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Abstract
This article addresses the role of the Commonwealth, a unique post-colonial association, in the protracted process of decolonisation in sub-Saharan Africa. It examines the ways in which Commonwealth leaders sought to use the association to enhance their national diplomacy and policy stance on African self-determination: to pressure the British government to adopt more robust policies such as economic sanctions, and to use Common-wealth meetings as a diplomatic forum to coordinate and publicise their stance on decolonisation to their home constituencies, enhancing their domestic legitimacy. The article also addresses the ways in which the Commonwealth evolved in the process of British disengagement from empire, developing a separate identity, political leadership and an international secretariat; and its place in the global struggle against white minority regimes in Southern Rhodesia, Namibia/South West Africa and South Africa.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 See for example, Arnold Smith, Stitches in Time: The Commonwealth in World Politics (Andrew Deutsch Limited, 1981); David McIntyre, The Significance of the Commonwealth (Palgrave, 1991); Bob Hawke, The Hawke Memoirs (William Heineman, 1994); Krishnan Srinivasan, The Rise, Decline and Future of the British Commonwealth (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005); Richard Bourne (ed), Shridath Ramphal: The Commonwealth and the World: essays in honour of his 80th Birthday (Hansib Publications, 2008); Malcolm Fraser, Malcolm Fraser. The Political Memoirs (Miegunyah Press, 2010); James Mayall (ed), The Contemporary Commonwealth. An Assessment 1965–2009 (Routledge, 2010); Moses Anafu, ‘The Commonwealth’, in Arnold Temu and Joel das Neves Tembe (eds) Southern African Liberation Struggles 1960–1994. Contemporaneous Documents, (Mkuki na Nyota, 2014) Vol.9, 199–204; Shridath Ramphal, Glimpses of a Global Life (Hansib Publications, 2014); Carl Watts, ‘Moments of tension and drama: the Rhodesia problem at Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ meetings 1964–1965’, Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, 8,1 (2007), and Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence: An International History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). For a concise summary of Southern African liberation struggles, see https://www.britannica.com/place/Southern-Africa/Independence-and-decolonization-in-Southern-Africa, accessed 28 October 2021.
2 Mayall (ed) The Contemporary Commonwealth.
3 Patsy Robertson, Director of Information, Commonwealth Secretariat, Witness Seminar: A History of the Commonwealth Secretariat 1965–2010, https://commonwealthoralhistories.org/witness-seminar-the-heartbeat/, accessed 30 September 2021.
4 Margaret Doxey, The Commonwealth Secretariat and the Contemporary Commonwealth (Palgrave Macmillan, 1989); McIntyre, Significance of the Commonwealth 1965–1990; and A Guide to The Contemporary Commonwealth (Palgrave Macmillan, 2001).
5 Sue Onslow, ‘The Commonwealth and the Cold War: neutralism and non-alignment’, International History. Review 35, 5 (2015), 1059–1082.
6 Ruth Craggs, ‘Subaltern geopolitics and the post-Colonial Commonwealth 1965–1990’, Political Geography 65 (2018) 46–56.
7 For African-Asian Commonwealth members with small foreign services and limited overseas representation, the platform of the UN General Assembly, the UNO’s regional groups, and membership of the Special Committee on Decolonisation (C-24), were particularly important.
8 Matteo Grilli, ‘ Nkrumah’s Ghana and the Armed Struggle in Southern Africa 1961–1966’, South African Historical Journal, 70.1 (2018), 56–81.
9 Gilbert Khadiagala, Allies in Adversity: The Frontline States in Southern Africa (University Press of America, 2007). Both Tanzania and Zambia played leading roles in the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Frontline States (FLS) providing military assistance, training and refuge for national liberation movements. In sharp contrast, Dr Hastings Banda of Malawi negotiated with the Portuguese colonial regime, banned assistance to liberation fighters, and established close ties with South Africa.
10 https://thecommonwealth.org/london-declaration, accessed 25 October 2021.
11 The 1962 Commonwealth Immigration Act controlled immigration by all Commonwealth passport holders. Further legislative restrictions were imposed in 1968 and 1971.
13 Library and Archives of Canada (LAC) 50085-J-40, High Commissioner, London to Rt Hon John Diefenbaker, 24 February 1961. ‘If we say no to South Africa. we are in effect say that South Africa does not conform to the rules of the club, and we must admit at the same time there are no rules.’
14 Peter Henshaw, https://media.africaportal.org/documents/South_Africa_And_The_Commonwealth.pdf. The irony here is that South Africa had played a leading part in transforming Britain’s relationship with the Dominions to one of equals. See Saul Dubow, ‘The Commonwealth and South Africa: from Smuts to Mandela’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 45.2 (2017), 284–314.
15 The Central African Federation was created in 1953, despite African opposition. This was intended to be a bulwark against possible expansion of South Africa and its racial policies. Between 1945–1960, the white population of Southern Rhodesia increased from 30,000 to approximately 250,000.
16 LAC 10486–40, High Commissioner for Canada, Pretoria to the Secretary of State for External Affairs, Canada, No.516, 15 December 1952.
17 Some ‘old’ Commonwealth officials were concerned that this smacked of Indian hypocrisy, given the marginalisation of minorities in India, and feared India’s efforts to lead Africa were ‘wrong because they play into Communist hands and may even be pro-Communist in origin’. LAC 10486–40 From the Under Secretary of State for External Affairs, Canada to Office of the High Commissioner, Canada, New Delhi, 6 February 1953. The Indian representative in New York was also vocal in his criticism of the British handling of the Mau Mau emergency in Kenya.
18 LAC 10486-40, High Commissioner for Canada, Pretoria to the Secretary of State for External Affairs, Canada, No.518, 17 December 1952.
19 From time to time, the South African press referred to India’s ‘cuckoo imperialism’ which it alleged was designed to use Indian communities in Africa to gain control of the territories concerned. LAC 10486-40 Pt1, From the High Commissioner, Canada, London, to Secretary of State for External Affairs, Ottawa, Indian Influence in British Africa. No205 3 February 1956.
20 LAC ibid.
21 LAC 10486-30, From the office of the High Commissioner for Canada, New Delhi to the Under Secretary of State for External. Affairs. Canada, Telno 188 8 June 1954.
22 LAC 50085-J-40 Pt 3, Confidential 27 February 1961, Memorandum for the Prime Minister, South Africa.
23 Ronald Hyam and WR Louis (eds), British Documents on End of Empire (BDEE), Series A Volume 4, The Conservative Government and End of Empire 1957–1964, Part 1 High Policy, Political and Constitutional Change, lxxvii.
24 BDEE, The Conservative Government and End of Empire, Part I, lxxviii.
25 South African National Archives, SANA BTS 4/2/32/1 Vol.1, Office of the High Commissioner, Canberra to The Hon. Eric H Louw, Minister for External Affairs, Cape Town.
26 The National Archives, London (TNA) CAB 133/248, Meeting of Commonwealth Prime Ministers June-July 1957, Minutes of Meetings and Memoranda.
27 TNA CAB 133/136, Meeting of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers, 4 July 1957, p.5.
28 Nigeria and Sierra Leone were scheduled to become independent in 1960.
29 BDEE, Conservative Government and End of Empire, Doc 11, CAB 134/1935, No 15 (15) ‘The Commonwealth 1960–1970’: draft Cabinet memorandum by the CRO for Future Policy Study Working Group, 30 July 1959. See also TNA CAB 133/151, Prime Minister’s Visit to Africa, January - February 1960, CRO Ref. GHA 298/1, Ghana: Political Situation, 16 December 1959. [also briefing notes for the Prime Minister on the Federation of Rhodesia & Nyasaland, and South Africa].
30 LAC, MG31.E83, Confidential 4 February 1961. South Africa’s application to remain a member of the Commonwealth.
31 National Archives of Australia (NAA), A1838/283, 201/10/1 part 2, From Australian High Commission, Canberra, Inward Cablegram I.10260, No. 50, 11 June 1959. The Sharpeville and Langa massacres and ‘new Commonwealth’ hostility to South Africa’s candidacy ruled out any possible support.
32 BDEE, Conservatives, Part 1, lxxv, and see documents 439–441, and 445. Document 439 is described as a seminal paper in Anglo-South African relations.
33 See TNA CAB 133/151, C (60) 66, 12 April 1960, Prime Minister’s African tour. Note by the Secretary of the Cabinet. This includes the transcript of Macmillan’s speech p,153–158. And Larry Butler and Sarah Stockwell (eds), The Wind of Change: Harold Macmillan and British Decolonization (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
34 TNA CAB133/260, Meeting of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers 1960, UK Delegation briefing notes. The UK government had publicly accepted the majority UN view (supported by an International Court advisory position in 1950), that SWA remained under Mandate and that the UN had inherited the supervisory power from the League of Nations. South Africa argued that the Mandate died with the League and refused to accept UN supervision.
35 NAA, A1838/2, 201/10/Part 14, History of United Nations Consideration of Apartheid and the Australian Attitude.
36 The Times, 26 April 1960.
37 The Monckton Commission had been set up to investigate and make proposals for the future of the Federation in the wake of the emergency in Nyasaland in 1959. The UK government had given a prior undertaking to Sir Roy Welensky that any reference would be brief, with the deliberate aim of fend off discussion. See TNA CAB 133/259, PMM (UK) (60) 15, Colonial Office 19 April 1960.
38 TNA CAB 133/249, PMM (60) 10th Meeting, 11 May 1960. A Briefing paper by the Colonial Office, Developments in Dependent Territories in Africa was prepared for the Prime Minister, but not circulated to other leaders. See CAB 133/259, PMM (UK) (60) 15, 19 April 1960.
39 TNA CAB/133/249, Meeting of Commonwealth Prime Ministers, 10 May 1960.
40 BDEE, The Conservative Government and End of Empire, Part II, Doc 450 DO119/1206, no.41A, PMM 8(60)3, South Africa: Discussion at Commonwealth Prime Minister’s meeting about membership, 10 May 1960.
41 Robert Menzies, Afternoon Light. Some Memories of Men and Events (Cassel, 1967), 198–210.
42 New York Herald Tribune 16 May 1960. British officials were surprised by President Nkrumah’s stance at the meeting: ‘always moderate and often statesmanlike; in the discussions on the South African issue, he displayed none of the violence which one might reasonably have expected from him.’ TNA DO 35/7956, Sir Alexander Clutterbuck, Commonwealth Relations Office, 25 May 1960.
43 This went against a substantial body of world opinion who did not consider South West Africa to be an integral part of the Union.
44 TNA CAB 133/259, PMM (UK)60)28, Attendance of Sir Roy Welensky 8 April 1960. Through a series of incremental precedents dating back to the late 1920s, Prime Ministers of Southern Rhodesia, and then Prime Ministers of the CAF had been invited to take part in Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ meetings. This reflected Southern Rhodesia’s unique position as a self-governing colony since 1923, and that the country had been on course for Dominion status after the Second World War before the creation of the Central African Federation. See also Andrew Cohen, The Politics and Economics of Decolonisation in Africa: The Failure of the Central African Federation (IB Tauris, 2017).
45 TNA CAB 133/259, PMM(UK) (60) 27/1, Annex A. General African Situation. Statement of the views of the Government of Ghana, Commonwealth Relations Office, 27 April 1960.
46 This prompted the establishment of a Chequers Study Group in July 1960, which considered a whole range of possible ideas, but all were dismissed as politically or administratively impractical. See Hyam and Louis, (eds) The Conservative Government and the end of Empire 1957–1964, Part II, Doc 249, & 534.
47 BDEE, Conservative Government Part II, Doc 538 DO161/94, No46, Constitutional Development of the Commonwealth in the light of UN Resolution 1514 (XV): letter from CJ Eastwood (CO) to LJD Wakely (CRO), 29 June 1961.
48 Ghana and Ceylon were particularly singled out for supporting a Soviet draft declaration which ‘contained a violent and highly coloured condemnation of colonialism - inter alia the authorities in Kenya were charged with exterminating the local population after driving them into concentration camps, reservations and prisons’, while India had endorsed the Soviet draft calling for the granting of complete independence. TNA CAB 133/260, PMM UK (61)3, Foreign Office 17 February 1960. This comment shows extraordinary official denial of British repressive measures in Kenya in the 1950s. See Caroline Elkins, Britain’s Gulag: the Brutal End of Empire in Kenya (Pimlico, 2005).
49 TNA CAB 133/260, PMM (UK) 61), Meeting of Commonwealth Prime Ministers, 1961, United Kingdom delegation, 17 February 1961, 3 Annex III, United Kingdom Colonial Policy.
50 TNA CAB 133/260, PMM (UK) 61)3, Annex III, United Kingdom Colonial Policy. For more on the Commonwealth’s relationship with the United Nations, see Wm. Roger Louis, ‘"Public Enemy Number One": Britain and the United Nations in the Aftermath of Suez”, in Martin Lynn, ed. The British Empire in the 1950s: Retreat or Revival? (Palgrave, 2006); and Andrew Cohen, ‘"A difficult, tedious and unwanted task": Representing the Central African Federation at the United Nations, 1960-1963’, Itinerario, 34:2 (2010), 105-128.
51 BDEE, Conservatives Part 1, lxxiv.
52 LAC, 50085-J-40, Secretary of State for External Affairs, memorandum for the Prime Minister, 24 February 1961.
53 LAC 50085-J-40, To UnderSecretary of State for External Affairs, Ottawa, from High Commissioner for Canada, Pretoria, No.366, 24 November 1960.
54 BDEE, Part II, Doc 457, CAB 133/251], PMM 6–10 & 12(61) [South Africa’s continued membership of the Commonwealth]: minutes of six meetings of Commonwealth prime Ministers. Mohamed Muda, Malaysian-South African Relations and the Commonwealth 1960–1994, The Round Table, The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, 85, 340 (1996), 423–439.
55 LAC, Gile MG31, E83, Canada, South Africa and the Commonwealth 1960–1961.
56 Ronald Hyam, The parting of the ways: Britain and South Africa’s departure from the Commonwealth 1951–1961 Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 26, 2 (1998), 157–175.
57 The practical and political consequences of South Africa’s withdrawal from the Commonwealth required the reconfiguration of a number of trade agreements, including the International Sugar Agreement, and dual nationality entitlement was extended until the end of 1965. See NAA, A1209/106, 61/563 Part 1, The Attitude of Old Commonwealth Members to Withdrawal of South Africa, under cover of letter JR Rowland, Department of External Affairs, to The Secretary, Prime Minister’s Department, Canberra, 26 April 1961.
58 In the past South Africa had made repeated attempts to take over the Territories’ administration. These approaches had been consistently rebuffed on the grounds that under the South Africa Act of 1909, the British government had pledged not to transfer the Territories without consulting the inhabitants and the UK Parliament. The issue of over-flights was also crucially important; these were ‘quietly confirmed’ after South Africa left the Commonwealth. BDEE, Conservative Government & End of Empire, Part 1, lxxv. As British officials acknowledged, for many years the High Commission Territories’ constitutional and economic development had lagged, mainly because of their uncertain future in relation to South Africa’s claims. TNA CAB 133/259, Annex, High Commission Territories, Colonial Office, 13 April 1960. And BDEE, Part I lxxvi-lxxvii.
59 Supported by African Commonwealth members. TNA CAB 133/253, Minutes of the 4th Meeting, 9 July 1964; 7th Meeting, 10 July 1964.
60 BDEE, Part I, lxxvi, and Documents 475, 477, 479–81, 488, 491.
61 BDEE, Part I, Docs. 486 & 490.
62 LAC, 50085-J-40, Sgd George Canada House, London, to Rt Hon John Diefenbaker, 31 January 1961.
63 LAC, 50085-J-40, G. DeT. Glazebrook/rp, 16 January 1961, memorandum to the Prime Minister.
64 Glazebrook, 16 January 1961.
65 TNA CAB 133/263, PMM (UK)(62) A/1, Commonwealth Relations Office 27 August 1962. See also BDEE Part I, Docs 541, 543 & 544.
66 Andrew Cohen, The Politics and Economics of Decolonisation in Africa. The Failed Experiment of the Central African Federation (IB Tauris, 2017).
67 Richard Lamb, The Macmillan Years 1957–1963. The Emerging Truth. (John Murray, 1995). Also Sir Roy Welensky, Welensky’s 4000 Days. The Life and Death of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (Collins, 1964).
68 TNA CAB 133/252, PMM (62) 9th Meeting, 17 September 1962.
69 TNA CAB 133/252, PMM (62) 9th Meeting, 17 September 1962.
70 BDEE, the Conservative Government and End of Empire, Doc 548 PREM 11/4564. ‘The Commonwealth at the UN’: memorandum by Sir Patrick Dean (UN) to Lord Home, 25 September 1963.
71 BDEE, Doc.548.
72 BDEE, Doc.548.
73 TNA, FCO 371/172631, no.26, Sir G Harrison, quoted in BDEE, The Conservative Government and End of Empire, p.696.
74 NAA, A1838/2, 201/10/1 Part 14, O.16784, 6 November 1961, to All Posts, SAV.AP 158. United Nations General Assembly - South African Items.
75 Matthew Jordan, ‘Australia in this Matter is under Some Scrutiny’: Early Australian Initiatives to the Rhodesian Problem, 1961–64’, International Historical Review, 42.1 (2020), 77–98. See also Matthew Jordan (ed) Documents on Australian Foreign Policy. Australia and the Rhodesia Problem 1961–1972 (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2017).
76 TNA CAB 133/253, PMM (UK) (64), Minutes of 4th Meeting, Thursday 9 July 1964, p.33.
77 In 1964 Tanganyika merged with Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanzania and Zanzibar, later known as Tanzania.
78 TNA CAB 133/264, PMM (UK) (64) A27, Briefing Prepared by Colonial Office 6 July 1964.
79 Carl Watts argues Rhodesian udi was not inevitable, and that there were options which were underexplored or dismissed. See Watts, (2006) The Rhodesian crisis in British and international politics, 1964–1965 (University of Birmingham. Ph.D), available at https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/314/.
80 TNA CAB 133/264, PMM (UK) (64) A5(i) 26 June 1964, Cabinet Meeting of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers 1964, Role of the United Nations, Brief prepared by the Foreign Office.
81 TNA CAB 133/264, PMM (UK) (64) A13, 6 July 1964, South Africa. Brief prepared by the Foreign Office.
82 TNA CAB 133/264, PMM (UK) 64) B1, 26 June 1964, Brief prepared by the Foreign Office.
83 By this point, there had been a significant number of UNGA resolutions:.
1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960, 1747 (XVI) of 28 June 1962, 1760 (XVII) of 31 October 1962, 1883 (XVIII) of 14 October 1963, 1889 (XVIII) of 6 November 1963, 1956 (XVIII) of 11 December 1963 and 2012 (XX) of 12 October 1965, the resolutions adopted by the Special Committee on 22 April 1965 [2] and 28 May 1965 [3] and Security Council resolution 202 (1965) of 6 May 1965.
84 Commonwealth members of the C-24 included Australia, India, Sierra Leone, Tanganyika and the UK.
85 TNA CAB 133/253, PMM (64), 13 July 1964, 82.
86 TNA CAB 133/252, PMM (64), Final Communique, p.117.
87 TNA CAB 133/253, Pm (64), 13 July 1964, 84. See Philip Murphy, ‘“An intricate and distasteful subject”: British Planning for the Use of Force Against the European Settlers of Central Africa, 1952–65’, English Historical Review, Vol.CXX1, issue 492 (2006), 746–777.
88 G Barclay, Friends in Salisbury: Australia and the independence of Rhodesia 1965–1972.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8497.1983.tb00301.x.
89 See Carl Watts, ‘Britain, the old Commonwealth and the problem of Rhodesian Independence’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 36.1 (2008), 75–99.
90 Richard Coggins, ‘Wilson and Rhodesia: UDI and British policy towards Africa’, Contemporary British History, Vol.20, 2006 .
91 British diplomat Wilfred Turner to Sue Onslow, 4 January 2006.
92 BDEE, Series A, Vol.5, East of Suez and the Commonwealth 1964–1971, SR Ashton and WmR Louis (eds), Part II, Europe, Rhodesia, Commonwealth. Doc 244 CAB 148/17, OPD (64) 12 11 December 1964, ‘Commonwealth Secretariat’: memorandum by Mr Bottomley for Cabinet Defence and Oversea Policy Committee, Annexes A-E. The creation of a Secretary General and the Secretariat were regarded by the newer members of the Commonwealth as the means whereby ‘they could exercise more control over the Commonwealth’s destiny.’ LAC, MG26 N3, vol.267, vile 812.3 Cont 1964, Mr NQ Dias, Permanent Secretary Ministry of External Affairs and Defence, 29 July 1964 to Canadian High Commissioner, Telno 269, 30 July 1964.
93 BDEE, Doc.254, FCO 49/211, no.1, An impression of the Commonwealth conference: despatch from M MacDonald (Nairobi) to Mr Bowden on the meeting of Commonwealth prime Ministers at London in September 1966, 9 December 1966. JRD Wood, A Matter of Weeks, Not Months. The Impasse Between Harold Wilson and Ian Smith Sanctions, Aborted Settlements and War 1965–1969. (Trafford Press, 2012).
94 Menzies, 224, & 227.
95 Philip Alexander, “‘A Tale of Two Smiths”. The Transformation of Commonwealth Policy 1964–1970,’ Contemporary British History, vol. 2006, 303–321.
96 Leo Cefkin, ‘The Rhodesian question at the UN’, International Organisation, 22.3, (1968), 649–669.
97 BDEE Doc 250, DO 193/79, No. I. ‘Planning exercise: the Commonwealth as a British interest’: circular letter from R Walker to UK High Commissions. The proposed second UK application to join the EEC was a further spur to this reassessment. BDEE Doc 268, The Value of the Commonwealth to Britain: Cabinet memorandum by Mr Bowden Annex 24 April 1967.
98 See BDEE, Docs 251 - 260 & 262.
99 BDEE, Doc 268, CAB 129/129, C (67)59, The Value of the Commonwealth to Britain: Cabinet memorandum by Mr Bowden.
100 BDEE, Doc 268.
101 BDEE, Doc 268.
102 https://thecommonwealth.org/sites/default/files/history-items/documents/Singapore%20Declaration.pdf, accessed 28 October 2021.
103 Interview with Ambassador Abdul Minty, 12 February 2013, available at www.commonwealthoralhistories.org .
104 ComSec Archives, 1973 Ottawa, Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Ottawa June 1973, Minutes of Sessions and Memoranda.
105 See Smith, Stitches in Time.
106 Manley, an ardent socialist, formed an unlikely but lasting strong political friendship with Malcolm Fraser, (Liberal Prime Minister of Australia 1975–1981) on the issue of racial justice in southern Africa. See Fraser, Memoirs.
107 ComSec Archives, 1977 London, Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) London 8–11 June 1977, Minutes of Sessions and Memoranda, Prime Minister James Callaghan Address of Welcome, p.5. Callaghan made express reference to the specific pre-conditions for a negotiated settlement (March 1976) and the Anglo-US initiative.
108 ComSec Archives, CHOGM 1977, Ramphal, 8.
109 ComSec Archives, CHOGM 1977, Kaunda, 8.
110 ComSec Archives, CHOGM 1977, Lee Kuan Yew, 8 June 1977, 25.
111 ComSec Archives, CHOGM 1977, Kaunda, 9 June 1977, 69.
112 The International Conference in Support of the Peoples of Zimbabwe and Namibia, May 1977, https://www.refworld.org/docid/3b00f1b248.html, accessed 28 October 2021. The Maputo meeting underlined the extent to which regular Commonwealth heads’ meetings overlapped with other international conferences.
113 Brigadier Ya’Adua, Nigeria, 9 June 1977, 72–74. Nigeria launched a Southern Africa Relief Fund in December 1976 for private citizens to make their own contribution (This raised approx. £5m in 6 months); Sierra Leone also funded 100 university places. See Ihebom Egedo ‘Nigeria and Apartheid: Her position in the Commonwealth’, The Round Table, 76, 301 (1987).
114 Owen, p.84. See also David Owen, Time to Declare (Penguin, 1992).
115 Throughout the 1970s Commonwealth high commissioners in London also had a watching brief of the torturous path of Rhodesian/Zimabwean independence through the regular meetings of the Commonwealth Sanctions committee, renamed as the Commonwealth Committee on Southern Africa in 1977. Owen’s clandestine attempt to widen the Rhodesian Internal Settlement of 1978 to include Zimbabwean nationalists, in collaboration with the Nigerians, was wrecked by rivalry between Commonwealth heads, Julius Nyerere and Kenneth Kaunda. See Lord Owen interview, in Sue Onslow and Michael Kandiah (eds) Lancaster House Conference 1979, Vol.II, Witnesses (FCDO Historians, 2019).
116 Ramphal, Glimpses, and Interview with Sir Shridath Ramphal, (2006) published in The Lancaster House Conference, Vol II; Director of Information, Clyde Sanger Diary 1979 extract, available at www.commonwealthoralhistories.org.
117 Patrick Salmon (ed), The Rhodesia Settlement. An In-House Study, with forward by Lord Renwick, (FCDO, 2021) https://issuu.com/fcohistorians/docs/the_rhodesia_settlement_final_with_cover_, accessed 8 October 2021.
118 Sue Onslow & Martin Plaut, Robert Mugabe (Ohio University Press, 2018).
119 SR Ramphal interview in The Lancaster House Settlement: Part II – Witnesses, & Glimpses.
120 John Mackinlay, ‘The Commonwealth Monitoring Force in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, 1979–80’, in Thomas G Weiss (ed) Humanitarian Emergencies and Military Help in Africa, (Palgrave Macmillan, 1990) 38–60.
121 ComSec Archives, 2011/077, News Release 79/34, The Commonwealth Committee on Southern Africa, Commonwealth Observers for Zimbabwe Elections, 29 November 1979.
122 ComSec Archives, 2011/077 (3 parts), Rhodesia: COG: Administration. General 1979. Southern Rhodesia, Report of the Constitutional Conference Lancaster House, London September – December 1979, Point 26, p.38. News Release, 79/34, dated 23 November 1979.
123 Financial Times, 16 January 1980. The group included officials from Australia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Canada, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka, and was carefully selected to carry weight with the OAU and UN, as well as equitable geographical representation. Crucially, they were to be members of a collective group, not representatives of their individual governments.
124 See Dame Billie Miller and Moses Anafu interviews with Sue Onslow, available at www.commonwealthoralhistories.org; Stuart Doran, Kingdom, Power and Glory: Mugabe, ZANU and the Quest for Supremacy, 1960–1987 (Sithatha Media, 2017), and Tim Scarneccia, Race and Diplomacy in Zimbabwe, The Cold War and Decolonisation 1960–1984 (Cambridge University Press, 2021).
125 Ramphal, Glimpses.
126 Percy Cradock, cited in John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher. Volume II The Iron Lady (Random House, 2011), 334.
127 Robin Renwick, Uncoventional Diplomacy in Southern Africa (Palgrave Macmillan, 1997), and A Journey with Margaret Thatcher: Foreign Policy Under the Iron Lady (Biteback, 2015).
128 See Sue Onslow interviews with Bob Hawke, and Rt Hon Joe Clark, and supporting documents, at www.commonwealthoralhistories.org
129 Rt Hon Gareth Evans interview with Sue Onslow, www.commonwealthoralhistories.org; see also John Major, John Major: The Autobiography (HarperCollins, 2000).
130 Emeka Anyaoku, The Inside Story of the Modern Commonwealth (Evans Brothers Limited, 2004); Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Stuart Mole, and Moses Anafu interviews with Sue Onslow, available at www.commonwealthoralhistories.org. See also Stuart Mole, The Commonwealth, South Africa and Apartheid. Race, Conflict and Reconciliation (Routledge, 2023).
131 Carl Dundass interview with Sue Onslow, 10 Febuary 2015, www.commonwealthoralhistories.org
132 See Patrick Salmon (ed) Documents on British Policy Overseas Series III, Vol.IX, The challenge of Apartheid: UK-South Africa Relations, 1985–1986; and The Unwinding of Apartheid: UK-South African Relations, 1986–1990: Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, Volume XI (Whitehall Histories, 2019); Charles Moore, Margaret Thatcher. The Authorised Biography. Volume Two: Everything She Wants (Penguin, 2015), 544–585. Ramphal, Glimpses; Geoffrey Howe, Conflict of Loyalty (MacMillan, 1994); Theresa Papenfus, Pik Botha and His Times (Litera Publications, 2016); FW De Klerk, The Last Trek - A New Beginning. The Autobiography (St Martin’s Press, 1999); Renwick, Unconventional Diplomacy in Southern Africa ; and A Journey with Margaret Thatcher.
133 See Chris Saunders, ‘The Angola/Namibia crisis of 1988 and its resolution’, in Sue Onslow (ed) Cold War in Southern Africa (Routledge, 2009); Chris Saunders, ‘Namibia’s Liberation Struggle. The Mbita Version’, South African Historical Journal, vol.70,1, 2018; Saunders, ‘Anti-Apartheid, Decolonisation and Transnational Solidarity: The Namibian Case’, in Anna Konieczna and Rob Skinner (eds) A Global History of Anti-Apartheid (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
134 TNA CAB 133/249, PMM (60) 8th Meeting of Commonwealth Prime Ministers, 10 May 1960, 5.
135 TNA CAB 133/249, PMM (60) 11th Meeting, 11 May 1960, 8.
136 Chris Saunders, ‘Namibian Solidarity: British Support for Namibian Independence’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 35,2 (2009).
137 Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (HarperCollins, 2012). Sue Onslow interview with RF ‘Pik’ Botha, www.commonwealthoralhistories.org.
138 Neville Linton interview with Sue Onslow, 16 July 2013, www.commonwealthoralhistories.org.
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Sue Onslow
Sue Onslow Professor is a leading oral history practitioner and has published extensively on the contemporary history of Southern Africa in the Cold War era. She was the lead interviewer on the AHRC-funded ‘Oral History of the Commonwealth since 1965’ at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, where she also worked as Deputy Director, then Director. She is currently Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Economy, King’s College, London. Her recent publications include Co-editor (with Anna-Mart Van Wyk): Southern Africa in the Cold War post-1974 (Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson Center, 2013). ‘The Commonwealth, Neutralism and Non-Alignment’, International Historical Journal, July 2015; Robert Mugabe (with Martin Plaut) (Ohio University Press, 2018); ‘Tanzania, non-alignment and the Non-Aligned Movement’ in Dimitrijevic & Cavoski, The 60th Anniversary of the Non-Aligned Movement (Belgrade, 2021); and editor, (with Lori Maguire) Consuls in the Cold War (Brill Publishers, 2023). She is preparing a monograph The Commonwealth in the Cold War Era (Hurst Publishers), and a co-edited volume to commemorate 60 years since Rhodesian UDI (Bloomsbury Press).