Rudd Concession

Infobox Treaty
name = Rudd Concession
type = Mining concession
date_draft = 13 October, 1888
date_signed = 13 October, 1888
date_effective = 13 October, 1888
date_expiration =
signatories = Charles Rudd
Lobengula
depositor = British South Africa Company
language = English|

The Rudd Concession was a written mining concession or agreement that Charles Rudd secured from Lobengula, King of Matabeleland on 13th October 1888. Rudd was a business associate of Cecil John Rhodes and he obtained the concession as his agent.

Rhodes had already tried and failed to get a concession from Lobengula. In 1888 he used the 'imperial factor' to lay the groundwork: a friendship treaty with the British Government, which Rhodes instigated by using John Moffat, son of the missionary Robert Moffat who was trusted by Lobengula, to persuade the latter to sign the treaty and favour Rhodes' subsequent mining concession proposals.

Rhodes and Rudd also used deceit, assuring Lobengula that no more than ten white men would mine in Matabeleland, but this was left out of the actual document Lobengula signed. Furthermore it stated that the mining companies could do anything necessary for their operations. In the months of negotiations, Rhodes also used Dr. Leander Starr Jameson, whom Lobengula regarded as his friend having previously been treated by him for gout, to help persuade him. [Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia, Selous F C, Rhodesiana Reprint Library, 1969]

When Lobengula discovered later what the Rudd Concession really meant, it was too late. He satisfied himself by putting to death the councillors who had supported it and attempted to undermine the concession by granting a parallel one to a German prospector the following year - the so-called Lippert Concession. However, Rhodes managed to buy out Lippert. [Longman History of Central Africa, Longman Publishing, Cape Town 1978]

British South Africa Company

Meanwhile, with the Concession, during 1889 Rhodes obtained a charter from the British Government in London for the British South Africa Company (BSAC) to rule, police and make new treaties and concessions from the Limpopo River to the great lakes of Central Africa. He convinced the Colonial Office that Lobengula's tributary state of Mashonaland, which had a few ancient gold mines, would be a new Rand gold mining area, and would pay for the administration as well as bringing trade benefits to Britain.

In July 1890 Rhodes therefore sent the Pioneer Column of white settlers protected by well-armed British South Africa Police (BSAP), the BSAC's own paramilitary force, to Mashonaland, using the Rudd Concession as the justification. Once the BSAC had consolidated their base in Mashonaland, they negotiated with the Portuguese authorities over the placement of the eastern border to the territory in Manicaland leading to the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1891 [Cambridge History of Africa V.8, CUP, 1986] . The tricky problem of the hostile Matabele kingdom was solved when war broke out (the Matabele War) in 1893 and Matabeleland was incorporated into the colonial BSAC territory.

Consequences

It turned out that the Rudd Concession was somewhat disappointing in mining terms, as the gold deposits were much scantier than those of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. However, the mineral resources of the country proved to be considerable, although scattered in relatively small deposits. Gold production made up approximately 25% of the country's exports as late as 1988. [Quarterly Digest of Statistics, Zimbabwe Printing & Stationary Office, 1989] The farmland taken by settlers was valuable, and after putting down two more uprisings, a new order was imposed that mobilised the people of the territory into a supply of cheap labour. A prosperous white settler society was established that segregated itself from the indigenous inhabitants whilst controlling and overseeing the development of the territory.

ee also

*Cecil Rhodes
*Lobengula
*Southern Rhodesia
*Zimbabwe
*British South Africa Company

References

* Neil Parsons: "A New History of Southern Africa, Second Edition." Macmillan, London (1993), pp 179-181.