6 - ‘They Just Follow the Government of the Day’

Summary

loyalties of black soldiers to the Rhodesian Army became highly contentious during the war in the eyes of nationalists, who labelled them sell-outs for what they saw as their collaboration with the Smith regime. Black soldiers rejected this portrayal of their loyalty and positioned themselves both during and after the war as apolitical troops who served their country and the ‘government of the day’, regardless of its political orientation. In this there was a stark contrast to white soldiers, whose loyalties were often premised upon political support for minority rule; their commitment to the war waned as the inevitability of decolonisation became clear. Black soldiers had strong instrumental reasons during the war to portray their loyalty as apolitical and distance themselves from accusations of collaboration. Veterans may have emphasised the apolitical aspect of their service in retrospect, but this chapter shows that there is a great deal of evidence that this stance was both genuine and contemporary. Black RAR soldiers’ positioning of themselves as apolitical and militarily effective also meant that they could become the acceptable face of the Rhodesian Army.