The largely unsung role of US former president Carter in southern Africa
Former US president Jimmy Carter, who died on Sunday aged 100, was well known for his diplomatic skills and commitment to respecting human rights – much less so for his African legacy. And yet he was the first US president to visit sub-Saharan Africa and during his short term in office from 1977 to 1981 he worked hard to enable the transformation of racist Rhodesia into an independent Zimbabwe.
Carter signed the Camp David Accords in 1978, establishing the framework for a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.
It's seen as one of his major political achievements.
Yet looking back on his term of office, in 2002, he told history professor Nancy Mitchell: “I spent more effort and worry on Rhodesia than I did on the Middle East."
Mitchell – author of Jimmy Carter in Africa, Race and the Cold War – said reams of documents detailing his commitment to end white rule in Rhodesia and help bring about its independence as Zimbabwe backed up the former president's claim.
Carter's involvement in Rhodesia during his four-year stint in office was based largely on realpolitik.
Meanwhile in Rhodesia, an insurgency – led by the leftist Patriotic Front against the white minority government – was gaining ground.
In a memorandum on southern Africa signed just a week after taking office, the Carter administration stated that in terms of urgency the Rhodesian problem was "highest priority".
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