The servants are immaculately dressed in white, with fitments - sashes, cummerbunds and for some reason fezzes - in bright green. This greenery is trimmed with gold according to the servant's rank, so that the head waiter looks like a gift- wrapped present from Neiman- Marcus, with a gold tassel on top of his head. The Governor has laid in a plentiful supply of champagne and Havana cigars the wife of a visiting American congress-man, thinking these were set out for the guests, tried to take one away as a present for Tip O'Neill, Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Just as she took it, Lord Soames spotted her. Obviously this magnificence is meant to impress somebody, to demonstrate the sheer power and the awesome prestige of colonial Britain and, for the present month, Zimbabwe , or the British Dependency of Southern Rhodesia as it is officially known, is one of our very few colonies.
The others include Belize, Tristan da Cunha, and one or two acres in the Caribbean. This wealth cannot be to impress the Africans, who, apart from the shimmering servants, barely get a look in. Joshua Nkomo is one who did, and got on very well with the Governor. This is not surprising. Nkomo also has a taste for the high life, and is the Lord Soames of Africa. If you listen to the British officials who arrived in December on the great silver bird, you realise that they do see themselves as dealing with a backward and primitive people.
They swap amusing stories about the childlike white folk they come across; a woman who thought Soames could cancel her parking ticket, another who complained because she did not have two votes in the election. One British official talks about the "Cheryl and Vomit" society, composed of women who wear their name on gold necklets, and young men on leave from military service who spend their weekends getting drunk in Salisbury and then throwing up in the street.
Even the British squaddies look with faint contempt on the Rhodesians or "Rhodies" as they sometimes call them; military slang mushrooms overnight. One private explained to me his alleged success with the local women. But us Brits give 'em a few cuddles and talk nice to them, and they've never had anything like that. No wonder the white Rhodesians resent us. A woman who had, for that part of the world, very moderate views, asked what I thought of Soames. I said he had a reputation for arrogance.
It was this wish to give the whites a whiff of the old colonial past which probably led to Soames's appointment. Another Foreign Office official explained that his deputy, Sir Anthony Duff, could have done the job standing on his head. The corollary of this is that the British are highly impressed by the blacks - possibly in some cases too much so. Many of the Patriotic Front commanders are men of high intelligence and expertise, their education started in mission schools in Rhodesia and frequently finished off in Moscow.
This has helped them to run a highly successful guerrilla war and - for the present anyway - follow through politically. But to hear some of the British talking, you'd imagine that the entire physics faculty of MIT had just walked out of the bush. One British officer in close touch with PF leaders on Nkomo's side blamed the press. A more bluntly phrased view came from a British private who was talking to a PF commander at one of the assembly points.
He asked what he had done to pass the time in the bush, and the African said that he had read - Marx, Lenin, that kind of thing. Rhodesian women, black and white, tend to be remarkably good looking.
The Shona women have high cheekbones and fine features which make them exceedingly pretty, to European eyes at any rate. The whites have golden hair, lovely toast-coloured skin, and because of the weather, few clothes. There is something particularly disconcerting about hearing those famous racist views expressed in that shrill mounting whine, coming from someone whose rounded figure is straining out of a thin nylon dress. One such accosted us in a restaurant.
He's so honest and straight. If the blacks could vote for him, they all would. He's the only reason we've had 14 years of civilisation. Weren't there some people who disagreed with her, who thought on the contrary that Smith had misled them into a worse predicament than ever before?
You don't understand what savages these black people are. You've never lived here. Answer this, how many blacks are there in the British Parliament? They are all murderers, they just want to kill us. You wouldn't believe the disgusting things they've done. She turned out to be a teacher of English Literature, a fact which might give pause for thought to those who believe in the humanising effect of great works.
A Christian Science Perspective. Monitor Movie Guide. Monitor Daily. Photo Galleries. About Us. Rhodesia: Images of Zimbabwe's Past. To navigate gallery, click or swipe image. Copy link Link copied. Gordon N. Girls attend school in the capital Salisbury, now Harare, Zimbabwe. Most schools were segregated by race, though there were some integrated schools operated by religious missions and other private organizations. This picture was taken shortly before Prime Minister Ian Smith of the colonial government declared Rhodesia independent of Great Britain on November 11, Britain repudiated the action and considered the country in rebellion.
UN sanctions and a guerilla uprising led to free elections in , becoming independent as Zimbabwe in The first prime minister, Robert Mugabe, has been the country's only ruler, becoming president in View of a housing complex for Africans in Salisbury the capital of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe in Black and white costumers buy produce at a market in Salisbury.
A father helps his son ride a makeshift cart in Victoria Falls, Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe in A view of Salisbury. A grocery store in Salisbury. Staircase in an office building in Salisbury. At right girl carries potatoes on her head in the outskirts of Salisbury. At left, a man watches Victoria Falls in the town of the same name. The Zambezi River forms the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. A rugby match at the Salisbury City Bowling Club. A poacher is confronted by authorities in Wankie now Hwange National Park the largest game reserve in Zimbabwe.
The park lies in the west, on the main road between Bulawayo and the widely noted Victoria Falls and near to Dete. View more galleries. You've read of free articles. Subscribe to continue. Mark Sappenfield.
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