Ian Smith

Ian Smith (1919-2007), prime minister of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) from 1964 to 1979. Born in Shurugwi, in what was then Southern Rhodesia (later Rhodesia), Ian Douglas Smith was a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force during World War II (1939-1945). He turned to politics and was elected to the assembly of Southern Rhodesia in 1948. At that time, Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing colony of the United Kingdom. In 1953 it became part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

In 1962 Smith founded the Rhodesian Front, a party dedicated to the continuation of white supremacy, and two years later he became prime minister of the colony. The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was dissolved in 1963; Northern Rhodesia became independent as Zambia in 1964, and that year Southern Rhodesia changed its name to Rhodesia. In 1965, when Britain’s Labour government insisted on the extension of political rights to black Africans, Smith unilaterally proclaimed Rhodesia independent, severing all ties with the United Kingdom. For 13 years he defied economic sanctions imposed on the new state by the United Nations and scuttled every attempt at a compromise solution that included black African rule.

By 1978, however, worn down by years of guerrilla war, and pressured by the United Kingdom and the United States, Smith finally agreed to include black African ministers in his cabinet and to extend voting rights to black Africans. He stepped down as prime minister following elections in 1979, and Rhodesia became independent as Zimbabwe in 1980. Smith kept his seat in the Zimbabwe parliament until 1987.