There is nothing about “Never in a thousand years” (Former Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith’s vow that blacks would never be allowed to rule the country now named Zimbabwe in the next 1 000 years), or baboon climb the mountain (his message to black students at the University of Rhodesia when they demonstrated against his government), or Chifambausiku (the plot by jailed African nationalist Ndabaningi Sithole to assassinate Smith).
But there is a lot about the great betrayal: by the British who were bent on spoiling things for the happiest blacks in the world instead of siding with their kith and kin; by the South Africans who despite their apartheid policy held Rhodesia to ransom to appease the Organisation of African Unity and to make their detente exercise a success; by Abel Muzorewa because he could not stand his ground against the “communist terrorists” when the British had promised him the country on a silver plate; by the British representative during the transition period leading to Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980 Lord Christopher Soames because he went back on his word to ensure that Robert Mugabe did not win the elections at any cost; by General Peter Walls, Smith’s army commander, because he failed to nullify the elections when Mugabe won yet he had the power to do so.
Smith also claims that former ZANU-PF military commander Josiah Tongogara was assassinated by the party and although President Mugabe may not have actually participated he did not object to the assassination; Chief Jeremiah Chirau was murdered and so was Maurice Nyagumbo whose death was officially a suicide. He also says blacks control 50 percent of the economy now and that there are more black millionaires than white millionaires.
This in essence is what Ian Smith’s book: The Great Betrayal, published this year by a London publisher, Blake, is all about.
While Smith feels he was betrayed, his book, seems to be a great betrayal of the black people in this country.
As far as he was concerned they could not think on their own. He and his government knew what was best for them. He was never a racist and blacks were never denied the franchise. They were offered the best facilities: education, health and housing. They were not interested in politics and could not be expected to understand it anyway because they have only been exposed to civilisation for a hundred years yet it took whites thousands of years to reach the stage they are at today.
The whole world was misled to believe that his government was trying to preserve white rule yet all he was after was to maintain civilised standards. “Responsible” opinion, every “intelligent American”, and the majority of blacks were behind him. Only the communist terrorist dictators were against him.
He was so popular, he says, that, “on one occasion, after I became Prime Minister, (Dr) Gelfand arrived at my office with one of those people living in the Zambezi Valley who have only two large toes. Otherwise the African seemed perfectly normal, and when Mike Gelfand asked him if he knew who I was, without hesitating, he replied: ‘The Prime Minister’. He said this in spite of the fact that he lived in one of the most remote parts of the country, and had never previously visited any urban centre”.
According to Smith, “Rhodesia was an oasis of peace and contentment. Visitors to the country invariably commented on ‘the happiest black faces, we have seen’.” Even the British, he said, had conceded that the Rhodesian government had looked after its black population better than they (the British) did in their two territories of Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi).
“Proportional to population we had provided double the amount of facilities in the fields of education, health, housing, recreation and culture than the British had to our north… But all these truths were of no concern to international politicians preoccupied with appeasement.”
He could not understand what Rhodesia had done to deserve this treachery. “Our opponents had great success in twisting the truth against us. They accused us of being racists, when in fact we were being realists, constantly planning ways and means to improve the lot of all our people, black and white……We are accused of not having done enough to bring our people into our political system.
“Again this is not in keeping with the facts. Not only has our voters’ roll been open to all our people, whatever their race, colour or creed, since 1923 when we were granted our first constitution by Britain, but specific campaigns were launched by our government aimed at encouraging our black people to register as voters. It was unsuccessful for a number of reasons. First, the black nationalist campaign of intimidation warned people not to register, or else! Probably even more important, though, was the fact that our tribesman did not understand what we were trying to talk him into, and he just was not interested. Often I was given the reply: ‘Maybe this thing you call the vote is good for the white man, but we have our system which we have lived with all our lives, and our fathers before us, and we see no reason to change.
“We cannot have two systems, we prefer ours. Many of our senior black citizens will tell you the same today. And I seriously question whether they should be pressed to change, unless there is conclusive evidence that they would enjoy a better life under our system.”
Smith argues that the vast mass of Rhodesians — the white tribe as he calls them– have always been moderate, middle of the road conservatives.
“Extremists, whether to the left or right, never succeeded in gaining support in our politics….However, the continuing devious manoeuvring of the British government, including their rejection of the settlement agreement signed by Sir Alec Home and myself, influenced some people, including certain members of Parliament to advocate the adoption of a reactionary course. They were ejected from our Rhodesian Front Party, and when they opposed us at an ensuing general election, all were subjected to an ignominious defeat by the electorate. All these actions, which clearly indicate Rhodesian moderation, reason, and fair play to all our people, black and white, are assiduously ignored while the rabble-rousers succeed in branding us as white racists, oblivious to the interest of our black community. In fact, they are the racists, fabricating their case against us for the reason that we are white people living in Africa.”
Although he boasts of providing the best education for blacks, he still argues that they were not mature enough to understand what an election or referendum was. This is why when the British asked for a test of acceptability of his demands for independence of Rhodesia among the people of Rhodesia as a whole, they could not agree because although “on the evidence before us we were satisfied that it would receive approval.. it would be impossible to obtain an honest assessment of our black people, since the vast majority of them had never exercised a vote in their lives, could neither read nor write, did not understand the meaning of the word ‘constitution’, and were completely bemused by all the talking and manoeuvring going on around them.”
He also argued: “Any attempt to explain to them the intricacies of our constitution, which, by any standard, was involved and complicated, would not only be farcical, but dishonest. Any such exercise would obviously undermine the authority of the chiefs and the whole tribal structure. For the first time in history the tribespeople would be led to believe that their Chiefs and Headmen were no longer their leaders and that something else had been introduced into their lives which was absolutely beyond their comprehension.”
The danger with holding any referendum, he says, was that” communist-motivated extremists would mount an anti-campaign, resorting to emotional tactics and mob psychology, and the very effective weapon of intimidation”. Allowing tribespeople to vote instead of letting the chiefs decide for them would have provided a “happy hunting ground for extremist politicians whose objective was to destroy the tribal structure. Anything which maintained law and order, regulated people’s lives and supplied them with services, preserved their standards of justice and freedom, was anathema to the spread of communism.”
The British government’s refusal to accept the chiefs as the representatives of the black people was therefore a “blatant discourtesy” which deeply hurt them because they represented 90 percent of the population.
Almost half the book which is devoted to talks with the British government and its denial to grant Rhodesia independence which from 1923 it had promised could be granted any time Rhodesians asked, is dominated by this kind of argument.
The main problem, Smith argues, was to get Britain to understand that “our problem was to bring these Africans across, to try to bridge the 2 000-year gap in the shortest possible time….It took time, planning, professional services and finance to bring about the necessary improvements, and if people tried to run before they could walk, they invariably tripped.”
The other half of the book is devoted to Mugabe, how Smith had worked tirelessly to ensure that he would not be involved in any talks, how he would be prevented from contesting the elections, and after winning the elections, how he ran the country down –proving what Smith had argued all along that the country should never be allowed to fall into the hands of a communist terrorist. Smith accuses the British of double standards.
Just before the Geneva Conference of 1976, for example, he says “after assuring me that we were working to a common objective of dividing Nkomo and Mugabe, in order to move the latter out of the way, and having the assurance reiterated in a message he asked van der Byl to pass on to me in Salisbury, I was subsequently confronted with a press photograph of Richard (Ivor) with his arms around (Joshua) Nkomo and Mugabe, boasting his success in uniting them in their common objective….”
Nkomo and Mugabe had just formed the Patriotic Front. During the Lancaster House Conference in 1979, he says, he was assured by Lord (Peter) Carrington that the British were working at producing an agreement that would ensure the return to power of Muzorewa, who had been elected Prime Minister of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia in April.
When he told Carrington that by the way things were going Zimbabwe would end up with a Mugabe government, he says, Carrington replied: “My dear Mr Smith, I want to assure you that our whole strategy has been formulated to ensure that your prognosis will not eventuate. Quite the reverse. We have no doubt that your next government will be formed with a combination of Muzorewa, Nkomo and Smith.
“Moreover, should your worst fears materialise with a victory of the external forces, the leader will be Nkomo and not Mugabe. Even (Julius) Nyerere (President of Tanzania) has confirmed to us that all of them have accepted that Nkomo, as the first leader of African nationalism in Zimbabwe, will be the leader of the first government.”
Smith says despite this assurance he realised that Mugabe would be the winner. He was quite thrilled when he learnt that Mugabe had decided to pull out of the talks and was flying to the United States, because the British had said that if any party pulled out of the talks, the conference would continue without them.
“We had been assured that there would be no deviation from this plan. Our spirits were buoyant and we set about our business in a more sanguine frame of mind.” But, he says, everything was spoiled by Carrington who contacted Mozambican President Samora Machel who dispatched his ambassador in London to intercept Mugabe at Heathrow Airport.
“Clearly, Mugabe had no option.” he says. “He returned to his hotel with his tail between his legs. I do not believe he could have been as depressed as I was — my hopes were dashed”.
Even his army commanders, he says, had been assured after the Lancaster House agreement that Mugabe would not be allowed to win the elections. In fact, he was not even going to be allowed to contest. When the details of the Lancaster House agreement were made available to the National Joint Operating Command (Nat JOC), one of the commanders said, this had caused “great concern, indeed, alarm” among the army commanders.
They were, however, assured by General Walls on his return from London that the British were on the same network and were working in total collusion with the Rhodesians.
“Under no circumstances, Walls had declared, would Mugabe be allowed even to get to the starting post –both (British Prime Minister) Margaret Thatcher and Carrington had assured him on that point. Moreover, in the run-up to the election he had consistently reported that Soames was in agreement with the plan to disqualify Mugabe’s ZANU (PF) in certain provinces, but when the time came, Walls was found to be wanting, and all his supporters were left hanging in mid-air.”
Smith who says he had been aware from the start of the Lancaster House talks that Mugabe would win the elections –not because he was popular but because of intimidation– details several moves he made to ensure that Mugabe would not win or assume power when the election results were announced.
He says as early as January, before Mugabe had even come back to the country from Maputo, Soames had told him that he had received reports of “massive intimidation and the confirming affidavits which had been produced–over one thousand of them”. Soames, he said, produced a map, and said they proposed to disqualify the Patriotic Front from three provinces: Mashonaland East, Manicaland and Victoria (Masvingo). If the PF was disqualified from these provinces, which had 38 seats, Muzorewa would have been assured of victory.
“I had to agree; it was easy to work out the mathematics. A typical piece of British diplomacy: dishonest but effective.”
The British, Smith says, once again went back on their word. He even proposed the postponement of the elections but Walls told him this would serve no purpose because the internal factions would lose and not gain ground. The only way to solve that problem, and prevent Mugabe from coming to power was to bring in Nkomo.
It was estimated, correctly, that Nkomo would win 20 seats, and with the other black parties expected to win 15 to 20 seats between them and the Rhodesian Front’s 20 seats which it had already won, this would give them 55 to 60 seats in the 100 member house.
Muzorewa agreed to the plan saying: “If he and his party could not collect twenty seats, then they were Mickey Mouse”.
Mugabe surprised everyone by winning 57 seats enabling him to form a government without inviting another party including his former PF partner Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU which had 20 seats, if he wished, but he decided to form a government of national unity which included Ian Smith’s Rhodesian Front members.
Smith made frantic efforts to get Soames to nullify the election results and when he refused he pressed Walls as head of Nat JOC to do so.
“I was not suggesting any unconstitutional action,” he argues. “Surely, I argued, because of the massive intimidation we would be within our rights to demand a re-election…..The obvious solution was to publicise this (massive intimidation) and declare the election null and void, and force the British to remain in position with a council of ministers including Mugabe and Nkomo until conditions of normalcy had returned and it was possible to hold free and fair elections. Walls did not think there was much hope of the British going along with this; they were too tired now. My response was that if the demand came from the politicians the British would brush it off, but if it came from the Nat JOC they would not dare.”
Smith says although Walls had agreed that he would not allow Mugabe to win, he refused to take any action. Because of Walls’ refusal to take action, Mugabe came to power and within sixteen years he had run down the country, Smith says.
Throughout the book, Smith argues that he was fighting to keep Rhodesia in the “free world”. He also conveniently does not mention anything that could spoil his argument. Edgar Tekere is treated like a hero because he provided the most serious challenge to Mugabe in the 1990 elections, yet in 1980, he was allegedly involved in gunning down a white farmer but was acquitted.
There is no mention of any intimidation by the Zimbabwe-Rhodesian forces like the attacks on the homes of Kumbirai Kangai and Mugabe himself during the run up to the 1980 elections.
Although Smith throughout claims that he was leading the happiest blacks in the world, and that they were totally behind him, one of those who watched Smith on South Africa’s M-Net television discussing his book said: “Any Zimbabwean who goes to see Ian Smith is a criminal deserving the death sentence. He (Smith) is lucky to be alive. I hope he dies a violent death like he killed my people.”
Another said: “Smith appears to be one of those people who feel that the whole world was against him and did not seem to understand why. He was an only child”. Another quoted what Smith himself allegedly once said: “Anyone who is not confused about what is going on must be misinformed.”
The book which has 413 pages of copy and 16 of pictures, though biased, is a good read. It clearly shows Smith’s own way of looking at things. He even writes that during the last days, Muzorewa ditched him because of the influence of his “friends” who “had swallowed hook, line and sinker the theme that ‘poor old Smith, great guy that he may have been, is now over the hill and unable to adapt to the realities which surround him’.”
It is a pity that the book is not available in Zimbabwe, and may never be, but it would provide local historians with something to talk and write about. By denying Zimbabweans access to the book, the authorities are letting Smith get away with “murder” because his views and what he says in the book will remain unchallenged.
Some of the interesting points –worth debate or investigation—which Smith raises in the book are that:
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