The sports boycott against Rhodesia reconsidered

Abstract

Lost amongst the contemporary debate over Zimbabwe's place in world sport (and especially international cricket) is an awareness that its predecessor state, Rhodesia, had itself been the target of an international sporting boycott during its period of Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain (1965–79). This paper reconsiders that campaign and analyses its broader significance. Two key elements of the campaign against Rhodesian sport are highlighted that are particularly worthy of wider attention. The first was the fundamental rationale behind the boycott movement. Unlike the initial campaign against apartheid sport in South Africa, the boycott against Rhodesia was always centred on the nature and legitimacy of Ian Smith's regime rather than on racial issues within Rhodesian sport itself. Sport became a tool of the wider campaign to deny the legitimacy of Rhodesian independence and nationhood. Secondly, the depth of involvement of the British Government in the boycott campaign is revealed. Indeed, it was the British Government that first instigated the sporting boycott of Rhodesia, and a significant feature of the overall campaign was that it was almost exclusively led by state actors rather than public protest movements. The paper thus examines the motivations and behaviour of successive British governments in using sport as a tool of their overall policy towards Rhodesia.

Notes

¹ A full overview of the (limited) literature surrounding the topic is located in Little, ‘Preventing a Wonderful Break-Through’.

² See Beacom, ‘Sport in International Relations’; Little, ‘Preventing a Wonderful Break-Through’; Novak, ‘Rhodesia's “Rebel and Racist”’.

³ Polley, ‘Amateur Ideal’.

⁴ Houlihan, ‘Politics and Sport’, 218.

⁵ Houlihan, ‘Politics and Sport’, 218; see also, Booth, Race Game, 85–122; Hill, Olympic Politics, 118–60; Macintosh and Hawes, Sport and Canadian Diplomacy, 37–58; Doxey, International Sanctions, 40.

⁶ Doxey, International Sanctions, 11, 54–8.

⁷ Houlihan, ‘Politics and Sport’, 217–20.

⁸ Doxey, International Sanctions, 57–8.

⁹ Clarke, Hope and Glory, 266, 296–8.

¹⁰ Mansergh, Commonwealth Experience, 163–201; Lloyd, British Empire1558–1995, 357–80.

¹¹ Strack, Sanctions, 16–21.

¹² Geldenhuys, Isolated States, 59.

¹³ Little, ‘Rebellion, Race and Rhodesia’; Little, ‘No Politics, Mucho Rugby’.

¹⁴ Daily Telegraph, 13 September 1967.

¹⁵ Little, ‘Preventing a Wonderful Break-Through’.

¹⁶ Little, ‘Preventing a Wonderful Break-Through’

¹⁷ Arbena, ‘Sport, Development’, 359–60; Burke, ‘Mexico City 1968’.

¹⁸ Rhodesia Herald, 31 August 1968.

¹⁹ Minutes of the 63rd Meeting of the International Olympic Committee, Madrid, 6–9 October 1965 (IOC Documentation Centre, Lausanne); Minutes of the Meetings of the IOC Executive Board, 18 August – 11 September 1972 (IOC Documentation Centre, Lausanne).

²⁰ Rhodesia Herald, 21 January 1966, 26; 22 January 1966, 13–14; 17 January 1966, 1; 28 March 1966, 1; 29 March 1966, 8.

²¹ Novak, ‘Rhodesia's “Rebel and Racist”’.

²² Although the official Rhodesian team was excluded from the 1977 Maccabiah Games, four lawn bowlers and tennis players did compete as individual athletes. United Nations, Sixth Report, 91–6; Jerusalem Post, 1 July 1977, 2; 15 July 1977, 3.

²³ British Embassy Tel Aviv to Foreign Office, 1 March 1968 (Public Records Office (hereafter PRO) FCO 36/317); Young to Faber, 5 March 1968 (PRO FCO 36/317); Mansfield to Fingland, 30 March 1972 (PRO FCO 36/1295); Little, ‘Pierre Trudeau's U-Turn’.

²⁴ In addition to the examples mentioned above, Rhodesia was also expelled from the international federations of chess (1974), weightlifting (1977) and basketball (1978). FINA, ‘Resolution Reference the Membership of Rhodesia and South Africa’, 30 August 1073 (IOC Documentation Centre, Lausanne); The Times, 16 June 1970; Letter from Association International de Boxe Amateur to IOC, 12 December 1972 (IOC Documentation Centre, Lausanne); Schodl, The Lost Past, 196–7; Rhodesia Herald, 9 October 1978, 16.

²⁵ Strack, Sanctions, 16–21.

²⁶ Rhodesia Herald, 19 August 1968; 3 September 1968.

²⁷ Cabinet Minute, ‘United Nations Sanctions on Southern Rhodesia’, 20 January 1976 (National Archives of New Zealand, 139/400/3 part 2).

²⁸ Rhodesia Herald, 14 January 1975, 3; 12 April 1975, 16; 7 May 1975, 1; 10 May 1975, 15; 21 June 1975, 16; 24 June 1975, 20; 23 July 1975, 3; 19 August 1975, 14; 30 August 1975, 7.

²⁹ Otago Daily Times, 14 January 1976, 14; Rhodesia Herald, 26 February 1976, 14; 20 July 1978, 20.

³⁰ Hall, Ploughing, Politics and Fellowship; Little, ‘Pierre Trudeau's U-Turn’.

³¹ These Olympic sports were archery, athletics, equestrian, shooting and yachting. Circular from Lord Killanin to International Sports Federations, 23 January 1975 (Zimbabwe Correspondence 1975–76, IOC Documentation Centre, Lausanne).

³² Little, ‘No Politics, Mucho Rugby’.

³³ Geldenhuys, Isolated States, 61.

³⁴ See, for example, Morning Star, September 22, 1970; Bulawayo Chronicle, July 13, 1973; Herbert (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) to Offen (Department of the Environment), 18 January 1977 (PRO AT60/120); A. MacEachen (Minister of External Affairs) to Exeter (IAAF), 26 April 1976 (National Archives of Canada 55-26-OLYMP-3-RH).

³⁵ Coggins, ‘Wilson and Rhodesia’.

³⁶ Little, ‘Preventing a Wonderful Break-Through’.

³⁷ Novak, ‘Rhodesia's “Rebel and Racist”’, 1380.

³⁸ Giulianotti, ‘Between Colonialism’; Rhodesia Herald, 8 December 1968, 11; Rhodesia Herald, 1 January 1966, 9; Little, ‘Preventing a Wonderful Break-Through’.

³⁹ Davies, Race Relations in Rhodesia, 342–4.

⁴⁰ International Olympic Committee, Report for the Commission of Enquiry for Rhodesia, 23 October 1974 (IOC Documentation Centre, Lausanne).

⁴¹ International Olympic Committee, Report for the Commission of Enquiry for Rhodesia, 23 October 1974 (IOC Documentation Centre, Lausanne)

⁴² This issue also arose surrounding the 1971 World Ploughing Championships in England and the 1977 Stoke Mandeville Games. Palliser to Williams, 31 July 1968 (PRO FCO 25/549); Cypher from Salisbury to Commonwealth Office, 23 July 1968 (PRO FOC 25/549); Harrison to Rowlands, 6 July 1977 (PRO FCO 36/2114).

⁴³ For examples of this discrimination see Little, ‘Rebellion, Race and Rhodesia’; Little, ‘No Politics, Mucho Rugby’.

⁴⁴ Swimming was unique in that it was the only sport in which racial discrimination in adult sport was the result of specific Government policy. Thus, FINA was the only international sporting federation to expel Rhodesia on the specific grounds that the sport was not integrated within the country. FINA, ‘Resolution Reference the membership of Rhodesia and South Africa’, 30 August 1073 (IOC Documentation Centre, Lausanne).

⁴⁵ The findings of the IOC Commission of Enquiry into Rhodesian sport, which it ought to be noted proved to be a very fair and balanced analysis of the situation, could perhaps be argued as having provided a case to exclude Rhodesia on solely sporting grounds, but there is no evidence to prove what impact, if any, it had on the decisions of the IOC members who voted to expel Rhodesia from the IOC in 1975. Given the similarity of the margin of this vote to that of the one to exclude Rhodesia from the Munich Games, it would appear that most had already made up their minds on the issue.

⁴⁶ Pamphlet by Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement, May 1968 (National Archives of Ireland, 305/94/1); Irish Independent, 16 September 1968; Irish Times, 2 February 1974; Amandla (Ireland), September 1975, 5.

⁴⁷ Barker to Diggines, 11 January 1968 (PRO FCO 25/549); Faber to Bottomly, 28 November 1967 (PRO FCO 36-316); Bottomley to Secretary of State, 29 November 1967 (PRO FCO 36/316).

⁴⁸ In some ways, it could be argued that the most appropriate sporting parallel to the Rhodesian issue was not the boycott of South Africa, but rather the contests for national legitimacy and recognition that fuelled the debates over German and Chinese representation within the Olympic movement. Ironically, it was at the 1968 Games that East Germany (the German Democratic Republic) made its independent Olympic debut, an important step in showcasing the legitimacy of that regime and the division of Germany. Both the British and Rhodesian governments saw the likelihood of Rhodesian participation having the same potential impact on the perception of the international legitimacy of the Smith government and UDI.

⁴⁹ Black and Nauright, Rugby, 93; Doxey, International, 25–6; Booth, ‘Hitting Apartheid for Six?’; Houlihan, ‘Politics and Sport’, 218.

⁵⁰ Rhodesia Herald, 16 June 1969, 12; 21 June 1969, 1.