THE NATIVE PURCHASE AREAS OF SOUTHERN RHODESIA
| Author | L. Powys‐Jones |
| Published date | 01 January 1955 |
| Date | 01 January 1955 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1955.tb00079.x |
20
JOURNAL
OF AFRICAN ADMINISTRATION
loyalties
and
the
extreme difficulty of inspiring new ones. Where detribalisa-
tion is widespread it goes without saying
that
the
governments concerned
must
devise methods and institutions to promote the fusion of heterogeneous material
into new communities.
But
we
may
be gravely misled if we mistake revolu-
tionary change in tribal custom for decay. Under the terrifying pressure of
Western techniques and ideas Africans in
many
territories instinctively close
the ranks for self-preservation;
and
the
only ranks they know are those of
the
tribe. Hence the aggressive reassertion of tribal identity
and
prestige.
If
we underestimate the potency of resurgent tribalism in those areas where
it
is manifest and play it down
it
will
turn
on
us-as
in the case of the Kikuyu.
On the other hand, its dynamic power can be harnessed to the task of nation
building. To
that
end
it
would seem
that
the tribe, as such, should be afforded
not
only the widest possible measure of local self-government
but
also (in its
corporate capacity) a voice in the central legislature. Tribal representatives
might well sit alongside members from mixed constituencies.
It
may be
that
the
cumulative pressure of previous Commonwealth experience is tending to
submerge our native empiricism and
that
the habit of reproducing our own
institutions is in some danger of becoming stereotyped.
THE
NATIVE PURCHASE AREAS
OF SOUTHERN RHODESIA
By
L.
Powys-J
ones,
C.B.E.
BEFORE
describing the native purchase areas of Southern Rhodesia, it is
necessary to outline the history of the Colony in so far as native areas and native
land rights are concerned.
It
should first be realised
that
right from the occupation of the Colony by
the
British South Africa Company - familiarly known as the Chartered Com-
pany
- it was recognised
that
land must be set aside for the exclusive use
of
the
native inhabitants of the country,
and
in the Order in Council of 1898
the
following words
occur:
"the
Company shall, from time to time, assign
to
the
natives inhabitingSouthern
Rhodesia'
land sufficient for their occupation
whether as tribes, or portions of tribes, and suitable for their agricultural
and
pastoral requirements' " and slightly prior to this, in 1893, two
reserves-
the Shangani and Gwaai Reserves in Matabeleland - had been set aside,
followed in 1902 by numerous reserves being set aside in both the provinces,
Matabeleland and Mashonaland, comprising Southern Rhodesia. At
that
time
there was no finality, nor were the reserves vested in any authority on behalf
of the natives, until, in 1914, a royal commission was appointed to enquire
into the whole question of native reserves. In due course the findings of this
commission, with certain modifications, were embodied in the Order in Council
of 1920, in which certain defined lands - scattered throughout the Colony,
and
" known as native reserves, are vested in the High Commissioner and set
apart
for the sole
and
exclusive use and accupation of the native inhabitants
of Southern Rhodesia,"
and
these words are enshrined in the constitution
which was given when the Colony became self-governing in 1923, although
the native reserves were then vested in a board of trustees consisting of those
holding the offices of governor, chief justice and chief native commissioner.
But
although the Order in Council of 1920 and the constitution of 1923
gave finality
and
set aside land for the sole and exclusive use of natives of
Southern Rhodesia, with the corollary
that
Europeans could not acquire land
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