Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Rhodesia 1976

Here's a fascinating historical document, a 1976 news report from Rhodesia. For those who don't know, Rhodesia was a part of the British colonial possessions in Africa until the local government declared unilateral independence in 1965 rather than submit to the UK's terms of departure, which required one-man-one-vote, which would have put the a black government in power. Rhodesia was isolated politically, and fought a long guerrilla war against black nationalists backed by the Soviet Union and China, until final surrender in 1979. Rhodesia then became Zimbabwe.


Things did not go well for Zimbabwe; Robert Mugabe eventually turned flat-out tyrant, and the country is now one of the poorest in the world.

I can't quite read the reporters' accents, but one of the interviews mentions Australia, so I think that's where the report is from.

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