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The 1912 Wankie Colliery strike

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Charles Van Onselen
Charles Van Onselen
Affiliation:
St. Antony's College, Oxford
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Extract

The strike at the Wankie Colliery in 1912 offers the labour historian of central Africa an opportunity to explore in some depth the economic and social context of an African response within a colonial industry. The system of cheap labour at Wankie periodically combined with severe production pressures to produce outbreaks of scurvy amongst the African miners. In normal years, workers alleviated the need for nutritious food by scouring the surrounding countryside but this was not possible in a drought year. Under drought conditions the outbreak of scurvy, limited access to alternative food resources and the maldistribution of rations within the compound all assumed increased importance. The policies and practices of the acting compound manager and his black compound staff served further to exacerbate tensions in the Wankie compound and precipitate a strike.

Although the strike at Wankie offers further evidence of worker consciousness in early Rhodesian industry the events in the compound should not be interpreted as a sign of real or potential African radicalism. Closer examination of the African responses at Wankie reveal the essentially conservative nature of many of the demands made by the workers. It seems possible that in Rhodesia the power of the state over a colonial political economy and the repressive nature of the compound system combined to inhibit more radical responses. At Wankie, workers questioned the functioning of a repressive system, not the system itself. In many respects events at Wankie were typical of the Rhodesian mining industry and as such the strike serves to illustrate the vulnerable class position of African workers in a colonial economy.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , April 1974 , pp. 275 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

1 Particularly valuable are Ranger, T. O., The African Voice in Southern Rhodesia 1898–1930 (London, 1970)Google Scholar and Arrighi, G., ‘Labour Supplies in Historical Perspective: A Study in the Proletarianization of the African Peasantry in Rhodesia’, Journal of Development Studies, VI, 3 (1970), 197–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Such as Phimister's, I. R. ‘The Shamva Mine Strike of 1927’, Rhodesian History, ii (1971), 65–88.Google Scholar

3 Bulawayo Chronicle, 8 11. 1902.Google Scholar

4 See Rhodesia Chamber of Mines Annual Report 1911, or Rhodesia, Southern, Debates in the Legislative Assembly, VI, 11, 16 05 1927, col. 392–3.Google Scholar

5 Public Record Office, London (P.R.O.). Colonial Office (C.O.), series 417/387, British South Africa Company (B.S.A.Co.) Minutes, 9 Dec. 1903, ‘Special Report on visit of inspection to Wankie District’, 6 Nov. 1903.

6 National Archives of Rhodesia, Salisbury, NB 3/1/6, Native Commissioner (N.C.) Sebungwe to Chief Native Commissioner (C.N.C.), 23 Mar. 1906. (All subsequent file numbers, other than the C.O. 417 series, refer to material held in the National Archives of Rhodesia.)

7 A 1/5/7, Kearney, J. M., General Manager Wankie Colliery to A. W. Bird, Sec. Wankie (Rhodesia) Coal, Railway and Exploration Co. Ltd., London, 12 Jan. 1906.Google Scholar

8 See C.O. 417/386, B.S.A.Co. Minutes of 17 and 19 Oct. 1903, Annexure 50 and NB 6/1/12, N.C. Wankie, Report for the year ended 1912.

9 See van Onselen, C., ‘Worker Consciousness in Black Miners—Southern Rhodesia 1900–1920’, J. Aft. Hist. XIV, 2 (1973), 237–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 For the use of convict labour at Wankie see, for example, A 8/3/2, Rex vs. 123 Mine Labourers. For a full list of the accused in this case see the copy in D 3/37/2.

11 See A 1/5/7, Kearney, J. M. to Bird, A. W., 12 Jan. 1906.Google Scholar

12 Ibid.

13 C.O. 417/418, Report of C.N.C. Matabeleland for year ended 31 Mar. 1905.

14 NB 6/1/19, Report of the Inspector of Native Compounds, Wankie District, for year ended 31 Mar. 1905.

15 For the assaults accompanying the periodic labour crises at Wankie see: 1905–1906, NB 6/4/20 Review of Inspectors of Native Compounds' Reports for Dec. 1905 or, for 1918, see C.O. 417/628, Medical Director ‘Memo to His Honour the Administrator on Report of the Committee appointed to investigate labour and other recent troubles at the Wankie Colliery’, 2 Jan. 1919. These assaults were usually undertaken by white miners and the African ‘boss boys’ who worked below them.

16 Ibid.

17 Rhodesia, Southern (S.R.), Report of the Committee appointed to Enquire into the Prevalence and Prevention of Scurvy and Pneumonia amongst Native Labourers 1910, pars. 2.Google Scholar

18 Ibid. para. 3.

19 See NB 6/1/21, Report of Inspector of Native Compounds, Wankie District, for the year ended 31 Dec. 1907.

20 A 3/18/30, ‘Report on the Conditions applying to Natives at Wankie’ 1908.

21 Ibid.

22 NB 6/1/21, Report of the Inspector of Native Compounds, Wankie District, for the year ended 31 Dec. 1908.

23 See Hewetson, W. M., ‘The Causation and Prevention of Scurvy, with special reference to Pneumonia’ in Proceedings of the Rhodesia Scientific Association, xi, part 1 (Bulawayo, 1911), p. 12.Google Scholar

24 NB 6/1/19, Report of the Inspector of Native Compounds, Wankie District, for the year ended 32 Mar. 1906.

25 A 3/18/30/43, Kearney, J. M. to Sec. Dept. of the Administrator, 8 July 1908.Google Scholar

26 A 3/18/30/18, Thomas, Mick, Saulos and Filimon to Father Phiri, 30 Nov. 1909.

27 For the administration's action in 1909 see A 3/18/30, Medical Director to Colliery, Wankie Manager, 9 Dec. 1909.Google Scholar

28 The sale of huts was common practice in many Rhodesian compounds—for a Wankie example see D 3/37/3, Case no. 227 of 1918.

29 ‘It is a striking fact that the habitual labourers and those natives who add to their diet by the purchase of foodstuffs from local stores rarely suffer from scurvy …’. S.R., Report on Scurvy and Pneumonia, op. cit., pars. 13.

30 NB 6/1/21, Report of the Inspector of Native Compounds, Wankie District for year ended 31 Dec. 1908. For examples involving the use of dynamite for fishing see D 3/37/2 cases no. 144, 145 and 146 of 1916.

31 See, for example, A 3/12/27, Hewetson, W. to Thomson, A. R., 6 March 1913.Google Scholar

32 S.R., Report on the Public Health for 1912, p. 5.

33 A 3/12/37, Assistant Medical Director to Medical Director, 11 Feb. 1913.

34 A 8/3/2, Rex vs. 123 Mine Labourers, p. 7, evidence of Antonio.

35 NB 6/1/12, Wankie, N.C., Report for the year ended 31 Dec. 1912.Google Scholar

36 These figures are derived from A 3/12/27 A.N.C. Wankie to C.N.C. 30 Jan. 1913 and A 3/12/27 Sec. Dept. of Administrator to Sec. to the Administrator, Livingstone, 29 March 1913.

37 A 8/3/2, T. R. Jackson to C.N.C. 8 Jan 1913.

38 A 3/12/27, A.N.C. Wankie to C.N.C. 30 Jan 1913.Google Scholar

39 For a more extensive discussion of the role of compound ‘police’ see van Onselen, C., ‘The Role of Collaborators in the Rhodesian Mining Industry 1900–1935’, African Affairs, LXXII, 289 (10 1973), 401–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

40 See, for example, S 1175/13, Compound Inspector's Report, Feb. 1929.

41 A 8/3/2, Rex vs. 123 Mine Labourers, p. 9.

42 Ibid. 12–13.

43 For managerial approval of whippings see A 1/5/7, Kearney, J. M. to Bird, A. W., 12 Jan. 1906.Google Scholar

44 A 3/12/27, A.N.C. Wankie to C.N.C. 30 Jan. 1913.Google Scholar

45 A 8/3/2, Rex vs. 123 Mine Labourers.

46 See A 3/12/27, A.N.C. Wankie to C.N.C. 30 Jan 1913 and A 3/18/30/7, ‘Rhodesian Native Labour Bureau Inspector's Report on visit to Wankie Colliery’, Feb. 1913.

47 Ibid.

48 D 3/37/2, Rex vs. 123 Mine Labourers.

49 Ibid.

50 Ibid.

51 A 3/12/27, Telegram, Thomson to C.N.C., 3 Jan. 1913.Google Scholar

52 NB 6/1/12, Wankie, N.C., Report for the year ended 31 Dec. 1912.Google Scholar

53 See A 3/18/30/7, ‘Rhodesian Native Labour Bureau Inspector's Report on visit to Wankie Colliery’, Feb. 1913.

54 A 8/3/2, A.N.C. Wankie to C.N.C., 8 Jan. 1913.

55 Work at the hospital was one of the central grievances of the strikers: see A 3/12/27, Telegram, Thomson to C.N.C., 3 Jan 1913.

56 A 8/3/2, Rex vs. 123 Mine Labourers, p. 2.

57 It was largely at Thomson's insistence that the strikers were prosecuted—see, for example, Mackenzie, J. M., ‘African Labour in South Central Africa 1890–1914’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of British Columbia (1969), p. 225.Google Scholar

58 A 8/3/2, Rex vs. 123 Mine Labourers, p. 14.

59 See A 3/12/27, Telegram, Thomson to C.N.C., 3 Jan. 1913.

60 See A 3/12/27, Assistant Medical Director to Medical Director, 11 Feb. 1913.

61 A 3/12/27, W. Hewetson to A. R. Thomson, 6 March. 1913.

62 S.R., Report on the Public Health 1936, p. 26.Google Scholar

63 See, for example, D 3/32/43, Case no. 909 of 1930, Rex vs. D. M. H. Dinsmore.

64 See, for example, A 8/3/7, Compound Inspector's Report, Hartley, Sept. 1916.

65 See, for example, P.R.O., C.O. 417/535, ‘Report of Committee of Enquiry into Mortality amongst Northern Rhodesia Native Labourers’.

66 D 3/37/2, Rex vs. 123 Mine Labourers—list of accused.

67 NB 6/4/13, Wankie, N.C. Report for Dec. 1912.Google Scholar

68 A 8/3/2, Rex vs. 123 Mine Labourers, p. 5.

69 These issues are debated in a different context in Lane, A. J. (ed.), The Debate over Slavery (London, 1971), 22–42.Google Scholar

70 Goffman, E., ‘The Characteristics of Total Institutions: The Inmate World’ in Cressey, D. R. (ed.) The Prison (New York 1961), 16.Google Scholar

71 See, for example, the absence of an African response in the face of systematic brutality in Rex vs. D. M. H. Dinsmore, op. cit.

72 As in 1909 at Wankie, for example, see note 26 above.

73 A 8/3/9, Compound Inspector's Report, Bulawayo District, Sept. 1921, p. 4.

74 Gann, L. H., A History of Southern Rhodesia (London, 1965), 180–1.Google Scholar

75 Ibid. 174.