Copperbelt strike of 1935
| Date | 29 May 1935 |
|---|---|
| Location | Mufulira, Nkana and Roan Antelope |
| Coordinates | 12°33′00″N 28°14′00″E / 12.55°N 28.233333°ECoordinates: 12°33′00″N 28°14′00″E / 12.55°N 28.233333°E |
| Cause | Tax increase |
| Six dead, 20 injured | |
The Copperbelt strike in May 1935 was a strike by African mineworkers in the Copperbelt Province (then part of Northern Rhodesia, now part of Zambia) on 29 May 1935 to protest taxes levied by the British colonial administration. The strike involved three of the province's four major copper mines: those in Mufulira, Nkana and Roan Antelope. Near the latter, six protesters were killed by police and the strike ended. Although it failed, the strike was the first organized industrial agitation in Northern Rhodesia and is viewed by some as the first overt action against colonial rule. It caught the attention of a number of African townsmen, leading to the creation of trade unions and African nationalist politics, and is seen as the birth of African nationalism.
The strike and others in Africa during the period dramatically changed the British government's urban and migration policies. The unrest gave missionaries a chance to respond to the "Watchtower movement", joining the mining companies to provide a Christian education and create a disciplined workforce. The colonial administration, foreseeing a future drop in copper prices, also created social-service schemes for rural relatives of the urban workers.
Copperbelt was a province in Northern Rhodesia which was rich in deposits of the mineral. Cecil John Rhodes, a British capitalist and empire builder, was the leading light of British expansion north of the Limpopo River into south-central Africa. In 1895, Rhodes asked his American scout Frederick Russell Burnham to look for minerals and how to improve river navigation in the region; during this trek, Burnham discovered large copper deposits along the Kafue River. Rhodes brought British influence into the region by obtaining mineral rights from local chiefs through questionable treaties. The Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1891, signed in Lisbon on 11 June 1891 by the United Kingdom and Portugal, fixed the boundary between territories administered by the British South Africa Company (BSAC) in North-Eastern Rhodesia and Portuguese Mozambique. It also fixed the boundary between the BSAC-administered territory of North-Western Rhodesia (now in Zambia) and Portuguese Angola, although the boundary with Angola was not marked on the ground until later. The northern border of the British territory in North-Eastern Rhodesia and the British Central Africa Protectorate was agreed in an 1890 Anglo-German treaty which also fixed the (very short) boundary between North-Western Rhodesia and German South-West Africa, now Namibia. The boundary between the Congo Free State and British territory was fixed by an 1894 treaty, although minor adjustments were made until the 1930s. The border between the British Central Africa Protectorate and North-Eastern Rhodesia was fixed in 1891 at the drainage divide between Lake Malawi and the Luangwa River, and the boundary between North-Western Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia became the Zambezi River in 1898. Northern Rhodesia was under BSAC control until 1924, when it became part of the British Empire.
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