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This book provides the first comprehensive study of the 'special relationship' between Southern Rhodesia and South Africa. While most studies approach this from the history of British and South African relations or the history of South African territorial expansion, this book offers new insights by examining Southern Rhodesia's relations with South Africa from the former's perspective. Exploring relations through the lens of settler colonialism, the book argues that settler colonialism in the region was marked by a competitive and antagonistic relationship between settler communities, particularly Afrikaner and English communities. The book explores the connections between these countries by examining (high) politics, economic links, and social and cultural ties, highlighting both instances of competition and cooperation. Above all, it argues that economic ties were the cornerstone of the relationship and that these shaped the rest of the ties between the two countries. Drawing on archival records from Britain, South Africa and Zimbabwe, as well as a number of secondary sources, it offers a much more nuanced perspective of this relationship than has been previously offered.
List of contents
Chapter 1. Introduction: A History of Southern Rhodesia-South Africa Relations. - Chapter 2. Responsible Government in Southern Rhodesia: The South African Factor, 1914-1923. - Chapter 3. The First Decade of Responsible Government, 1923-1933: Competition and Interdependence. -Chapter 4. Trade, Customs Arrangement and Regional Implications, 1934-1939. - Chapter 5. The War Years, 1939-1945: War Economy and Military Engagement. - Chapter 6. A Period of Change, 1946-1953: Shifting Interests, Close Connections. - Chapter 7. Conclusion: Bound by History
About the author
Abraham Mlombo is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the International Studies Group at the University of the Free State, South Africa. He is a historian of Southern African history, with a particular interest in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Southern Rhodesia and South Africa.
