Academic literature on the topic 'Rhodesia, Southern'

Existing studies of this topic have not made enough use of the British archives. Nor have they analysed the American domestic response to UDI in sufficient depth. The policies of successive American administrations as regards the Rhodesian problem can only be fully understood as part of Washington’s attitude to Britain, to Africa in general, and to southern Africa in particular. And, because the issue of white minority rule in Africa raised powerful emotions both in the African American community and among white opponents of civil rights, the Rhodesian crisis became a part of the politics of racial equality within the USA, playing a key role in the developing ideologies of these two communities. This thesis is based on research in both American and British archives and aims to show that the prevailing interpretation, especially of the policies of the Johnson Administration once Rhodesia had made its illegal declaration of independence in November 1965, is mistaken. Scholars have tended to take at face value the oft-repeated claim of US policy-makers that Rhodesia was a British problem, that they wished to be no more than helpful bystanders, supporting British efforts to see the downfall of the illegal regime and the creation of a government based on majority rule, and that when they did intervene, it was merely to urge the British to be firmer in their resolve to end the rebellion. The central contention of this thesis is that the officials shaping African policy in the Johnson Administration were intimately involved in the management of the crisis and that, far from resisting a solution that legitimised the white minority regime, they actively encouraged the British to settle with the illegal government.

Scholarship on lower class whites, the worlds of white labour and poor whites in African settler states have been dominated by a geographical focus on South Africa, Algeria and to a lesser extent Mozambique and Angola. Research on the Southern Rhodesian settler population has tended to focus on middle class and rural whites. Wage labourers comprised a significant part of the Southern Rhodesian settler population and offer the opportunity to redress these current imbalances and challenge orthodoxies concerning white workers in racially-stratified labour markets. Through examining the struggles over the racialisation and gendering of particular categories of work, this thesis unearths the ways in which race, gender, ethnicity and nationality were differentially understood and performed. It examines white workers outside of the typical temporal and thematic parameters which have been pursued by labour historians of Southern Rhodesia by interrogating the neglected realms of culture and identity and extending the chronological focus from the first decades of settlement through the Second World War, the Central African Federation and Rhodesian Front period to the end of minority settler rule in 1980. Through analysing women as part of the formal labour force it reveals the diverse experiences of white women in the colonies, examines how work was gendered, and corrects a longstanding omission in existing labour histories. Its originality lies not only in its focus on under-researched aspects of female wage labour, white identity and class experience in Southern Rhodesia, but in its methodological and theoretical synthesis of work on gender, whiteness studies, settler colonialism, emotions, the New African Economic History, space and borders.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015.<br>ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis uses dairy farming in colonial Zimbabwe/Southern Rhodesia as a lens to explore the intersection of economic, social and environmental factors in colonial agriculture from the 1890s until 1951, when a new regulatory framework was introduced for the industry. It examines the complex and fluid interactions between the colonial state and farmers (both white and black), and the manner in which these interactions shaped and reshaped policy within the context of the local political economy and the changing global economic conditions. It examines the competing interests of the colonial state and farmers, and how these tensions played out in the formulation and implementation of dairy development policy over time. This thesis demonstrates that these contestations profoundly affected the trajectory of an industry that started as a mere side-line to the beef industry until it had become a central industry in Southern Rhodesia’s agricultural economy by the late 1940s. Thus, besides filling a historiographical gap in existing studies of Southern Rhodesia’s agricultural economy, the thesis engages in broader historiographical conversations about settler colonial agricultural policy and the role of the state and farmers in commercial agriculture. Given the fractured nature of colonial administration in Southern Rhodesia, this study also discusses conflicts among government officials. It demonstrates how these differences affected policy formulation and implementation, especially regarding African commercial dairy production. This thesis also explores the impact of a segregationist agricultural policy, particularly focusing on prejudices about the “African body” and hygiene. It shows how this shaped the character of both African and white production trends. It demonstrates that Africans were unevenly affected by settler policy, as some indigenous people continued to compete with white farmers at a time when existing regulations were intended to exclude them from the colonial dairy industry. It argues that although dairy farming had grown to be a strong white-dominated industry by 1951, the history of dairy farming during the period under review was characterised by contestations between the state and both white and African farmers.<br>AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis gebruik suiwelboerdery in koloniale Zimbabwe/Suid-Rhodesie as ’n lens om die ekonomiese, sosiale en omgewingsgerigte kruispunte in koloniale landbou van omstreeks 1890 t 1951 toe ‘n nuwe regulatoriese raamwerk vir suiwelboerdery ingestel is te, ondersoek. Die komplekse en vloeibare interaksies tussen die koloniale staat en boere (wit sowel as swart) en die wyse waarop hierdie interaksies beleid binne die konteks van die plaaslike politieke ekonomie en die globale ekonomiese omstandighede gevorm en hervorm het, word ondersoek. Hierbenewens word gelet op die spanninge tussen die belange van die koloniale staat en die boere (wit sowel as swart) en hoe hierdie spanning oor tyd in die formulering en implementering van suiwelbeleid gemanifested het. Hierdie tesis demonstreer dat di spanninge en stryd ’n diepgaande uitwerking gehad het op ’n bedryf wat aanvanklik as ondergeskik tot die vleisbedryf begin het, naar teen die leat as ‘n sentrale veertigerjere bedryf in die Rhodesiëse landelike ekonomie uitgekristalliseer het. Benewens die feit dat die proefakrif ’n historiografiese leemte in bestaande koloniale Zimbabwe aangespreek, vorm dit ook deel van ’n breër historiografiese diskoers ten opsigte van setlaar koloniale landbou in Zimbabwe en die rol van die staat en boere in kommersiële landbou. Vanweё die gefragmenteerde aard van koloniale administrasie in Suid-Rhodesië, fokus die tesis ook op die konflikte tussen regeringsamptenare en hoe hierdie geskille veral beleidsformulering en implementering ten opsigte van swart kommersiële suiwelboerdery beïnvloed het. Vervolgens word die uitwerking van ’n landboubeleid geliasear of segragasi onder die loep geneem met spesiale verwysing na die geskiktheid van swartmense vir kommersiële suiwelboerdery en hoe dit die aard en karakter van beide swart sowel as wit produksie tendense beïnvloed het. Daar word aangedui dat swartmense nie eenvormig deur setlaarsbeleid geraak is nie aangesien van hulle met wit boere meegeding het op ’n stadium toe die heersende regulasies daerop gemik was oin baie van hulle uit die koloniale suiwelbedryfwit te slint. Die sentrale argument is dat hoewel suiwelboerdery sterk wit gedomineerd was teen 1951, die geskiedenis van die bedryf gedurende die tydperk onder bespreking gekenmerk is deur stryd en konflite tussen die staat en wit sowel as swart boere.

The power of the rural patriarchs in the region which became known as Southern Rhodesia depended, in the 1890s, upon their control over marriage alliances. Meanwhile, in Europe, the power to control sexual behaviour was becoming linked to the distinction between 'moral' matters which were no concern of the State, and 'perverse' matters, subject to legislative control. The occupying administration established in 1890, spurred by internal political disputes, deemed African male sexuality to be 'perverse', using this to justify its attempts to undermine rural patriarchs and proletarianise African women. Simultaneously, the whites introduced new social environments, where lineage links were not the primary determinant of people's interactions with one another, and encouraged large numbers of single men from across the sub-continent into Southern Rhodesia, to work there. These changes inevitably affected the ways in which members of the African communities perceived themselves. Individualist notions of sexual choice were encouraged by BSACo legislation, while the spread of migrant labour created situations in which men and women could actually make such choices. Rural patriarchs lobbied for State support in their attempts to control women and their seducers. This support came in 1916 with the Natives Adultery Punishment Ordinance, which, although ostensibly supporting 'traditional' patriarchal power, actually reinforced the notion that individuals, and women in particular, were alone answerable for their sexual choices. Meanwhile, fears about African male 'perversity' in the white communities combined with the appearance of African prostitution to challenge African ides about what was valuable in 'men' and 'women' and to suggest that sexuality was something that could be used and abused outside any wider implications regarding lineage obligation. Africans began to accept the notion of 'immorality' as applied to independent women. By the 1930s, the internal politics of the white community saw this typification extended to all African women, alongside the fear of African men as 'perverse'.

For over forty years, at the turn of this century, the white settlers of Southern Rhodesia devoted considerable energy to the discussion and the regulation of inter-racial sexual relations. The settlers' worries about maintaining their position in power were expressed, in part, in the periodic outbreaks of 'black peril' hysteria, a term which well-captures white fears about the threat that African men were thought to represent to white women. Although voluntary sexual encounters between white women and black men were prohibited from 1903 onwards, no such prohibition existed for white men in their relations with black women. The white women made several attempts to have legislation passed prohibiting such liasons, and failed largely because in doing so they were perceived to be challenging the authority of the white men. The regulation of interracial sexual intercourse thus served to reinforce the white male domination of Rhodesian society.

This thesis examines the second world war as a watershed in the socio-economic development of Southern Rhodesia. It begins with an analysis of the specific contributions of the settler colony to the imperial war effort - e. g., the Empire Air Training Scheme and the Rhodesian African Rifles, which are discussed in chapters one and two. The next chapter focuses on changes in the major sectors of the economy - mining, agriculture and manufacturing. It examines settler responses to the increased internal and external demand for agricultural produce; the growth of a manufacturing sector induced by wartime import restrictions and the expansion of the internal market; and the role of the state in these developments. The last four chapters concentrate on the experience of Africans in the rural areas and the expanding. urban centres. It is argued that, under the guise of support for the war effort, undercapitalized settler producers - who were unable to attract an adequate supply of labour through a dependence on market forces - used their political influence to pressure the government into coercing Africans into wage employment. Wartime coercion helped to resolve some of the historic problems of 'labour shortages' by accelerating the process of "proletarianization" of the African peasantry in Southern Rhodesia. Some of those who fled the compulsory labour gang recruiters found voluntary employment in the cities or the Union of South Africa, where wages were much higher. The influx of workers into the cities - centres of increased economic activity during the war - caused a strain on urban resources such as housing. This, combined with wartime inflation and undemocratic labour legislation, helped to produce deteriorating conditions of work and life for the majority of urban labourers. Africans were not passive in face of these events and, like workers elsewhere on the continent, they sought to redress their grievances through spontaneous and organized action in the immediate post-war years, the most notable episodes being the 1945 rail strike and the 1948 general strike

This thesis examines Northern and Southern Rhodesia's history through the formation and development of their police and military units from the time Rhodesia was created in 1890 until the end of the Second World War. Southern Rhodesia, founded after a series of short and bloody frontier wars, was a self-governing British colony under a white minority and centered its peace-time security efforts around keeping an eye on potential uprisings from the African majority. White Northern Rhodesians viewed the African majority with similar suspicion although they were never able to exclude Africans from territorial defense. Northern Rhodesia was governed from London and ultimate power did not lie with the settler community. The importance of the Second World War for Southern Rhodesia is that, because of British strategic policies, Rhodesians received perhaps the widest possible military exposure of any allied nation of the War. Because of a lingering hostility and suspicion by the Union of South Africa, Britain's prewar plans for defending their African empire were centered on making use of the skilled white manpower of Rhodesia and Kenya. Added to this was the willingness and apparent positive reception by white Rhodesians of black units in the Southern Rhodesian army, a break with the exclusively all-white tradition that prevailed up until then. The political capital accrued to Southern Rhodesia because of its close cooperation with Britain was perhaps the significant factor in the establishment of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1953 which included Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The Federation was Southern Rhodesia's supreme political achievement and the closest it came to legal independence and international respectability.