Race and Diplomacy in Zimbabwe The Cold War and Decolonization,1960-1984 African Studies Series

The 'Rhodesian crisis' of the 1960s and 1970s, and the early 1980s crisis of independent Zimbabwe, can be understood against the background of Cold War historical transformations brought on by, among other things, African decolonization in the 1960s; the failure of American power in Vietnam and the rise of Third World political power at the UN and elsewhere. In this African history of the diplomacy of decolonization in Zimbabwe, Timothy Lewis Scarnecchia examines the relationship and rivalry between Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe over many years of diplomacy, and how both leaders took advantage of Cold War racialized thinking about what Zimbabwe should be, including Anglo-American preoccupations with keeping whites from leaving after Independence. Based on a wealth of archival source materials, including materials that have recently become available through thirty-year rules in the UK and South Africa, it uncovers how foreign relations bureaucracies the US, UK, and SA created a Cold War 'race state' notion of Zimbabwe that permitted them to rationalize Mugabe's state crimes in return for Cold War loyalty to Western powers.

Introduction; 1. Historical background: 1960 to 1970; 2. The early 1970s; 3. Liberation struggles in Southern Africa, 1975-1976; 4. 'We don't give a damn about Rhodesia': the Geneva talks 1976; 5. Negotiating independence 1977-1978; 6. Negotiating independently, 1978; 7. The big gamble: the transition and pre-election period; 8. The 1980 elections and the first years of independence; 9. Gukurahundi and Zimbabwe's place in the 1980s cold war; Conclusion; Selected bibliography.

Timothy Lewis Scarnecchia is an Associate Professor of African History and Kent State University in Ohio. He is the author of Urban Roots of Democracy and Political Violence in Zimbabwe: Harare and Highfield, 1940-1964 (2008) and numerous articles on Zimbabwean political history. His research for this book has brought him to work in archives in the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.