Greater Rhodesia

In OTL the British blockade was very limited.
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Initially the blockade consisted of a carrier, two frigates and a logistical support ship. As March of 1966 a 3 Avro Shackletons were based in Majunga, Madagascar to carryout aerial patrols.

The British also send a squadron of ten Javelin Jets to Zambia, ostensibly to protect it against Rhodesian bombing or other attack. In fact it appears the Javelins were there to establish British predominance in the region and pre-empt any other nation from putting forces into Zambia. The squadron did exactly nothing and was withdrawn after a year or so.

Another problem was that after January 1969, the new Nixon administration utterly lacked enthusiasm for participating in the blockade or supporting it even passively. By 1971 Nixon had signed off on the Byrd Amendment, which allowed US companies to once again start importing Rhodesian chrome. At that point the blockade was pretty much a dead letter -- except for Zambia, where the border remained closed from 1969 onwards. This did much more damage to Zambia than to Rhodesia, of course.

The problem with blockading Lobito in Angola is that over half of Zaire/Congo's exports passed through that port at the time... After 1975, Zairian copper was shipped to Matadi, but this was expensive as it required two trans-shipments, so much of Zaire's exports were sent all the way down to East London, South Africa.

I did not know that about Lobito!

Today most of Zambia's exports go through Matadi, which is one of the worst ports in the world. Some still goes down to SA, but only exports from Katanga -- the destruction of Congo's internal road and rail links by Mobutu and the wars means that there's basically no ground linkage at all between Katanga and the rest of the country.

What was the link to Lobito, anyway -- rail?


Doug M.
 
You might be right. But I thought the lesson was that education can not change the evil that is at a persons heart, all it does if put a civilized shell on a the person. I don't think I claimed he was stupid, nor did I mean to imply that he was simple-minded. I do claim he is evil, barbaric, and no better than the colonists he hated.

Fair enough. You'll get no more argument from me. :eek:
 
I did not know that about Lobito!

Today most of Zambia's exports go through Matadi, which is one of the worst ports in the world. Some still goes down to SA, but only exports from Katanga -- the destruction of Congo's internal road and rail links by Mobutu and the wars means that there's basically no ground linkage at all between Katanga and the rest of the country.

What was the link to Lobito, anyway -- rail?

Yes Lobito is linked to the Katanga and Copperbelt mines by the Benguela railway. The line was constructed between 1902 and 1929 when it reached the Belgian border. It was financed by Scottish mining engineer Sir Robert Williams and was very profitable up until independence.

Apparently nowadays 97% of Zambia's copper is exported by road, much of it via Walvis Bay in Namibia.
 
The Benguela Railway -- of course. The Zambians have been trying to encourage Angola to re-open it, but progress is very slow -- it's years away at best.

I'm not sure about the copper going out by road to Walvis Bay. Right now a lot of stuff seems to be going through Beira. However, I am in Zambia right now, and will be traveling to Copperbelt next week, so I should be able to check this at the source.

BTW, one thing I didn't appreciate until I came here was how mismanaged the Federation was. Southern Rhodesia viewed the other two colonies as hinterlands to be exploited; at one point Northern Rhodesia was producing over 60% of the tax revenue (mostly from copper) but getting less than 20% back from the central government.


Doug M.
 
A few Thoughts

A few thoughts from someone in the West (England) who is married to a Zimbabwean and has been to Zim many times (BTW I am a white conservative, my wife is black).

The comments about Zimbabweans being poorly educated barbarians extremely offensive. If you do some research you will find that Zimbabwe has a higher literacy rate than the UK (93% to 89% approx). Zimbabweans are also some of the friendliest people on earth.

White ex Rhodesians who wish it was still Rhodesia call themselves Rhodies, rather than Zimbos who are white Zimbabweans who support majority rule.

There is a small South Asian community in Zimbabwe, but it is very small (though I did attend a wedding in a small rural town where the meal was a curry provided by the only Pakistani family in the town). Malawi has a bigger South Asian population and there are some very good Indian restaurants in Blantyre (not quite Brick Lane but better than many in the UK).

Politics in Zimbabwe is very complicated with different factions within ZANU PF providing a form of democratic debate. I've been to a party at my Brother in Laws house (Etherton Shungu), who is a ZDF Brigadier and a senior ZANU PF official and engaged in one of the more intelligent political discussions I have been involved in. It even included a white farmer (the Brigadier's best friend BTW) who was a Mugabe supporter. Most of the black guys there were MDC. It was a good party and I drank a lot of Mukuyu Pinotage.

Whilst there were both ZANU & ZAPU in the liberation war, I think that the black population did think of themselves as either Mashona or N'debele. After independence this was reinforced with ZANU's repression of Matabeleland with a combination of the North Korean trained 5th Brigade and the (white) Rhodesian Paratroop Brigade & SAS.

This repression goes back to the movement north of the N'debele who were a scion of the Zulu that fled Chaka and defeated the Shona at Bulawayo (N'debele / Zulu for place of slaughter) and captured the Western third of what is now Zimbabwe from the Shona Empire in the 1830's. The Shona empire was vast from the 12th century up to the 16th century ruling what is now Botswana (not the San people desert areas), Zimbabwe, inland Mozambique and parts of Zambia and SA. They trade with the Ming Empire in China and built stone fortresses as big as any being built in Europe at the time (Great Zimbabwe at Masvingo is about the same size as Caernarfon Castle in Wales and was built about the same time). Whilst both N'debele and Shona are Bantu people, the N'debele have a reputation as warriors being a scion of the Zulu, whereas the Shona are farmers and herdsman, though thet were the first African army to defeat a European Army in the 16th century (the Portugese). There is still a desire in some parts of ZANU PF (Mugabe / Mnagwa) to drive out the N'debele in a third Chimurenga (1st was revolt against the British in the 1890's, 2nd was liberation war).

Anyway back to topic I don't think that a Greater Rhodesia was possible due to the overwhelming black majority, especially in Zambia. There are still a lot of whites in Zimbabwe though, and many who left during the farm seizures are buying there way back in. As I have said it is a very friendly country and I feel safer and less living in a 'Big Brother' society than I do in the UK. I can go into Chitungwiza at night and and feel safe far more so than Hackney or Croydon in London. The climate is also a lot nicer than the UK (day time highs usually 20-29 degrees C (though have experienced a high of 10) and nightime lows of 0 to 15 degrees C). This was one of the major factors for whites to settle in Zimbabwe.

We still have a house in Zimbabwe in Kwekwe and it's far nicer and roomier than our house in the UK.
 
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