Africans were both slow to think themselves into the industrial context of Southern Rhodesia and slow to perceive that they represented a threat to the privileged position of white workers. European utterances on this topic had a racist sound; several generations were to pass before Africans too would make the same noise. The position of African organisers between the World Wars was an ambiguous one. Many Europeans denied the trusteeship and certainly did not accept the suggestion that Southern Rhodesia was to be an African inheritance. The one African mass organisation between the two wars, the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union ICU, could achieve little. Still, its brief history (1927-36) provides a useful background to the continuing conflict in this self-governing colony and may be of interest to those who imagine that African dissatisfactions in Southern Rhodesia are of recent origin. References.
