Welcome to Rastafari Speaks
  Login/Create an Account Homepage | Interactive Home | Weblog | Links | Forums  

Main Menu
· Interactive Home 
· Search 
· Stories Archive 
· Surveys 
· AvantGo 
· Recommend Us 
· Feedback 
· Web Links 
· Private Messages 
· Your Account 
· Amazon Shopping 

Website Links

· AfricaSpeaks Home 
· Rasta Times 
· Articles/Archive 
· News Weblog 
· Rastafari Archive 
· Marcus Garvey 
· Haile Selassie 
· Message Board 
· Reasoning Forum 
· Black Africans 
· Reasoning Archive 
· Sudan Crisis 
· Zimbabwe 
· Haiti's Coup 
· Venezuela/Chavez 

Website Info.

· About Us 
· Terms of Use 
· Fair Use Notice 
· Privacy Policy 

Big Story of Today
There isn't a Biggest Story for Today, yet.

Categories Menu
  • African Diaspora
  • Book Reviews
  • Caribbean
  • Caribbean Views
  • Haile Selassie
  • Israel/Palestine
  • Marcus Garvey
  • Poetry
  • Psychology
  • Racism Watch
  • Rasta Revolution
  • Rastafari
  • South America
  • Spirituality
  • Syria
  • Trinidad and Tobago
  • U.S.A.
  • War and Terror
  • War on Libya
  • War with Russia
  • Women
  • World Focus

  • Old Articles
    Thursday, May 19
    ·
    Monday, April 25
    ·
    Friday, April 22
    · Denying Discrimination: Clintonian Political Calculus and the Culture of Hooey
    Wednesday, December 09
    · The Religious Element of Terrorism
    Sunday, November 29
    ·
    Saturday, November 21
    · The Paris Attacks and the White Lives Matter Movement
    Sunday, September 27
    · Freedom Rider: Ahmed Mohamed and Abdulrahman al-Awlaki
    Monday, August 10
    ·
    Saturday, June 20
    · America Prosecutes the World
    Wednesday, April 29
    · Skip Gates and Sony Exposed by Wikileaks

    Older Articles

    Books
    Buy Books

    African Diaspora: Lancaster House revisited
    Posted on Monday, December 21 @ 10:31:48 UTC by admin

    Zimbabwe By Phyllis Johnson
    December 21, 2009 - The Herald


    THIS is the first in a series of eight articles on the events of late 1979 and early 1980.

    Thirty years ago, on December 21 1979, an agreement was signed in London that set in motion a series of events that put Zimbabwe on the course to where it is today.

    The signatures appended reluctantly to that agreement beneath the chandeliers and subterfuge of Lancaster House ended the war in a place that some called Rhodesia and signalled a different route to independence for a country that the majority called Zimbabwe.

    The 103 days of pressure and posturing conducted by the adroit Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, Lord Carrington, from September 10 until December 21 1979, were notable by the avoidance of the main issue in a 90-year-old dispute.

    The parties simply agreed to disagree on the core issue of land and went on to reach agreement on all surrounding matters, including the sensitive question of a ceasefire and a brief return to British rule before elections and independence.

    Land was discussed instead at strategic meetings on the sidelines and concluded at one such meeting convened at the Hill Street residence of the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Sonny Ramphal.

    His deputy (and successor as Secretary-General), Chief Emeka Anyaoku, said in his memoirs (The Inside Story of the Modern Commonwealth, Evans 2004) that: "The two leaders of the nationalist movements (Mugabe and Nkomo) strongly objected to the proposal that the future government of the country should commit itself to paying full compensation to the white farm owners on a ‘willing seller/willing buyer' basis.

    "For them, this amounted to mortgaging the future resources of Zimbabwe to buy back land that had been forcibly taken away from their people in the first instance.

    "They argued that the land ownership structure was unacceptable to them, and that their people had taken up arms to fight the liberation war in order to regain the land.

    "They certainly were not prepared to pay to recover what has been ‘stolen' from them, as the land had not been paid for when their people were forced off it.

    "I took the point and reported these conversations and my impressions to Sonny Ramphal, while updating him on how far I was able to persuade them to go along with certain elements of the proposals," Anyaoku said.

    "Sonny Ramphal then made approaches to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Jimmy Carter of the United States, both of whom indicated that they would be willing to provide assistance to independent Zimbabwe that would enable the new government to buy back land from white farmers on a ‘willing seller/willing buyer' basis.

    "The British and American offer was conveyed to the nationalist leaders and, on the basis of this, it became possible to move the negotiating process forward."

    Anyaoku also says that President Samora Machel of Mozambique played an important role "and swung his influence behind the Lancaster process".

    Neighbouring countries in the person of the chairman of the Front Line States, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, President of the United Republic of Tanzania, urged the Patriotic Front leaders to settle, advising them that they could deal with the land issue after they formed the government of an independent Zimbabwe. Tanzania operates a successful system of long leases for land use, with bankable leases.

    Carrington was clear on where British interests lay and that the nationalist forces fighting for independence had the upper hand.

    "The war had strained Rhodesia's economy and society to the limits, and inspite of a good many local successes for government forces and some skilful military operations, it was not being won.

    "It was exhausting Rhodesia, and in this context that meant it was particularly exhausting the white Rhodesians."

    Although "Margaret Thatcher had not particularly bent her mind to Africa", Carrington said, "we were sure that the British interest demanded settlement of the Rhodesian issue and needed such a conference if it could possibly be attained."

    Thatcher's education was advanced by Carrington and also by Machel who anticipated her election as British prime minister and had a ready strategy to engage her on Rhodesia.

    On hearing confirmation of her election in early May 1979, Machel told his astonished cabinet that "this woman will bring us settlement in Rhodesia".

    Among the rumbling of discontent from his colleagues, Machel dispatched a history lesson about the Right in power, giving examples of French president Charles de Gaulle granting independence to Algeria, US president Richard Nixon opening up to China, and British prime minister Harold Macmillan announcing the "wind of change" towards independence from colonial rule in Africa.

    Carrington also commended the role of President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia at the Commonwealth Summit held in July 1979 in Lusaka, where the plans firmed for a conference.

    He described "how the prime minister's fears of personal animosity proved largely groundless and how she at once blossomed in the warmth of Kenneth Kaunda's friendly personality, dancing with him enthusiastically as she did at the first party".

    In his memoirs (Reflections on Things Past: The Memoirs of Lord Carrington, Collins, 1998), Carrington described the many weeks at Lancaster House as a "tempestuous and testing time" and said he was not optimistic at the outset. But he added that he "was struck by the normality and poise of both Nkomo and Mugabe after their very long periods in gaol (jail)".

    "The agreement set out a simple sequence — simple in concept, likely to be troubled in execution. There was to be a ceasefire: the guerilla forces were to stand down, move to assembly points, accept disarmament.

    "There was to be a reversion to the constitutional situation before the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by Smith; and then there were to be elections in Rhodesia, based on universal suffrage, with all parties permitted to take part and with independence and recognition of a balanced constitution granted by the British Crown thereafter."

    Senior British officials later admitted that a secret of their successful closure to the negotiations was placing electronic listening devices in the rooms of all of the principal players.

    sardc.net 

    Also Read:

     
    Related Links
    · More about Zimbabwe
    · News by admin


    Most read story about Zimbabwe:
    Mugabe's Speech to the UN General Assembly


    Article Rating
    Average Score: 5
    Votes: 1


    Please take a second and vote for this article:

    Excellent
    Very Good
    Good
    Regular
    Bad


    Options

     Printer Friendly Printer Friendly



    Views expressed on our Websites are those of the authors and are not necessarily shared, endorsed, or recommended by the management and staff of RastafariSpeaks.com.

    All logos and trademarks in this site are property of their respective owner. The comments are property of their posters, all the rest © 2004- 2008 RastafariSpeaks.com.
    You can syndicate our news using the file backend.php or ultramode.txt

    PHP-Nuke Copyright © 2005 by Francisco Burzi. This is free software, and you may redistribute it under the GPL. PHP-Nuke comes with absolutely no warranty, for details, see the license.
    Page Generation: 0.11 Seconds
    AfricaSpeaks.com