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Obituary:
Sir Garfield Todd
The
Guardian (UK)
by Patrick Keatley and Andrew Meldrum
October 14, 2002
Becoming a legend
in his lifetime is a heavy burden for any man to bear. But it was
typical of Sir Garfield Todd, the progressive prime minister of
Southern Rhodesia in the mid-1950s, who has died aged 94, that he
carried the load lightly, though being an internationally respected
guru was little consolation for decades of exclusion from active
politics. Todd's involvement in public life sprang from the empathy
he felt with the Africans whose interests he had looked after as
superintendent of the Dadaya mission school, in the vast Shabani
district. This led him to conclude that only if he became an MP
could he improve the prospects of black Rhodesians who, in that
era, amounted to barely 2% of the voters' roll. Parliament in Salisbury
(now Harare) was, of course, all white.
In 1946, Todd
won the Shabani seat for the United Rhodesia Party, the most liberal
of the groupings in the field. After rising through three ministerial
postings, in 1953 he became prime minister and party president.
He proceeded to introduce various progressive measures, including,
in 1955, a five-year plan to give elementary education to every
African of school age. His 1957 franchise bill cleared the way for
multi-racial trade unions. He went to South Africa and the United
States in search of financial backing for a new system of land husbandry
in the tribal trust areas. As a sop to critics who said that Todd
was "soft on natives", he dealt drastically with the first big African
strike, at the Wankie colliery in 1954, calling in the tough mobile
police unit. But basically, he was turning a blind eye to the old
rule of white settler politics, which was "never be overtaken on
the right".
His fall came
when he proposed a revision of the franchise qualifications, which,
he estimated, would add between 6,000 and 10,000 Africans to the
roll. It was perhaps naive of him to try to reassure his critics
that these black voters would amount, at most, to 20% of the number
of qualified whites. In fact, the figure would have been closer
to 16%, but Todd was not wily in those ways. When his ministers
resigned en bloc in outrage at the proposals, he formed a new cabinet,
but, three months later, the party rejected him as leader, in favour
of Sir Edgar Whitehead. Todd went into the wilderness, initially
forming a splinter party, which failed to win a single seat in the
1958 election. In a farewell statement, he spoke from the heart:
"We must make it possible for every individual to lead the good
life, to win a place in the sun. We are in danger of becoming a
race of fear-ridden neurotics - we who live in the finest country
on earth."
Todd was born
in New Zealand, and worked, in his student years, at his father's
brickmaking business. After university at Otago, he went to the
Glen Leith Theological College, took holy orders in 1931, and was
assigned to mission work in South Africa. This was interrupted by
studies at Witwatersrand University, in Johannesburg, and at Butler
University, in the United States, leading, in 1934, to the Dadaya
mission posting. With his deep love of the land, and the perception
that it was being neglected under a racially divisive system, Todd
began buying up tracts of cheap land, until a very considerable
agricultural development began to take shape. He built a school
for African children. Indeed, several of today's leading Zimbabwean
figures - including President Robert Mugabe - got their first experience
of authority by trekking out to Shabani to teach at the Todd school.
Todd's period
in power was followed by years of frustration and political humiliation.
In an attempt at a comeback, he joined Sir John Moffatt, of Northern
Rhodesia, in forming the Central Africa Party in 1960. But this,
like another party he tried to form the following year, failed to
gain seats in elections where white voters never numbered less than
96% per cent of the electorate. He further alienated himself from
the settler community when, in 1960, he shared a platform with the
African nationalist leader Joshua Nkomo, and jointly appealed to
the British government to suspend Rhodesia's colonial constitution.
Gradually, however, Todd began to emerge as the conscience of his
country, increasingly honoured in the outside world. His handsome
appearance and his remarkable fluency - he spoke at 200 words a
minute - ensured him frequent radio and television exposure.
His appearance
before the United Nations colonialism committee in New York, caused
a particular furore in settler circles at home, and it was as more
UN invitations began to arrive that, in 1965, the rightwing Ian
Smith, who had recently declared Rhodesia's unilateral - and illegal
- independence, decided to immobilise him. Todd, and his wife Grace,
were put under house arrest at their ranch, for a renewable period
of one year, and further harassments followed. Full-scale detention
was ordered in 1972, and extended to Todd's daughter Judith, who
had been campaigning on his behalf in London and other European
capitals. Each promptly went on hunger strike, but the net was closing
in. Judith went into exile for eight years, while her father remained
at the ranch until June 1976, banned from even writing or receiving
letters. For long periods, the phone line was cut. That October,
Nkomo invited him to join his delegation at the unproductive Geneva
conference on the future of Rhodesia.
However, as
the Todds well knew, the bush war directed by Mugabe's skilful guerrilla
commander, Josiah Tongogara, was getting under way. Seven years
later, Smith and the settlers recognised that the game was up, and
surrendered at the Lancaster House conference in London in 1979.
With Zimbabwean independence, and the transfer of power to the African
majority the following year, Todd was invited to serve as a senator
for five years. In 1985, he was given a long-overdue knighthood,
at the instigation of the New Zealand government. In his later years,
with African majority rule spreading to South Africa, he found himself
regarded as a source of wisdom, and the ranch at Dadaya drew a succession
of admirers seeking enlightenment. Recent visitors found him as
incisive and positive as ever; clear of mind and warm in his forgiveness
of those who had persecuted him. He said his philosophy derived
from the Bible: "Just keep throwing your bread upon the waters;
if you're lucky, it will come back as ham sandwiches." Todd is survived
by his three daughters, Judith, Cynthia and Alycen; his wife died
last year.
Andrew Meldrum
writes: Garfield Todd remained a vital, vigorous voice in Zimbabwean
politics right up to his death. The nation paid close attention
to his principled and pointed statements against corruption, human
rights abuses and the worsening plight of the average Zimbabwean
- even if Robert Mugabe did not heed his words. Last February, when
told he had been stripped of his citizenship - like thousands of
Zimbabweans whose parents were born in foreign countries - and would
not be allowed to vote in the hotly contested presidential election,
the former premier responded in typically forthright fashion. He
said he would not willingly agree to lose his vote, and felt bound
to "shoulder the responsibility of totally rejecting the disenfranchisement
of Zimbabweans by Zanu PF [Mugabe's ruling party].
"I am horrified
by the destruction of our economy, the starving of our people, the
undermining of our constitution, the torture and humiliation of
our nation by Zanu-PF," he said. "Just as we stood with courage
against the racism of the past, so today we must stand with courage
against the terror of the present. Come what may, I will be going
to the polling station to claim my right as a very senior citizen
of Zimbabwe, to cast my ballot for good against evil." So, on voting
day, the defiant Todd stood in the polling queues, his erect bearing
and full shock of white hair belying his years, only to be turned
away by apologetic officials. He remained determinedly optimistic
that good would prevail.
Reginald Stephen
Garfield Todd, politician, born July 13 1908; died October 13 2002
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