My country right or wrong

It astonished me, when the Southern Rhodesian government under Ian Smith declared UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence) in 1965, that the large minority – possibly even majority – of those voters (overwhelmingly white) who had not been in favour of the perilous move immediately switched to supporting it wholeheartedly.  Bar a few mutterings.  Though exactly a year later I witnessed a clandestine act of defiance ­–a white teacher raising a black flag in the dead of the night at Goromonzi High School. 

My father was firmly against UDI and continued to support the ten per cent of Europeans who campaigned for a “multiracial” settlement (to use the terminology of the times) but, like most of us, he felt he had no option but to buckle down and make the administration and the economy work – indeed, he played an important part in managing the sanctions-busting “grey ladies”, the unmarked road tankers that kept the oil flowing.  And the ninety per cent that continued to vote for “good old Smithy” apparently believed, because they felt they were in the right, that he could carry off their coup against the whole weight of world opinion.  Since when was being in the right, whatever that may be, a passport to success?  By the end of the war, of course, the doubts were more often and everywhere acknowledged. 

Ian Smith was profoundly misguided and totally out of his depth but he was a good enough man at heart.  The loathsome politicians were the ones who were consciously playing a little post-colonial game, like PK van der Byl and Lord Graham – seeing how far they could get away with a naughty little adventure – and they, unlike me, had ready boltholes to flee to and money outside the country.

Now all this has nothing to do with love for country.  A third generation “settler”, I loved Rhodesia and shared this love with recent (postwar) settlers, intransigent racists and brave farmers.  And shared it with the Ndebele (who had “settled” there, too, albeit fifty-odd years earlier than my grandfather) and the Shona, also comparatively recent immigrants.  (The only folk with real cause to feel they had an exclusive claim on the country were the Bushmen – as we called them – and they were long since driven away.) 

Nor have my remarks got anything to do with the efficiency with which Rhodesia was governed.  Do not confuse the issue with economics.  Or with the injustices of modern Zimbabwe. 

When you vote and if you want to change the way a country is governed a few tangible facts and figures become useful.  Which is pertinent to us in Britain now.  You will find them in short supply.  Meanwhile, if you realise that your country is being destroyed there is no requirement to plunge about crazily proclaiming that now “we” have made a decision – whether through a decree by the Cabinet or in a referendum – we should support it blindly.  “My country right or wrong” is an idiotic code.