The Rhodesia railways African strike of 1945, part I: a narrative account

Abstract

In 1945, immediately following the conclusion of the Second World War, a major strike by African employees took place on the Rhodesia Railways. The Railways served both Southern and Northern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe and Zambia) and the system was the region's transportation backbone and largest single employer. Often seen as a watershed event, the strike has been treated, sometimes quite ably, by a number of scholars. The objective of the present article may be stated simply: to provide a far more comprehensive account of the strike than has heretofore appeared. It covers both territories and draws upon material from, inter alia, the National Archives of Zimbabwe and Zambia, the Public Record Office, Rhodes House and oral interviews. Particular use has been made of the verbatim evidence of the strike commissions of inquiry, especially that of the African witnesses. Part I is a detailed, straightforward account of the strike's unfolding. Part II seeks to illuminate the strike's cause, rooted in the railway workers’ experience, and to place the event in its historical context. Though contemporary observers may have overstated the strike's transformative power, it deserves its place as one of the region's most dramatic episodes of resistance.