Rhodesians Never Die
By Peter Godwin and Ian Hancock
Published by Pan Macmillan South Africa (1993)
ISBN-13: 9781770100701

IT is not surprising that 35 years after Zimbabwe attained its independence there are people still holding on to the dream that Rhodesia will one day rise from the ashes.
It is the memories of the ‘fourteen great years’ as the Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith described the period between the Unilateral Declaration of Independence and 1980 that still linger in the minds of diehard Rhodies who will do anything to go back to Rhodesia.
The book under review this week, Rhodesians Never Die penned by Peter Godwin and Ian Hancock is a clear indication that there are many harbouring thoughts of taking Zimbabwe back to Rhodesia.
“This book endeavours to tell the story of how Rhodesians, nearly all of them ill-prepared for war and revolutionary change, reacted to the challenge to, and the eventual loss of, their domain,” writes Godwin and Hancock.
It is absurd that the writers suggest that the attainment of independence by Zimbabwe was not as a result of the hard work and determination by the indigenes to free their country.
To them, had it not been that the Rhodesians had taken a ‘relaxed approach’ Zimbabwe would not have been freed.
As expected, the two want to take away the glory from the sons and daughters of the soil who took up arms and sacrificed themselves to free thier motherland.
Despite spirited efforts then and now by the country’s former colonisers to undermine the great sacrifice by those who took up arms, Zimbabweans are aware and remain thankful for their contribution during the liberation struggle.
Given this background that is why 35 years on they still throng the National Heroes Acre and Provincial Shrines as they did on Monday to commemorate and remember the work done by the freedom fighters.
It is this warped thinking advanced by Godwin and Hancock that the Rhodesians had when ZANU won the elections in 1980.
To them the party represented evil and not the interests of the people.
What they seemed to overlook is the fact that the people of Zimbabwe had witnessed the efforts the liberation movement had made in bringing them freedom.
“They attributed Mugabe’s election victory to intimidation or to the sinister intervention of the British Foreign Office, or to conspiracy uniting Western capitalism and Eastern communism,” says Godwin and Hancock.
“One thing was clear: Left to their own devices, those whom Ian Smith once called ‘the happiest blacks in the world’ would never have voted for such monstrous evil.”
The attainment of independence by Zimbabwe and the coming into power of a black Government meant that things had to change for the white minority.
In Rhodesia they had enjoyed the country’s heritage at the expense of the rightful owners the blacks who were wallowing in poverty.
“For years Ian Smith, the Rhodesian Prime Minister, had warned his people that they would lose everything if the ‘terrorists’ came to power,” writes Godwin and Hancock
“Not surprisingly, many were now convinced that the old Rhodesia would be turned overnight into a Marxist state.”
As the Shona proverb goes, “Mombe yekuronza kama wakaringa nzira,” the Rhodesians should have known better that it was only a matter of time before the rightful owners of the land reclaimed their birthright.
Having ‘defeated’ the blacks in the First Chimurenga, they were not going to back down, but instead engaged the owners of the country in the Second Chimurenga which they thought they would win.
But alas they were whipped and blacks triumphed.
Typical of diehard Rhodies, Godwin and Hancock take a swipe at the ZANU PF-led Government.
“The terrible situation in Zimbabwe conforms in many ways to the very worst of everything white Rhodesians had feared about black ‘majority’ rule,” they write.
“Today, by almost any index, Zimbabweans — of all races – are far worse off than they were at independence in 1980.”
Life must have changed for the worst for Rhodesians who were used to benefiting the most out of the system at the expense of the blacks, but independence has brought about positive changes to the lives of blacks.
As expected it is Rhodesians who would cry out the loudest as they lost so much after all they had to let go of their ill-gotten paradise to its rightful owners.
Today the once marginalised blacks enjoy being owners of the land and the country’s natural resources in a free Zimbabwe that recognises them as first-class citizens.
Godwin and Hancock must by now know that the resurrection of Rhodesia will forever remain a dream.
Rhodesia is long gone and it is now Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans are not willing to let it go.