Cooperation and competition : South Africa and southern Rhodesia during and after the Second World War
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Date
Authors
Gwande, Victor Muchineripi
Mlombo, Abraham
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Brill Academic Publishers
Abstract
This paper discusses relations between South Africa and Southern Rhodesia from 1939 to 1948. The article begins in 1939 when the outbreak of the Second World War brought mixed fortunes for the two neighbours. For Southern Rhodesia, which relied mainly on imported manufactured goods from the United Kingdom, the war induced shortages resulting in huge domestic demand. Shortages stimulated calls for local industry to fill the vacuum. Consequently, an import substitution industrialisation (ISI) drive developed. In addition to the ISI, South Africa, which had a comparatively established secondary industry by the time the war broke out, increasingly became an essential source for Southern Rhodesian imports. This, however, was not without its challenges. Southern Rhodesia’s economic interest groups often raised complaints against South Africa’s economic competition and its threat to the Rhodesian economy. Nonetheless, Pretoria and Salisbury worked closely and found ways to ease the challenges. By 1948, the end date of the paper, Southern Rhodesia and South Africa’s relationship had resulted in the signing of a Customs Union Agreement. Thus, the article demonstrates, thematically and chronologically, that relations between the two countries evolved through cooperation and competition during the Second World War until the onset of Apartheid in South Africa and the Customs Agreement. The paper relies on primary material from the Zimbabwean and South African archives comprised of correspondences of Customs Agreements negotiations, economic policies and relations, and Parliamentary debates.
Description
Keywords
Second World War, South Africa (SA), Southern Rhodesia, Cooperation, Competition
Sustainable Development Goals
None
Citation
Gwande, V.M. & Mlombo, A. 2023, 'Cooperation and competition : South Africa and southern Rhodesia during and after the Second World War', Journal of African Military History, vol. 7, nos. 1-2, pp. 76-98, doi : 10.1163/24680966-bja10018.