‘A Necessary Evil?’: (Southern) Rhodesia’s Diplomatic and Economic Relations with Zambia, 1963 to 1973

This paper historicises the diplomatic and economic relations of Southern Rhodesia and Zambia between 1963 and 1973. While there has been comprehensive scholarship delineating the relations between, for instance, Zimbabwe and South Africa over the years, neighbouring Zambia has hitherto been given little attention by historians. Where the relations of Zimbabwe and Zambia have been examined, this has been in the context of political and military connections between Zambia’s United National Independence Party-led government and the Zimbabwean liberation movements the Zimbabwe African National Union and the Zimbabwe African People’s Union. In terms of Zambia–Rhodesia economic and diplomatic interactions, much has been written on how Zambia fared against the backdrop of Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence and the sanctions that followed, from the point of view of Zambia. We shift the focus because there is very little scholarship on the Rhodesian point of view, particularly its relations with Zambia in the period covered by this article. Using archival sources, newspapers and secondary literature, we contend that until the closure of the Rhodesia–Zambia border, the connection between the two countries was characterised by a cautious partnership marked by both covert and overt hostility, which escalated to an outright breakdown of border relations in 1973. Essentially, economic diplomacy became a critical tool deployed by Rhodesia towards Zambia to survive times of financial challenges precipitated by sanctions imposed by Britain and the United Nations, as well as the context of wars of liberation waged in Rhodesia since 1966.