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Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter

DESPITE being denied the right to education by the Rhodesian settler regime, African students who accessed elite mission schools became a catalyst for the country’s emancipation from colonial bondage. 

The colonial government understood the power of education so well and made deliberate efforts to deny the black majority formal education. Up to 1946, there was no government school for Africans in Bulawayo yet the colonialists had built schools such as Milton, Gifford and Eveline, exclusively to cater for the white minority.

The trend was similar across the country where colonialists built institutions that discriminated against the black majority. The colonialists used missionaries to pacify Africans while they grabbed land among other resources. 

History records the role the missionaries played in the colonisation of Zimbabwe, particularly Robert Moffat of the London Missionary Society (LMS), who was influential in convincing King Lobengula to sign the Rudd Concession in 1888. The treacherous pact adversely fast-tracked the country’s colonisation by the British.

Generations later, Africans would use the same missionary schools as platforms for revolutionary consciousness. The mission schools or church-run schools such Inyathi Mission of LMS in Bubi District in Matabeleland North, Brethren in Christ Church-run Matopo Mission in Matobo District, Matabeleland South; Methodist Church-run Thegwani (Thekwane) in Bulilima District in Matabeleland South became a formidable bedrock for breeding nationalists in the 1960s. It is not surprising that most missionary schools produced distinguished cadres who include late national heroes; Dr Dumiso Dabengwa, Dr Edson Zvobgo and the late former President, Robert Mugabe. 

Historian Mr Pathisa Nyathi, himself a product of the mission school system said the colonial regime did not want blacks to be educated as it feared knowledgeable people.

“Education has that capacity to open up your mind. That was happening within the context of mission schools. If you check some of these people who received education in the early days, they were getting education from mission schools because the colonial government completely ignored the provision of African education,” he said.

Mr Nyathi said as a pupil at Mazowe Secondary School, Mashonaland Central, he got his first political orientation as they would converge at night clandestinely to discuss political issues. Mr Nyathi said in 1962 his school was briefly shut down following pupils’ protests. He said the first school to accommodate blacks in Bulawayo was Mzilikazi Primary, which opened its doors in 1946 and was followed by Mpopoma High years later.

Mr Nyathi said mission schools provided learners with a form of consciousness of who they are. He said that is when the country started seeing violent protests as opposed to the first wave on nationalist activities, which were mostly characterised by negotiations. 

“Other than giving consciousness to their students, they themselves were opposed to colonial government. Some of them were in trouble for opposing the colonial government. So, when we look at them, we look at them from those fronts —influencing the African child in their schools and in their right as opponents of the colonial regime,” said Mr Nyathi.

“Through education the world opens up, this is what was happening. Others were going to South Africa. People like George Silundika and James Chikerema went to Marian Hill but still it was a missionary school. In the country there was Waddilove (in Marondera) and Matopo Mission, all led by various denominations.”

These are the people from Bulawayo who became members of the youth league under the United Democratic Party (UDP) and Zapu, he said, adding that some of them were involved in sabotage campaigns that targeted infrastructure such as government buildings and farms.

In the book a Cradle of the Revolution: Voices from Inyathi School, co-edited by Marieke Clarke, Mr Nyathi gives a snippet on how mission schools became a battlefield for political orientation. The book details how learners were made to freely debate political issues and former Matabeleland South provincial administrator and former liberation fighter, Joshua Mahlathini Mpofu, gave an account of how mission schools allowed free speech. 

“We deeply appreciated that the missionaries at Inyathi School allowed the evolution of a tradition of free expression of views through debates every Saturday evening. I was delighted to be at a school where the political issues of the African continent were hotly debated fearlessly and openly by students,” Mr Mpofu is quoted in the book.

He further details how debates at the school became critical in influencing nationalist activities. The book also explains how the colonial regime deported teachers whom it felt were sympathetic to the African struggle.

Head of the Roman Catholic in Bulawayo, Archbishop Alex Thomas acknowledged the church extended education to the black majority as part of its missionary mandate.

“Education and evangelism go hand in hand and if you are educated it allows you to think and make informed decisions for yourselves,” he said.

Archbishop Thomas said while some church schools’ administrators could have faced challenges from the repressive colonial government, as the Catholic Church they did not face direct victimisation. He said the church remains committed towards improving the lives of people in every sphere. — @nqotshili