The Sunday News
Bulawayo @120 Pathisa Nyathi
As early as 1894 the concept of a dual town had taken root in Bulawayo. Blacks, then generally referred to as natives and at times as Kaffirs, were to live separately, in a settlement established west of Lobengula Street. That in itself contrasted sharply with the situation before colonisation when many whites; traders, hunters and concession seekers set up a settlement for whites very close to King Lobengula’s capital town.
At the time the king wielded immense power and authority. However, in 1893 he and his people had since been defeated. The new white rulers chose to keep the natives at arm’s length, as far away as possible. There would be separation in residence, schooling, health facilities, and churches and later in urban passenger buses and aboard passenger trains.
Sanitary facilities were different. Racial discrimination was the ordering ideology from the outset.
The British South Africa Company (BSACo) officials were quick to establish sporting facilities within the new town. Queens Club, boasting a membership of 80 in the last quarter of 1894, offered the following sporting disciplines: cricket, tennis (provided with two tennis courts) football and kindred sport.
Captain Heyman (a road in Suburbs is named after him) on behalf of the BSACo gave Queens Club some land not very far from Johan Colenbrander’ house. Captain Heyman was the club’s chairman with two vice presidents, namely Colenbrander and Watts. HG Gaith was the cricket captain while JC Montgomerie was football captain. GJ Hearder was club’s secretary.
There was at the same time the Bulawayo Athletics Club (BAC) whose president was Dr Leander Starr Jameson. His vice presidents were John Willoughby, M Gifford, Captain Heyman and CR Vigers. The following were committee members: J E Scott, C C Adcock, P T Neve, H C Smith and F C Whitaker, among others.
There was also the Bulawayo Turf Club. At the time horses were, at that time, the major form of transport. There were several hotels that had been established: Avenue Hotel, Tattersall’s Hotel, Queens Hotel, Masonic Hotel, Maxim Hotel, Sussex Hotel, Charter Hotel, Balmoral Hotel, Caledonian Hotel and the Central Hotel.
Most of the hotels advertised their services in The Buluwayo Chronicle. The following were some of the services on offer: large lighted billiard rooms, best brands of liquor and cigars, excellent cuisines, accommodation and board for visitors. Some of them would include stabling as part of the facilities on offer. Indeed, this was appropriate as many visitors arrived on horseback. The Commonage (a belt of land fringing on the town) provided grazing facilities for the horses.
Indeed, Bulawayo was a burgeoning town. The road infrastructure was being developed. For example J W Rosenwax applied for a tender to erect freestone cornerstones at each street corner. The Street Committee was responsible for the construction of roads.
The Street Committee was part of the Sanitary Board which, in addition to supervising road construction, was responsible for the recruitment of labour to construct the roads. They were also responsible for water provision, sanitation, town finances and the crafting and implementation of native regulations as they related to the Location.
The Sanitary Board was responsible for policy formulation. It comprised Captain Heyman as chairman. The following were the other members of the Board: C C Adcock, W Napier, J F Scott, S Redrup with Captain Mainwaring as Treasurer and W Forsaith as Clerk.
It should be apparent that the Sanitary Board was a white men’s affair. Blacks played no part in the governance of the new town. It would take several years before Blacks were allowed to sit on the Township Advisory Boards. Only after independence did they become councillors.
While all this was happening what was the black man doing? The early days in Bulawayo were characterised by a lot of infrastructural development.
Roads were being established, factories were being set up, and bricks were being moulded and fired at several places within the Commonage. Stores, offices and other buildings in town were being constructed. There was thus need for labour, black unskilled labour particularly.
For example, the Roads Committee was recruiting “boys” to work on the roads. At a meeting held on 4 October 1894 the Sanitary Board approved the Road Committee’s request that more “boys” be hired. The number of “boys” to be engaged was not to exceed a dozen. Increase in the number of boys, it was envisaged, was going to make it possible to have two gangs at work, a situation that was going to accelerate the pace of road construction.
As far as the Blacks were concerned, their lot had to be controlled and their lives in towns regulated. They were needed in town purely for their labour. The Ndebele in particular, as a defeated people, were to go and live in the reserves set aside for them. The two reserves were the Shangani (Lupane/Nkayi) and Gwaai/Gwayi (Tsholotsho). The Buluwayo Chronicle of 12 October 1894 reported some men as about to arrive back in Bulawayo after a trip to identify the two reserves.
“Judge Vincent, Captain Lindsell and J W Colenbrander who have been away for nearly a month with reference to the settlement of native locations are expected back in a few days’ time.”
The natives as the Blacks were called then, were the subject of a whites-only Sanitary Board. The Board arrived at this decision, “The location is the one and only way to avoid the intermixture of native dwellings in the heart of town. The regulations passed at the meeting yesterday are comprehensive, and thoroughly adapted to the requirements of the town. Mr Scott was perfectly right when he introduced the word Asiatics in rules, as these members of the coloured races invariably give a great deal of trouble unless brought under the municipal laws early.”
The Board decided to recruit a Location Superintendent with discretionary powers to obviate the necessity of constantly appealing to the Resident Magistrate’s Court in cases of insubordination or contravention of regulations. Indeed, a Location Superintendent was engaged and because he walked with a characteristic stooping gait he was nicknamed Makhokhoba (though spelt Makokoba). The Location thus became known as Makokoba in reference to the Location Superintendent.
In the regulations there were clauses that dealt with strangers in the locations, alcoholic liquors, including Kaffir beer. The proposed regulation would take effect only after approval by the colonial authority, the BSACo.
