A well-established body of scholarship exists on Southern Africa’s decolonization. Such scholarship usually discusses those who fought to retain the region’s status quo or those who battled to overthrow it. Brook Marmon’s Pan-Africanism Versus Partnership: African decolonisation in Southern Rhodesian politics, 1950–1963 transcends this historiographical division by analysing how Africa’s decolonization process influenced and shaped both sides of Southern Rhodesia’s (Zimbabwe’s) political divide. While Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, Marmon is concerned with the 1950s and early 1960s. During this period, white Rhodesians redefined the political trajectory of their territory, starting with the formation of the Central African Federation (CAF) and ending with the push towards Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). Simultaneously, black Zimbabweans became increasingly organized and assertive in their demands for majority rule. They formed African nationalist movements with competing ideas about the future and sought international support for their struggle. As Marmon illustrates, both sides paid close attention to what was happening across the continent and used and abused Africa’s rapid decolonization process to shape their domestic political struggles. While aspects of this general argument have been hinted at in prior scholarship on Zimbabwe’s decolonization, the value of Marmon’s book lies in providing a comprehensive and nuanced discussion of these dynamics, foregrounding understudied actors, and engaging with new source material.
Marmon structures his book thematically and divides its substantive chapters into two parts. ‘Part I: Decolonisation and realignments: domestic sphere’ starts by outlining the effect that Pan-Africanism had on white Rhodesian political imaginations. By providing a detailed discussion of the various white political parties and actors, the book reminds us that white settler politics were not monolithic. There were diverse and surprising views on Rhodesia’s future trajectory that clashed with one another, and Marmon carefully details how the idea of ‘partnership’ lost favour among Rhodesian whites. Part I also illustrates how Africa’s rapid decolonization shaped African nationalist politics in Rhodesia. Although the developments across the continent stimulated Pan-Africanist sentiments and aided in establishing African nationalist movements in Rhodesia, Pan-African unity was fickle. Africa’s decolonization in the 1950s and early 1960s resulted in consequential cleavages that would shape Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle and postcolonial politics. Marmon’s research on the largely neglected Zimbabwe National Party is a precious historiographical contribution to the scholarship.
Marmon uses several case studies in ‘Part II: Decolonisation and realignments: continental sphere’ to support the above-mentioned arguments. He starts by juxtaposing how the former West African British colonies of Ghana and Nigeria were two significant types of independent African states that black and white Rhodesians contended with. Marmon’s research on how the politically moderate Nigerian state was a valuable (but failed) experiment for white Rhodesian efforts to imagine and manage relations with independent Africa is fascinating to read. His discussion about the complicated relationship between Zimbabwean nationalists and Ghana’s Pan-Africanist leader, Kwame Nkrumah, is equally insightful, providing fresh perspectives on Zimbabwe’s early liberation politics. Marmon then shifts the focus to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the first colony on the CAF’s doorstep to gain independence and one whose decolonization embodied the hopes and fears of many on the continent. Marmon illustrates how the Democratic Republic of Congo’s independence, especially the flight of its white population, stimulated a racial ‘laager’ attitude among white Rhodesians while the fostering of relations with Katanga’s Moïse Tshombe stained the reputation of Zimbabwean nationalists such as Patrick Matimba. Marmon ends his series of case studies with an investigation of Malawi, the first member of the CAF to gain independence. While the chapter’s discussion on the history of the Capricorn Africa Society and the Rhodesia National Affairs Association must be commended and is neatly woven into this chapter, the biographical vignettes of the white liberals Guy Clutton-Brock, Peter Mackay and Terence Ranger are a more awkward fit.
While the book’s structure generally works, it can sometimes become frustrating to read the start of an interesting argument in Part I that will be fleshed out only in Part II. Finally, while the appendixes and glossaries are valuable additions to better understand the politics of this period, the publisher could have more neatly edited them. Despite these minor critiques, the book is generally coherent and easy to read.
Pan-Africanism Versus Partnership explores how Zimbabwe’s internal and external (continental) political developments interacted. Marmon skilfully demonstrates the value of using a transnational lens to understand local political developments, providing us with a nuanced discussion of a turbulent political era in Zimbabwe while steering clear of the pitfalls of writing about colonial and decolonial political history in a one-dimensional manner.
Marmon’s arguments are built on a solid foundation of primary research from Zimbabwe, South Africa, the USA and the UK. These range from government documents and private papers of individuals to various well-known and obscure periodicals. Such archival research is complemented by many oral history interviews with people from across the political divide who shaped these developments or at least experienced them. Marmon must also be commended for his consistent engagement with historiographical debates throughout the book, firmly placing Pan-Africanism Versus Partnership in the rich literature on Zimbabwe’s struggle for independence and white minority politics. The result is a thoroughly researched and carefully substantiated study that scholars of Zimbabwe’s and Southern Africa’s decolonization will undoubtedly appreciate.
