Zimbabwe Under Colonial Rule, in Government Reports, 1897-1980

This collection provides a unique opportunity to explore the British administration in Zimbabwe by looking at annual governmental reports. In the 1880s, Cecil Rhodes and the British South Africa Company started to make inroads into the region that is now known as Zimbabwe. In 1895 the British South Africa Company adopted the name “Rhodesia” for the area, as an honour to Cecil Rhodes. However, in 1898 the official name of the region became Southern Rhodesia. In October 1923, following a new constitution, Southern Rhodesia became a self-governing British colony. While the colony was self-governing and technically could draft its own legislation it was still subject to supervision. This collection allows you to explore this in more detail. The collection compromises of over 90,000 pages of progress reports written by various government departments in Zimbabwe.

This collection, drawn from the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office records, contains a wealth of information on how Zimbabwe was run by the British. The documents within the collection are dated between 1897 and 1980, just before Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain in April 1980. The documents are conveniently divided between 12 volumes, each compromising reports from different government departments at the time. The volumes include: Administration 1897-1977, Auditor General 1914-1980, Accounting Estimates 1899-1980, Miscellaneous Financial Records 1918-1980, Judicial and Police 1897-1979, Natural Resources 1897-1981, Social Services 1897-1980, Transport and Public Works 1897-1980, Communications and Post Office Savings 1896-1980, Commerce, 1899-1980, Corporations and Boards 1926-1980 and Meteorology, Public Relations and Tourism 1897-1980.

The subject matter varies between each report. Topics such as finance, court, policing, accounts, agriculture and education in Zimbabwe are touched on within the reports. Colonial Zimbabwe had a system of white minority rule and a lot of the laws imposed reflected this, for example, the 1930 Land Apportionment Act in fact restricted black land ownership in areas of the country. This in turn meant large areas were kept solely for the white minority, this led to rapid anti-colonial resistance. Some of the documents within the collection reflect the government's responses to this anti-colonial resistance, for example, the Shona and Ndebele Risings of 1896-1897. The records also highlight the difficulties caused by the Smith government’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965 and the ensuing decades of white minority rule.

The collection offers a unique perspective on the British administration in Zimbabwe via official government reports. British colonial rule in Africa has received extensive scholarly attention. The documents within this collection would be particularly beneficial to researchers and students who are not only interested in the economic history of a South African country, but also the social history. The documents provide an overview of the evolution of colonial rule from the perspective of colonial administrators. A comprehensive look at the yearly reports reveals how the structure of the colonial government changed over time, which in turn helps to build a full picture of Zimbabwe under colonial rule. The documents would be useful for researchers who are studying how Zimbabwe changed after independence in 1980.