1. THE CREATION OF AFRICAN COUNTRIES : THE CASE OF ZIMBABWE

A thread...

African countries as we know them today have not always existed since time immemorial but were a deliberate creation of colonisers who were pursuing commercial interests. Africa is a colonial construct.

2. African kingdoms & territorial chieftaincies were subdivided among European super powers at a conference held at Berlin in 1884. Like vultures circling around a corpse Europeans had been slowly infiltrating Africa in previous centuries waiting for the right moment to pounce.

3. As Africans we must understand that we had no say in the creation of the countries we currently live in. Some clans were scattered into different countries after the drawing of colonial borders. Some kingdoms & clans were forced into single territories.

4. Cecil John Rhodes set his eyes on the plateau beyond the Limpopo where he had heard there were limitless mineral & gold deposits. King Solomon's mines! The Boers, Portuguese & Germans wanted the land as well. Their barrier was the Ndebele kingdom under King Lobhengula.

5. The Ndebele kingdom was in the south-west of the plateau & in the north were various vassal chieftaincies which Lobhengula considererd as part of his kingdom. Whites were already living in his territory as missionaries, hunters, adventurers & prospectors.

6. Cecil John Rhodes & his British South Africa Company raised a force known as the Pioneer Column in 1890. Their aim was to take over the territory that was later called Mashonaland. This was after Rhodes got a charter from the Queen in 1889.

7. The column left Bechuanaland in June 1890 crossed Thuli River proceeded north east & then north until they reached the Harare kopje & hoisted a union flag without any resistance. At this point King Lobhengula must have known that his capital was next.

8. In 1891 Leander Starr Jameson after getting concessions from local chiefs was made the administrator of the territory they called the Mashonaland Protectorate. Jameson then created a line known as the Jameson line which seperated Mashonaland & what became later Matabeleland.

10. It was now King Lobhengula on one side versus Jameson on the other side. Lobhengula had opened a rifle manufacturing plant to prepare himself for the inevitable. By 1893 he had 20 000 rifleman who however still needed training on the use of the rifles & about 80000 spearmen.

11. In 1893 Lobhengula approved a raid on Chief Bere who had used the king's inkomo zamasiso to pay a fine for stealing a wire of telegram. When a regiment went to demand the cattle from the chief Jameson took it as an act of aggression as Ndebele had crossed the Jameson line.

12. Jameson mobilised his forces to attack King Lobhengula. Their greatest weapon was the Maxim Gun. A force of Africans from Mashonaland & Bechuanaland was also mobilised & incorporated into Jameson's army.

13. The epic battle between the Ndebele army & Jameson's army was at Mbembesi. Impi yaseGadadi. Gadadi. Thousands of Ndebele soldiers were crushed by the Maxim guns.This marked the fall of the Ndebele kingdom.

14. Upon hearing the news King Lobhengula knew that the end was high. A meeting of his War Council resolved that the king must escape urgently. The king asked chief Sivalo Mahlangu to torch the capital koBulawayo. Therafter, they fled towards the Zambezi river.

15. The War Council wanted to avoid the humiliation of the king by being caught & killed in front of his subjects. The column led by Major Allan Wilson pursued the king relentlessly. Wilson was outmanoeuvred king's last royal guard.

16. The king's protection regiment under Mtshane Khumalo launched a spirited attack on Wilson's party using spears & rifles. There was no survivor among the whites. The fate of King Lobhengula after this incident is a mystery. The territory of Matabeleland was thus created.

17. Between 1893 and 1923 the territories of Mashonaland & Matabeleland controlled by the British South Africa Company were informally known as Zambesia. Between 1896-1987 there were unsuccessful uprisings against the British administration from both territories.

18. In 1923 the Colony of Southern Rhodesia was created after a vote by whites against the two territories being merged with the Union of South Africa. Border lines of the merged territories had been finalised & the Colony of Northern Rhodesia had been established in 1911.

19. From 1953-1963 the colony was merged into the Federation of Northern & Southern Rhodesia & Nyasaland incorporating modern day Zambia. Malawi which was named Nyasaland had been occupied as a protectorate by the British in 1891.

20. Finally in 1980 after the liberation war of the 1970s fought by ZIPRA & ZANLA, Southern Rhodesia became Zimbabwe under black majority rule. Our modern African borders are relatively new. The borders marking Zimbabwe as we know them today are only about 97 years old.