- This article is about the unrecognized state of Rhodesia,
today's Zimbabwe. For other uses, see Rhodesia .
Rhodesia ( ), officially the
Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognized state
located in southern Africa that
existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral
Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom
on 11 November 1965. With its government
based at the former colonial capital of Salisbury
, its territory consisted of the former British colony of Southern
Rhodesia
.
The state
was named after Cecil John
Rhodes
, whose British South Africa Company
acquired the land in the nineteenth century.
The
landlocked country bordered South Africa to the south, Botswana
(post-1966)
to the southwest, Zambia to the northwest and Mozambique
(Portuguese East Africa
until 1975) to the east. The state was
governed by a predominantly
white
minority government until 1979, initially as a self-governing
colony then, after the Unilateral Declaration of Independence as a
self-proclaimed sovereign
Dominion and
latterly a Republic.
Throughout its history, Rhodesia continued to be referred to by the
British, who did not recognize the state, as "Southern Rhodesia".
Before
1964, the name "Rhodesia" had referred to the territory of modern
Zambia
and Zimbabwe
; however,
when the former colony of Northern Rhodesia
renamed itself Zambia on independence in 1964, the
colony of Southern Rhodesia changed its name to simply
"Rhodesia". However, the change had not yet been officially
ratified when Rhodesia declared itself independent, and as a
result, the British Government continued to refer to the breakaway
colony as "Southern Rhodesia" throughout its existence, a stance it
maintained regarding the June–December 1979 successor state of
Zimbabwe Rhodesia. Therefore, when
Zimbabwe Rhodesia returned to colonial status from December 1979 to
April 1980, it was as "Southern Rhodesia", which, according to the
British, it had never ceased to be called. Southern Rhodesia
subsequently gained international recognition of its independence
in April 1980, when it became the independent Republic of
Zimbabwe.
History
UDI
The British government adopted a policy of
no independence before
majority rule, dictating that colonies with a substantial
population of white settlers would not receive independence except
under conditions of
majority rule,
regardless of whether the population had advanced sufficiently into
the modern world to take part in it. The European minority
Rhodesian Front government, led by
Ian Smith, opposed the policy.
The British Empire ruled over the self-governing
colony of Southern
Rhodesia
until
negotiations between Smith's government and the UK government broke
down in 1965.
Smith's government declared the country independent from British
rule on 11 November 1965 in what became known as UDI (
Unilateral
Declaration of Independence). Smith sent a telegram notifying
British Prime Minister
Harold Wilson
at precisely 1 p.m. local time (11 a.m. in London) on 11 November,
at the precise moment that the UK started its traditional two
minutes of silence to mark the end of
World
War I and honour its war dead. The not-so-hidden message to
"kith and kin," as Smith put it, recalled Southern Rhodesia's
assistance and allegiance to the UK in its time of need in
World War I and
II.
British
High Commissioner John Baines Johnston, who disliked
Smith, cleaned out the High Commission building of all official
documents and left Rhodesia. Smith gave strict instructions to his
government not to harm the High Commission building in any way,
much to Johnston's surprise.
The international community condemned UDI. The
United Nations Security
Council authorised the use of
sanctions, targeting Rhodesia at the
behest of Britain, beginning in 1965 and lasting until the
restoration of British rule in December 1979. The terms of these
sanctions forbade most forms of trade or financial exchange with
Rhodesia. However, not all members of the international community
adhered to the sanctions.
South Africa, Portugal, Israel
, Iran
and some
Arab nations helped Rhodesia in various
ways. In the case of the U.S., the 1971 Byrd Amendment
allowed the importation of
chrome,
ferrochrome and
nickel
from Rhodesia. Rhodesia evaded sanctions in the short term but few
outsiders invested in Rhodesia after the sanctions.
The Rhodesian government struggled to obtain international
recognition and the lifting of sanctions. No significant state ever
granted recognition to Rhodesia and in 1970 the U.S. government
categorically stated that "under no circumstances" would it
recognize Rhodesian independence.
Initially, the state maintained its loyalty to
Queen Elizabeth II as
"Queen of Rhodesia" (a title to which she never consented) but not
to her representative, the Governor Sir
Humphrey Gibbs, whose constitutional duties
were exercised by an "
Officer Administering the
Government,"
Clifford Dupont. On
2 March 1970, Rhodesia's government formally severed links with the
British Crown, declaring Rhodesia a
republic with Dupont as President. Dupont, a London
solicitor, had emigrated to Rhodesia in 1953. The Rhodesians hoped
that the declaration of a Republic would finally prompt sympathetic
states to grant recognition. The UK government pressured United
States Secretary of State
William
P. Rogers into
closing the U.S. consulate in Salisbury
.
Impact of UDI
In 2005 the 40th anniversary of UDI prompted memorial events of
various kinds. Many individuals directly affected by, or who
participated in, UDI still lived. The British Academy funded a two
day conference on UDI ('UDI: 40 Years On') at the London School of
Economics in January 2006. The conference portrayed UDI as a joint
product of racial conflict and the
Cold
War. UDI had an international dimension. Domestic events in
Rhodesia alone did not produce Smith's declaration.
Critics of UDI sought to maintain that Smith intended only to
defend the privileges of a small white elite at the expense of the
black majority. In this view UDI created a vacuum which the
Mugabe regime eventually filled.
Alternatively, many
Rhodesians
sought to justify UDI on the ground that the British government had
delayed independence by 15 years. They said the delay contained the
spread of communism in Africa and enabled Zimbabwe to avoid some of
the economic and political problems suffered by many other newly
independent African nations.
Tobacco generated more than half of Rhodesia's foreign currency
throughout the UDI era and a highly-organised cartel smuggled it
out to world markets disguised as South African or Portuguese
product. However, sanctions that followed UDI affected tobacco
production badly. The volume sold quickly declined from 150m kg
(US$75m) in 1964 to around 60m kg (US$30m) per year.
- Ted Jeffreys, President of the Rhodesia Tobacco Association
from 1962 to 1965, in 1991
During UDI, white tobacco farmers switched to the production of
maize and beef for sale on the domestic market. This provided
severe competition to black farmers, whose share of marketed home
food production declined from 65% to 30% during the UDI period. The
black peasant farming sector never recovered. At the same time,
sanctions provided an artificial protection for domestic
manufacturing, which allowed the development of industries. These
businesses later faltered when exposed to international competition
in 1980.
Start of the Bush War
A lengthy armed campaign by
ZANLA, the
military wing of the
Zimbabwe African National
Union (ZANU), and
ZIPRA, the military wing
of the
Zimbabwe African
People's Union (ZAPU), against the Rhodesian government
followed UDI. This became known as the "Bush War" by White
Rhodesians and as the "Second " (or
rebellion in
Shona) by supporters of the guerrillas. The
war is generally considered to have started in 1972 with scattered
attacks on isolated white-owned farms.
After
unsuccessful appeals to Britain and the United States for military
assistance to liberate Zimbabwe, Robert
Mugabe, latterly based in Mozambique
, led ZANU with support from the People's
Republic of China
. Joshua Nkomo,
based in Zambia
and
supported by the Soviet
Union
, led ZAPU. ZANU and ZAPU together formed
'the Patriotic Front'. Broadly, ZANU represented the 80% of the
Black population who spoke
Shona and ZAPU
represented the 20% who spoke
Ndebele.
An impression quickly took root during the war that the Rhodesians
were going to lose. Even the South Africans considered sustaining
white minority rule in a nation in which blacks outnumbered whites
by 22:1 as untenable. In 1978 there were 270,000 Rhodesians of
European descent and more than six million of African descent.
International business groups involved in the country (e.g.
Lonrho) transferred their support from the
Rhodesian government to black nationalist parties. Business leaders
and politicians feted Nkomo on his visits to Europe, funding his
ZAPU party and associated ZIPRA military operations. This funding
allowed ZIPRA to purchase sophisticated weaponry on the
international arms market, which ultimately helped lead to the
demise of the Rhodesian state. ZANU also attracted business
supporters who saw the course that future events were likely to
take.
Initially, the Rhodesian government's overwhelming superiority in
manpower, fire-power and mobility led the government to several
victories. Containing the insurgency required little more than a
police action.
But the situation changed dramatically after
the end of Portuguese colonial rule in Mozambique
in 1975. Rhodesia now found itself almost
entirely surrounded by hostile states and even South Africa, its
only real ally, pressed for a settlement.
The
Rhodesian government and the black nationalists met at Victoria
Falls
in August 1975 for negotiations brokered by South
Africa and Zambia, but the talks never got beyond the procedural
phase. Rhodesian representatives made it clear they were
prepared to fight an all out war to prevent majority rule.
- Rand Daily Mail editorial, May
1976
At this point, ZANU's alliance with
FRELIMO
(the Liberation Front of Mozambique) and the porous border between
Mozambique and eastern Rhodesia enabled large-scale training and
infiltration of ZANU/ZANLA guerrillas. The governments of Zambia
and Botswana were also emboldened sufficiently to allow guerrilla
bases to be set up in their territories. Guerrillas began to launch
operations deep inside Rhodesia, attacking roads, railways,
economic targets and isolated security force positions, in 1976.
The government adopted a 'strategic hamlets' policy of the kind
used in
Malaya and
Vietnam to restrict the influence of
insurgents over the population of rural areas. Local people were
forced to relocate to protected villages (PVs) which were strictly
controlled and guarded by the government against rebel atrocities.
The protected villages were compared by guerillas to
concentration camps. Some contemporary
accounts claim that this interference in the lives of local
residents induced many of them who had previously been neutral to
support the insurgents. Other accounts say that the insurgents
lacked real support in the country and had to resort to terrorizing
the population to force their support (the reason for the
'protected village' program). The war degenerated into rounds of
increasing brutality from all three parties involved (ZANU and
ZAPU, and the Rhodesian Army fighting off their attacks). Mike
Subritzky, a former NZ Army ceasefire monitor in Rhodesia, in 1980
described the war as "both bloody and brutal and brought out the
very worst in the opposing combatants on all three sides."
The Rhodesian government faced a serious economic struggle during
the 1970s as a result of sanctions, emigration, and the strain
imposed on the economic system by
conscription of all white males, from the age
of sixteen upwards. At this time volunteers were recruited from
overseas to help in the fight. One particular source of volunteers,
Vietnam War veterans mostly from the USA
and Australia, who had found it difficult to adjust to civilian
life in their home countries . Rhodesians began to take serious
casualties in 1977, leaving few white families untouched.
End of the Bush War
Rhodesia began to lose vital economic and military support from
South Africa, which, while sympathetic to the white minority
government, never accorded it diplomatic recognition. The South
Africans placed limits on the fuel and munitions they supplied to
the Rhodesian military. They also withdrew the personnel and
equipment that they had previously provided to aid the war effort.
In 1976 the South African and
United States governments worked
together to place pressure on Smith to agree to a form of majority
rule. The Rhodesians now offered more concessions, but those
concessions were insufficient to end the war.
At the time, some Rhodesians said the still embittered history
between the British-dominated Rhodesia and the
Afrikaner-dominated South Africa partly led South
Africa to withdraw its aid to Rhodesia. Ian Smith said in his
memoirs that even though many white South Africans supported
Rhodesia, South African Prime Minister
John
Vorster's policy of
détente with
the Black African states ended up with Rhodesia being offered as
the "sacrificial lamb" in order to buy more time for South Africa.
Other observers perceive South Africa's distancing itself from
Rhodesia as being an early move in the process that led to majority
rule in South Africa itself.
- Dr Sue Onslow, 'South Africa and UDI'
By early 1978 militant victories put the Rhodesian armed forces on
the defensive. The government abandoned its early strategy of
trying to defend the borders in favour of trying to defend key
economic areas and lines of communication with South Africa, while
the rest of the countryside became a patchwork of "
no-go areas." Rhodesia's front-line forces never
contained more than 25,000 troops, eight tanks (Polish build
T-55LD
tanks) and nine old
Hawker Hunter
jets. Those forces could still launch raids on enemy bases, but
Rhodesia faced diplomatic isolation, economic collapse and military
defeat.
During the closing stages of the war, the Rhodesian government
resorted to biological warfare. Watercourses at several sites close
to the Mozambique border were deliberately contaminated with
cholera and
warfarin, an anti-coagulant commonly used as the
active ingredient in rat poison. Food stocks in areas of insurgent
activity were contaminated with
anthrax
spores. These biological attacks had little impact on the fighting
capability of ZANLA, but caused considerable distress to the local
population. Over 10,000 people contracted anthrax in the period
1978 to 1980 of whom 200 died. The facts about this episode became
known during the hearings of the South African
Truth and
Reconciliation Commission during the late 1990s. Former senior
members of the Rhodesian security forces have stated that the
actions described were undertaken by Rhodesian
psy-ops units using material supplied through the
Operation Coast programme of the
SADF.
The work of journalists such as
Lord Richard Cecil, son of
the
Marquess of
Salisbury, stiffened the morale of Rhodesians and their
overseas supporters. Lord Richard produced regular news reports
such as the Thames TV 'Frontline Rhodesia' features. These reports
typically contrasted the incompetent insurgents with the "superbly
professional" government troops. A group of ZANLA insurgents killed
Lord Richard on 20 April 1978 when he parachuted into enemy
territory with a Rhodesian airborne unit and landed in the middle
of a group of ZANLA fighters.
The
shooting down on 3 September 1978 of the civilian Vickers Viscount airliner Hunyani,
Air Rhodesia
Flight RH825
, in the Kariba area by ZIPRA
insurgents using a surface-to-air
missile, and the subsequent massacre of its survivors, is
widely considered to be the event that finally destroyed the
Rhodesians' will to continue the war. Although militarily
insignificant, the loss of this aircraft (and a second Viscount,
the Umniati
, in 1979) demonstrated the reach of insurgents
extended to Rhodesian civil society.
The Rhodesians' means to continue the war were also eroding fast.
In December 1978 a ZANLA unit penetrated the outskirts of Salisbury
and fired a volley of rockets and
incendiary device rounds into the main oil
storage depot – the most heavily defended economic asset in the
country. The storage tanks burned for five days giving off a column
of smoke that could be seen away. Half a million barrels of
petroleum product (comprising Rhodesia’s strategic oil reserve)
were lost. At a stroke, the country’s annual budget deficit was
increased by 20%.
The government's defence spending increased from R$30m, 8.5% of the
national budget in 1971 to 1972, to R$400m in 1978 to 1979, 47% of
the national budget. In 1980 the post-independence government of
Zimbabwe inherited a US$500m national debt.
The end of UDI
The Rhodesian army continued its "mobile counter-offensive"
strategy of holding key positions ("vital asset ground") while
carrying out raids into the no-go areas and into neighbouring
countries. These raids became increasingly costly and unproductive.
For
example, in April 1979 special forces carried out a raid on
Joshua Nkomo's residence in Lusaka
(Zambia
) with the
stated intention of assassinating him. Nkomo and his family
left hastily a few hours before the raid – having clearly been
warned that the raid was coming. Rumours of treachery circulated
within Rhodesia.
It was variously suggested that the army
command had been penetrated by British MI6
or that people in the Rhodesian establishment were
positioning themselves for life after independence.
The
loyalty of the country's Central
Intelligence Organization
became suspect.
In 1979, some special forces units were accused of using counter
insurgents operations as cover for ivory poaching and smuggling.
Colonel
Reid-Daly (commander of the
Selous Scouts) was dismissed for
insubordination while defending himself against this charge.
Meanwhile, support for ZANU-PF was growing amongst the black
soldiers who made up 70% of the Rhodesian army.
By the end of 1978, the need to cut a deal was apparent to most
Rhodesians, but not to all. Ian Smith had dismissed his
intransigent Defence Minister,
P.
K. van der Byl as early as 1976.
"PK" had been a hard-line opponent of any form of compromise with
domestic opposition or the international community since before
UDI.
- P. K. van der Byl in 1977, commenting on a British peace
plan.
Van der
Byl eventually retired to his country estate outside Cape Town
, but there were elements in Rhodesia, mainly
embittered former security force personnel, who forcibly opposed
majority rule up to and well beyond independence. New white
immigrants continued to arrive in Rhodesia right up to the eve of
independence.
As the result of an internal settlement between the Rhodesian
government and some urban-based African nationalist parties, which
were not in exile and not involved in the war, elections were held
in April 1979. The
UANC (United African
National Council) party won a majority in this election, and its
leader,
Abel Muzorewa (a
United Methodist Church bishop),
became the country's prime minister on 1 June 1979. The country's
name was changed to
Zimbabwe
Rhodesia. The internal settlement left control of the country's
police, security forces, civil service and judiciary in white
hands, for the moment. It assured whites of about one third of the
seats in parliament. It was essentially a power-sharing arrangement
between whites and blacks which did not amount to majority rule.
However, the
United States
Senate voted to end economic sanctions against Zimbabwe
Rhodesia on 12 June.
While the 1979 election was described by the Rhodesian government
as non-racial and democratic, it did not include the main
nationalist parties
ZANU and
ZAPU. In spite of offers from
Ian
Smith, the latter parties declined to participate in an
election leading to anything less than full and immediate majority
rule.
Bishop Muzorewa's government did not receive international
recognition. The Bush War continued unabated and sanctions were not
lifted. The international community refused to accept the validity
of any agreement which did not incorporate the main nationalist
parties.
The British Government (then led by the
recently elected Margaret
Thatcher) issued invitations to all parties to attend a peace
conference at Lancaster
House
. These negotiations took place in London in
late 1979. The three-month-long conference almost failed to reach
conclusion, due to disagreements on
Land reform, but resulted in the
Lancaster House Agreement.
UDI ended, and Rhodesia reverted to the status of a British colony
('The British Dependency of Southern Rhodesia').
The outcome was an internationally supervised general election in
early 1980.
ZANU led by
Robert Mugabe won this election by terrorizing
opposition to ZANU, including supporters of ZAPU. The observers and
the newly-installed governor
Lord Soames
looked the other way, and Mugabe's victory was certified. Elements
in the Rhodesian armed forces toyed with the idea of mounting a
coup against the stolen election ("Operation Quartz") to prevent
ZANU taking over government of the country, but
the coup was never realised.
Independence
Mugabe
and the victorious black nationalists were rather less concerned by
Operation Quartz than by the possibility that there might be a mass
exodus of the white community of the kind that had caused chaos in
Mozambique
five years earlier. Such an exodus had been
prepared for by the South African government.
With the agreement of
the British Governor of Rhodesia, South African troops had entered
the country to secure the road approaches to the Beit Bridge
border crossing point. Refugee camps had
been prepared in the Transvaal
. On the day the election results became
known, most white families had prepared contingency plans for
flight, including the packing of cars and suitcases.
However, after a meeting with Robert Mugabe and the central
committee of
ZANU , Ian Smith was
reassured that whites could, and should stay in the new Zimbabwe.
Mugabe promised that he would abide strictly by the terms of the
Lancaster House Agreement
and that changes in Zimbabwe would be made gradually and by proper
legal process.
On 18
April 1980 the country became independent as the Republic of
Zimbabwe, and its capital, Salisbury, was renamed Harare
two years
later.
Politics
Presidential flag of Rhodesia
Although Southern Rhodesia never gained full Dominion status within
the old Commonwealth, Southern Rhodesians ruled themselves from the
attainment of 'Responsible Government' in 1923. Its electoral
register had property and education qualifications, intended to
ensure that the government remained in "civilized" hands. Over the
years various electoral arrangements made at a national and
municipal level upheld these standards. For example, the franchise
for the first Legislative Council election in 1899 contained the
following requirement:
- voters to be British subjects, male, 21 years of age and
older, able to write their address and occupation, and then to
fulfil the following financial requirements: (a) ownership of a
registered mining claim in Southern Rhodesia, or (b) occupying
immovable property worth £75, or (c) receiving wages or salary of
£50 per annum in Southern Rhodesia. Six months' continuous
residence was also required for qualifications (b) and
(c).
Following Cecil Rhodes' dictum of "equal rights for all civilized
men", there was no overt racial component to the franchise.
However, the requirement effectively excluded native blacks from
the electorate. Whites never comprised more than 5% of the
country's total population, but up to 1979 they never had less than
95% of the total vote in national elections. Up until the 1950s,
Southern Rhodesia had a vibrant political life with right and left
wing parties competing for power. The Rhodesia Labour Party held
seats in the Assembly and in municipal councils throughout the
1920s and 30s. From 1953 to 1958 the prime minister was
Garfield Todd, a liberal who did much to
promote the development of the Black community through investment
in education, housing and healthcare. However, the government
forced Todd from office due to his inability to come to agreement
with Britain over the terms of Rhodesia's independence.
From 1958 onwards, white settler politics consolidated and ossified
around resistance to majority rule, setting the stage for UDI. The
1961 Constitution governed Southern Rhodesia and independent
Rhodesia up until 1969, using the Westminster Parliamentary System
modified by a system of separate voter rolls with differing
property and education qualifications, without regard to race.
Whites ended up with the majority of Assembly seats.
The 1969
republican constitution
established a
bicameral Parliament
consisting of an indirectly-elected
Senate
and a directly-elected
House of
Assembly, effectively reserving the majority of seats for
whites. The office of
President had only ceremonial
significance with the Prime Minister holding executive power.
The Constitution of the short-lived
Zimbabwe Rhodesia, which saw a black-led
government elected for the first time, reserved 28 of the 100
parliamentary seats for whites. The independence constitution
agreed at
Lancaster House
reserved 20 out of 100 seats for whites in the House of Assembly
and 8 out of 40 seats in the Senate. The constitution prohibited
Zimbabwe authorities from altering the Constitution for seven years
without unanimous consent and required a three quarters vote in
Parliament for a further three years. The government amended the
Constitution in 1987 to abolish the seats reserved for whites, and
replace the office of Prime Minister with an executive President.
In 1990 the government abolished the Senate.
Foreign relations
Throughout the period of its
Unilateral
Declaration of Independence (1965 to 1979), Rhodesia pursued a
foreign policy of attempting to secure recognition as an
independent country, and insisting that its political system would
include 'gradual steps to majority rule.' Ardently anti-communist,
Rhodesia tried to present itself to the West as a front-line state
against communist expansion in Africa, to little avail. Rhodesia
received little international recognition during its existence;
recognition only occurred after elections in 1980 and a transition
to black African rule.
Rhodesia wished to retain its economic prosperity and also feared
communist elements in the rebel forces, and thus felt their policy
of a gradual progression to black majority rule was justified.
However, the international community refused to accept this
rationale, believing that their policies were perpetuating racism.
This attitude was part of the larger
decolonisation context, during which Western
powers such as United Kingdom, France, and Belgium hastened to
grant independence to their colonies in Africa.
Britain and the UDI
Rhodesia was originally a
British
colony. Although
decolonisation
in Africa had commenced after World War II, it began accelerating
in the early 1960s, causing Britain to negotiate independence
rapidly with several of its colonies. During this period, it
adopted a foreign policy called
NIBMAR, or No
Independence Before Majority African Rule, mandating democratic
reforms that placed governance in the hands of the majority black
Africans. The governing white minority of Rhodesia, led by
Ian Smith, opposed the policy and its
implications. On 11 November 1965, Rhodesia's minority white
government made a
unilateral declaration of
independence, or UDI, from the United Kingdom, as it became
apparent that negotiations would not lead to independence under the
white regime.
The United Kingdom government immediately brought in legislation
(Southern Rhodesia Act 1965) which formally abolished all Rhodesian
government institutions. This move made life difficult for
Rhodesian citizens who wished to travel internationally as
passports issued by Rhodesia were not recognised as valid; in
January 1966, the Government issued a statement accepting as valid
any passport issued before the declaration of independence and
allowing six month United Kingdom passports to be granted when they
expired - provided that the bearer declared they did not intend to
aid the independent Rhodesian government.
Until late 1969, Rhodesia still recognised
Queen Elizabeth II as
head of state, even though it opposed the British government itself
for hindering its goals of independence. The Queen, however,
refused to accept the title
Queen of Rhodesia. Eventually,
the Smith government abandoned attempts to remain loyal to the
Crown, and in 1969, a majority of whites voted in referendum to
declare Rhodesia a
republic. They hoped
that this move would facilitate recognition as an independent state
by the international community, but the issues of white minority
control remained and hindered this effort, and like the UDI before
it, the government lacked international recognition.
Sanctions
After the declaration of independence, and indeed for the entire
duration of its existence, Rhodesia did not receive official
recognition from any state, although it did maintain diplomatic
relations with South Africa, another white minority regime (but did
not recognize Rhodesia due to its wish to preserve its fragile
positions with other nations but frequently assisted the republic),
and Portugal, which ceased relations with Rhodesia after its
Carnation Revolution in 1974.
The day following the declaration of independence, the
United Nations Security
Council passed a resolution (
S/RES/216)
calling upon all states to not accord Rhodesia recognition, and to
refrain from any assistance. The Security Council also imposed
selective mandatory economic sanctions, which were later made
comprehensive.
International perspective
Rhodesia campaigned for international acceptance and invoked the
doctrine of
non-intervention in
internal affairs as justification for rebuking external criticism
of its internal policies. However, the emerging doctrine of
self-determination in colonial
situations meant that most nations regarded Rhodesia as
illegitimate.
Zambia
, formerly
Northern
Rhodesia
, took a pragmatic approach towards Rhodesia.
Kenneth Kaunda, heavily dependent on
access through Rhodesia for his nation's copper ore exports, fuel,
and power imports unofficially worked with the Rhodesian
government. Rhodesia still allowed Zambia to export and import its
goods through its territory to Mozambique ports, despite the
Zambian government's official policy of hostility and
non-recognition of the post-UDI Smith Administration.
The
United States, like all other Western nations, refused to recognise
Rhodesia, but unlike others allowed its Consulate-General to function as a
communications conduit between the American government in Washington,
D.C.
, and the Rhodesian government in Salisbury.
When
Rhodesia set up an information office in Washington, D.C., OAU
nations loudly protested. the U.S. government
responded by saying the Rhodesian mission and its staff had no
official diplomatic status and violated no U.S. laws.
Portugal pursued a middle path with Rhodesia.
While not officially
recognising Rhodesia under Ian Smith, the government of Antonio Salazar did permit Rhodesia to
establish a diplomatic mission in Lisbon
, and
permitted Rhodesian exports and imports through their colony of
Mozambique
. The Portuguese government in power at that
time, authoritarian and ardently anti-communist, gave active
behind-the-scenes support in Rhodesia's fight against the guerrilla
groups.
South Africa, itself under international pressure as a white
minority government, pursued a policy of
détente with the black African states at the
time. These states wanted South Africa to pressure Ian Smith to
accept a faster transition to majority rule in Rhodesia, in return
for pledges of non-interference in South Africa's internal affairs.
Prime Minister
John Vorster, believing majority rule
in Rhodesia would lead to international acceptance for South
Africa, used a number of tactics to pressure Smith. The South
African government held up shipments of fuel and ammunition and
pulled out friendly South African forces from Rhodesia. The
combined loss of Mozambique and the loss of support from South
Africa dealt critical blows to the Rhodesian government.
Legations
After the
UDI, Rhodesia House in London, (the Rhodesian High Commmission), now the Embassy of
Zimbabwe in London
, simply became a representative office with no
official diplomatic status. Other locations which had
Rhodesian representative offices were:
The most important representative offices for Rhodesia were Lisbon
and Pretoria.
Results
Continuing civil war and a lack of international support eventually
led the Rhodesian government to submit to an agreement with the UK
in 1979.
This led to internationally supervised
elections, won by ZANU-PF
and Robert Mugabe, establishing the internationally-recognised
Zimbabwe
.
Legacy
After independence in April 1980, the history of Rhodesians became
that of
the whites in Zimbabwe.
However, many of the issues associated with UDI and the Bush War
were not resolved immediately. In the early 1980s, South Africa
sought to secure its position in the region by various means
including the destabilisation of neighbouring states through
support for dissident groups such as
UNITA (in
Angola) and
Renamo (in Mozambique). In
Zimbabwe, the South African intelligence service promoted ZIPRA
dissidents in what became known as the super-ZAPU insurgency in
Matabeleland.
During the Bush War of the 1970s some white farmers were able to
carry on operations by paying protection money to commanders. The
super-ZAPU insurgency of the early 1980s was much less manageable.
Super-ZAPU targeted white farmers, missionaries and tourists on the
grounds that their murders would make "international
headlines."
- Ed Cumming, Matabeleland white farmer
The insurgency was equipped and coordinated by South African
intelligence, working through white former members of the Rhodesian
security services. The super-ZAPU insurgency was eventually
resolved at a military level by the Zimbabwe army Fifth Brigade's
sweep through Matabeleland in 1983 (operation "
Gukurahundi") and at a political level by the
Unity Accord of 1987. Operation
Gukurahundi was associated with the massacre of
between four and ten thousand civilians. Those last figures are
estimated by sources ranging from the Catholic Commission for
Justice and Peace to Parade magazine.
The Matabeleland police reserve, still a largely white force in
1983, provided a degree of support to operation Gukurahundi. White
police officers manning roadblocks and checkpoints were a commonly
observed feature in Matabeleland at the time of the
operation.
In the ten years after independence, around 60% of the white
population of Zimbabwe emigrated. Most emigrated to South Africa
and mainly white, English speaking countries where they formed
expatriate communities. Many expatriates and some of the whites who
stayed in Zimbabwe became deeply nostalgic for Rhodesia. These
individuals are known as "
Rhodies." Native
whites who are more accepting of the new order are known as
"Zimbos."
Today, Zimbabwe, once considered the
breadbasket of Africa, is a net importer of
foodstuffs, with the European Union and United States providing
emergency food relief as humanitarian aid on a regular basis. Part
of the issue is due to a marked decrease in agricultural production
as fertile farmland once cultivated by trained white farmers has
been forcibly relocated to black former combatants, who are
untrained in agricultural land management, as compensation for
military service. In such cases, production usually falls to less
than half of its estimated capacity and fertile land lies fallow
due to neglect. Not only is production reduced, but the jobs
associated with operating a viable enterprise are lost.
Zimbabwe also suffers from a crippling inflation rate, as the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has a routine policy of printing money to
satisfy government debts, which introduces excessive currency into
the economic system. This policy has caused the inflation rate to
soar from 32% in 1998 (considered extremely high by most economic
standards) to an astonishing 11,200,000% by 2007. Monetary aid by
the International Monetary Fund has been suspended due to the
Zimbabwe government's defaulting on past loans, inability to
stabilize its own economy and her poor track record in regards to
corruption and human rights.
In 2008 elections, Mugabe's opponent Morgan Tsvangirai won the
presidential polls despite irregularities in electoral procedures
by the Zimbabwe Electoral Committee; mostly well-documented cases
of vote tampering and ballot-stuffing by Mugabe supporters. In the
months leading up to a run-off, instances of extreme violence
against Tsvangirai supporters led to Tsvangirai to withdraw from
the election. In February, 2009, a power-sharing accord was reached
with Mugabe retaining the title of President and Tsvangirai being
elected as Prime Minister. The Prime Minister position was created
specifically for Tsvangirai as a result of the accord, and the
powers granted to the role are somewhat nebulous.
References
External links
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