Quarter 4 Post #2

            Reading this book made me realize I didn't have a concrete understanding of what the actual conflict was about. I knew there was a civil war, there were terrorists, it seemed like it was white people versus black people, etc. The author went into detail every now and then to inform the reader but I still felt in the dark. I decided to research the Rhodesian civil war, and every now and then I’d think “Oh that’s where her dad was going every week!” or “that’s why their farm was being attacked.” And the best, most embarrassing realization was “I guess she wasn’t talking about actual gorillas and just spelling them in some weird British way” (Guerillas were small groups of civilians using military tactics to fight strong, more traditional armies). Those moments in my research were extremely satisfying because they helped me understand what the author’s family was going through, and what they wanted as a result of the war. This is a very condensed version of what I found out:

The Rhodesian War was fought to preserve the Anglo-Saxon culture and values that had been instilled in the lands as a result of British colonization before the 1900s. In Africa, there were many states called Dominions, which means they were independent under British terms. Rhodesia was called a Self Governing Colony, which meant that it wasn’t under British rule. The Dominions were all working fine at the time because they had mostly white populations anyway, but Rhodesia had a large native population. When Rhodesia helped out Britain during World War II, Britain promised that it would make Rhodesia independent under minority rule (British rule). This caused a lot of controversy all over the globe, because many other countries believed that native Rhodesians should be able to rule their own country, but Britain had given the white settlers their word already.

Other countries were gaining independence from their colonial powers. Like India, Malaysia, Burma, and Nigeria. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand were too, and they had white populations. Those three made a strong petition to Britain to give Southern Rhodesia independence under a majority rule, which basically meant to give the power to the natives.  Britain was no longer a global power, so it had to fall in line with the popular idea amongst other countries that it should grant independence to Rhodesia under majority rule (native rule).  Then all of this fighting happened between the Rhodesian government and the rebellious native groups (I could go into detail but that would make this like 5000 words instead of 500),  and eventually the latter won. It came as an extremely demoralizing shock to the white population. This was the result of years of Britain’s attempting to control a land that did not belong to them. They had lost so much in the process, and basically ransacked the land of Rhodesia, and it was all for nothing. Native Rhodesians were able to rightfully rule their land.