Southern Rhodesia African National Congress
The Southern Rhodesia African National Congress (SRANC) was a political party active between 1957 and 1959 in Southern Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe). Committed to the promotion of indigenous African welfare, it was the first fully fledged black nationalist organisation in the country. While short-lived—it was banned by the predominantly white minority government in 1959—it marked the beginning of political action towards black majority rule in Southern Rhodesia, and was the original incarnation of the National Democratic Party (NDP); the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU); the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU); and the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), which has governed Zimbabwe since 1980. Many political figures who later became prominent, including Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo, were members of the SRANC.
By the 1950s, the native peoples of Southern Rhodesia were increasingly dissatisfied with their treatment by the white minority government. In rural areas, the Native Reserves Land were overstocked and in deteriorating condition. In a response to increasing soil erosion, the government introduced the Land Husbandry Act of 1951. The bill was a failure, and did not take into consideration the ecological diversity of the land it reallocated. Problems with the Land Husbandry Act could have been rectified to better suit the native population, but it was in the best interests of the settler population to keep people on the reserves poor, thereby maintaining the unequal wealth distribution the settlers so enjoyed. The Bill saw heavy opposition by both rural farmers, and urban workers.
Strict apartheid in urban areas segregated the black and white populations in hospitals, hotels, schools, and even prevented Africans from drinking alcoholic beverages. The Land Apportionment Act of 1930 implemented rigid policy about travelling within the country, requiring blacks to present papers when passing between areas. The Land Tenure Act of the same year reallocated Africans' land, pushing families out of their homes, and giving better areas to the white settlers. Despite being a minority, white settlers were allocated 49,100,000 acres (199,000 km2), while the black majority received a disproportionally small 21.1 acres (8.5 ha). Moreover, blacks were relocated to areas with bad soil, endemic malaria, and tsetse fly infestations. In cities workers had little control over conditions, because trade unions had limited power because of heavy government restrictions. Despite having established only 12 public schools for black children by 1950, a growing educated elite of wealthy Africans was developing in the cities. Extreme racism, however, prevented the black bourgeois from identifying with their white economic counterparts, and they sympathised instead with the plighted rural farmers on reserves.
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