Hi Lorne.
You ask:
"Emile. What do you think of the white farmers in Zimbabwe having their land taken from them with no compensation?"
I foresaw this twenty years ago when the British government abandoned and betrayed the British colonists in Rhodesia. European farmers from England and Europe were encouraged to settle undeveloped lands and areas in Rhodesia as a means to give stablility to a primitive tribal area where the Jewish-Anglo international bankers were stealing and exploiting the mineral and natural resources of the area. Once the appropriate international economic and political mechanisms were set up and the exploitation had been institutionalized and sanctified under "international law", there was simply no need for these stabilizing units. In fact, the minority status of these hard working white Europeans agitated the majority black population and jeopardized the hidden mineral holdings of the international bankers. The European farmers had spent many years developing unproductive waste lands into prosperous productive farms. The real economic rape of the area had been committed by the international bankers, but the bankers used their control of the press in Rhodesia, England, America etc. to agitate against the productive farmers and carefully hide their theft of the mineral resources of Rhodesia.
Make a careful note of the fact that the present government of Zimbabwe is NOT confiscating the wealth and holdings of the parasitic international bankers but rather the wealth of the productive farmers who have actually contributed to the economy of Zimbabwe. There has been, of course, some abuse by a few of the larger farmers, but nothing compared to the economic rape by the international bankers. Finally, the Christian missionaries were, ultimately, the only honest brokers in the dispute and they gave black Rhodesians the most precious treasure of all, the Gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ.
HISTORICAL BACKROUND SHEDS LIGHT ON THE PRESENT CRISIS
"Between the Zambesi and Limpopo rivers stretches a country some 148,000 square miles in extent, i.e., just about three times the size of England. It is now known as Southern Rhodesia. In 1911 it contained 23,606 whites, 744,559 African natives, and 2,912 Asiatics and other "coloured persons." In the twenty-four years, 1890-1913; it yielded 6½ million ounces of gold, valued at £25¼ millions sterling.
In the middle of last century this country was occupied by a ruling African people, calling themselves the Amandebele (since corrupted into Matabele) "the naked men with shields." They had conquered and incorporated other tribes, the Mashonas and Makalakas, who were the descendants, or the successors, of many ancient peoples inhabiting the country when the Phoenicians [or as some think, Arabs of the pre-Islamic period] were drawing from it large quantities of gold, and covering it with those remarkable monuments which still continue to be a fertile subject for scientific disputation.
When, at a later date, it became necessary in the interests of certain parties, to paint the Matabele in the light of brutal conquerors, much was heard of the cruel treatment inflicted by them upon the Mashonas. An impartial authority has, however, placed it upon record that under the Matabele, the Mashonas increased both in numbers and in cattle, always a sure sign of the prosperity of a South African people. "They say themselves," he adds, "that they preferred the Matabele rule to ours, because under them they were troubled but once a year, whereas now their troubles came with each day's rising sun."
The story which follows is the story of what befell the "naked men with shields" at the hands of the clothed men with guns seeking for "concessions."
In the 'seventies and 'eighties of last century, British, Boer, Portuguese, and German adventurers began wandering about the Limpopo River. Boers and British had been in touch with the Matabele since the early 'fifties and competed to acquire political influence over the then ruler of this people, by name Lobengula. They made unpleasant remarks about one another. "When an Englishman once has your property in his hands," wrote the Boer Joubert to Lobengula in 1882, "then he is like an ape that has his hands full of pumpkin seeds: if you don't beat him to death he will never let go." But Lobengula was partial to the British. Between his father and the famous missionary, Dr. Moffat, a real friendship had existed. The link was perpetuated in the person of Lobengula and Dr. Moffat's son, a British official in the adjoining territory of Bechuanaland, over which a British Protectorate was established in 1884. These personal relations determined Lobengula's final choice. In February, 1888, at his capital, Buluwayo, he signed a treaty with Moffat acting for the British Government, in which he undertook to hold no communications with any "foreign State or Power." It was stipulated in the treaty that "peace and amity shall continue for ever between Her Britannic Majesty, her subjects, and the Amandebele people."
The knowledge that the country over which Lobengula held sway, was passing rich in gold, had been gradually permeating South Africa. The signing of this treaty had been preceded, and was followed, by numerous efforts on the part of rival corporations to secure special privileges from its ruler. In the October following the conclusion of this bond of friendship, Messrs. Rudd, R. Macguire, M.P., and Mr. F. R. Thompson, commissioned by Mr. Cecil Rhodes and by Mr. Alfred Beit, succeeded in getting Lobengula to append his signature to a document. By its terms, in exchange for a monthly payment of £100 and material products of European civilisation in the shape of 1,000 Martini-Henry rifles and 100,000 rounds of ball cartridges, they obtained "the complete and exclusive charge over all metals and minerals" in the country, together with "full power to do all things that they may deem necessary to win and procure the same, and to hold, collect and enjoy the profits and revenues, if any, derivable from the said metals and minerals."
This all-embracing instrument became known as the Rhodes-Rudd concession.
The scene now shifts from Buluwayo, the capital of this African community to London, the heart of the mighty Empire over which the sun never sets. In April, 1889, the Colonial Office was approached by certain persons, representing the Bechuanaland Exploration Company on the one part, and the Goldfields of South Africa Company on the other. These corporations proposed to amalgamate their interests provided they could secure a Royal Charter, "in that region of South Africa lying to the north of Bechuanaland and to the west of Portuguese East Africa (i.e., embracing Lobengula's country). On October of the same year the charter was duly granted, the grantees being the Most Noble James Duke of Abercorn (Groom of the Stole, and one time Lord of the Bed Chamber to the Prince of Wales); the Most Noble Alexander William George Duke of Fife (son-in-law of the late King Edward); Lord Gifford (one time Colonial Secretary of Western Australia, and of Gibraltar); Cecil John Rhodes (then a Member of the Executive Council and of the House of Assembly of Cape Colony); Alfred Beit, Albert Henry George Grey (afterwards Earl Grey and Governor-General of Canada), and George Causton. Thus was born the British South Africa Company Chartered and Limited, with an original capital of one million sterling. Its principal objects, as set forth in the charter, were the working of concessions, "so far as they are valid" in the territories affected by the grant, and the securing of other concessions subject to the approval of the Secretary of State. One of the grounds upon which the charter was granted was, that "the conditions of the natives inhabiting the said territories will be materially improved and their civilisation advanced."
The Matabele and their ruler do not appear to have been consulted in respect to this transaction, and I have not been able to discover that they even figured on the list of the company's shareholders. It must, however, be borne in mind that Lobengula stood to acquire £100 a month, not to mention the rifles.
Meanwhile consternation reigned in Matabeleland. Very shortly after Lobengula had affixed his seal to the Rudd concession, the rumour became current among the Matabele that their ruler had been induced to part with his people's rights in their land. Lobengula sent in hot haste for certain British missionaries with whom he entertained friendly relations, showed them a copy of the document, and asked them for their opinion. They appear to have confirmed the popular fears. Whereupon Lobengula caused his Head Counsellor, who had advised him to sign, to be executed as a traitor, and despatched two other counsellors to London on a mission to Queen Victoria, begging her to "send someone from herself," as he had no one he could trust, and he was "much troubled" by white men coming into his country and asking to dig for gold. The messengers reached London in February, 1889. On March 26, a month before receiving the petition for the grant of the charter from the influential personages named above, Lord Knutsford, the Secretary of State, answered Lobengula in the Queen's name as follows:
Lobengula is the ruler of his country, and the Queen does not interfere in the government of that country. But as Lobengula desires her advice, Her Majesty is ready to give it.... In the first place the Queen wishes Lobengula to understand distinctly that Englishmen who have gone to Matabeleland to ask leave to dig for stones have not gone with the Queen's authority, and that he should not believe any statement made by them, or any of them, to that effect. The Queen advises Lobengula not to grant hastily concessions of Land, or leave to dig, but to consider all applications very carefully....
On April 23, Lobengula followed up his first representation to the Queen by a further communication, in which he formally protested against the Rudd concession. His letter contained the following passage:
Some time ago a party of men came into my country, the principal one appearing to be a man called Rudd. They asked me for a place to dig for gold, and said they would give me certain things for the right to do so. I told them to bring what they would give and I would show them what I would give. A document was written and presented to me for signature. I asked what it contained, and was told that in it were my words and the words of those men. I put my hand to it. About three months afterwards I heard from other sources that I had given by that document the right to all the minerals of my country. I called a meeting of my Indunas,(1) and also of the white men and demanded a copy of the document. It was proved to me that I had signed away the mineral rights of my whole country to Rudd and his friends. I have since had a meeting of my Indunas and they will not recognise the paper, as it contains neither my words nor the words of those who got it.... I write to you that you may know the truth about this thing.
Again on August 10, Lobengula wrote to the Queen to the effect that:
The white people are troubling me much about gold. If the Queen hears that I have given away the whole country it is not so.
But these pathetic appeals from an untutored African ruler, victim of trickery, or guilty of misjudgment, had no effect upon the course of events. No scruples as to taking prompt advantage of what was manifestly an action repented of directly its significance became apparent, appear to have been entertained. The white man was determined to assume the "White man's burden," which offered prospects of being an exceedingly light one. The negotiations for the charter went through, and it was in a very different tone to that adopted in his communication of March 26, that the Queen's advisor, Lord Knutsford, replied on November 15 -- a fortnight after the charter had been conferred upon a company with which the ducal husband of the Queen's granddaughter was intimately connected -- to Lobengula's protest. Lobengula was now told that it was "impossible for him to exclude white men," and that it was in the interests of himself and his people to make arrangements "with one approved body of white men who will consult Lobengula's wishes and arrange where white people are to dig, and who will be responsible to the chief for any annoyance or trouble caused to himself and his people." The letter went on to say that the Queen had made inquiries as to the persons concerned and was satisfied that they "may be trusted to carry, out the working for gold in the chief's country without molesting his people, or in any way interfering with their kraals,(2) gardens,(3) or cattle."
In such fashion were powers of government and administration, involving the establishment of a police force, the making of laws, the raising of revenue, the administration of justice, the construction of public works, the grant of mining and forestry concessions, and so on, in an African country three times the size of England, eventually conferred upon a corporation, whose interest in that country was to make money out of it: and conferred, on the strength of a document construed by the European signees in a manner which its African signee had repudiated in the name of his people. |
