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Title: | 'A naughty child with a pen': Gahadzikwa Albert Chaza as an African policeman and author in colonial Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) 1936-1963 |
Author: | Stapleton, Tim |
Year: | 2010 |
Periodical: | History in Africa (ISSN 1558-2744) |
Volume: | 37 |
Pages: | 159-187 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Zimbabwe |
Subjects: | police Blacks racism writers colonial history |
About person: | G.A. Chaza (1916-1997) |
External link: | http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/history_in_africa/v037/37.1.stapleton.pdf |
Abstract: | Black police played an ambiguous role in colonial Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). As in the rest of Africa, they became central to the coercive power of the colonial State yet were members of a subject and exploited community. 'Bhurakuwacha: the story of a Black policeman in colonial Southern Rhodesia' (1998) by G.A. Chaza (1916-1997) is the longest and most detailed first-hand account by an African member of the British South Africa Police (BSAP) and as such an important source for studying the experience of Black security force members in a White settler State. Ghaza's contributions to 'Mapolisa' - a monthly police magazine which was meant to promote regimental spirit and Western education among African police - from the late 1930s to early 1960s reflect the many contradictions inherent in the colonial African police experience. The present paper examines the first three decades (1936-1963) of Chaza's publications within the context of African police service in the colonial era. Chaza's book can be seen as an effort to rehabilitate his image by portraying African colonial police as victims of racism against which some, like the author himself, struggled. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |