Bitter Harvest: Zimbabwe and the Aftermath of Its Independence PDF
Preview Bitter Harvest: Zimbabwe and the Aftermath of Its Independence
DEDICATION To Janet, my loyal and constant and compassionate supporter and companion during the turbulent decades of my political life. She was tireless in her work of researching history and facts, and editing and bringing some order to my writings, which were often erratic and disjointed because of my numerous other commitments. My gratitude to her is eternal and unwavering. Contents Title Page Dedication Foreword Introduction 1 The Growth of a Nation I: In The Beginning II: The Fatal Turning Point: 1948 2 From Innocence to Experience I: My Younger Years: School, University and Rugby or Rowing? II: The Outbreak of War III: Pilot Training and 237 (Rhodesia) Squadron IV: Corsica and the Partisani V: The End of War VI: Home to Rhodesia and University 3 Settling Back Home I: Farming in Rhodesia II: Early Days in Politics: the Federal Era 4 The End of Federation 5 The Formation of the Rhodesian Front 6 The First Rhodesian Front Government: Field and Independence 7 The Premiership in 1964 8 The Advent of the British Labour Government and the Issue of Independence 9 The Final Steps to UDI in 1965 10 The Immediate Consequences of UDI 11 First Moves to Settle in 1966: HMS Tiger 12 Renewed Settlement Efforts in 1968: HMS Fearless 13 The Home–Smith Agreement, 1972 14 The Loss of Mozambique, Vorster and Détente in 1974–75 15 The Kissinger Agreement of 1976 16 The Geneva Conference 211 17 The Internal Settlement of 4 March, 1978 18 The Interim Government of 1978–79 19 My Last Days in Office 20 The Government of National Unity and the Lancaster House Conference 21 The Election of Mugabe 22 The Aftermath of the Election 23 Life under Mugabe 24 Elections — 1995–96 Janet Glossary Postscript Afterword Index Acknowledgement Copyright Foreword I an Douglas Smith died on 20 November 2007, a few months short of his 89th birthday. For 15 years, between 1964 and 1979, he had been prime minister of Rhodesia, the last but one country in southern Africa to be governed by whites, once called Southern Rhodesia and today known as Zimbabwe. In the great drama of the 20th century decolonisation of Africa, he will perhaps be seen in future as little more than a footnote, a Canute who declared unilateral independence in a futile attempt to resist the tide of black rule sweeping across the continent. Had he never existed, the history of his stunningly beautiful native land would probably have been much the same. But for a decade and half, Smith held British and international diplomacy to ransom. Vilified by many, lionised by a few, he became a household name around the world. Then Rhodesia vanished. Had independent Zimbabwe flourished, or merely avoided the shambles of today, there would be little more to say. Instead it has experienced one of the most devastating collapses on a continent that has tasted more than its share of them. A country that set out life as a jewel of post-colonial Africa has become a basket case, a nightmarish kleptocracy sustained by violence, corruption and reverse racism, its every failing blamed by President Robert Mugabe on a plot orchestrated by the country’s remaining whites and by the old colonial power in London to overthrow his rule. History rewrites reputations, and the plight of Zimbabwe after 28 years of Mugabe’s rule is forcing a second look at the reputation of Ian Smith. The depth of the crisis has surpassed even his own bleakest warnings – and questions most of us would prefer not to ask must be asked. Was he right all along, with his prophesy that black rule would be a disaster? Which leads to an even more unmentionable thought: might it have been better for Zimbabwe and Africa to have remained under white rule? Ian Smith’s background was quintessentially colonial. His father Jock had emigrated from Scotland to Rhodesia in 1898, eight years after the first pioneer column despatched by Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Company crossed the Limpopo river – modern Zimbabwe’s border with South Africa – to explore and exploit the rich virgin lands that lay beyond. The Smiths settled in Selukwe, 200 miles south of the capital Salisbury, now Harare. There Jock ran a farm and a mine, chaired the local cricket and rugby clubs and bred racehorses. Their son Ian, born in 1918, followed in his footsteps. He was an undistinguished student, but like his father (and most white Rhodesians for that matter) a passionate sportsman and lover of the outdoor life. A self-described ‘African of British stock,’ Smith symbolised a society that considered itself more British than the British, and behaved as such. He believed in the old country, in the British Empire, and in the Empire’s civilizing mission. When conflict loomed in Europe in 1939, the adventurous and patriotic young man trained as a pilot, before serving in the Rhodesian air force, and then in Spitfire Squadron 130 in the Royal Air Force. His war took him to Persia, the Middle East and finally Europe where he was shot down over Italy in 1944 and spent five months with the partisans behind German lines. This gallant war record vastly complicated British attitudes to Smith during the crisis over Rhodesian independence two decades later. Many of a certain generation could not understand why ‘Good Old Smithy’ and ‘Plucky Little Rhodesia’ were held in such official disapproval. Yes, he led a white minority government that in 1965 had the temerity to declare independence. But he might have come from the home counties – though he had done more to defeat Hitler than the majority of British citizens. Beyond argument moreover he was extremely brave. It is thus hardly surprising he enjoyed unwavering support from elements of the British Conservative party and of the conservative press. He also knew exactly how to appeal to British nostalgia, an especially potent emotion during the 1960s and 1970s, as the country’s global influence declined, amid a succession of sterling crises and withdrawal from an empire that could no longer be afforded. ‘If Churchill were alive today,’ Smith said soon after UDI, ‘I believe he’d probably emigrate to Rhodesia – because I believe all those admirable qualities and characteristics of the British we believed in, loved and preached to our children no longer exist in Britain.’ In golf clubs and saloon bars across the old country, countless Britons undoubtedly agreed with him.
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