Newsletters from a Salvation Army woman officer in Southern Rhodesia (4): 1962-63.

NOTE: My parents’ first term in Zambia was only two years, and they were to return later as Officers Commanding the Zambia Command, which was separated from Rhodesia after Zambian independence in 1964. They were sent back to the Howard Institute, the largest rural Army mission station in the Territory; this time Dad was appointed Principal. Carol and I had to change schools again. After only six months in boarding school in Lusaka, I went to Prince Edward School (a boys’ boarding school in Salisbury/ Harare) and Carol went to Routledge primary school next to Prince Edward in Belvedere, for the first time as a boarder. This is quite a controversial letter, at least for me it is reading it almost half a century later! Some of my mother’s comments are looking at the consequences rather than the causes of a liberation struggle going on in what was a European settler-ruled country, where Africans were segregated and did not have the right to vote. The Rhodesian white-ruled government declared a Unilateral Declaration of Independence in November 1965, and after a bitter guerrilla war, Zimbabwe only became independent in April 1980.

 

Officers’ Training College,
Howard Institute,
P.O. Glendale, S. Rhodesia.

November 1962.

We are now happily settled at the Training College and finding the work most engrossing. We have 19 Cadets in Training, 10, 2^nd Year and 9, 1^st Year, a really fine lot who are responding well. We are both kept busy, but with not quite the hectic rush of the years we have had on Divisional work. We find the Cadets’ classes most interesting, also challenging to ourselves. I take a Bible class each morning with the 1^st Year women, also Doctrine, Orders and Regulations with men and women, with the men only, Salvation Army history, also English, then a special English class with one of the women who is not so far advanced as the others, then Home League Training for a whole afternoon a week, and a 2 hour Cookery class. In addition to the classes, I am responsible for the women and their families, and a lot of time is taken up with interviews, dealing out food rations, medical treatment, baby care etc., dealing with their problems etc. Each Wednesday the Cadets go out visiting, and 3 out of 4 Sundays we are out on the Field… We travel on a 3-ton lorry which is well loaded when all the Cadets and their kit are on.

Rhodesia has been much in the news lately, and you will all know a little of the difficulties with which we have to contend in our work. For the first time the Southern Rhodesian Salvationists have had to face persecution, and many of our halls have been burnt down in the country areas. The people have been intimidated by ZAPU[1] and threatened that they will be beaten or even killed if they attend meetings. They are told they must go back to the religion of their ancestors, spirit worship etc., that there is no God and the missionaries are just the agents of the Government. Many of our people have backslidden through fear, but we are glad to say that many others are making a wonderful stand for Christ. Some of the Officers in spite of having their hall and Quarters burnt down, are standing firm and rallying their people. The Cadets of late have been used mightily in the difficult areas, and have brought strength to the fear ridden Salvationists. … Howard Institute itself has had a very difficult time lately, and the students have been most troublesome, having been indoctrinated with anti-God and anti-European propaganda. One night a few weeks ago, the boys got out of hand, and started throwing bricks, one of which caught Brigadier Roberts right in his eye, smashing his glasses, and he had to be rushed to hospital. As no-one would own up, the boys had all to be sent home for two weeks and the most troublesome ones were not accepted [back]. … Last Sunday night, about 2.30 a.m. one of our Boys’ Dormitories was burnt down.

…

We went to another Corps one Sunday where the comrades[2] had been afraid to come to meetings because of threats from ZAPU supporters. As there were so few people in the hall we decided to hold our second meeting in an adjacent village where they were holding a beer drink, and where most of the neighbourhood was assembled. What a crowd of drunks there were! While they were starting the Open Air meeting, I went into a hut from which an awful noise was issuing, and found 16 drunk men, and 2 women, fighting and quarrelling with each other. I went into the middle of them and immediately they quietened. The Headman told them to listen to me, and I had absolute silence while I talked to them in their own language about Jesus, then prayed with them. I can only pray that the Holy Spirit will bring back to the befuddled minds of those men something that had been said. That afternoon we saw a number of seekers at the drum.[3]

We so enjoy the contact with the Officers and Soldiers as we go round with the Cadets. We no longer take European food with us, but eat African food with the Officers in their own homes, and this gives us a wonderful opportunity of getting to know them and helping them especially in these difficult days.

…

Allan and Carol have settled very well at their new schools, Allan at Prince Edward High School in Salisbury, and Carol at Routledge Boarding School.  The thing which delights us that they can both go to Salisbury Citadel on Sundays, and are taking a great interest. Carol was enrolled as a Singing Company member last week, and Allan went with the Y.P. Band to Gwelo last weekend which was the long holiday weekend. There are 9 of the Howard youngsters at boarding schools in Salisbury, so they all come home together and have a great time when they are home. They all arrived home on the Friday afternoon, and Allan spent Friday evening preparing his testimony! ready for the Saturday night. We took him and Major Evans’ son [Howard] into Salisbury on the Saturday morning to go with the Y.P. Band, and they had a grand weekend. In the Saturday night the boys said there must have been about 1000 Africans there – quite an ordeal for a youngster to give his first testimony! especially as some of the rougher element tried to boo the European lads. On the Sunday morning they did a meeting in the prison (European) and he said to me most distressed – “Mum, there were 7 white women in the prison”! When Carol first went to Boarding School I felt simply awful, and I am most thankful that I am kept fully occupied at the College as the children have to be away from home.

…

Howard Institute
P.O. Glendale
Southern Rhodesia.

June 1963.

We have had a very busy six months since last I wrote my newsletter. I am teaching full time at the Training College, which includes most evenings of the week as well. We have nine 2^nd year, and seven 1^st year Cadets this year. I myself take classes for Bible, Doctrine, Officers’ Regulations, Subject Notes, Y.P. Training, S.A. History, Home League Training, Writing, Cookery, as well as supervise all the Field Preparation for the 2^nd year Cadets, which means sitting down with them individually, trying to find out how they think. It has done me a great deal of good as I have had to work hard at myself in order to help them. …

…

We have just finished a Campaign in Northern Rhodesia [Zambia]. It is a difficult field these days, but God used the Cadets in a wonderful way. We moved to a different place each day, visiting in the mornings, holding Men’s, Home League and Y.P. Meetings in the afternoons, and united gatherings around huge camp fires in the evenings. … Perhaps one of the most moving sites was at a beerhall near Chikankata. Two modern beerhalls have been built here recently, and many Soldiers from nearby Corps have been led away. We held an Open Air meeting outside one beerhall with a tremendous crowd standing round, and were thrilled to see over 20 seekers kneeling at the drum. Afterwards I took the men Cadets into the packed beerhall, squeezing ourselves in. The Cadets were rather afraid to go in at first, but when I led the way, followed me in. I thought at first I was back in one of the London pubs, except that every face but my own was black. We got the crowd singing, then there was perfect silence while I spoke to them and a Cadet prayed. … During that Campaign we praise God for over 300 adult new seekers, and over 700 children.

So far as our own family is concerned, we have had rather a difficult time. Allan had an accident at Boarding School when a rope on which he was swinging, broke, and he broke both arms also had slight concussion. Carol also has had to have her tonsils out, and her tonsils were so septic that her throat was in a dreadful state after the operation, but she is pulling up again now. We then discovered that Allan had got Bilharzia (a tropical disease) so he had to have the blitz treatment for that. We are hoping to go to Beira in Mozambique, for two weeks in August, if we can save up by then, as we feel the children need the sea air to pull them up again. We shall camp in a tent, the cheapest way of having a holiday.

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[1] Zimbabwe African People’s Union, one of the African political parties in Zimbabwe, founded by Joshua Nkomo, later Vice-President of Zimbabwe, in 1961.

[2] This term has long been used in the Army for fellow Salvationists.

[3] A custom in African villages is for Salvationists to place a drum in the middle of an outdoor meeting, to which “seekers” are invited to come. It takes the place of the “mercy seat” (penitent form) that is found in Salvation Army halls.