Publication History:
Place of Publication: Fort Tuli, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia); “established on July 1st, 1890, by the Pioneer Column itself and by ‘A’ Troop of the British South Africa Company’s Police. This fort was first named Fort Selous, after the hunter, explorer and then guide to the Column. The hill on which the fort was built stands less than a mile south of the Shashi River in a hollow basin surrounded by higher hills—its siting was therefore frequently criticised for it was vulnerable to long-range guns and even rifles, a necessary consideration with regard to any threat from the Transvaal Republic” (from Our Rhodesian Heritage).
Frequency: Unknown
Volume and Issue Data: Circa July, 1891
Size and Format: Unknown
Editor/Publisher: Unknown
Title Changes and Continuation: Unknown
General Description and Notes:
According to Rhodesiana (Vol. 12, September 1965 and republished on the Our Rhodesian Heritage website), from 1890 to 1893 the fort at Tuli was the main entry to Rhodesia and a small town rapidly grew up at the foot of the fort. It was the head of the telegraph, and here the first hospital in Rhodesia was started by Mother Patrick and her Dominican Sisters on April 1st, 1891. By July, 1891, Tuli even boasted its own newspaper, the Tuli Times. Rhodes reached Tuli in October, 1890, on his way to Mashonaland but the rains ended his journey there. Lord Randolph Churchill, Sir Frederick Carrington, Jameson and Beit were all entertained in the fort in July, 1891, while the large numbers of wagons and new immigrants, streaming north, had to replenish their supplies at Tuli and provided the few stores and the British South Africa Company’s Commissariat Officer with exorbitant profits. In 1893 Tuli was the base from which the Southern Column marched on Bulawayo but thereafter it declined for the Tati-Mangwe road now provided a more direct route to Bulawayo and then on to Salisbury.
Vann and VanArsdel cite the Tuli Times as handwritten and cyclostyled.
Information Sources:
Bibliography: Jerry Don Vann, Rosemary T. VanArsdel, Periodicals of Queen Victoria’s Empire: An Exploration (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996), p. 291; Press Reference-Zimbabwe; Louis W. Bolze, “The Book Publishing Scene in Zimbabwe,” The African Book Publishing Record, 6:3-4 (1980), 229–236
Link: Our Rhodesian Heritage
Locations: None
The Handwritten Newspapers Project 