Zimbabwe: The Rebel Colony (1963-1979)

Updated January 2008

The collapse of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1963 revealed the extent of the political fault lines over the future of Rhodesia; the settler community (led by the Rhodesian Front (RF)) was increasingly alarmed by the prospect of African majority rule and became ever more determined to prevent power from slipping from their hands, while the African nationalists (led by the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU)) demanded exactly that (Encyclopedia of the Nations 2007). The British government attempted to reconcile the two demands by mooting independence for the colony only under a constitution that would see a gradual extension of the franchise to Africans and eventual majority rule, a position that pleased none of the parties (Encyclopedia of the Nations 2007). In April 1964 Ian Smith, who advocated unconditional independence for Rhodesia under a regime of permanent White minority rule, became leader of the Rhodesian Front, and relations between the government and the nationalist and with Britain deteriorated rapidly (Wikipedia 2007a).

As had happed to ZAPU before it, ZANU was banned, and the leaders of both movements were imprisoned while their followers were forced to regroup in exile (Wikipedia 2007a; Esterhuysen 2004). In the meanwhile elections in Britain brought the Labour Party to power and its leader, Harold Wilson, was determined that no independence would be granted without a commitment to eventual African majority rule; Smith, unwilling to accede to this, called a referendum in November in November 1964 in which the electorate endorsed unconditional independence (Esterhuysen 2004; Encyclopedia of the Nations 2007). In the subsequent election in May 1965 the RF won 52 of the 65 seats despite strong opposition from the business community (Esterhuysen 2004; Selby 2007, 65).

Wilson warned in October 1965 that economic sanctions would be imposed should the Rhodesian government declare unilateral independence, but this was disregarded and after assuming emergency powers on 5 November, on the 11th Smith declared Rhodesia a sovereign state (the crown to was offered to Queen Elizabeth II who declined it and a republic was subsequently declared in 1969; Esterhuysen 2004; Encyclopedia of the Nations 2007; Gwisai 2002). No diplomatic recognition was forthcoming, Britain imposed limited economic sanctions and in December mandatory economic sanctions were resolved by the United Nations Security Council (Encyclopedia of the Nations 2007; Esterhuysen 2004). These had limited success initially since neither South Africa nor the Portuguese in Mozambique adhered to them (Esterhuysen 2004). Despite attempts to circumvent the boycott of tobacco, which was a major source of foreign exchange, export of the crop suffered badly (Selby 2006, 67; Esterhuysen 2004). The territory's strong manufacturing sector initially benefited as import substitution was undertaken and the economy expanded rapidly initially, but was soon curtailed as shortages of foreign exchange and foreign investment made the import of capital difficult (Selby 2006, 67; Esterhuysen 2004).

In the face of the intransigence of the Smith government and the closing of all avenues of non-violent protest to them, the nationalist movements launched guerrilla armies in 1966; ZAPU established the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) and ZANU the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA; Esterhuysen 2004). Though their activities were limited in scope and range a period of increasingly violent confrontation that was to involve all parties in a brutal and destructive war had begun. Further talks with Britain in December 1966 and in October 1968, in the face of the apparent failure of the guerrilla struggle and of sanctions came to nothing and Britain hardened its position by adopting a "no independence before majority rule" principle (Esterhuysen 2004).

It was in this environment that the 1969 republican constitution was adopted which introduced a ceremonial presidency, a racially segregated franchise and a Senate for the first time. Whites on the A Roll elected 50 of the 66 members of the House of Assembly and 10 of the 23 members of the Senate, while Africans on the B Roll elected eight members of the House of Assembly and a further eight were elected by traditional leaders; ten members of the Senate were tribal chiefs and three Senators were presidential nominees (Esterhuysen 2004). It was provided for that once African increased their share of direct income tax from 0.5% to 24%, their share of seats in the National Assembly would rise in proportion to their share of tax paid to eventual parity with whites (50 seats); an eventuality that the government regarded as extremely remote (Esterhuysen 2004). White power was further consolidated by including the provisions of the Land Tenure Act of 1969, which allocated half the land to each of the races, in the constitution (Hanyama Undated; Selby 2006, 69). The constitution was endorsed by the electorate in a referendum held in May 1969 and parliamentary elections followed in April 1970, in which the RF won all 50 of the (white) A Roll seats (Wikipedia 2007b).

The hardening of nationalist attitudes in response to the repression and racism that had dominated the late 1960's returned to haunt the Whites when the Pierce Commission of 1971/2 attempted, once more, to find a solution to the conflict (Esterhuysen 2004; Selby 2006, 70). While a gradual move to African majority rule and land reform (financed by Britain) now became acceptable to Whites, the nationalists were no longer amenable to such compromises and, peacefully mobilised by the African National Council under the leadership of Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Reverend Canaan Banana, the majority of Africans were able to articulate their rejection of the proposals and the initiative came to naught (Esterhuysen 2004; Selby 2006, 70-71). The economy experienced modest growth in the early 1970s and real incomes for Whites and Africans continued to rise, but the fundamentals of the situation were undergoing a shift that would bring an end to the settler state by the end of the decade (Wikipedia 2007c).

In the first place the ZAPU and ZANU alike had obtained allies internationally, primarily the USSR in the case of ZAPU and China in the case of ZANU, and these enabled them to train, arm and equip guerrilla forces that were capable of infiltrating the territory from Zambia and Mozambique as well so that the security situation deteriorated rapidly after 1972 (Esterhuysen 2004; Wikipedia 2007a). Land hunger and poverty in the rural African reserves provided the guerrillas with a solid support base from which to operate (Esterhuysen 2004; Hanyama Undated). Increasingly the two nationalist movements took an ethnic, tribal and regional character, with ZAPU support and operations concentrated in Matebeleland and with ZANU entrenched in Mashonaland (Gwisai 2002). For ZANU in particular, the successes of FRELIMO in Mozambique against the Portuguese facilitated access to the northern and eastern parts of the country (Esterhuysen 2004). In 1974 the two movements came together to form the Patriotic Front, which though a nominal combining of forces, avoided the situation of fratricidal conflict that prevailed amongst the nationalists in Angola (Wikipedia 2007a). Thousands of people were moved to camps to take them out of the reach of the infiltrating guerrilla forces (Esterhuysen 2004).

In the second place the economic situation began to deteriorate rapidly. The crisis precipitated by OPEC's engineering of massive rises in oil prices with its attendant severe world-wide recession and slump in commodity prices, along with sanctions created severe shortages of foreign exchange and capital and put an end to economic growth (Selby 2006, 87). The accession of FRELIMO to power in Mozambique in 1975 closed access to it ports and Rhodesia was now wholly dependent on South Africa for its imports and exports, which further raised costs (Esterhuysen 2004; Selby 2006, 106). From 1974 onwards real GDP declined while at the same time the costs of fighting the war with the nationalists escalated rapidly resulting in a burgeoning fiscal and balance of payments deficits (Wikipedia 2007a; Selby 2006, 88-89). According to Selby (2006, 88-89) between 1971/72 and 1978/79 defence spending as a proportion of government spending rose from 8.5% to 47%. The huge demand on manpower that the war demanded (at any given time in the mid-1970s there were 16 000 troops on active duty) further strained the economy and the casualties suffered eroded settler morale (Esterhuysen 2004). The business sector intensified its opposition to the government's position (Selby 2006, 96).

In the third place, the brutality of the war and economic deterioration led to rising emigration. In 1964 there had been about a quarter of a million Whites, two thirds of whom had settled after World War II, concentrated (80%) in the cities (Selby 2006, 66). Between 1972 and 1985 Whites began to leave the country at an increasing pace and by 1985 two-thirds had left (Selby 2006, 116). Curiously, the deteriorating situation and decline in morale did not translate into any substantial opposition to the Smith government and in the 1974 and 1977 elections the RF once more took all 50 of the White seats with 77% and 85% of the vote respectively (Wikipedia 2007b; Wikipedia 2007c).

In the fourth place the territory found itself increasingly isolated and subject to international pressure, not only from Britain and the United States who viewed the Smith government as an obstacle to regional stability, but also from its erstwhile ally, the Voster government in South Africa which was itself under increasing international (especially American) pressure (Esterhuysen 2004; Selby 2006, 106). In December 1974, under pressure from Prime Minister BJ Voster, Smith released several nationalist leaders including Nkomo and Mugabe who had been in prison since 1964 (Selby 2006, 106; Esterhuysen 2004). This was followed by talks in August 1975 between Smith and nationalist leaders (including Nkomo, Muzorewa and the president of ZANU, Ndabaningi Sithole) hosted by Voster, but these failed to produce any concrete results (Esterhuysen 2004). Under pressure from the US and South Africa Smith announced in September 1976 that the government would accept majority rule within two years, a statement that set the stage for the Geneva conference hosted by the British government in October (Hanyama Undated). The conference included the leaders of ZANU and ZAPU as well as the other smaller groups (Encyclopedia of the Nations 2007).

When the conference failed to achieve consensus Smith attempted to engineer an internal settlement through negotiations with Bishop Muzorewa leader of the United African National Council (UANC; formerly the ANC), Sithole (who had been replaced as ZANU leader in 1977 with Mugabe and now led a breakaway faction) and Chief Jeremiah Chirau who headed the Zimbabwe United People's Organisation (Hanyama Undated; Esterhuysen 2004). This led to the internal settlement in March 1978 that provided for majority rule, but with disproportionate representation for Whites, the renaming of the country to Rhodesia-Zimbabwe and a multi-party transitional executive to manage the country until elections could be held in February 1979 (Encyclopedia of the Nations 2007; Esterhuysen 2004). In the elections Muzorewa's UANC won the majority of the seats in the House of Assembly and he became Prime Minister while the RF won all of the seats reserved for Whites and Smith became a minister without portfolio in the government (Esterhuysen 2004; Encyclopedia of the Nations 2007). The internal settlement did not bring an end to the war, nor was the new state accorded international recognition (other than by South Africa) and sanctions were not lifted (Encyclopedia of the Nations 2007; Kilby 2006, 109; Esterhuysen 2004).

Renewed negotiations in England in September 1979 resulted in the Lancaster House agreement on 21 December which paved the way for majority rule and independence (Encyclopedia of the Nations 2007; Esterhuysen 2004). The US and Britain agreed to fund land reform aimed at restoring ownership to Africans (Esterhuysen 2004; Hanyama Undated). The territory reverted formally to the status of crown colony on 12 December and the ceasefire came into effect on 28 December (Esterhuysen 2004). Commonwealth peace keepers were deployed and the various forces of the combatants were assembled for demobilisation or integration into the new national defence force (Esterhuysen 2004). In this way a war that had resulted in the deaths of more than 25 000 people finally came to an end (Columbia Encyclopedia 2005).

The constitution provided for 100 seat House of Assembly with 20 seats reserved for whites and the remaining 80 elected by all voters on a common roll; in the 1980 elections the RF won all the white seats while ZANU won 57 of the common roll seats, ZAPU 20 and the UANC 3 seats (see 1980 Elections and 1980 House of Assembly results for more details). Zimbabwe became independent on 18 April 1980 with Robert Mugabe as prime minister and Canaan Banana as ceremonial president (Esterhuysen 2004; Encyclopedia of the Nations 2007).

References

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NATIONS 2007 "Zimbabwe: History", [www] http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Zimbabwe-HISTORY.html [opens new window] (accessed 9 Mar 2010).

ESTERHUYSEN, P 2004 "Zimbabwe: an historical overview", Institute of Strategic Studies, [www] http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-9396258_ITM [opens new window] (accessed 9 Mar 2010).

GWISAI, M 2002 "Revolutionaries, resistance and crisis in Zimbabwe" FROM Zeilig, L (ed), Class Struggle and Resistance in Africa, New Clarion Press, Cheltenham, UK, [www] http://links.org.au/node/77 [opens new window] (accessed 9 Mar 2010).

HANYAMA, M UNDATED "Background to Land Reform in Zimbabwe", Embassy of Zimbabwe in Stockholm, [www] http://www.zimembassy.se/land_reform_document.htm [opens new window] (accessed 9 Mar 2010).

SELBY, A 2006 Commercial Farmers and the State: Interest Group Politics and Land Reform in Zimbabwe, Doctoral Thesis, Oxford University, [www] http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/learning/landrights/downloads/commercial_farmers_&_land_reform_in_zimbabwe.pdf [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 9 Mar 2010).

WIKIPEDIA 2007a "Colonial history of Southern Rhodesia", [www] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_history_of_Zimbabwe [opens new window] (accessed 9 Mar 2010).

WIKIPEDIA 2007b "Rhodesian general election, 1970" [www] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodesian_general_election,_1970 [opens new window] (accessed 9 Mar 2010).

WIKIPEDIA 2007c "History of Rhodesia", [www] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Rhodesia [opens new window] (accessed 9 Mar 2010).