Doctoral Degrees (Centre for Africa Studies)
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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Centre for Africa Studies) by Author "Chitofiri, Kudakwashe"
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Item Open Access Urban protest, citizenship and the city: the history of residents' associations and African urban representation in colonial Harare, Zimbabwe(University of the Free State, 2015-11) Chitofiri, Kudakwashe; Phimister, I. R.; Roos, N.English: This thesis is an account of social movements in the African part of the city of Salisbury in colonial Zimbabwe. It explores how the emergence and character of the “Location”, as shaped by segregatory policies which viewed Africans as temporary sojourners in the city, influenced the development of African urban social movements. In doing so, it argues that the reluctance of the colonial authorities and business to invest in basic infrastructure and social services for the Location was the core reason why Africans organised themselves for the improvement of conditions in their segregated part of the City. Seeing themselves as permanent dwellers long before this fact was acknowledged by municipal authorities, many Africans came gradually to understand their collective strength. The emergence of African urban movements was thus a result of a realisation by Africans of the strength of the collective in confronting colonial authorities. This study argues that African trade unions and labour organisations were influenced by the state of affairs in the townships to become mouthpieces for all African urban dwellers. Even later nationalist organisations became de facto township residents’ associations because of the centrality of urban grievances for African Location residents. Investigating the impact of the Depression and the Second World War on the direction and character that African urban representation assumed in the post 1940s period this thesis argues that it was the conditions brought about by increased African urbanisation such as overcrowding and other accompanying urban ills that led to the emergence of, and increase in, narrowly focussed African urban representative unions and associations in the post war period. The thesis also assesses the operations of residents’ representative groupings in an environment of heightened national struggle for independence. It refocuses debates on African agency by exploring “African voices” in the urban arena as they engaged with colonial authorities about the manner in which the Location was imagined, arranged and managed. It captures moments of organised confrontation with colonial authorities by African urban residents organisations from 1908 when the first African Location was created in Salisbury right up to independence in 1980. Paying due regard to the changing and different attitudes of successive colonial governments and local authorities over time and space, the thesis examines the impact of such shifts on the nature and form of African representation.