POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN SOUTHERN RHODESIA IN 1955–1965

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the causes and effects of political violence in Southern Rhodesia in the period preceding the announcement of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence. This article is intended to answer the question why in short period of time African nationalists proceeded from peaceful protests to an armed struggle and whether the decision to change their strategy was not taken hastily. It also aims to explain why African neighborhoods became the scenes of brutal fighting and violence targeted at its residents and what consequences it entailed. The author also wants to convince that only reforms carried out in due course, i.e. at the beginning of the nationalist movement, could guarantee a peaceful evolution to independence without a recourse to bloody political violence. In the case of Southern Rhodesia this was not successful, which confirms the validity of the claim that the violence was the most cruel where the dominant white nationalism strove to stop the African nationalism from realizing their own version of national independence.