The Reluctant President (The Memoirs of the Hon Clifford Dupont) By Clifford Dupont
Published by Books of Rhodesia Publishing Company (1978)
ISBN: 0 86920 183 2

THEY came, displaced the indigenes, took over and for a moment thought the locals would forever hide in their shells and not fight for their birthright.
Forget the rightful owners of the land, the country was now theirs to enjoy and rule, while the black man lived at their mercy.
This was the sad case of Rhodesia.
The whiteman thought he had made a home for himself and his future generations.
Alas, the dream of forever owning and preserving Rhodesia was short-lived.
It was while living the borrowed dream of Rhodesia that the white men’s ‘heroes’, among them Clifford Dupont were birthed.
To the Rhodesians, he is one of the brave and courageous men who dedicated his all in ensuring that the Rhodesian dream remained alive.
“History will record the name of the Hon Clifford Dupont not only as the first President of the Republic of Rhodesia, but as a great and courageous Rhodesian who served his country with distinction during its most testing years,” reads the synopsis of the book The Reluctant President under review this week.
Dupont, who was at the helm of the Rhodesian Government from 1970 to 1975, penned the book to share his life experiences.
Born and raised in London, Dupont relocated to Rhodesia in 1948 where he became a tobacco farmer after settling at a farm near Featherstone.
Just like Cecil John Rhodes, Dupont had left London because of ill health.
Dupont entered the political arena and from 1958 to 1962, he was the Federal MP for Fort Victoria (Masvingo).
Afterwards, he held various ministerial posts and when Rhodesia adopted its new Republican Constitution in 1970, he became the country’s first president.
Indeed in the eyes of the Rhodesians, there stood a great man who served their interests, but the same cannot be said by the blacks who lived during that era.
The black man had been reduced to a third-class citizen in his own country and his needs and interests were not something Dupont and company lost sleep over.
It is absurd then for Dupont to say he stood to champion interests of everyone in Rhodesia.
“I identified completely with all Rhodesians; black and white, civilians and servicemen; farmers, miners, industrialists, sportsmen; the aged, the young,” he writes.
Surely if Dupont served the interests of both the blacks and whites, the blackman would not have, during the tenure of his presidency, been organising in the bush and waging a war against his regime.
If truly he had the interests of the blacks at heart, he should have made sure that their living conditions, education and health services were improved.
Ironically, Dupont creates the picture that it was not the whiteman whom the locals feared, but instead the liberation movements were at the forefront of causing alarm and despondency.
Really!
How could the blackman fear the nationalists who were fighting for his rights?
“Africans in the townships were accosted and asked to produce their party cards,” writes Dupont.
“If they had none or produced the wrong ones, they were beaten up.
“This tribal rivalry is equally bitter today.”
Was it not the white police who terrorised the blacks in their townships asking them to produce cards to show they had the right to be there?
Dupont contended the liberation movements, apart from not being the favourite of the locals, would not win the war against the whiteman as they were divided.
“By this time, Sithole had left Nkomo and started his rival party, Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU); bitterness between the factions increased and was exacerbated by the fact that tribal differences came into play, ZAPU being largely Matebele and ZANU composed mainly of Mashonas,” he writes.
Well, Dupont spoke too soon as only a few years later independence was brought to the people by the very liberation movements he castigated.
Dupont wrote, “The challenge which independence has presented to my Government and to Rhodesians of all races has been eagerly accepted and it may be said, without fear or favour, that the response has been such as to demonstrate to the world that Rhodesia possesses the maturity and strength of purpose to assume its rightful place in the world community.”
Unfortunately the dream to have Rhodesia ‘assume its rightful place in the world community’ was short-lived as expected.
After all, it was just but a borrowed dream.
Instead Zimbabwe now assumes its rightful place in the world community.
Dupont must be turning in his grave after all his efforts went to waste. Rhodesia is now dead and buried with him and others who helped build it, including Rhodes the chief architect.