Increased Jewish presence in Rhodesia

A regular topic of discussion here seems to be an alternative home for European Jewish people who are looking for an easier or at least alternative destination, in Africa. I guess to provide a bolt-hole come the Nazis (or earlier regime's pogroms), while not recreating the problems with OTL Israel.

I was thinking this morning about the British South African Company, the chartered company created for private exploitation of southern African, generally in the service of British interests. The BSAC led the negotiation, invasion and occupation of OTL Zimbabwe and Zambia (starting in 1890), then provided governance until about 1923, when self government was granted to the Settlers in Southern Rhodesia.

Now in OTL Rhodes, the leading light behind the BSAC was in rather tight (a rather loose term, including people like Beit who he was in competition with, or the Rothschilds who financed the company) with several British Jewish financiers and businessmen through the diamond and gold field connection and his wider commitment to the colonial project in London.

The end point probably wouldn't be Israel-on-the Limpopo, more a settler colony that had a significant and powerful Jewish population that was more open to migration from Jewish refugees in the 1930s.

In 1900 the Jewish population of S Rhodesia (as it became known) was about 400 or so, it seems. At about 1939 or so, the total European population of S Rhodesia was about 60,000. 1964 was apparently the apogee of Judaism in Rhodesia, with around 7,000 or so, before the Bush War, then independence pushed them out (like other Europeans).

I imagine it would be possible to get the population up to a couple of thousand by 1914, then up to about 5-6000 or so by 1929. With this number of settlers, the Jewish population would potentially have quite a few MPs and may be able to influence migration policy (within limits).

So, what kind of POD do we need to make the BSAC more friendly to Jewish settlement? There were a few IOTL, but along similar lines to other British colonial settlements, in other words, rather limited and desirous of integration.

Here are a couple:

1. In-between the initial Pioneer Column in 1890 and the first revolt - even several hundred migrants would be an influential starting point, given the low thousands total Euro population.

2. After the first Matabele War/revolt - about 1893/4.

3. After the Jameson Raid/Second Matabele War in 1896 - the BSAC required relief from Imperial forces, which (iirc) cost them rather a pretty penny.

Any ideas or thoughts?

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/zimbabwe.html
 
A regular topic of discussion here seems to be an alternative home for European Jewish people who are looking for an easier or at least alternative destination, in Africa. I guess to provide a bolt-hole come the Nazis (or earlier regime's pogroms), while not recreating the problems with OTL Israel.

I was thinking this morning about the British South African Company, the chartered company created for private exploitation of southern African, generally in the service of British interests. The BSAC led the negotiation, invasion and occupation of OTL Zimbabwe and Zambia (starting in 1890), then provided governance until about 1923, when self government was granted to the Settlers in Southern Rhodesia.

Now in OTL Rhodes, the leading light behind the BSAC was in rather tight (a rather loose term, including people like Beit who he was in competition with, or the Rothschilds who financed the company) with several British Jewish financiers and businessmen through the diamond and gold field connection and his wider commitment to the colonial project in London.

The end point probably wouldn't be Israel-on-the Limpopo, more a settler colony that had a significant and powerful Jewish population that was more open to migration from Jewish refugees in the 1930s.

In 1900 the Jewish population of S Rhodesia (as it became known) was about 400 or so, it seems. At about 1939 or so, the total European population of S Rhodesia was about 60,000. 1964 was apparently the apogee of Judaism in Rhodesia, with around 7,000 or so, before the Bush War, then independence pushed them out (like other Europeans).

I imagine it would be possible to get the population up to a couple of thousand by 1914, then up to about 5-6000 or so by 1929. With this number of settlers, the Jewish population would potentially have quite a few MPs and may be able to influence migration policy (within limits).

So, what kind of POD do we need to make the BSAC more friendly to Jewish settlement? There were a few IOTL, but along similar lines to other British colonial settlements, in other words, rather limited and desirous of integration.

Here are a couple:

1. In-between the initial Pioneer Column in 1890 and the first revolt - even several hundred migrants would be an influential starting point, given the low thousands total Euro population.

2. After the first Matabele War/revolt - about 1893/4.

3. After the Jameson Raid/Second Matabele War in 1896 - the BSAC required relief from Imperial forces, which (iirc) cost them rather a pretty penny.

Any ideas or thoughts?

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/zimbabwe.html

Hello J.V., had a similar thought along your lines in my TL. The difference is that it was going to be significant Central/Eastern European Jewish emigration from 1881-1891 to Cape Town/ The Cape Colony.....with a minor twist. Since the first group of Jews (Approx. 25-30,000) will be coming from Germany/Austria, the primary language of the Cape Colony will become German. In time, the Cape Colony becomes the Kap Kolonie, then eventually it will become the Kap Republik. It will still be British ruled and part of the British Empire but German will become the language of business & trade. When the Jews from E. Eur. arrive (1892ish-1914) they will speak Yiddish, but for business, German will become the predominant language. I was going to add some 450-500,000 Jews coming from the Russian Empire to the Cape. With German speaking Jews becoming dominant in business & industry, they will go into education and they will be teaching young Jews their lessons in German and not in English. Afrikaans becomes the second language of the Cape Colony spoken by the remaining Cape Dutch and the Cape Coloureds;and English slowly fades away over time as more and more English speakers head for Australia. English becomes a language that is taught in secondary school or in college. Yiddish thrives as a "street" language and or as something that people use in the home/weddings etc. I haven't got all the details sorted out but that is the general direction of where I was going to go with my version of the Kap Republik. joho:)
 
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