Ian Smith

Nov 22 2007 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

HE BELIEVED he was right. Of that, there was no doubt.

And his prophecy that Rhodesia, which he regarded as the jewel in British Africa, would be ruined by black majority-rule now presents those of liberal conscience with some awkward, jagged pictures – leaving the unanswerable question of whether the disasters should properly be blamed on the legacies of European colonisation, economic exploitation of their lands by the West, or some more profound problem in adjusting traditional ways to democracy.

In the bitter, sad, bloody story of Rhodesia’s unfolding into Zimbabwe, his glass-eyed stare and sullen smile were much mocked in Britain, where the values he expressed were out of kilter with the mood of the country under the Labour premier- ship of Harold Wilson.

But older subjects, still proud of the British Empire, were less keen to condemn Ian Smith, dour son of a butcher and cattle-dealer.

They remembered how this wiry and brave athlete interrupted his studies in commerce at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, to fight for the mother country against Germany, joining 237 (Rhodesian) Squadron of the RAF in 1939. In 1943, he suffered serious facial injuries, resulting in the loss of his left eye, when his Hurricane crashed near Alexandria. After recovery, he became a Spitfire pilot shot down over Italy, where he worked with Partisans.

His entry into Rhodesian politics coincided with Harold Macmillan’s speech about the wind of change blowing through Africa.

Smith and most white Africans feared change more than anything else. In 1965, under his leadership, white Rhodesia declared its Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from Britain. Sanctions were imposed and negotiations held with Wilson. So the stern man of conviction met consummate politician.

But it was guerrilla war waged against the small white population which ended white Rhodesia, and gave birth to Zimbabwe, with Mugabe winning the elections in 1980.

At heart, Smith, married with three children, was a white supremacist, but he was also a man of courage, who stood by the principals of another age. “The one-eyed man is king in the land of the blind,” his detractors had mocked after UDI.

But, as he retired to his farm, a widower, he heard black people saying, “It was better under Smith”. His smile was bitter.

Ian Smith, politician; born April 8, 1919, died November 20, 2007.