9781422277690

was under British control. White settlers first arrived in the region from South Africa during the late 1800s. They put down resistance by indigenous blacks and established the colony of Southern Rhodesia. Over the decades, the white minority con- solidated its power. A 1930 law was particularly significant. It restricted blacks’ access to land, ensuring that many blacks would be perpetually impoverished. The law sparked long-run- ning opposition to colonial rule. In 1964 Ian Smith became Southern Rhodesia’s prime min- ister. He lobbied the British government to grant independence for the colony. Britain balked, because Smith insisted on pre- serving white-minority rule. So in 1965 Smith’s government unilaterally declared independence. The new state would be known simply as Rhodesia. The international community refused to accept Rhodesian independence. Neighboring South Africa—whose white- minority government systematically oppressed its own black citizens—was the only country to officially recognize Rhodesia. Yet neither diplomatic isolation nor international economic sanctions appeared to have much effect on Smith’s government. For his part, Robert Mugabe was an eloquent and outspoken critic of white-minority rule. Born in 1924, Mugabe became the secretary general of a black nationalist party, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), in the early 1960s. In 1964 the Rhodesian government banned ZANU and arrested its leaders. Mugabe spent a decade as a political prisoner. He was released in late 1974. Within a year, he had become the undis-

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Dictatorship: Authoritarian Rule