The Return of the Rhodesia Cabinet Files to Zimbabwe from Rhodes University, South Africa

Case Study

The Return of the Rhodesia Cabinet Files to Zimbabwe from Rhodes University, South Africa

At a Glance

Status

Contact

Origin

Zimbabwe

Researcher

Livingstone Muchefa

Belonging

The Rhodesia Cabinet Files, formerly known as Ian Smith’s Papers, is a collection that predominantly documents the Zimbabwean government’s decision-making processes from 1964 to 1978. Older documentation goes back as far as 1927.

Place of Origin

Zimbabwe

Significance

The records are considered valuable for state administration at the level of strategising around economic sanctions. This is because the period that the records cover is the time that the white minority ruling party, Rhodesia Front, had to navigate the harsh economic sanctions imposed by the United Kingdom and the United Nations, following the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1964. They are also considered potentially destabilising, as they may contain records of current political leaders’ participation in the Second Chimurenga, and any violent acts or collusion with the white-minority leaders during that time.

Current Location

The Rhodesia Cabinet Files were housed at the Cory Library at Rhodes University in Makhanda, South Africa, and are currently housed at the National Archives of Zimbabwe in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Circumstances of Removal

Between 1978 – 1979, at the culmination of the Second Chimurenga in Zimbabwe, then Prime Minister Ian Smith incrementally and secretly deposited his “personal” documents at his alma mater, Rhodes University, in South Africa. Although Ian Smith was ousted as a political leader, he still enjoyed a high level of protection and privilege, having taken the initial steps towards sovereignty, through the Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom in 1964. As such, there was no overt investigation into the nature of the documentation that he had stored at Rhodes University.

Impact of Loss

At the level of governance and state administration, the loss of this documentation removed key reference material for decision making when similar economic sanctions were imposed on Zimbabwe, beginning in 2001. For the general public, this leaves a gap in Zimbabwean historiography that may impact their perceptions and support for their post-colonial political leaders.

Chronology of Restitution Efforts

In the late 1990s, and early 2000s, a number of Zimbabweans moved to South Africa to study and work in universities. The restricted access to Ian Smith’s Papers at Rhodes University raised suspicion about whether the records were purely personal. Two books published in the mid-2000s about Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle history, and the moments that preceded it, relied on archival documents in the collection for evidence. This further fueled suspicions that the collection was related to the government’s dealings. At the same time, Zimbabwean archivists began engaging more actively in two key regional initiatives;  The Aluka Project and the East and Southern African Branch of the International Council on Archives (ESARBICA). The former stressed the importance of digitising struggle history archives, and the latter advocated for the repatriation of migrated archival collections. 

When Ian Smith passed away in 2007, the archival and academic community became more vocal about their suspicions. They pressured the government to investigate the nature of the documents, and to request their repatriation if the records were government related. 

In 2010, following mounting pressure from the archival and academic communities in and outside of the country, a report was commissioned by the late former President Robert Mugabe. Prof. Enocent Msindo, a Zimbabwean academic stationed at Rhodes University, led the investigation. He found that 99% of the records in “Ian Smith’s Papers” that he had access to, were, indeed, government records. After a three week verification process by State officials, who were given full access to the collection, it was confirmed that the Ian Smith Papers were government records. The collection was, thereafter, referred to as the Rhodesia Cabinet Files.

In 2011, heads of national archival institutions congregated in Algeria to convene the African Council on Archives; a platform that would deal with African-specific challenges facing archives. The intention was to formulate an  African Strategy. Repatriation was a key issue.  During this meeting, the demand for the repatriation of the Rhodesia Cabinet Files was presented by the Director of National Archives of  of Zimbabwe’s, Ivan Murambiwa, to a joint sitting of the International Council of Archive, and the East and Southern African Branch of the International Council on Archives (ESARBICA). He received full support from the professional network that was gathered there, including Mandy Gilder, National Archivist at the National Archives and Records Services of South Africa.

The following year, an agreement, facilitated by Mandy Gilder, was reached between Rhodes University and the Zimbabwean Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage to repatriate the Rhodesia Cabinet files. Although this repatriation revolved around archival records, the Zimbabwean Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Foreign Affairs were tasked with their transportation, due to the potentially sensitive nature of the content. Furthermore, the documents were not taken to the National Archives for public access and curation. They were, instead, stored at the State House, under restricted access protocols.

Three years later, in June 2015, Zimbabwe was set to host the ESARBICA conference, and the Director of the National Archives, Ivan Murambiwa was to be appointed the President of the Council for the coming two years. He felt that this would be an apt time to declassify the Rhodesia Cabinet Files. President Robert Mugabe and his cabinet, however, denied this request, which reignited rumours that the files contained sensitive information about the current government’s political and ethical deviancy.

In 2018, following the resignation of the long standing President Robert Mugabe, and six months after Zimbabwe entered into its Second Republic phase, under the leadership of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s, the Rhodesia Cabinet Files were transferred into the care of the National Archives of Zimbabwe, in a public handover ceremony. This was meant to signal the dawn of a new, more transparent, era. However, the records remained classified.

Current Status

Contact

To this day, the Rhodesia Cabinet Files remain classified, despite calls from the National Archives of Zimbabwe and its patrons to make these records accessible to the public, as per the Constitution of Zimbabwe.

Upon return to Cameroon, spiritual leaders advised that the transfer of powers had not succeeded, and that the ceremony would need to take place in Bamendou. The community is now seeking the temporary loan of the Tukah mask, to be able to perform the ritual at home. In addition, they are demanding reparations of 155 billion CFA francs, for calamities that have befallen them as a result of the removal of the mask. This would be invested in improved infrastructures and development of the Bamendou population.

Contents

Livingstone Muchefa

Case Study Researcher

Livingstone Muchefa

Livingstone Muchefa is a curatorial and archiving expert, who is currently serving as the Operations and Administration Manager at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. He previously worked at the National Archives of Zimbabwe, from 2008 – 2020, during the time that repatriation of the Rhodesia Cabinet Files was negotiated. He remains deeply tied to the professional archival network in Zimbabwe, and their pursuit to repatriate the country’s migrated archival collections.

Methodology and Field Experience

As a former staff member of the National Archives of Zimbabwe, Livingstone was already privy to the timeline of events surrounding the repatriation of the Rhodesia Cabinet Files. He deepened this knowledge through formal and informal interviews with colleagues and leaders of the National Archive, and oral history interviews with the academics and government representatives who had been involved in the repatriation.

He also accessed institutional archival records, and local media publications that reported on key events. He found that outside of the archival and academic community, not many people were knowledgeable or interested in the repatriation of the Rhodesia Cabinet Files, or the significance of restitution. He also found it difficult to access information about the legislation and policy frameworks that had been applied to this case, and where the resources came from, as multiple government offices were involved.  It was also challenging to schedule time with and to travel to interviewees who lived outside of Harare, and were not able to connect with him virtually.

Duration of research:

This research data was gathered as part of the third case study research cohort, from March – June 2024. The information in this case study profile reflects the status of this restitution case as at June 2024.

The Return of the Rhodesia Cabinet Files to Zimbabwe from Rhodes University, South Africa

The Return of the Rhodesia Cabinet Files to Zimbabwe from Rhodes University, South Africa

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