Mather, ‘Tribal Recreation and Recreating Tribalism: Culture, Leisure and Social Control on South Africa's Gold Mines, 1940–1950’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 23, 3 (1997), pp. 473–89.

⁵⁷ ZNA S235/392-3, Letter to Native Commissioner, Salisbury, 29^th September 1930.

⁶⁰ ZNA S235/392-3, Chief Native Commissioner to the Secretary of the Southern Rhodesia Missionary Conference, ‘Native Dances’, 24 December 1930.

⁵⁸ ‘The ChiNyau Ceremony of the Northern Natives’, Mapolisa – the official magazine of the African Regiment of the British South Africa Police, Vol. 10, No. 8 (1947).

⁵⁹ ZNA S1561/51, Report of the Howman Committee, January 1944.

⁶¹ Hallencreutz, Religion and Politics, p. 174.

⁶² Interviews conducted with Malawian Muslims in the 1980s revealed that there were six Malawian mosques in Bulawayo. See Table IV – ‘Distribution of Malawian Mosques’, Mandivenga, ‘The Migration of Muslims to Zimbabwe’, p. 515.

⁶³ Personal notes from T. Ranger: Bulawayo Files, S.O. 8 Vol. T, Box 100.

⁶⁴ Between 1945 and 1956 the African population of Salisbury doubled, reaching approximately 200,000. I. Phimister, An Economic and Social History of Zimbabwe, 1890–1948: Capital Accumulation and Class Struggle (London, Longman, 1988), p. 253.

⁶⁷ MNA 14,239 II, Transmittal files: Nyasaland Government Representative Report, Salisbury, April 1957.

⁶⁵ Opinion was divided on the issue as the expansion of African Urban Areas alarmed white settlers living in close proximity to the townships. Those in favour argued that productivity and efficiency in the workplace would improve if the ‘vagrant bachelor’ was replaced by the ‘fully proletarianised’ married man. Debates on British and French colonial policy regarding ‘the migrant labour question’ are well documented in F. Cooper, Decolonisation and African Society: The Labour Question in French and British Africa (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996).

⁶⁶ Malawi National Archives (MNA) S21/2/1/4, Migrant Native Labour – Provisional Revised Agreement between the Governments of Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, 1941; ZNA S2239, Labour Reports for Southern Rhodesia, 1958.

⁶⁸ Prior to the RICU, Mzingeli had been involved with the original ICU, started in Cape Town in 1919 by Nyasa migrant, Clements Kadalie. The ICU spread through a network of towns and industrial centres from South Africa to Southern Rhodesia. For more on this important phase of urban politics, which preceded the rise of African nationalism in Salisbury, see T. Scarnecchia, The Urban Roots of Democracy and Political Violence, Harare and Highfield, 1940–1964 (Rochester, NY, University of Rochester Press, 2008), chapters 1–3.

⁶⁹ Strikes involving 3,000 and 1,200 African Railway employees took place in Salisbury and Bulawayo respectively. The Nyasaland Government representative reported that 600 Nyasaland natives were involved in the Salisbury strike, but insisted that ‘they had been intimidated into stopping work and behaved quietly throughout’. ZNA F137/186C(i), Migrant Labour Report, 1946 – Nyasaland Government Report for the Year Ending 1945. A great deal has been written on the strike action of the 1940s, including: I. Phimister and B. Raftopoulos, ‘“Kana sora ratswa ngaritswe”: African Nationalists and Black Workers – The 1948 General Strike in Colonial Zimbabwe’, Journal of Historical Sociology, 13 (2000), pp. 289–324; K. Vickery, ‘The Rhodesia Railways African Strike of 1945, Part 1: A Narrative Account’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 23, 4 (1998), pp. 545–60; K. Vickery, ‘The Rhodesia Railways African Strike of 1945, Part 2: Cause, Consequence, Significance’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 21, 1 (1999), pp. 49–71.

⁷⁰ A number of Nyasa migrants were deported from Southern Rhodesia for their association with the African National Congress in the 1950s. In the 1960s and throughout the liberation struggle, white employers often favoured Malawian and other foreign migrant workers, in domestic service because of their assumed non-partisan political interests. The theme of Nyasa/Malawian migrants and their role in nationalist politics in Salisbury is discussed in Chapter 5 of my doctoral thesis: Z.R. Groves, ‘Malawians in Colonial Salisbury: A Social History of Migration in Central Africa, c.1920s–1960s’ (PhD thesis, Keele University, 2011), pp. 194–239.

⁷¹ In Bulawayo, Nyasa hotel workers dominated the advisory boards for a time. T. Ranger, Bulawayo Burning: The Social History of a Southern African City (Woodbridge, James Currey, 2010), p. 171.

⁷² For a more complete picture of this phase of urban politics, see B. Raftopoulos, ‘Nationalism and Labour in Salisbury, 1953–1965’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 21, 1 (1995), pp. 79–94.

⁷³ MNA 14, 239 II, Transmittal files, Nyasaland Government Representative for Salisbury, Report, 1952.

⁷⁴ During the anti-Federation campaign of the mid- to late 1950s a degree of collaboration developed between the Nyasaland (which had a number of active branches in Mashonaland and other urban centres in Southern Rhodesia) and the Southern Rhodesian African National Congress movements. This phase of pan-African solidarity proved short-lived as the federal and territorial governments began to crack down on nationalist activity, particularly from the 1959 ‘state of emergency’ onwards. The aims of the individual nationalist movements gradually overshadowed the broader goals of regional African unity. See Z.R. Groves, ‘Pan-African Solidarity during the Central African Federation, 1953–1963’ (unpublished paper, Oxford, 2011).

⁷⁵ Andu Pangani went to Salisbury in 1962 after growing up and hearing stories from his father about the possibilities for employment and the riches to be earned in the city. Interview with Andu Pangani conducted by Fortune Sithole, Mount Pleasant, Harare, July 2008.

⁷⁶ Kachapila, ‘The Revival of Nyau’, p. 327.

⁷⁷ These terms are used by P. Bonner and N. Nieftagodien when commenting on the value of life histories, in Alexandra: A History (Johannesburg, Wits University Press, 2008), p. 4.

⁷⁸ Interview with Mr F. Chimoyo conducted by Zoë Groves, CCAP Harare Synod, August 2009.

⁷⁹ Interview with Mr L. C. Tembo conducted by Zoë Groves, CCAP Harare Synod, August 2009.

⁸⁰ Interview with Andu Pangani, Mount Pleasant, Harare, July 2008.

⁸¹ The Catholic Labour Chaplain condemned the beer halls, particularly those at the bigger mines and locations of Southern Rhodesia, describing them as ‘disgraceful’ and ‘letting down the reputation of otherwise well organised and disciplined places of work’. ZNA MS 239/34, Catholic Chaplaincy Report on Nyasaland Labour, 1946.

⁸² Many of the Nyasaland African Congress supporters arrested in Salisbury during the February 1959 State of Emergency were also respectable members of the CCAP. See Dissent, No. 19, 9 June 1960. This magazine was published in Salisbury, to provide a critical voice after the banning of the African National Congress parties in Southern Rhodesia in 1959.

⁸³ Interview with Ibrahim (full name not disclosed) conducted by Lucy Phiri and Zoë Groves, Dedza District, Malawi, February 2008.

⁸⁴ Ibrahim used to stay in Blantyre a lot before he built a new property in Dedza (his home district) and started work in the boma (administrative centre). Now he goes back regularly to his village to tend his maize garden. His wife was happy to move to Malawi and many of her relatives followed them in the years of Zimbabwe's economic decline.

⁸⁹ Interview with Ibrahim, Dedza, 2008.

⁸⁵ P. Levitt, ‘Religion as a Path to Civic Engagement’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 31, 4 (2008), p. 770.

⁸⁶ R. Boeder, ‘Malawians Abroad: The History of Labour Emigration from Malawi to its Neighbours, 1890 to the Present’ (PhD thesis, Michigan State University, Ann Arbour, 1974), pp. 231–4.

⁸⁷ Interview with Pangani, Harare, 2008.

⁸⁸ On burial and mutual aid societies, see Van Onselen, Chibaro, pp. 198–204; P. Harries, Work, Culture and Identity: Migrant Labourers in Mozambique and South Africa, c.1860–1910 (London, James Currey, 1994); R. Boeder, ‘Malawi Burial Societies and Social Change in Zimbabwe’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 1, 2 (1982), pp. 339–48.

⁹⁰ Interview with Sophie Jeyala, conducted by Lucy Phiri, Mwaya Beach, Nkhata Bay district, Malawi, August 2008.

⁹¹ The Chioda was a dance usually performed by Tonga migrants from Nyasaland and the Mganda was performed by migrants from the north. On the Beni dance, see T.O. Ranger, Dance and Society in Eastern Africa, 1890–1970: The Beni Ngoma (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1975).

⁹² Interview with Josphat Banda conducted by Margaret Goreraza, Dzivarasekwa, Harare, June 2008.

⁹³ ZNA S51/8, Urban African Affairs Commission, 1957–58.

⁹⁴ Interview with members of the CCAP conducted by Zoë Groves, CCAP Harare Synod, August 2009.

⁹⁷ ‘The ChiNyau Ceremony of the Northern Natives’, Mapolisa, 10, 8 (1947).

⁹⁵ A. Daimon, ‘Migrant Chewa Identities and their Construction through Gule Wamkulu Dances in Zimbabwe’, in B. Zewde (ed.), Society, State and Identity in African History (Oxford, African Books Collective, 2008), p. 304. The process of ‘culturalisation’, considered by J.D.Y. Peel in his work on the diversity of Yoruba religion, describes how two seemingly contradictory conditions or identities can be reconciled. The orisa cult played an important part in expressing communal or ethnic identity, whilst also being followed by many Yoruba who increasingly looked to ‘world religions’ with growing attachment. These ideas are useful for understanding the transformations of Nyasa religions and traditions. See J.D.Y. Peel, ‘Review Article: Historicity and Pluralism in Some Recent Studies of Yoruba Religion’, Africa: Journal of the International Africa Institute, 64, 1 (1994), p. 163.

⁹⁶ Levitt, ‘Religion as a Path’, p. 768.

⁹⁸ Interview with Sakina Chilomo (nee Misesa) conducted by Fortune Sithole, Mount Pleasant, Harare, July 2008.

⁹⁹ The word kuchona is a plural/hybrid form of machona, meaning ‘the lost ones’. Report of the Committee Appointed by His Excellency to Enquire into Emigrant Labour (Zomba, Government Printer, 1936), pp. 29–30.

¹⁰⁰ The ‘l’ and ‘r’ are interchangeable in this context. There is no ‘l’ sound in chiShona and there is no ‘r’ sound in chiChewa, hence ‘Gure’ and ‘Gule’ dancers.

¹⁰¹ B. Raftopoulos and T. Yoshikuni (eds), Sites of Struggle. See also, Special Issue: Urban Studies and Urban Change in Southern Africa, Journal of Southern African Studies, 21, 1 (1995).

¹⁰² In 1951, 40 to 50 per cent of Nyasa migrants had families with them. ZNA S2961, CNC Report of the Native Commissioner for Labour, 1951.

¹⁰³ For recent newspaper and media articles on the Nyau in Zimbabwe, see ‘Nyau dancers in Paradigm Shift’, The Sunday Mail, 10 October 2009; ‘Living in Fear of Nyau Dancers’, The Sunday Mail, 13 June 2010.

¹⁰⁴ L. Bank, ‘Men with Cookers: Transformations in Migrant Culture, Domesticity and Identity in Duncan Village, East London’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 25, 3 (1999), p. 395.

¹⁰⁵ B. Raftopoulos, ‘The State in Crisis: Authoritarian Nationalism, Selective Citizenship and Distortions of Democracy in Zimbabwe’, in A. Hammar, B. Raftopoulos and S. Jensen (eds), Zimbabwe's Unfinished Business: Rethinking Land, State and Nation in the Context of Crisis (Harare, Weaver Press, 2003), p. 230.

¹⁰⁶ Parliamentary Debates, 23 June 2005, quoted in ‘Fractured Nation: Operation Murambatsvina’, p. 18.

¹⁰⁷ According to the Citizenship of Zimbabwe Amendment Act, 2003 those born in Zimbabwe to colonial labour migrant parents from within the Southern African Development Community are entitled to reclaim Zimbabwean citizenship, providing they renounce their ‘foreign’ citizenship, or can prove that they qualify for exemption under the Citizenship of Zimbabwe Act.

¹⁰⁸ Since independence this rhetoric has been used to justify the following: violent action against ‘dissidents’ from Matabeleland who supported the opposition; the arrest of unaccompanied women deemed as prostitutes in urban areas; residents of farms and rural areas identified as squatters; and commercial farm workers and their families evicted as a result of farm invasions since 2000. See, ‘Fractured Nation’, p. 16.