Going Home - Doris May Lessing [45]
As for the Africans, of whom he, of course, considers himself the spokesman—he is the spokesman of African advancement as distinct from African independence—the Africans will have no more of him, and say aloud what they have been thinking for so long, that he is the most disgusting hypocrite and a much more dangerous enemy than a forthright opponent like Mr Strydom.
Luckily, however, he is able to retire into private life. I have never known a Useful Rebel who did not have some job to go back to, or a private income. It is not a role that can be played out without a cushion of some kind. And therefore the bitterness of the ingratitude of mankind is at least suffered in some sort of comfort.
Here is a ‘profile’ which appeared in the newspaper The African Weekly, June 6, 1956, published in Salisbury for Africans. Every week there is a feature called ‘Prominent Central Africans’, dealing with some African who has distinguished himself. I think this one is particularly interesting, not only because of the story it tells, but because it illustrates the theme of the Useful Rebel in another way. The Federal Party mentioned in this piece, being that which stands for the forcible imposition of Federation against the wishes of the Africans, is boycotted by all but a few of the Africans:
A boy who was appointed prefect at a new school a week after his entry and was made senior prefect after another week, and then boasted to his class-mates, ‘I shall become great,’ has literally become great. He is Isaac Samuriwo.
Starting life as a poor herd-boy who tended calves on a European farm, and who could boast of nothing but ‘royal’ blood which flowed in his veins, he has risen to become one of Central Africa’s most successful African businessmen. Instead of the herds of European cattle he tended as a youngster, he now runs a fleet of buses (three, including one just sold), he is a cartage contractor (with five lorries, three of them new), a building contractor (believed to be the only African operating in the heart of Salisbury), a greengrocer and provision merchant (with wholesale vegetable trade) and general dealer. On top of it all, he is president of the Southern Rhodesia African Association, first president of the Southern Rhodesia African Chamber of Commerce, president of the Southern Rhodesia African Transport Contractors’ Association, etc.
Isaac Henzi Samuriwo, son of Chief Samuriwo, was born in October 1913 in his father’s kraal in what is now known as the Chihota Reserve, Marandellas District.
His mother, Nvowa Nhora Tshekede, daughter of a brother of Chief Siwundula, now living in the Que Que District, was one of Chief Samuriwo’s twenty-six wives.
There were eleven children in Isaac’s house, of whom seven were girls. Isaac was the sixth-born.
Isaac first went to school in 1928, attending his kraal school (Samuriwo School). After passing Sub-B he left to work on a European farm. He tended calves for a Mr ‘Folera’ in the Enkeldoorn District. Folera was nicknamed ‘Gandakanda’ by his African employees ‘because he was harsh and cruel and beat his workers’. Isaac stayed on the job for five months and progressed from tending calves to leading oxen, ‘despite the beatings’.
He returned home, stayed a few months, then went to work in a tobacco barn at a place called Chamboko in Wedza. Here he was joined by two of his half-brothers, both older than himself. But they could not endure the treatment the European farmer meted out to them and they ran away. Isaac stood it for eight months, then returned home to resume his schooling.
After passing Standard I he went to Domboshawa Government School. With him went his elder brother, Chiyangwa. Being sons of a Chief, they were given attendants to accompany them to school, as was then customary. Isaac’s attendant was his cousin named Shadrack Kariwo. Chiyangwa failed the entrance-examination and had to return home. Isaac and Shadrack passed and were admitted.
In Standard II Shadrack failed and fell out, leaving Isaac to continue.
Isaac proved a good student. He passed his