Lost Chance by Hardwicke Holderness
Published by Zimbabwe Publishing House (1985)
ISBN 0 949932 88 4

RHODESIA will always be perched in the hearts of the whites who enjoyed the ‘paradise’ at the expense of the blacks.
If only they could turn back the hands of time they could go back to 1966 when the first phase of the Second Chimurenga that birthed Zimbabwe’s independence began.
Bitter Rhodesians even today still ask themselves what went wrong and what is it they could have done to protect their ‘kingdom’.
In 1985 Hardwicke Holderness penned the book, Lost Chance in which he attempts to highlight where the white Rhodesians lost the chance to preserve the home they had made for themselves in Africa.
The author, who was during the pre-independence era known for his liberal political views, tried in 1953 to influence the country towards the goal of full equality between races.
Holderness was the most liberal member of Garfield Todd’s United Rhodesia party who made brave, and at first promising, efforts for that government to steer the country away from white supremacy.
His efforts, however, hit a brick wall as members of Todd’s cabinet turned against him.
His line of argument in the book Lost Chance is that had only the whites given blacks a role to play in politics and the development of the country, the armed liberation struggle would have been avoided.
“The general election of 1958 put an end to the possibilities of the new measures being properly implemented and, as some of us thought, an end to a unique opportunity which white Rhodesians had possessed as a sort of gift from history,” writes Holderness.
“Improbably, that small group of people had held in their hands a key to the peaceful evolution of politics in Africa, and at this point they had thrown it away.”
Holderness writes that by refusing to integrate blacks into the running of the country the ‘Rhodesian whites had condemned themselves to learn the hard way.’
And true to the observations by the writer, the continued sidelining of blacks irked the indigenes resulting in them rising up against the colonial regime and toppling it.
Holderness acknowledges that Rhodesians were a selfish lot that was not prepared to give up the stolen privileges and let the rightful owners of the land determine their own destiny.
“I know that the automatic answer tends to be: That it was all part of an inevitable process; that the selfish ambitions of the white settlers were incompatible with, and had to give way to, the legitimate interests of the majority indigenous population,” writes Holderness.
It is interesting to note that as much as the writer wanted blacks to be involved in the running of the country’s affairs, he was not advocating that they be the leaders of the country.
This just shows that an apple does not fall far from the tree as going the route Holderness was suggesting, the Rhodesians would have still maintained their grip on the country.
To him, blacks would have been pacified by being given scraps of the cake, but he had misread their intentions.
Blacks knew they were the heirs of the country and were not prepared to continue being treated as ‘third class’ citizens in their country.
Holderness commended President Robert Mugabe for focusing on the development of the country after independence and not wanting to focus on punishing the former colonisers.
“Once the country got itself set under white leadership on the path which was to lead white supremacist government under Ian Smith, it seemed certain that when the changeover did come it would be accompanied by widespread acts of hatred and revenge against whites, and also against blacks who had found themselves supporting the Smith government one way or the other,” he writes.
Holderness acknowledged that after independence the black Government had the potential to run the affairs of the country in the absence of the whites.
“And the policy of forgiveness and reconciliation immediately adopted by Mugabe government and the absence of revenge on the part of blacks generally, surely represent a moral as well as a physical victory on their part,” he writes.
“But many whites seem to have been too brainwashed by Smith government propaganda to appreciate it; and many have left.
“Zimbabwe will no doubt manage without them.”
Indeed Zimbabwe did and is still standing 34 years after it attained independence.
The President Mugabe-led Government has managed to put in place programmes that have helped develop the country and empower the people.
In spite of the challenges, Zimbabweans today are enjoying the fruits of being in Zimbabwe and being masters of their own destiny.
Interestingly, Rhodesians thought the country would crumble after they left.