Slum Clearance, Salisbury-Style

Working under cover of darkness, Rhodesian officials last week swooped down on the thatched kraal of Chief Rekayi Tangwena. After a brief, bitter struggle, Rekayi and a subchief were bundled into a police Land-Rover and driven to a tribal reserve 17 miles away.

Protesting their chief's removal, 160 angry tribesmen hiked 30 miles to the nearest district commissioner's office. They were led by Rekayi's defiantly bare-breasted wife, Matadziseyi, and a number of women who stripped completely --a common form of demonstrating contempt for authority in some parts of Africa. Most of the protesters, including the women, were seized and jailed after a scuffle. Left temporarily unattended in the confusion were 400 of the tribe's youngest children, as well as all of its precious cattle. "Two cows were taken by hyenas last night," said a Tangwena tribesman, "and they will probably get the rest tonight. That means we will have nothing left at all."

The 3,000 Tangwena had, in fact, precious little to begin with--except their land. Long before the white man came, they lived in the remote hills of Eastern Rhodesia. The boulder-strewn hillside land was good only for sparse crops of maize and yams. In 1930, the colonial government designated the Tangwena hills as "European land," but few settlers were interested. One syndicate, however, set up the Gaeresi Ranch in the area, and the Tangwena's 50 square miles was included within it. Still the land was little used.

In 1966, shortly after Rhodesia's all-white government declared its independence, Chief Rekayi received a letter from William Hammer, the ranch's director, giving him notice that he and his fellow tribesmen were to be evicted. The Tangwena fought back and their appeals were sustained by Rhodesia's High Court. Unimpressed by such legalities, the government in Salisbury simply overrode the decision, proclaiming that the "squatters" must move to a nearby tribal reserve. Rekayi, whose full name means "Let Tangwena Be," refused to go. The new land, he said, is considered sacred by his tribe and serves as the burial ground for at least three of its chiefs. As a result, some of his people were afraid to live there.

Most white Rhodesians dismissed the eviction as a simple matter of slum clearance. Internal Affairs Minister Lance Smith attacked those whites who protested, accusing them of being Communists or fellow travelers. Said Hammer: "People should mind their own business and not incite uneducated people to resist the law of the land."

By week's end, all of the Tangwena had been removed from the ranch and trucked off to the new preserve, where crude huts were being built for them. What would Hammer do with the newly cleared land? He refused to say, but there was a report that he planned to sell it.

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