Masters Degrees (Centre for Gender and Africa Studies)
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Browsing Masters Degrees (Centre for Gender and Africa Studies) by Advisor "Phimister, I. R."
Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Open Access Chiefs and government in post-colonial Zimbabwe: the case of Makoni District, 1980-2014(University of the Free State, 2015-11) Nkomo, Lotti; Phimister, I. R.; Masakure, C.English: This study explores the relationship between chiefs and government in Zimbabwe during the period 1980-2014. It examines how the interactions between chiefs and government evolved over three and a half decades, with specific reference to the Makoni District of Manicaland Province. The abovementioned relationship was marked by three broad phases, namely 1980-1986, 1987-1999 and 2000-2014. The phases corresponded with variations in the political climate. These changes carry the central theme of the study, namely the way in which the relationship was informed by changing political imperatives. As the case of Makoni District reveals, chiefs were rejected by the independence government in 1980 for their perceived role as anti-nationalists; they were courted when political challenges began to appear in the late 1980s; and they were effectively co-opted when more powerful political threats emerged in 1999 with the rise of strong opposition politics. The defining features of the relationship evolved around the chiefs’ power over land and judicial affairs. At first, the chiefs were stripped of their judicial and land powers when their relationship with the government was characterised by hostility. These powers were restored when the government needed the chiefs’ political support. Using the case of Makoni chiefs, the aim of the study is to show how the ZANU PF government initially rejected and later co-opted chiefs in its administrative and political system for its hegemonic convenience.Item Open Access The colonial archive and contemporary chieftainship claims: the case of Zimbabwe, 1935 to 2014(University of the Free State, 2015-07) Bishi, George; Phimister, I. R.; Williams, R.English: This thesis focuses on the uses of the colonial archive in contemporary Zimbabwe by people and families claiming chieftaincy. It uses five selected case studies: Chidziva in Masvingo, Sanyanga and Mutsago in Manicaland, Seke in Mashonaland East, and Musaigwa in Mashonaland Central Provinces of Zimbabwe. All these cases submitted written claims reports to the Ministry of Local Government for consideration for traditional leadership positions. These claims were made after Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform of 2000. At the same time, the government empowered traditional leaders to win their support against the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). As a result of these developments, claimants to chieftaincy also emerged. To convince Local Government officials, claimants were expected to submit elaborate claims reports showing their genealogies, family trees, chieftaincies histories and territorial boundaries. It is in these circumstances that claimants resort to the National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ) looking for their histories in the colonial archive. Claimants hire ethnographers, archaeologists and historians to document their family or clan histories. Claimants and contracted historians both rely on colonial documents for evidence. They also use oral evidence to compliment archival evidence or to dispute it if the colonial record does not support the claimant’s case. In the light of these contemporary claims to chieftaincy, this dissertation discusses the establishment of the NAZ, not only as a site of ‘national memory’ but also as a strategic research institution so far as chieftaincy is concerned. It analyses the generation of archival sources, their acquisition and accessibility governed by access regimes at the NAZ and how this subsequently affects chieftaincy research. The dissertation discusses the nature and usefulness of archival sources claimants used to document claims reports. In the process, this study suggests supplementary sources within and without NAZ repositories that are overlooked by historians. The study also explores the dynamics of claims to chieftaincy in present day Zimbabwe. While some chieftaincy succession disputes predate colonialism, others are a product of colonial legacies. The study situates itself within the broader literature, the so-called indigenous historiography that emerged in the 1990s. It focuses on how indigenous peoples in countries such as Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Malaysia filed land claims. They used customary rights, colonial treaties and archives for evidence to justify their claims. However, this thesis argues that archives can be used for political and social benefits by claimants of chieftaincy in Zimbabwe.Item Open Access Fast track land reform in Matepatepa commercial farming area, Bindura district: effects on farm workers, 2000 – 2010(University of the Free State, 2015-11) Kufandirori, Joyline Takudzwa; Phimister, I. R.; Pilossof, R.English: This dissertation examines the effects of Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) on farm workers from 2000 to 2010. It looks at how farm workers fared during and after the process and how they dealt with the new conditions that ensued. It examines the nature of their relationships with their new employers and how the conditions under which they were employed changed and the impact of such changes on their livelihoods. The thesis also surveys the conditions of farm workers who took up other sources of livelihood after the land reform programme. It uses a case study of Matepatepa Commercial Farming area as a window to investigate the impact of the land reform exercise on farm workers in Zimbabwe. Matepatepa is located about 22 kms north of Bindura, Mashonaland Central’s provincial capital. The thesis mainly utilises narratives from farm workers in Matepatepa to explain the nature of their participation in the land reform programme and examines their relationship with some of the players who were central to the process, for example, war veterans, the government and other peasant farmers. In order to obtain a clearer understanding of the effects of the reform on farm workers’ livelihoods, the study also focuses on their conditions before the land reform and how they nurtured and developed their relations with their employers. It investigates the impact of the FTLRP in the context of the wider nature of Zimbabwe’s political and economic environment and assesses the impact of Zimbabwe’s political economy in shaping farm workers’ reactions to the changes brought about by the land reform exercise. The study acknowledges the fraught political background within which the land reform programme was carried out and consequently investigates the effect of such a background in determining the parameters within which farm workers could manoeuvre.Item Open Access Foreign capital, state and the development of secondary industry in Southern Rhodesia, 1939-1956(University of the Free State, 2015-07) Gwande, Victor Muchineripi; Phimister, I. R.; Van Zyl-Hermann, D.English: This thesis is a detailed historical study that examines the nature and extent of foreign capital investment in Southern Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe) between 1939 and 1956, with particular focus on the development of secondary industry. A number of scholars have commented that, with the exception of South Africa, no country was as dominated by foreign capital as Southern Rhodesia. However, this claim has not been investigated empirically in great depth. The study therefore offers an account of the development of secondary industry and also demonstrates the penetration of foreign capital into this sector. This thesis argues that, while the development of secondary industries had gathered momentum during the war years, the inflow of foreign capital into secondary industries really increased during the post-war period. The trend in foreign capital inflows and the expansion of industries was consolidated by the establishment of the Central African Federation in 1953. The increase in manufacturing production occurred alongside the establishment of new industrial ventures initiated by European immigrants and local residents. In the same period influential British and South African companies took over existing small local concerns resulting in concentration of industrial production in the hands of few, big corporations. Most foreign capital came from Britain and South Africa and to a lesser extent, from the United States of America and Italy. Foreign capital came in the form of foreign direct investment or local take-overs or in a small measure through immigrants. This thesis also addressed foreign capital’s relations and partnership with the Southern Rhodesian state during this time in funding basic services and facilities pertinent to industrial development. The role of foreign capital in Southern Rhodesia’s industrialisation process was also considered in relation to the contemporaneous phenomenon of Import Substitution Industrialisation (ISI), as well as the influence of South Africa, and it concluded that industrialisation in Southern Rhodesia displayed many of the tenets of ISI as observed in Latin America.Item Open Access A history of marriage and citizenship: Kalanga women’s experiences in post-colonial Botswana until 2005(University of the Free State, 2015-02) Sechele, Unaludo; Phimister, I. R.; Spence, D.English: This study examines Kalanga women‟s experiences in relation to marriage and citizenship legislation in Botswana between 1966 and 2005. The analyses of the study are based on legislation affecting all women in Botswana, but are specifically focused on a group of rural women of Kalanga origin. A number of legislations in Botswana affected the Kalanga women, but the emphasis of this study falls on the Citizenship Act (1984), leading to its amendment in 1995, and the Abolition of Marital Power Act (2004). The Citizenship Act (1984) had to be amended because it discriminated against women as it rendered the passing on of citizenship to children patrilineal. The Abolition of Marital Power Act (2004), on the other hand, came about as a result of oppression that married women faced as they did not have rights and were considered minors as per common and customary law. This study also traces the events of the Unity Dow case, and the extent to which it helped improve the status of Kalanga women. Dow took the government to Court in 1990 as she believed that she too had the right to pass citizenship on to her children despite the fact that she was married to a foreign citizen. The High Court and the Court of Appeal ruled in her favour as the Act itself contradicted the country‟s constitution. Kalanga women who faced the same challenge as Unity Dow benefited from the court ruling. After the Government lost the case it was forced to amend either the Citizenship Act (1984) or the constitution. Amending the constitution so as to allow gender discrimination was not an option. This was because the world had started to pay attention to women‟s rights in Botswana. The patriarchal nature of the Kalanga ethnic group, gave men marital power. Hence, this study examined how the Abolition of Marital Power Act (2004) improved the status of women in their families and examined whether they benefited from the newly instituted Act.Item Open Access A history of mining in Broken Hill (Kabwe): 1902-1929(University of the Free State, 2015-02) Mufinda, Buzandi; Phimister, I. R.; Koorts, L.English: This study has attempted to write a history of the Broken Hill mine in the period from 1902 to 1929. Despite the mine being the first large enterprise to be opened in Zambia, its history is largely unknown. Much of the information on which this dissertation is based was derived from archival research, primarily in the National Archives of Zambia in Lusaka; the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Archive in Ndola; and the Livingstone Museum in Livingstone. Chapter one introduces the study. Chapter two examines the origin and development of the Broken Hill mine from 1902 to 1913. During this period, the productiveness and profitability of the Broken Hill mine was hampered by the problems of treatment of complex ores, expensive railway freights and the irregular supply of labour. In 1914 the First World War started and Chapter three traces the impact of the war on Broken Hill mine. The war was largely responsible for delays in the delivery of materials for the construction of a new treatment plant and furnaces. Because of the influenza epidemic, the mine closed towards the end of the year. However, the war also provided opportunities for the mine to increase its production, sales and profits. In particular, the war led to a high demand for lead and zinc; an increase in the price of base metals; further reduction on railway rates by the Rhodesia Railways Company and the good prices of lead and zinc in London. This was a boost to increase the supply of the metals. Yet, the Rhodesia Broken Hill mine failed to make the most of such opportunities largely because of the recurring problem of treating complex ores. During the war, considerable effort was devoted to lead-zinc experiments, as the mine searched for better methods of treating the ores. In fact the mine was only once able to supply lead to Britain’s Ministry of Munitions. Chapter four covers the position of the Broken Hill mine between 1919 and 1929. The period after the end of the war witnessed a tremendous increase in production, sales and profit margins. There was also greater infrastructure development at Broken Hill than ever before. Although between 1902 and 1929 production in terms of quantity and quality, sales and profits never reached hoped-for figures, they did roughly triple after the end of the war. This was made possible by the fact that Broken Hill mine was increasingly able to utilise cheap black labour, as well as cheap hydro-electric power. At the same time, the ores became richer even as the price of spelter increased. In the 1920s, Broken Hill mine benefited from a low cost of production per ton of lead and zinc and a selling price per ton that was nearly double the cost of production. Indeed, Rhodesia Broken Hill mine enjoyed lower production costs than most of mines in the world.