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Ian Douglas Smith
Also known as: Ian Smith
Birth: April 8, 1919 in Selukwe, Zimbabwe Nationality: Zimbabwean Occupation: Prime Minister, Government Official Source: African Biography. 4 vols. UXL, 1999.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Biographical Essay Further Readings Source Citation
ââ¬ÅI cannot see in my lifetime that the Africans will be sufficiently mature and reasonable to take over.ââ¬Â
BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY In the late 1800s Great Britain had established a colony in what is now Zimbabwe and had encouraged British citizens to come to the country to farm. Later, in the 1950s, after World War II (1939-45), African nations began freeing themselves from the control of foreign governments, and Great Britain began giving its African colonies independence based on majority rule. The white-settler government in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), unwilling to submit to a black-led government, dug in its heels and declared itself independent from Great Britain. Under the leadership of Ian Douglas Smith, Southern Rhodesia's white government defied the rest of the world from 1965 to 1978. Rhodesia was only the second British colony in which the British settlers broke away from their mother nation (the first colony to do this was the United States in 1776). Despite the best efforts of Prime Minister Ian Smith, a true believer in white supremacy (superiority based on race), the white-controlled republic of Rhodesia was short-lived. It ended in 1980 when a black majority government came to power.
Early life
Like many settlers in Rhodesia, Ian Smith's family had immigrated to the colony from Scotland. His father, John "Jock" Smith, came from Hamilton, Scotland, in 1898 at the age of 18. He married in 1911 and raised two daughters and a son, Ian, in the mining town of Selukwe (now Shurugwi). Jock Smith tried his hand at mining, farming, car repair, butchery, and other small enterprises, enjoying a mild success in business and local government. His real passion was for breeding race horses and riding them competitively. Young Ian grew up in the small town colonial atmosphere of this British outpost and enjoyed school sports. When he graduated from school, he moved on to Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, where he was elected head of the student council. He majored in business and planned to be a farmer.
When World War II started in 1939, Smith left college to volunteer for service. He trained as a fighter pilot in a Rhodesian squadron of the British Royal Air Force and was based in the Middle East. On October 4, 1943, his plane crashed on takeoff in the desert and he was badly burned. Smith underwent extensive plastic surgery on his face, half of which would be paralyzed for the rest of his life. Nevertheless, he went back into combat after his recovery. This time the air force sent him to Italy to fly missions out of Corsica. Smith parachuted to safety when German anti-aircraft fire shot down his Spitfire fighter over the Po Valley. When he finally got out of enemy territory, he went to England to recuperate. He continued flying until the end of the war. In 1945 he returned to South Africa to finish his college degree.
The era of federation
After graduation Smith headed back to Southern Rhodesia, where he began ranching cattle. He married Janet, a young widow with two children. An honorable war record and good relations with his farming neighbors helped get him elected to parliament in 1948. Around that time white British settlers in south-central Africa were organizing attempts to secure their own political power in the region. In 1953--following pressure from the settler groups in Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), and Nyasaland (now Malawi)--Great Britain allowed the three territories to unite as the self-governing Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Black Africans strongly opposed the formation of the white-run federation, but it lasted for 10 years, from 1953 to 1963.
Although Smith initially opposed federation, he was elected to the Rhodesian parliament in 1953 as a member of the United Federal party, the party of Sir Godfrey Huggins and his pro-federation government. Smith also became a delegate to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, traveling widely to India, Pakistan, and other former British colonies.
The Advantages of Federation for Whites
The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, a self-governing union of Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland, existed from 1953 to 1963. The English-speaking white settlers in the three south-central African territories viewed federation as the key to gaining economic and political power in the area. The whites wanted to use the profits from the rich copper deposits in Zambia to build dams and highways in all three regions. During federation, major regional improvements were indeed made, among them the construction of the Kariba Dam and electric power station, a railway line connecting Southern Rhodesia with a port in Mozambique, and a government-supported university in Salisbury (now Harare, Zimbabwe). But the white population also wanted to exercise its political muscle and form a large political unit that might later serve as the basis for a white-controlled independent state in Africa. Federation gave the whites an unfair advantage over blacks in the region's government. Thirty-five seats were set aside for whites in the legislature; only six were reserved for representatives of the black African majority population.
The economies of Northern and Southern Rhodesia, like those of other southern African territories, were based on the mining of copper, chrome, gold, coal, iron, and tin. Some white settlers believed that these resources, along with tobacco and sugar exports, made the colonies wealthy enough to break free from British control. Southern Rhodesia had the strongest economy of the three federated regions, the largest white population, and the strongest will to deny blacks their own government. Over the years the white-run government of Southern Rhodesia had earned a notorious reputation for its deeply entrenched racism.
Black political groups in Southern Rhodesia were becoming increasingly impatient with the lack of action being taken to advance black rights. The African National Congress (ANC) under Joshua Nkomo was urging armed resistance to white rule. Moreover, Africans opposed to federation favored the creation of two independent black states, Zambia and Malawi. (This movement was led by Kenneth Kaunda in Northern Rhodesia and Hastings Banda in Nyasaland.) Smith's racial views, like those of other white Southern Rhodesians, grew more and more conservative (rigid, traditional) as the call for black rights resonated throughout central Africa.
In the face of strong African opposition to federation, a royal commission from Britain toured the three territories. In its 1960 report, the commission recommended that the territories be allowed to withdraw from the federation under black majority governments. But white British settlers--especially those in Southern Rhodesia-were terrified of the prospect of domination by a black--run government. Unforeseen events in the Belgian Congo, another colonial nation gaining its independence at the time, horrified Southern Rhodesia's white population. The Belgian colonial government had left the Congo abruptly, without naming any Africans to take over. In the ensuing fight for power in the Congo, a bloody civil war erupted. The Belgian whites who stayed behind were finally forced to flee the nation. Southern Rhodesia's whites feared the same fate.
Smith founds Rhodesia Front party
Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland withdrew from federation in 1963 and became the independent countries of Zambia and Malawi within a year. But the Southern Rhodesian whites refused to accept a multiracial government in their country. They tried to persuade Britain to accept a constitution with token African representation instead. Britain refused.
Meanwhile, the conservative whites turned to a political party more to their own liking. Smith had helped set up the Rhodesia Front (RF) party in 1962. The RF wanted independence and white supremacy, and it won the general election in 1962. Two years later Smith launched a palace coup--a coup, or government overthrow, from within the party. He removed the party leader and became Rhodesia's prime minister.
Smith took a hard line in discussions with British authorities. The British wanted all the people of Southern Rhodesia to be consulted about the formation of a new government. Smith, however, proposed to consult only the tribal chiefs and headmen because he knew they depended on him for their jobs and salaries. In a five-day indaba (council meeting), the chiefs ended up supporting his independence proposal.
Declares Rhodesia independent
The British government rejected this council decision and informed Smith that a declaration of independence to create a racist white regime would be an act of treason (betrayal of the British government). Unmoved, Smith called an election at the beginning of 1965. The Rhodesian Front won another large majority in parliament. On November 11, 1965, Smith made his party's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI), claiming that, apart from a moment of shock, the rest of the world would treat it as a "nine-day wonder" and soon lose interest. He had miscalculated. Britain at once retaliated by declaring trade sanctions (refusal to carry on trade with the new Rhodesian government). A long stalemate began. At the end of 1966 the United Nations (an international organization promoting world peace) joined Britain in enforcing the sanctions. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) made threats against any African nation that violated them.
The state struggles to survive
Smith--a tall, lanky, plainspoken Scotsman--was popular with most whites. He was one of them and they trusted him. They referred to him with affection as "good old Smithy," a man of unshakable determination and self-confidence. He was always clear about what he wanted. He reassured whites: "I cannot see in my lifetime that the Africans will be sufficiently mature and reasonable to take over." The slogan for the Rhodesia Front became "Never in a thousand years."
Although no governments except for those of South Africa, Portugal, and Malawi would recognize Smith's regime or trade openly with it, independent Rhodesia survived. The expected early collapse never happened. The government stepped in and bought the tobacco harvest from the white farmers because sanctions prohibited tobacco sales to foreign buyers. And the discovery of nickel deposits in 1968 helped the economy. Rhodesia continued to export chrome despite the sanctions, which were more widely violated with each passing year. White-run South Africa, first under Hendrik Verwoerd and then, after his assassination in 1966, under Johannes Balthazar Vorster, remained loyal supporters. South Africa's wealth and physical closeness helped Rhodesia survive.
Like his South African allies, Smith believed all the opponents of his government were Communists. (Communism is a system of government in which the state controls the means of production and the distribution of goods. It clashes with the American ideal of capitalism, which is based on private ownership and a free market system.) His accusation was believable because the main opposition groups were getting military supplies from the Soviet Union and China. This was at the height of the Cold War, when the nations of the West were trying to limit the influence of Communist China and the Soviet bloc countries.
Smith saw himself as a hero of the "Free World" and "Christian Civilization." Although the United States openly opposed communism, it opposed Smith's racist philosophy as well. America was involved with its own civil rights movement in the 1960s and could not afford to associate itself with Rhodesia's racist regime. Regardless of Western opposition, Smith stood firm. In economic terms, he knew he had the upper hand: many British firms had invested large sums of money in Rhodesia, and Britain did not want to risk financial upheaval by bringing in British troops against whites.
Smith drove hard bargains in his talks with British officials. He made matters worse when he declared Rhodesia an independent republic in 1970. The RF also enacted more race laws and restrictions in the cities. The Land Tenure Act of 1969 divided Rhodesia's land along racial lines, designating 44 million acres to blacks and 44 million to the far smaller white population.
The conflict intensifies
Smith faced severe problems along with his short-term advantages. In particular, the white population of Rhodesia had always been small by comparison with that of South Africa. From about 1961 on, despite frantic efforts to attract new white settlers with the promise of almost cost-free farmland, more whites were leaving Rhodesia than arriving. By the mid-1960s, four and a half million blacks and only one-quarter of a million whites lived in the country. The whites had the best farmland, but they could not run the farms, or mines, or factories without African laborers.
The Africans in Southern Rhodesia were united by the goal of ridding their country of the white government, but they were also divided by deep-rooted personal rivalries. The two leading African opposition groups were the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU). Their membership generally fell along regional and cultural lines--ZANU was predominantly Shona, and ZAPU was predominantly Ndebele. The Shona and Ndebele peoples argued throughout the 1960s, allowing internal fighting to interrupt their joint struggle against the white regime. Nevertheless, time and world opinion were on the side of the black African fighters. Their situation improved markedly after 1974, when the Portuguese military overthrew Portugal's military dictator. The new government in Portugal rapidly withdrew from its African colonies, which included neighboring Mozambique and Angola. With a black majority government installed in Mozambique by 1975 under Samora Machel, ZANU freedom fighters gained access to a strategically located base outside Rhodesia. As fighting expanded in the countryside, blacks began moving into the cities. Soon the cities became centers of political activity.
With an independent black government in Mozambique, South Africa put pressure on Smith to end the conflict in Rhodesia. A 1975 meeting of Zimbabwean independence groups ended with no concessions and no agreement on anything. Smith won Rhodesia's 1977 elections, but he could not disguise the fact that he was standing on the edge of a volcano. The whites who stayed in Rhodesia were depressed and exhausted. All able white men had to serve in the military for nine months and be on call for three years. Many left the country rather than fight. Smith finally realized that he would have to yield ground to black (and world) pressure. In March 1978 he reached a compromise settlement with Bishop Abel Muzorewa, a man he believed he could control. Under the terms of their agreement, Muzorewa assumed a position of leadership in the government, but whites still outnumbered blacks in his cabinet (body of advisers). The leader of ZANU, Robert Mugabe, refused to recognize this so-called "internal settlement."
Losing power
Britain had never accepted UDI and never acknowledged Smith as a head of state. Now it sought to reach a permanent settlement in its former colony. The British foreign secretary called all the major figures to attend a conference to work out a temporary constitution. They finally agreed on black majority rule in Zimbabwe but reserved 20 seats for whites in the 100-seat parliament for at least the first seven years. Elections were held in 1980. Even though widespread terrorism clouded the election, the people voted overwhelmingly for Robert Mugabe.
Smith remained the leader of the Rhodesian Front party, which won all 20 seats reserved for whites. Mugabe and Smith were constantly at odds, but Smith maintained high visibility in the government. In the 1985 election the RF won 15 of the 20 seats for whites. Later, Smith took an extremely unpopular stand by speaking out against the international pressure on South Africa to dismantle apartheid, its system of racial segregation that favored the nation's white minority. Smith never apologized for his faith in white supremacy, and he never accepted the new state of affairs in Zimbabwe. In 1997 he toured the major cities in South Africa and Zimbabwe promoting his new book, The Great Betrayal.
FURTHER READINGS Blake, Robert. A History of Rhodesia. Eyre Methuen, 1977.
The Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 8. Edited by Michael Crowder. New York/UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Davis, Dorothy K. Race Relations in Rhodesia. Rex Collings, 1975.
Historic World Leaders. Edited by Anne Commire. Detroit: Gale, 1994.
Wills, A. J. An Introduction to the History of Central Africa: Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. New York/UK: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Windrich, Elaine. Britain and the Politics of Rhodesian Independence. Africana Publishing, 1978.
Young, Kenneth. Rhodesia and Independence. Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1967.
SOURCE CITATION "Ian Douglas Smith." African Biography. 4 vols. UXL, 1999. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: The Gale Group. 2003. [url=http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC]http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC[/url]
Document Number: K2421000067