Obviously, this is a huge question but what I'll do is try and give you an overview of the key institutions that existed in the Zimbabwean region when the British took control in the 1890s, the new and adapted institutions during white minority rule, and then the continued existence of these institutions after independence in 1980. Bearing in mind the 20-year rule, I'll have to cut the timeline short in about 1996 but hopefully this won't matter too much.

So to begin, what is an institution? In reality there are two types of institutions: social and physical. Social institutions include the legal, political and economic systems that dictate how a society functions. These include things like the law, education, religion, and other social functions. Physical institutions are typically the manifestations of the social systems - the buildings (Churches, court houses, houses of parliament, etc)

Prior to the arrival of the British South Africa Company in 1890, the region that would become Southern Rhodesia contained a number of different ethnic and social groups. This makes it difficult to give a comprehensive guide to the huge range of different institutions that existed amongst these different societies. Broadly speaking there were (and still are) two primary ethnic groups - the Shona and the Ndebele. Both shared a number of traditional social institutions. Concepts of hereditary leadership (chiefs), polygamous marriage, restitution payments, and subsistence farming were widespread. Bride wealth was another common element of the institution of marriage that has seen much attention within the academic community. Those that broke social laws (e.g. cattle theft or murder) were tried by the victim or the victims family, and judgements were passed down by the local leader. The "Law" was thus a flexible thing and subjective to change and circumstance.

The white settlers were quick to realise that even though some of these institutions conflicted with the Western ideas of civilisation (e.g. multiple wives), they would face severe problems if they tried to change these institutions entirely. The result was the creation of something called "Customary Law". Customary Law was an attempt to codify existing social laws to a fixed standard throughout the nation, whilst keeping elements of traditional social norms distinct from the white courts and the laws that applied to white settlers. Quoting Lord Frederick Lugard, writing in 1922 - 'Only from native courts employing customary law was it possible to create rudiments of law and order, to inculcate a sense of responsibility, and evolve among a primitive community some sense of discipline and respect for authority.' Customary Law was designed to provide a sense of consistency whatever local elder or chief was in charge. During the early years of British rule, the BSAC administration actually had less control over customary law proceedings than they believed. In many cases, local court elders used a more nuanced version of the law and in some cases disregarded it all-together. The result was that although Customary Law was traditionally portrayed as a top-down implementation of the law by the white state, the reality was that African agency permitted the Shona and Ndebele to shape the law to suit them as well. Traditional sources of authority (chiefs and non-Christian "priests" like the Mwari) retained their power within this new system.

However, by the early 1900s, the British began to systematically dismantle any institutions that they did not agree with, for a variety of reasons. In order to draw upon the pre-existing rural authorities, the white settler state implemented a system of Native Commissioners. The NC's argued that they needed to stamp out the rival authority of chiefs and insisted they needed the same level of power that the pre-colonial chiefs had. Civilising missions were undermining the respect for elders and the NC's faced the prospect of controlling a population "whose culture prevented proper development and whose rules, in any case, had deteriorated before they had fully embraced the benefits of Christian civilisation." [See Alison Shutt, "The Natives are Getting out of Hand"] Local black policemen were also officially introduced to Matabeleland in 1904 and the legal system became increasingly westernised during the first few decades of the 20th century. Court houses, magistrates, and prisons all appeared, as well as a centralised police authority - the British South Africa Police.

Political power was moved from these localised structures to the centralised Parliamentary system, replicating the British one. Chiefs were granted seats in Parliament and a franchise, but MPs were almost exclusively white. Political parties were also almost entirely white until the 1950s. The franchise (the idea of which was previously unheard of) was heavily racialised in intent if not language and ensured that the overwhelmingly black population had almost no say in the election of officials - something I have written on previously here. Although traditional chiefs retained some semblance of their previous authority, the real power now lay firmly in the hands of the white minority through the parliamentary system.

Taxation became another institution introduced by the British, and one which was particularly alien and ill-received by the indigenous populations. As early as 1893 (less than 3 years since the Pioneer Column had arrived in the region), a hut tax was imposed - payable by all dwelling owners. This was quickly followed by a dog tax in 1912, a head tax (payable by all men) and a tax on more than one wife (i.e. you paid a tax for having a second, third and fourth wife etc). In 1895 the Native Department was created with the specific intention of collecting these taxes and the Native Police (black constables) were tasked with arresting and punishing anybody who did not pay their taxes.

These taxes were an extraordinary burden for a society already facing famine due to drought and the rinderpest cattle disease. Many Shona speaking people had never paid taxes before and so the fundamental idea of turning over wealth (primarily in the form of cattle) for no tangible return was entirely alien to them. When the Shona and Ndebele rebelled in 1896-97, the British were quick to blame spiritual leaders (particularly the Mwari cult) for inciting the violence, despite the evidence to the contrary that it was local grievances over taxation and the killing of cattle by settlers that brought about the uprisings.

The taxation system remained largely unchanged in its racial composition until the late 1970s. Black Africans paid more of their income (proportionally) in taxes than the white population but the white population paid more in taxes overall. This led to numerous disagreements between the urban residents of black townships and their white counterparts in the cities, particularly from the 1950s onwards. Black men working in the factories and industrial sites around Bulawayo and Salisbury had to pay municipal taxes alongside the state taxes to reside in the cramped, poorly-served townships. Whilst state taxes funded subsidies for white farmers and residents, none of the nationally collected taxes went to the infrastructure for the township residents. In fact, in 1978 the Harare township outside Salisbury was entirely dependent upon the proceeds from a Beer tax to fund the running water and electricity provided to the local African residents.

Marriage and Bride-wealth became another source of conflict between the old institutions and the new. Missionaries had been present in the nation since the mid-1860s and so conversion became a key means of changing existing institutions. Education in mission schools was the principal form of education for rural children for most of the twentieth century in Zimbabwe, and Christianity was employed to undermine traditional spiritual belief systems and the practices that traditional "religions" employed. Customary Law marriages permitted a man to take more than one wife, whilst also making it increasingly difficult for women to end marriages themselves. A campaign by missionaries and religious organisations in colonial Zimbabwe led to a prohibition and criminalisation of polygamy, as well as an outlawing of bridewealth. The resultant shift saw Christian marriages become the only legally recognised form of union and a shift from customary only marriages, to both customary and legal (a practice which continues today with Zimbabwean couples having what are known as "White weddings" as well as a traditional ceremony.)

Furthermore, there were continued attacks on the African production structures in order to facilitate the expansion of settler capital and agriculture. In order to meet the demands of settler industry for wage labour, the traditional subsistence based peasant systems were undermined through the relocation of Africans to reserves, far removed from the markets. It was believed that if the native could work for himself, he would be less likely to work for wages. This had a dramatic effect on the economic systems in the region - for example, the gold trade to the Swahili coasts that had existed in north-east Zimbabwe for over 500 years dwindled and eventually disappeared due to pressure from the settler state. There was a large-scale dislocation of men from their families as they travelled to the urban areas for work, leading to further changes in the traditional social institutions. The fact that an African could do the same job as a white labourer for less than 1/50th of the wages ensured a constant demand for unskilled black labour.

(cont'd below)