Ian Smith: ‘A Great White Tribal Chief’ is Gone

Although non-Whites worldwide loved to hate him when he ruled Rhodesia (later renamed Zimbabwe), Ian Smith remained an enigmatic and powerful personality right up to his death. “The former Rhodesian prime minister, who made his unilateral declaration of independence from Britain in 1965 and fought a bitter rearguard action to prevent black majority rule, never lost the ability to inspire strong emotion.

“When he died last week, aged 88, he was still hated by many for his unrepentant belief that white rule was better for all races in Rhodesia,” writes RW Johnson in The Times.

“Many had predicted he (Ian Smith) would flee to South Africa if Robert Mugabe came to power, but he never considered it. He loved Rhodesia passionately, and as Mugabe’s rule became intolerable, he stood his ground, even after Mugabe had deprived him of citizenship in 2002.

“His last days were spent in a clinic in the Cape, trying to raise funds to help poor white pensioners in Zimbabwe. He died within a stone’s throw of where Cecil Rhodes, Rhodesia’s founder, had died a century before.

“When he needed to travel abroad he drove himself unescorted to the airport, parked his car and carried his own bag. Just before the last presidential election in 2002, Smith said to me: ‘If Mugabe and I walk together into a black township, only one of us will come out alive. I’m ready to put that to the test right now. He’s not’…

“Visiting him at his house in Harare (next to the Cuban embassy, the hammer and sickle flying) I marvelled at the fact that, after the death of his wife Janet, he lived alone with just a cook and minimal security. When he walked the streets of Harare, Africans would almost queue up to grasp his hand and wish him well. How could this be? ”

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