1980/01/01 by Lord Saint Brides · 4 citations
Social Sciences · #African history and culture studies #African studies and sociopolitical issues
paper · doi:10.2307/2626673
openalex publication_date 1980/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/05
In September 1979 the British Government embarked on a series of moves designed to bring Zimbabwe-Rhodesia to independence on terms comparable to those which had been applied earlier to the many other British colonies that have achieved independence since World War II. This statement may strike some readers as a blinding glimpse of the obvious; but it is not. For Rhodesia has always differed from other British colonies. It was never governed directly from Britain. From the outset it was largely self-governing, with Britain retaining certain reserve powers, mainly over constitutional affairs. When in 1925 a separate government department, namely the Dominions Office, was set up in London to handle relations with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa (the sovereign and independent Commonwealth countries, or Dominions as they were later defined in the Statute of Westminster), and with Newfoundland (later to be merged with Canada) and the Irish Free State, it was decided that the new Department should also deal with Southern Rhodesia. This arrangement underlined Southern Rhodesia's special quasi-independent status, as distinct from the non-self-governing British dependent territories whose affairs continued to be handled by the Colonial Office. Southern Rhodesia's exceptional status was further marked by the fact that the prime minister of Southern Rhodesia attended all the meetings of Dominion prime ministers-that is to say, he sat in with the leaders of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa-on a personal and as it were, honorary footing until after World War II. Moreover, Southern Rhodesia-like the Dominions, but unlike any other British dependent territory-raised, paid and controlled her own armed forces, and there were never any British forces as such on Rhodesian soil. As will appear, this has been a factor of key importance throughout its short history. Hence it was against a background of protracted earlier quasi-independence that in 1963 the Rhodesian Government began negotiations with Britain for full independence, based on the 1961 constitution. This document provided for gradual African political advance, but meanwhile ensured the