The legacy of Sir Reginald Stephen Garfield Todd in Zimbabwean public life history

Gift Masengwe,Bekithemba Dube

doi:10.4102/hts.v77i4.6538

Abstract

This article investigates the contribution of white liberal politics of an ex-missionary New Zealander, Sir Reginald Stephen Garfield Todd (from 1953 to 1958), on the development of Southern Rhodesia towards becoming an independent state. It outlines the contribution he made towards the progress of black Zimbabweans in a number of spheres. It arouses interest in contemporary Zimbabwean religious and political discourses. Todd held a hybridity of roles in transitional politics from the blunting settler racism to the sharpening of African capability on multi-racial democracy important for our debate on the decolonisation of southern Africa. He was a rhetorically gifted radical paternalist who adopted reformist policies to advance both the African cause and his prophetic vocation. He suggested technocratic solutions that could reorganise and diversify political and economic options.Contribution: This study uses critical discourse analysis (CDA) on the wider literature on Todd’s biography and African policies in view of his Christian vocation towards changing conditions of socio-economic, political-religious and technological-technocratic solutions to contemporary African independence. He was a man of his times living and working in an increasingly problematic context guided by the Christian principles in which he was reared. He is the ‘father of faith’ in the Church of Christ in Zimbabwe (COCZ), and leaves us pedagogical lessons on human security, gender equality, church governance and human well-being that require review within the contemporary Christian fraternity.

Highlights

Sir Reginald Stephen Garfield Todd (1908–2002) was an ex-missionary New Zealander of the Disciples of Christ who came to Zimbabwe and later on acquired both permanent residence and citizenship
He is captured as a radical paternalist and white liberal who condemned a suburban white regime representing the minority at the expense of an increasingly conscious African nation that, like other Central African Federation (1953–1963) counterparts, Malawi and Zambia, who earlier on embraced winds of change (Welensky 1964) was on the same path (White 2015:29)
Garfield Todd came to Lundi Native Reserve (LNR) at Dadaya Mission and lived amongst Africans for many years before he engaged in national politics

Summary

Introduction

Sir Reginald Stephen Garfield Todd (1908–2002) was an ex-missionary New Zealander of the Disciples of Christ who came to Zimbabwe and later on acquired both permanent residence and citizenship. The politically untutored Todd’s Christianity and New Zealand forms of democratic equality were the only orientation he used in his leadership of the nation and the Church because no earlier missionary assisted him on how to racially discriminate Africans (Paul & Grundy 2011:629).

Results

Conclusion