The Rhodesian Front was a right-wing conservative

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing colony, self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The reg ...

, subsequently known as Rhodesia. It was the last ruling party of Southern Rhodesia prior to that country's unilateral declaration of independence, and the ruling party of Rhodesia from 1965 until 1979. Led first by

Winston Field Winston Joseph Field (6 June 1904 – 17 March 1969) was a Rhodesian politician who served as the seventh Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia. Field was a former Dominion Party MP who founded the Rhodesian Front political party with Ian Smit ...

, and, from 1964, by Ian Smith, the Rhodesian Front was the successor to the

Dominion Party The Dominion Party was a political party in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, led by Winston Field. History The party was established in 1956 by a merger of several political groups and the remains of the Confederate Party, which had di ...

, which was the main opposition party in Southern Rhodesia when that territory was a part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The RF was formed in March 1962 by conservative white Rhodesians who opposed regional decolonisation and majority rule. It carried the general election in Southern Rhodesia that December, and remained in power until 1979.

History and ideology

The RF had fifteen founding principles, which included the preservation of each racial group's right to maintain its own identity, the preservation of 'proper standards' through a policy of advancement through merit, the maintenance of the

Land Apportionment Act Land reform in Zimbabwe officially began in 1980 with the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement, as an effort to more equitably distribute land between black subsistence farmers and white Zimbabweans of European ancestry, who had traditional ...

, which formalised the racial imbalance in the ownership and distribution of land, opposition to compulsory racial integration, job protection for white workers and the practice of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...

. Historians have generally defined the party as conservative and wanting to maintain white Rhodesian interests by staunchly opposing majority rule, which the RF argued (citing other post-colonial African nations as examples) would lead to a collapse in economic development, law & order, and the emergence of a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

regime in Rhodesia. The party also encouraged the emigration of whites from other African former colonies to Rhodesia. In contrast to the ideology of the South African National Party, the RF allowed for democratic opposition and did not advocate social

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

(under the RF marriage, relationships and intermingling between whites and non-white persons was possible and legal, albeit uncommon), nor did the party consider blacks as racially inferior or actively tried to deny them citizenship. Black Rhodesians were allowed to vote for candidates on the separate and smaller ''African Seats'' and ''B Roll'' electoral rolls in parliamentary elections following the UDI. However, the RF wanted to continue the maintenance of the government's right to provide separate amenities for different races, such as education and public sector resources, and maintained an all-white membership which resulted in it facing accusations of racism from both within Rhodesia and abroad. Smith and the RF also claimed that they based their policies, ideas and democratic principles on merit and "not on colour or nationalism." The party also claimed that a system of merit and separate economic advancement would ultimately result in an "equal partnership between black and white" as an alternative to majority rule In 1977, the party had a schism in which the more hardline wing broke off to form the

Rhodesian Action Party The Rhodesian Action Party (RAP) was a political party in Rhodesia formed in 1977 by a group of MPs from the Rhodesian Front (RF) who were dissatisfied by the leadership of Ian Smith and his attempts to negotiate an 'internal settlement' with Afri ...

which opposed Smith's proposals to negotiate a settlement with black nationalist leaders. Following the elections leading to the country's independence in 1980, as the Republic of Zimbabwe, the RF won all 20 parliamentary seats reserved for whites in the power-sharing agreement that it had forged. On June 6, 1981, the party changed its name to the Republican Front, and on July 21, 1984, it became the

Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe The Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe (CAZ) was the final incarnation of a party formerly called the Republican Front, and prior to that it was called the Rhodesian Front. In the immediate post-independence period, the party sought to promote t ...

. Eleven of its twenty parliamentarians defected over the following four years, but the party again won 15 of the 20 parliamentary seats reserved for whites in the 1985 election. In 1986, the CAZ opened its membership to Zimbabweans of all races. In 1987 the ruling government abolished all reserved seats for whites.Zimbabwe whites lose special political status. End of reserved seats in Parliament brings one-party state closer
'' Christian Science Monitor'', August 25, 1987 When these were abolished many white MPs became independents or joined the ruling ZANU party.

Electoral history

House elections

References

{{Authority control Defunct political parties in Zimbabwe Rhodesia Conservative parties in Zimbabwe Political parties in Rhodesia White nationalism in Zimbabwe Pro-independence parties Anti-communist organizations Political parties established in 1962 Political parties disestablished in 1981 Protestant political parties White nationalist parties Right-wing parties Ethnicity in politics 1962 establishments in Southern Rhodesia 1981 disestablishments in Zimbabwe

History and ideology

Electoral history

House elections

See also

Further reading

References