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This article proposes a reading of white Zimbabwean narratives that takes cognisance of how the Rhodesian past and the Zimbabwean present inhabit shared time and place. This reading suggests that white Zimbabwean narratives are characterised by simultaneity. In these texts it can be seen that the (Rhodesian) past and the (Zimbabwean) present appear incommensurate but nevertheless coeval. Using Ian Smith’s The Great Betrayal: The Memoirs of Ian Douglas Smith (hereafter referred to as The Great Betrayal), I argue that in Zimbabwe, like in other former colonies, the colonial past exists alongside the post-colonial present despite persistent calls by the new post-colonial governments for former colonisers to forget. In Smith’s The Great Betrayal, the past inhabits the present in three forms: as an endurance of the founding principles of British Empire; as an indictment of the Zimbabwean present; and as a strategic emplacement of white Rhodesians within a new Zimbabwe. |
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{{More footnotes|date=July 2010}} |
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{{Use British English|date=December 2015}} |
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{{Infobox political party |
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| name = Rhodesian Front |
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| abbreviation = RF |
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| colorcode = {{Rhodesian Front/meta/color}} |
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| leader1_title = Historical leader |
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| leader1_name = ] |
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| founded = {{Start date|df=y|1962|3|1}} |
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| dissolved = {{End date|df=y|1981|06|06}} |
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| successor = ] |
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| predecessor = {{nowrap|]<ref>{{cite book|last1= Lipschutz|first1=Mark R.|last2=Rasmussen|first2=R. Kent|title=Dictionary of African Historical Biography|editor=University of California Press|date=1989|page=265}}</ref><br />]}} |
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| headquarters = ], ] |
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| ideology = ]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Leaver |first1=John David |title=Multiracialism and nationalisms: A political retrospective on 1950s Southern Rhodesia ('Colonial Zimbabwe') |journal=Journal of Third World Studies |date=2006 |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=167–188 |jstor=45194313 }}</ref><ref name=Lowry>{{cite book |author1=Donal Lowry |authorlink1= |editor1-last=Onslow |editor1-first=Sue |title=Cold War in Southern Africa: White Power, Black Liberation |date=2009 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-0-415-47420-7 |page=84 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xj-MAgAAQBAJ&q=%22rhodesian+front%22+white+supremacy&pg=PA84 |accessdate=7 April 2020 |chapter=The impact of anti-communism on white Rhodesian political culture, c.1920s-1980}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cilliers |first1=Jakkie |title=Counter-Insurgency in Rhodesia |date=April 17, 2015 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=9781315713854 |edition=e-Book 1st |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VHRKCAAAQBAJ&q=%22rhodesian+front%22+%22white+supremacy%22&pg=PT18 |accessdate=9 April 2020}}</ref><br/>]<ref>{{cite book|last=Preston|first=Matthew|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dND1vyuZefwC|title=Ending Civil War: Rhodesia and Lebanon in Perspective|editor=I.B.Tauris|date=2004|page=107|isbn=9781850435792}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=West|first=Michael O.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=epkrt-Y-qOkC|title=The Rise of an African Middle Class: Colonial Zimbabwe, 1898-1965|editor=Indiana University Press|date=2002|page=229|isbn=0253215242}}</ref><br/>]<br>]<ref>{{cite book|last=Hume|first=Ian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aKVdDwAAQBAJ|title=From the Edge of Empire: A Memoir|editor=Outskirts Press|date=2018|page=149|isbn=9781478794554}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Roscoe|first=Adrian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EIJ4ZTdc5VYC|title=The Columbia Guide to Central African Literature in English Since 1945|editor=Columbia University Press|date=2007|page=35|isbn=9780231503792}}</ref><br/>]<ref name=Lowry/><br/>]<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/720978|jstor = 720978|title = Settler Colonialism in Rhodesia|last1 = Good|first1 = Kenneth|journal = African Affairs|year = 1974|volume = 73|issue = 290|pages = 10–36|doi = 10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a096439}}</ref><ref>The Rhodesian Front generally kept policies from British Colonial rule</ref> |
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| position = ] |
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| colours = {{Color box|{{Rhodesian Front/meta/color}}|border=darkgray}} ] {{Color box|#FFFFFF|border=darkgray}} ] |
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| flag = ] |
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| country = Rhodesia |
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| logo = ] |
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| religion = ] |
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}} |
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{{Politics of Rhodesia}} |
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The '''Rhodesian Front''' was a ] ] in ]<ref name="hsu-luckett-vause">{{cite book|last1=Hsu|first1=Chia Yin|last2=Luckett|first2=Thomas M.|last3=Vause|first3=Erika|title=The Cultural History of Money and Credit: A Global Perspective|date=2015|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=9781498505932|pages=142|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ByLuCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA142|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Onslow">{{cite book|last1=Onslow|first1=Sue|title=Cold War in Southern Africa: White Power, Black Liberation|date=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135219338|page=92|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xj-MAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA92|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Butler">{{cite book|last1=Butler|first1=L. J.|title=Britain and Empire: Adjusting to a Post-Imperial World|date=2002|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=9781860644481|page=164|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FciqvzTfAuEC&pg=PA164|accessdate=19 February 2017|language=en}}</ref> (or ]) when the country was under ]. Led first by ], and, from 1964, by ], the Rhodesian Front was the successor to the ], which was the main opposition party in Southern Rhodesia during the ] period. The RF was formed in March 1962 by Whites opposed to any immediate or short-term transition to Black ]. It won power at the ] that December. In successive elections (in which 50 of the 66 parliamentary seats were reserved for A-Roll voters, who had to meet a higher standard of qualifications, increasing the proportion of White Africans who came under this roll) between 1964 and 1979, the RF was returned to office, with a large majority; and Ian Smith as Prime Minister. |
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==History== |
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==History== |
This article proposes a reading of white Zimbabwean narratives that takes cognisance of how the Rhodesian past and the Zimbabwean present inhabit shared time and place. This reading suggests that white Zimbabwean narratives are characterised by simultaneity. In these texts it can be seen that the (Rhodesian) past and the (Zimbabwean) present appear incommensurate but nevertheless coeval. Using Ian Smith’s The Great Betrayal: The Memoirs of Ian Douglas Smith (hereafter referred to as The Great Betrayal), I argue that in Zimbabwe, like in other former colonies, the colonial past exists alongside the post-colonial present despite persistent calls by the new post-colonial governments for former colonisers to forget. In Smith’s The Great Betrayal, the past inhabits the present in three forms: as an endurance of the founding principles of British Empire; as an indictment of the Zimbabwean present; and as a strategic emplacement of white Rhodesians within a new Zimbabwe.
The RF had fifteen founding principles, which included the preservation of each racial group's right to maintain its own identity, the preservation of 'proper standards' through a policy of advancement through merit, the maintenance of the Land Apportionment Act, which formalised the racial imbalance in the ownership and distribution of land, opposition to compulsory racial integration, job protection for white workers, and maintenance of the government's right to provide separate amenities for different races.
Following the elections leading to the country's independence in 1980, as the Republic of Zimbabwe, the RF won all 20 parliamentary seats reserved for whites in the power-sharing agreement that it had forged. On June 6, 1981, the party changed its name to the Republican Front, and on July 21, 1984 it became the Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe. Eleven of its twenty parliamentarians defected over the following four years, but the party again won 15 of the 20 parliamentary seats reserved for whites in the 1985 election. In 1986, the CAZ opened its membership to Zimbabweans of all races. In 1987 the ruling government abolished all reserved seats for whites. When these were abolished many white MPs became independents or joined the ruling ZANU party.
