South Africa and Rhodesia

The Archives Centre has a lot of material on Africa generally, and in particular South Africa and Rhodesia (the northern part of which became Zambia, when it gained independence in 1964, and the southern part Zimbabwe, which declared independence in 1965, though it wasn’t officially recognised by Britain until 1980).

Although our holdings on South Africa especially go back a long way, to the Boer War era, for the purposes of this guide we are concentrating on more recent history: the end of white minority rule in Rhodesia, and Britain’s relations with the apartheid regime in South Africa.  See also our online exhibition South Africa and apartheid, while for some highlights of our colonial era collections, take a look at our earlier research guide Top Ten Collections: Empire and Colonialism.

Collection: The Papers of Baron Noel-Baker

Firstly, we have the long-lived Labour peer Philip Noel-Baker (1889-1982).  Throughout his long career, Noel-Baker was athlete, academic, diplomat, politician and peace campaigner, and his large archive is particularly strong on international affairs.  There is not so much on Rhodesia here (only eight files, mainly cuttings and pamphlets), but there is some interesting material on one particular aspect of the campaign against apartheid: sport and international boycotts of South African teams. 

As an ex-Olympic sportsman himself (he won a silver medal for the 1500m in the 1920 Games), Noel-Baker was the minister responsible for organising the 1948 Games in London and later President of the International Council on Sport and Physical Recreation.  In the section of his archive devoted to sport, NBKR 6, there is one particular correspondence file which has letters from as early as 1955 suggesting that South Africa should be banned from the Olympics, commenting that ‘a man may be able to clear 7 ft in the high jump but would be barred from the Olympics just because his skin is black’ and also calling for the boycott of the South African cricket team’s 1960 tour.

Highlights:

NBKR 6/10, Correspondence about sport including anti-apartheid movement., 1957 – 1962

Collection: The Papers of Fenner Brockway

The veteran Labour activist Fenner Brockway (1888-1988) had much in common with Noel-Baker (they set up the World Disarmament Campaign together when they were both in their 90s and Brockway was one of the vice-presidents of the campaign against race discrimination in sport).  He was also a lifelong anti-colonialist, travelling extensively in Africa during the 1950s and 1960s: not for nothing was he known as ‘the Member for Africa’ in the House of Commons. He helped to establish the People’s Congress Against Imperialism, 1948, and was a founder and Chairman of Liberation (formerly the Movement for Colonial Freedom), 1954-67.

His archive includes many papers and articles about Rhodesia and South Africa, particularly the view of the British Left about the stalemate between Harold Wilson and the Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith over independence in the mid-60s, and the progress of the Anti-Apartheid movement.

Highlights:

Curfew notice issued by the Rhodesian security forces, 1976. Fenner Brockway Papers, FEBR 6/19. ‘Gandanga’ was the name for guerrillas fighting against the security forces in the 1970s.

CCRF/151/16/4, The Shilling Paper, 1968 – 1970

We also hold the Churchill College archive, which contains some great material on student protests, sporting boycotts and scholarships, in the 1960s and 70s.

Highlights:

Various articles from a weekly Cambridge student publication, 1969-70, calling for cancellation of a tour of South Africa by a college drama society, on Cambridge scholarships, some of which discriminated against black students, on the boycott of the Springboks rugby tour and South African cricket tour, and on University investments in South Africa.

Article from the Cambridge student magazine ‘The Shilling Paper’ on the campaign to disrupt the South African test cricket tour, May 1970. Churchill College archives, CCRF/151/16/4

Collection: The Papers of Julian Amery

By way of balance, the archive of the Conservative minister Julian Amery is firmly on the right-hand side of the argument on both South Africa and Rhodesia.  He was a defiant supporter of Ian Smith’s regime and was equally hostile to the campaign for international sanctions against South Africa, taking the view (along with his colleagues in the foreign policy forum Le Cercle) that the campaign was being orchestrated and exploited by the Soviets for their own ends.  British defence and trade interests would best be served by closer ties with the existing authorities (certainly not the ANC, with its links to Communism); meanwhile, the anti-apartheid campaign was ‘totally ineffective, indeed counter-productive’.  According to Amery and his wing of the Conservative Party, the only way to improve relations between the races in Southern Africa (and help Britain at the same time) was ‘to relax the tension by encouraging international economic co-operation and growth’, not impose sanctions.

Highlights:

  • AMEJ 1/2, General political, 1942 – 1960, including numerous files on the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association tour of Central Africa in 1951, Amery’s tour of southern Africa in 1955 and colonial and Commonwealth affairs, particularly relating to Africa.
Note from Julian Amery to Margaret Thatcher, after his visit to South Africa in January 1986, on the South African Government’s problem with what to do about the anti-apartheid activist and ANC member Nelson Mandela, imprisoned since 1962.
Julian Amery Papers, AMEJ 1/10/46

Collection: The Papers of Neil Kinnock

Very much behind the sanctions campaign, on the other hand, was the Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock, who had been a long-standing member of the British Anti-Apartheid movement and was deeply hostile to Thatcher’s anti-sanctions policy.  His large archive contains a wealth of material about Labour’s stance on the issue, from Kinnock’s own fiery speeches against the apartheid regime and the British Government’s relations with it, to the campaign to free Nelson Mandela and the rather more nuanced briefings on how to work with the ANC after Mandela’s release in 1990.

Highlights:

Sample ballot paper from South Africa’s first fully open elections in 1994.
Kinnock Papers, KNNK 10/1/52

British Diplomatic Oral History Programme

For a view from the ground, we have the BDOHP.  There are, so far, seven interviews with former British ambassadors to South Africa or senior figures in the British embassy in Pretoria or in Whitehall, who had the job of implementing Thatcher’s anti-sanctions policy.  Many more were working in the FCO’s Rhodesia department, or were involved with the 1979 Lancaster House conference on the future constitution of a post-independence Zimbabwe, alongside Foreign Secretary Peter Carrington (whose archive is currently being catalogued): 

Collection: The Papers of Baron Soames

To Rhodesia, with the joint archives of the last Governor of Southern Rhodesia, Christopher Soames, and his wife Mary.  A larger-than-life Conservative politician and diplomat, Soames oversaw the transition to an independent Zimbabwe. His governorship only lasted a few months, between late 1979 and early 1980, but his archive covers the first elections to the new Government and later projects for reconstruction and development.  It dovetails with the numerous members of his staff who have recorded interviews for the British Diplomatic Oral History Programme, above.

Soames’s wife, youngest daughter of Sir Winston Churchill, was possibly his biggest asset.  A successful author in her own right, and unofficial Churchill family historian, Mary played the role of diplomatic wife to perfection, and her archive contains plenty of material on her work as ‘the Governess’ in Rhodesia, particularly with children’s charities.

Highlights:

Collection: The Papers of Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, FRS

Impossible not to include this collection in any guide to British policy in this era.  The only difficulty with such a large archive as this one (well over 3000 boxes) is finding your way through it.  The Prime Minister’s office received many reports on southern Africa from various sources, some of which can be found in the large correspondence section, but there are also files dealing specifically with this area, particularly in the political subject files and foreign affairs sections and also in Thatcher’s speech briefings.

Highlights:


Warning to Thatcher in a Conservative Research Department briefing, 1986. Thatcher Papers, THCR 2/6/3/53

Collection: The Papers of Davidson Nicol

Born in Sierra Leone, Davidson Nicol had a varied career, spanning Africa, USA and UK. One prominent section of this career was his time as the permanent representative of Sierra Leone to the United Nations (UN) 1960-1971. During this time, the subject of apartheid was debated within the UN and some documents from this period can be found within his collection.

Highlights:

You can find out more about Nicol’s career through our online exhibition: Davidson Nicol: A man of many careers

Katharine Thomson, Archivist and Jess Saunders, Archives Assistant, March 2026