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"No one can tell you what Rhodesia was"
My K-12 experience
1979 Geography "This blob in Africa is called Rhodesia."
1980 "Okay, now it's called Zimbabwe."
And that's pretty much all we knew, since "World History" classes were primarily about Europe and the US.

Usually, to me, Rhodesia is a place mentioned in a podcast in a sentence like this: 'Then they went to be a mercenary in Rhodesia,' or 'They claimed to be a mercenary in Rhodesia.'

In 🇩🇪 the Confederate flag is a popular replacement for the banned swastika-flag.
Nazis see them as the closest to their ideology

A little addendum to the song mentioned in the beginning.
The one recording that exists of it, the one that was also used by the ad. If you listen to it in its entirety, it ends with men, after the actual end of the song, jumping to their feet and yelling "Hail Victory" and "Sieg Heil".
Like, its that explicit. Also that recording is from like idk 2016 or something

I don't get why people portray that Rhodesia was "betrayed", they left the commonwealth by their own will because of the fear of change then whine constantly about how their mother country that they disobeyed won't bail them out after the local populace wasn't happy to be denied basic human rights.

I was not surprised at all to find that a northern Irish Protestant helped stoke the fears of a secret communist plot and was the mayor of their capital city.

They go further than the flag. I've met racists who kept Rhodesian ridgebacks. The dog was mismatched with the climate and lifestyle of the couple. The only reason they had it was because of the association with the colony.

The thing I find very amusing about Rhodesia is that they very quickly declared independence from Britain without negotiating whatsoever which pissed off Britain’s and they thought Britain would support them nonetheless

The podcast Weird Little Guys is a treasure trove of information for anyone interested in the global network of fascists that flew under the radar for decades. I feel so lucky to have discovered her podcast a couple of years ago.

As someone from a country formally know as northern Rhodesia. The white people in Zambia are pretty chill. No one in Zambia actually wants a 'return to northern rhodesia. It's so odd how symbols work

Ironically, history demonstrates again and again, that conservatives who claim to hate socialism, and anything connected to it, will always support socialist policy if they themselves stand to gain from it, or if it is justified by racism or some other form of discrimination or suppression of minorities.

It would be funny if it wasn't so incredibly sad.

If I have to hear “before Zimbabwe used candles they had electricity” I’m gonna punch a hole in my wall

When I was traveling in Europe in the 1980s, I met two people from Rhodesia. One of them seemed fairly nice, the other was, by far, the most racist person I've ever met.

What I hate most about those racists is that any mention of Zimbabwe they correct the name to Rhodesia as if they were being funny.

In Brazil we had a city called "Fordland"

Hi there! I was born in Zim and am white. I left when I was very young and have spent a disproportionate amount of time attempting to learn about and come to terms with the heritage I was burdened with. With that context;

Thank you so much for this video. I cannot express deeply enough how grateful I am that you did not shy away from a single fact. When I mention where I was born I am typically met with one of three reactions;
1- confusion, because they've never heard of the place (this is my preferred reaction for what will become obvious reasons)
2- hatred; I'm a white zimbabwean so I must be pro rhodesian and therefore racist and probably evil (often get assumed misogyny there too, which is 'fun')
3- adoration as a token; I'm a white zimbabwean so I must be pro rhodesian, which is to say racist with plausible deniability (I cannot express the hatred I have for this, it makes me feel sick. It's automatic membership of a club I actively want wiped from the earth, let alone to avoid association with. I would rather people hate me for what they assume I am.)

You laid out the history and realities in a way that drives back a despair that I have. My ancestry is a very emotive topic for myself and for others. My family were not rich, by white standards of the country. Which meant they were rich. My own great uncle (I pray he never reads these words) was a useful idiot for the establishment there. He risked his life and killed for the Rhodesian government. I still love him, because he is family. I... don't know if it is possible to reconcile the kind, wise and generous old man that he has been for most of my life, with the violent tool of the rhodesian state he was in youth, or the bitter and regretful man he can be. His regrets are not for what I wish they were. This nuance is hard to express for me.
Your discussion of this topic, perhaps because of the distance you have from it, embraced that nuance without reservation. Your willingness to understand and explain who the people involved were, on all sides, is greatly appreciated. Everyone in that land was human, with all the good and evil that involves.
I hate what the land I was born on is coopted for in modern discourse. The Rhodesian government was a blight that deserved to fall, but that does not make the people that precipitated that fall into saints.

Thank you. From the bottom of my heart. If a better world and future, in which people are all treated with dignity and respect, is possible, it is because of people like you.
I live in the UK and have done for most of my life. If you ever find yourself out this way, and are so inclined (dubious because I am a stranger on the internet), please feel free to get in touch. You will not need to pay for a drink, so long as I am in the same building as you.

P.S. I hate how they butchered Old Maui for that 'rhodesian folk song'. Sure, its authenticity as a folk song (or at least its melody) is somewhat dubious, but it doesn't deserve to have those lyrics or connotations applied to it. If they wanted plausibly deniable racist rhodesian folk songs, there are (unfortunately) plenty to pick from, thanks to Clem Tholet. Didn't need to drag a different melody through the mud.

That was so, so, good. I'm Kenyan so can closely relate to the Rhodesia story (my country was also Brit colonized).

This looks from the comments to be a breakout video for you. Congratulations, it couldn't happen to a more deserving channel.

1. Truly atrocious pronunciation on some of these names; and yet this is the most effort I’ve ever seen anyone (and I’m including white Zimbabweans here) make to get the names in my country’s history correct. For that effort alone, you have earned a subscriber.

2. Brilliant and thorough research. I am a historian and being Zimbabwean I kinda have to know a lot of this stuff but there was so much you mentioned here that I had to refer back to some books to understand myself. Truly wonderful and dedicated work you did here.

Thank you for telling our history faithfully. I can’t grant you honorary citizenship but I can give you unlimited tour guide services if you’re ever in the country 😂.