Video Discription |
(20 Nov 2007) SHOTLIST
Harare (then Salisbury), Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) - unknown date, 1966
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Ian Smith, then Prime Minister of Rhodesia:
"I don't believe in black majority rule, ever, in Rhodesia, not in a thousand years"
London, 1979
2. British Foreign Secretary Peter Carrington (with glasses) and Rhodesian leader Joshua Nkomo
Signing Lancaster House agreement with
3. Nkomo and his political rival Robert Mugabe, signing
Harare, 1979
4. Street celebrations
Harare, 1980
5. Mugabe with British minister Nicholas Soames, celebrating Mugabe's election victory
6. Zimbabwe troops cheering
Rhodesia, unknown date and location
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Ian Smith, former Prime Minister of Rhodesia:
"Once we were forced into accepting this thing called majority rule, whether we liked it or not, that was the end of our hope."
7. Various, audience
Rhodesia, unknown date and location
8. Various armed white settlers in shopping centre
9. Burning oil tanks
10. Various, white soldiers
Zimbabwe, unknown location - 27 March, 2002
11. Smith emerges from his home
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Ian Smith, former Prime Minister of Rhodesia:
"Well, it's been confiscated (his passport). I have been told that I have lost my citizenship. This is unacceptable. It's quite illegal. I was born in this country 83 years ago. And I have all my life only had first a Rhodesian and then a Zimbabwean passport. I accept there are certain countries in the world where people commit a crime, then they lose their citizenship but I have never committed a crime in my life."
12. Smith talking to postman
Zimbabwe, unknown location - 2002
3. Various, Smith voting in Zimbabwe election
STORYLINE
Ian Smith, the last prime minister of white-ruled Rhodesia, whose attempts to resist black rule dragged the country now known as Zimbabwe into isolation and civil war, has died, a family friend said on Tuesday.
He was 88.
Smith died at a clinic near Cape Town, South Africa, where he spent his final years. He had been ill for some time and recently suffered a stroke.
To many white Rhodesians, he was a kind of idol - "good old Smithy."
To most blacks, his rule symbolised the worst of racial oppression.
He fought for Britain as a Royal Air Force pilot during World War II, then rebelled against it 20 years later.
Smith imprisoned current President Robert Mugabe in 1964 for 10 years, calling him a "terrorist" intent on turning the country into a one-party dictatorship and famously declared : "I don't believe in black majority rule, ever, in Rhodesia, not in a thousand years."
Despite their bitter differences, Smith and Mugabe shared one common bond, their deep dislike of Britain, which they both saw as a meddling colonial power.
Just as Mugabe accused former British Prime Minister Tony Blair of interfering in Zimbabwe to protect the interests of whites, Smith poured vitriol on the British government for pressing him to hand political power to the black majority.
Smith was born to Scottish immigrants in western Zimbabwe on April 8, 1919, but renounced his claims to British citizenship in 1984.
Two years after the outbreak of World War II, he joined the RAF as a fighter pilot, and was shot down twice in combat. Plastic surgery to fix hideous scars from the first crash paralysed the right side of
his face, giving him a sinister, expressionless appearance.
Smith was demobilised in 1946 and returned to Rhodesia to raise cattle and grow corn but entered politics in 1953 as a member of the ruling United Federal Party and rose through party ranks as an
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/494eeb211fef394a67074f0456833c68 |