Douglas Schorr

In the brief period Southern Rhodesia existed – through its iterations as being a British Crown territory, as part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and finally as Rhodesia-Zimbabwe – it became a sub-Saharan powerhouse. Until the 1970s, its rate of development was unmatched anywhere in the world.

What?

That tiny Central African country led all others, per capita, in industrialization, agricultural development, output, land husbandry research and innovation and the growth of education and health facilities. It established the most extensive infrastructure network north of the Limpopo River. The country was quickly connected by telegraph, well-maintained roads suitable for stage coaches, and an impressive rail network. Telephones followed. Beginning during this period and never to slack, opportunities became increasingly available to all residents – both earlier immigrant blacks and recent immigrant whites.

Certain publishers require that I state that this growth occurred within the framework of the colonial system’s inherent challenges and inequities for the local population. I’m happy to do that because it is with challenge and inequity everything -be it a tree or coral- grows. And in the case of Rhodesia the want-to-be white-Africans were too successful for their own good.

While the newbies administered the territory they introduced 20th-century practices and technologies to a population living in pre-historic conditions. The result – the local population grew from an estimated 700,000 in 1900 to nearly 7.5 million in 1980. Fantastic yes but despite successfully modernising and educating the local Black-African population at unprecedented rates, approximately 95% remained outside the STEM workforce. Consequently, Rhodesia lost the competition for skilled immigrants to other British Commonwealth countries and the United States.

Why?

Every old-enough immigrant became an educator, a father or mother to a team by default. The remarkable change of a central African land from harsh and dangerous bushveld was achieved by a peak immigrant population of just 250,000 aspiring white-Africans.

More than half were children and young adults, while 40% of the remainder devoted at least part of their available “professional” years to homemaking and family building. This left a pre-bush war maximum of about 80,000 men to innovate and develop, create employment, train staff, and manage production and get it out into the market plus staff schools, hospitals, and the government’s extensive and intensive public services.  

80,000 needs to be put in perspective – when we arrived at Beitbridge Border Post in 1949, the day’s joke was one of the 4 of us could be the 100,000th immigrant. The value of that statement is this: the foundations of industrialization, agriculture, education, healthcare, and other developments were established by fewer than 30,000 (mostly) white immigrants determined to become White-Africans.

How?

At the border post, my parents presented their passports AND their “papers” (as qualifications were then called). No aspiring white, brown, yellow or green-African gained residence without minimum qualifications – typically a completed apprenticeship in a recognised trade. These requirements were established when the British South Africa Company (BSA Coy) selected the Pioneer Column members in 1890. There were two exceptions: individuals with sufficient capital to employ professionals in approved businesses, and prospective farmers, who had to complete a course in farming, local culture, and language at the Company’s Midlands farm regardless of their financial resources.

Conclusion

It is awfully simple. Basics apply: no one got through school successfully by peeping at the books of the others in class: stop studying why people fail: start emulating the winners.

Remind yourself of the young man who is credited with beginning the unification of China about 2500 years ago. He ordered, “scour the land and offer the very best every incentive to come willingly and teach us”.

When the advisors indignantly protested, “what about our very best!” the young emperor-to-be said, “Look about you. What have we achieved?”

What has Zimbabwe achieved since Mugabe dismantled the original H-1B selection system?