The 1961 Constitution, Race, and Political Realignments in Colonial Zimbabwe

This chapter explores two consequential political realignments that emerged due to a constitution-making process and an associated referendum in Southern Rhodesia (colonial Zimbabwe) in 1961. These were, first, the re-establishment of unity among the political class of the Rhodesian right wing and second, the seeds of division and disunity that plagued Zimbabwe’s anticolonial nationalists throughout their quest for independence. The adoption of this constitution was a landmark primarily because it provided for the racial integration of the Southern Rhodesian legislature on a dual roll electoral franchise. One component of the chapter demonstrates how the constitutional referendum, though a defeat for the white right wing, set in motion processes that laid the groundwork for their victory at the next general election, the following year. A second, complementary unit, demonstrates how confusion over the nationalists’ constitutional position spurred factionalism, weakening their leader, Joshua Nkomo, and enabling a seminal intranationalist split in 1963. Cumulatively, both transformations set the framework for the principal confrontations that shaped the conflict that endured throughout Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence (1965–79).