Educational Legislation in Colonial Zimbabwe (1899-1979)

Overview & Synopsis

This article focuses on a historical series of education acts that impacted on education in Rhodesia. These Acts are the: (1) 1899 Education Ordinance; (2) 1903 Education Ordinance; (3) 1907 Education Ordinance; (4) 1929 Department of Native Development Act; (5) 1930 Compulsory Education Act; (6) 1959 African Education Act; (7) 1973 Education Act; and the (8) 1979 Education Act. These Acts were developed in order to protect the settlers' economic advantage and because most Euro-Rhodesians believed that contact with Africans should be minimised and controlled, and that differential rights and privileges for the two culture groups were necessary. The Rhodesians thought that only after the African people had been "civilised", that is completely acculturated into the European world view, that they could then lead equal but separate lives. In general the colonial settlers in Southern Africa believed that African people were intellectually and culturally inferior in comparison to European people. European educationalists and psychologists in the Southern African region conducted an array of research to "prove" that people of African descent were intellectually and culturally inferior to people of European descent. As such, the education of Africans in Rhodesia was of little importance except in terms of labour production. It was these attitudes that led to the development of racist educational legislation in Rhodesia. In general this legislation defined the role of Africans as little more than servants and labourers of the Rhodesian settlers. (Contains 100 notes.)