Northern Rhodesia Police: Difference between revisions

In 1889 [[Northern Rhodesia]], bounded by Angola (Portuguese West Africa), the Belgian Congo, German East Africa, British Central Africa (Nyasaland now Malawi), Mozambique (Portuguese East Africa), Mashonaland and Matabeleland (Southern Rhodesia now Zimbabwe), Bechuanaland (Botswana) and the Caprivi strip of German South West Africa (Namibia), was not a political unit and had no name at all. Customary law was administered among the 70 odd tribes which populated the Territory by their chiefs. Some chiefs were, willingly or not, in league with the Arab and Portuguese slavers who preyed on the population.  

In October 1889 Cecil Rhodes obtained a Royal Charter for the British South Africa Company to, 'inter alia'', make treaties, promulgate laws, preserve the peace, and maintain a police force in what was to become the Rhodesias. Harry Johnston, Imperial Commissioner in Nyasaland was additionally appointed as Administrator for the Company’s territory north of the [[Zambezi]].  

Over the next ten years small posts each under a white 'collector' were established throughout North-Eastern Rhodesia, in the area north and east of the [[Kafue River]]. Each had at his disposal a handful of armed African police. With these, and on two occasions with African troops from Nyasaland, the collectors drove out the slavers and established the Company's administration. On 1 July 1895 Major Patrick Forbes, of the British South Africa Company's service, was appointed Deputy Administrator responsible for North-Eastern Rhodesia. His escort, Sergeant Drysdale, and four troopers, had been recruited from the Company's police in Southern Rhodesia and attested as '''North-Eastern Rhodesia Police'''. They were dispersed to various posts to assist or take over from the local collector.  

The North-Eastern Rhodesia Order in Council of January 1900 formalised the territory's constitution. Previously jurisdiction had been exercised by Consular Courts under the African Order in Council of 1889. Now a High Court was established administering English law and district magistrates were to be appointed. In 1901 Judge Leicester Beaufort arrived at the capital, [[Chipata|Fort Jameson]] (now Chipata). There were five magistrates and thirty-one Native Commissioners, no longer called Collectors, probably because collection of an annual Hut Tax of three shillings began that year! The Police, about 200 in all, were still recruited by each local official at his own station. Their duties were:-

In 1903 Captain Richard Bright, a regular officer of the British Army was appointed Commandant to organise and constitute the '''North-Eastern Rhodesia Constabulary''' as the police were to be known. He issued instructions that:

To the west in [[Barotseland]] the Company was slow off the mark. [[Lewanika]], the [[Litunga]] of Barotseland claimed suzerainty over all tribes between the Zambezi and the Kafue and beyond, and westward into Angola. He was anxious for British protection fearing the Matabele to the south, the Portuguese and the Belgians. He signed the Lochner Concession in 1890, but it was not until 1897 that Robert Coryndon arrived at his capital [[Lealui]] with five white British South Africa Police as living proof of Queen Victoria's protection.

In April 1898 Sub-Inspector Cazalet of the BSAP led a patrol along the north bank as well as south of the Zambezi to put a stop to reported dealing in firearms, cattle stealing and other lawbreaking by Europeans. In September 1898 Captain Drury came up from Bulawayo with 13 troopers and built a fort at [[Monze]] some miles form the present township. The purpose was to protect European traders and prospectors coming up from the South and prevent inter-tribal fighting. Offenders were fined in cattle without recourse to a court.

Cecil Rhodes was always of the view that the police force north of the Zambezi should be African.  Europeans were expensive and their numbers were continually thinned by blackwater fever and other diseases. Major Colin Harding {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CMG}} formerly commander of the Mashonaland Native Police relieved Coryndon as Resident Commissioner in late 1899 at about the time the Barotseland/North-Western Rhodesia Order in Council was issued. On Coryndon's return from leave, now as Administrator of the new territory, Harding was appointed commandant of the [[Lozi people|Barotse]] Native Police, recruiting and training for which, he had already put in hand in between extensive patrols up the Zambezi and into Angola to ascertain the true limits of Lewanika's sphere of influence.

In May 1904 Edward Davies, foreman at a quarry near [[Kalomo]], the administrative headquarters of the territory, got drunk and fired at African workers, mortally wounding one. Davies was still drunk when arrested by RSM Toulson and Sergeant Lethbridge. On 8 July Davies was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to two years imprisonment having pleaded self-defence. For such cases a Judge came up from Southern Rhodesia, but North-Western Rhodesia had its own magistrate, Harry Rangely, who held court at Kalomo and at the Old Drift near [[Victoria Falls]].

In April 1904 the railway reached Victoria Falls and a year later the [[Victoria Falls Bridge|Falls Bridge]] was completed over the Zambezi. The Old Drift became redundant as the landing place for imports. The settlers there moved up to the new township of [[Livingstone, Zambia|Livingstone]]. Constable Foley became Gaoler, Magistrates Clerk and Sanitary Superintendent at Livingstone with Sergeant Burdett responsible for police work at the Falls and Process serving throughout the Territory. In September 1905 Constable Cathcart arrived at Kalomo for civil police duties, to act as Magistrate's Clerk and superintend sanitation. These three were members of the '''North-Western Rhodesia Constabulary''' under the Judicial Department and not part of the Barotse Native Police which was a military force responsible for internal security and to deal with incursions by slavers and hostile tribes from across the borders.

The collection of hut tax commenced in 1904. The Barotse Native Police were called upon to support civil officials in its collection.  Harding fell out with the Administration by raising with the High Commissioner in South Africa the question of hut burning to encourage payment. Harding resigned in 1906 and his Second-in-command, Major Carden became Commandant.

In the year ending 12 July 1907 thirty-one Whites, three Asians and eighty-eight Africans appeared before the Magistrate at Livingstone, Kafue and Kalomo.  A gaol had been built at Livingstone to accommodate four Europeans and twenty Africans. The magistrate at Kasempa only had to try four cases, all of witchcraft. Africans from Nyasaland and the west coast of Africa were blamed for thefts in towns and there was said to be a rough White element which required constant supervision. The headquarters of the Government and Barotse Native Police moved to Livingstone and the Barotse Native Police were absorbed into the Constabulary.

By 1910 the railway was complete through to the Congo. Mining was in operation at Broken Hill ([[Kabwe]]) and [[Kansanshi mine|Kansanshi]], but the far North-West was troublesome. In the Kasempa District three Africans shot a prospector in the back through the window of his house. The murderers fled into the virtual no-man's-land on the border of Mozambique. The offer of a £20 reward led to their location. One of the accused confessed to the previous murder of an African. All three were tried and hanged. Two chiefs were sentenced to imprisonment for failing to give information.

By an Order in Council of 4 May 1911 Barotseland, North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia were amalgamated as one territory, [[Northern Rhodesia]], still administered by the British South Africa Company. Consequently the North-Eastern Rhodesia Constabulary and the Barotse Native Police were amalgamated as the '''Northern Rhodesia Police''. Major F. A. Hodson, the original Adjutant of the Barotse Native Police, soon succeeded Lieutenant Colonel Carden as Commandant of the new force.  

In 1913 Colonel Edwards, a regular cavalry officer who had served with Baden Powell's South African Constabulary and for the past six years as a Chief Constable in the London Metropolitan Police was appointed Chief Commandant of Police and Volunteers for both Rhodesias. He reorganised the Northern Rhodesia Police so that in 1914 it consisted of:

* The Town Police, 10 or 12 British sergeants and constables and 328 African police stationed at the townships on the line of the railway and at Kansanshi, and the Criminal Investigation Department and Fingerprint Bureau under Regimental Sergeant Major Ferguson who attended a six week fingerprint course at Scotland Yard while on leave. In July 1914 he was joined by Detective Sergeant Kirk from Southern Rhodesia and they were assisted by five African detectives and a clerk.

By 1914 there were Town Police detachments at Livingstone, [[Ndola]], [[Solwezi]], Fort Jameson, [[Mumbwa]], and [[Kabwe|Broken Hill]]. Lieutenant Percy Sillitoe in charge at Lusaka was the only commissioned officer employed on civil police duty. Two hundred Boers had settled in the area in 1911 and there was concern about their ability to maintain themselves without breaking the law. Lusaka itself was little more than a cluster of huts. Much of the work of the CID concerned immigration. At the outbreak of World War I they investigated 62 enemy aliens among a white population of about 2,250. Nine were sent to South Africa for internment.