Prelude to Unilateralism: Foreclosed Independence Bids in Pre-Federation Southern Rhodesia, 1948 and 1950

ABSTRACT This article recovers two resolutions, in 1948 and 1950, respectively, by the all-white parliament in Southern Rhodesia (colonial Zimbabwe) that expressed support for the colony’s independence within the British Commonwealth. The examination of these post-war pushes for sovereignty illuminate how Rhodesia’s political leadership was sensitive to wider changes in the imperial status quo, well before the broader white electorate became similarly seized by colonial withdrawal. The motions highlight the gulf between the metropole and local settler leadership, even when the latter were ostensibly firmly backed by imperial policy and domestic black political opposition was comparatively muted. Additionally, the two parliamentary debates elucidate domestic interparty differences. The article is primarily informed by verbatim transcripts of the pertinent legislative proceedings. The deliberations have largely disappeared from the colony’s historiography – a significant omission given the considerable scholarly interest surrounding Southern Rhodesia’s unilateral declaration of independence from Britain in 1965. This article shows that nearly two decades before that fateful step, changing international factors motivated Rhodesia’s political class to consider major steps that would ensure the maintenance of white dominance.