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The Rhodesia Herald,

10 July 1956
AT a foundation stone laying ceremony today at Dadaya Mission, which was badly damaged by a tornado in February, Mr Garfield Todd, Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia, again said there was a need for African education.

The stone was laid by Mr FL Hadfield, the first missionary at Dadaya, during a ceremony to commemorate the mission’s 50th anniversary. The stone was laid on the site of a new chapel.

Mr Todd said: “In the old days, it was only necessary for an African to be able to wield a pick and a shovel, but it is becoming more apparent that employers are asking for Africans with some education.”

He then gave the example of Africans who were performing the skilled job of assembling radios in Bulawayo.

“In 1934, the Government gave 70 000 pounds for African education. Today, they are giving 1.6 million pounds”, Mr Todd said.

He went on to say that the major aim of the five-year African education plan was to turn out 5 000 trained African teachers by 1960.

The mission which was run by Mr and Mrs Todd between 1934 and 1953 has rebuilt the buildings which were destroyed in February of this year and other buildings are now under construction.

Although Dadaya is only a small mission, one quarter of all African teachers at missions in Southern Rhodesia come from there. The mission is 107 miles from Bulawayo.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

With his liberal policies, Sir Garfield Todd wanted to see Africans being afforded educational opportunities, but there were some hardliners in his party who were against the policy.

Dadaya Mission, ran by the Church of Christ (New Zealand), was one of the many mission schools that contributed to the development of African education. It produced a number of luminaries, and also played a major role in nationalistic politics, as some of the founding fathers passed through Dadaya Mission.

The mission school, located in Zvishavane was run by Sir Garfield Todd and his wife, after they relocated to Rhodesia in the early 1930s.

While 2019 saw the Intense Tropical Cyclone Idai causing extensive damage and loss of lives in Manicaland Province in particular, it is important to note that there was a time when weather patterns consisted of deadly tornadoes in Zimbabwe.

Since the opening up of education opportunities to black people, the sector has grown exponentially and is now run by two ministries: Ministries of Primary and Secondary Education; and, Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development. It is also allocated the budget from the national fiscus.