Rhodesia and Zimbabwe in the British Press : Representations of Colonialism and Liberation in Southern Africa, c.1951-80

Employing a wealth of British newspaper articles this book explores the ways in which British attitudes to Rhodesia/Zimbabwe developed from the post-war period through to the early years of independence by reconstructing how the print media portrayed the colony. Using articles from a range of different sources it traces the narratives that were presented to the public from the creation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland to the early years of Robert Mugabe’s regime.

Exploring the cultural, political, moral and ideological relationship between metropole, white settler colonialism and African nationalism at the end of Britain’s empire in Africa, it maps out the public debates, representations and perceptions of decolonization and Britain’s role in it. It lays open ideological fracture lines that existed in the political mind-set in Britain, explores how attitudes towards Empire were shaped through the media, and the extent to which the various crises of southern Africa permeated the British consciousness during this period.