Archival Significance
Written by Desmond Lardner-Burke, Rhodesia’s Minister of Law and Order and Justice and a signatory to the 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence, with a foreword by Ian Smith. This is a primary-source political account of UDI written from within the Rhodesian Front government itself, published the year after the declaration.
Institutional Context
Published by Oldbourne Book Co., London, and distributed internationally, part of the wider pamphlet and book literature both defending and opposing UDI that circulated in the mid-1960s.
Content Summary
Presents the Rhodesian Front government’s account of the events leading to UDI and its immediate aftermath, from the perspective of one of its central legal and political figures.
Research Utility
A primary source for researchers of UDI, essential for understanding the Rhodesian Front’s own framing of events. Best read alongside contemporaneous critical accounts rather than in isolation.
Abantu Archives Note
Held in-house as a primary source. Its content reflects the political position of its author and government at the time of writing, not the Archive’s own position.