Strike action and self‐help associations: Zimbabwean worker protest and culture after World War I

Abstract

Summary Between 1918 and 1921 in Southern Rhodesia there were numerous strikes by African workers throughout the colony, in railways, mines, municipalities, and even amongst domestic workers, despite the criminal nature of such actions. The first two sections of this paper trace the causes and circumstances of the strike wave, including the fall in real wages during the First World War and the shortage of labour after the influenza epidemic which followed, and the sense of timing shown by many of the demonstrators. To restrict attention to those overt events, however, neglects the interior world of the Africans. Accordingly in the following sections a particular strike is examined in detail in its cultural context, including the formation of ethnically‐based mutual aid societies and other African responses to the repressive work regime. Together the internal and external events show how the immediate post‐war years constitute a watershed in Zimbabwean history.