What is it about?
This article looks at the contribution of the last British Governor in Rhodesia to Zimbabwe's transition to independence in 1980.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Individuals can and do make a difference in processes of transition. This article examines the political qualities and personal role of Christopher Soames - overseeing the fraught election period, the emergence of his personal relationship with Robert Mugabe, and his key backing of Mugabe in the tense post-election period before independence day. It also underlines the importance of political networks in public and private diplomacy.
Perspectives
The 'Man on the Spot' has been identified as a key driver in the creation of the sprawling formal British empire. The same is true in its unravelling . The unlikely personal and political relationship that emerged between the patrician Christopher Soames and liberation leader Robert Mugabe was a key ingredient in Zimbabwe's relatively peaceful transition to internationally recognised independence. Largely thanks to Soames, Mugabe was stressing multi-racial reconciliation a decade before Nelson Mandela's rhetoric. In the longer term, this advice could do nothing to halt the on-going struggle between Nkomo's forces and the Mugabe government, which developed into the Fifth Brigade's appalling violence and brutality in Matabeleland. In many ways, Soames was key, but only for a very limited length of time. British subsequent silence over the Gukurahundi massacres was shameful.
Sue Onslow
University of London School of Advanced Study
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Man on the Spot: Christopher Soames and Decolonisation of Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, Britain and the World, March 2013, Edinburgh University Press,
DOI: 10.3366/brw.2013.0078.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
