OpenTube

Ian Smith: Not in a Thousand Years | Full Rhodesia History Documentary

Upright Films

39,015 views

IAN SMITH: NOT IN A THOUSAND YEARS (1:02:16)

In 1965, Ian Smith declared Rhodesia independent rather than accept majority rule, and promised it would not come 'in a thousand years'. It came in fourteen, after sanctions, a republic no country recognised, and a guerrilla war that cost tens of thousands of lives. This is the story of the fighter pilot and farmer who led white Rhodesia's rebellion against Britain and history: who backed him, what it cost, and why it failed.

This is an educational history documentary. Claims are attributed to their sources; casualty figures for the Rhodesian Bush War and for cross-border raids are estimates and remain disputed. Archive photographs are used under their licences and restyled as paper collage; each on-screen caption describes what the picture shows.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold open: Salisbury, 11 November 1965
2:39 Part One — The Colony
7:32 Part Two — The Pilot
11:46 Part Three — The Farmer
15:53 Part Four — The Wind Of Change
20:14 Part Five — The Declaration
24:22 Part Six — Sanctions
29:07 Part Seven — The Republic
32:38 Part Eight — The War
36:48 Part Nine — Détente
41:29 Part Ten — The Dirty War
45:42 Part Eleven — The Internal Settlement
49:27 Part Twelve — Lancaster House
53:39 Part Thirteen — The Stayer
57:34 Part Fourteen — The Reckoning
1:01:34 Closing & credits

SOURCES (selected)
Ian Smith, The Great Betrayal (1997) / Bitter Harvest (2001)
Martin Meredith, The Past Is Another Country: Rhodesia 1890–1979
Robert Blake, A History of Rhodesia
The Bingham Report on the supply of petroleum to Rhodesia (1978)
Report of the Pearce Commission on Rhodesian Opinion (1972)
UN Security Council Resolutions 216, 217, 232 and 253
Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Rhodesia, Civil War in Rhodesia (1976)
Obituaries of Ian Smith: BBC, The Guardian, The New York Times (November 2007)

PRODUCTION NOTES
Narration is a synthetic (AI) voice. The score is original and was composed procedurally for this film. All photographs are archival or documentary images obtained via Wikimedia Commons under public-domain or Creative Commons licences (PD, CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA); the full per-image credit and licence list is here: https://viralzim.com/ian-smith-image-...

Produced by Upright Films

20 Comments

@uprightfilmsafrica Creator 5 days ago Pinned

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE LIKE AND SHARE. WE NEED TO KEEP BRINGING THIS TYPE OF CONTENT.

@mwenyejii 8 hours ago

Nice history. Zimbabwe and my country Kenya share a lot in history.

@Mike-q3e5h 5 days ago

I find it kind of funny that the United States has stopped selling Diesel fuel to the UK and the UK has about 40 days of that fuel left in the country, it’s like a fuel embargo in reverse and the UK deserves it .

@calistovnravasingadi1162 7 days ago

Ian Smith was ahead of time, we don't have majority rule in Zimbabwe till now. Zimbabwe is still ruled by the minority elite black who are far worse than the Smith regime. They're ruthless and greedy

@Wild-p9c 7 days ago

Thank you for sharing this history of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. They have a very interesting story.

@robkilcollins310 7 days ago

Long live Rhodesia. Some of the most outstanding and resilient human beings still in this world grew up in Ian Smiths Rhodesia. Tragic tale what was to become of that country, if you can even call Zimbabwe a country anymore.

@markaxworthy2508 5 days ago

There is no doubt that Nyadzonya and other camps contained both guerrillas and refugees. The presence of the guerrillas stripped the camps of legal immunity from attack. The result was that civilians also suffered heavy losses.

@stephenhardy312 4 days ago (edited)

8:57. That is where Tony Benn learned to fly for the RAF, just before the end of WW2.

@justinward7545 14 hours ago

Ian Smith came to talk at our school in the seventies and I met up with many ex Rhodesians at university. Like me they had all served in the military. 6 weeks in uniform and 6 weeks without. Unsustainable. Look at Zimbabwe now. Mugabe was a psychopath that destroyed the country. What a shame.

@ROBSONNYAMUTSAMBA 6 days ago

Food was cheap and affodable under I. D. Smith. We miss you

@stanchawasarira6189 6 days ago

❤❤❤❤

@barriecoles1362 1 day ago

I grew up in Rhodesia under Ian Smiths government. He spoke Shona fluently. He was loved by the blacks and whites equally. He fought for black education, medication and housing. 2/3rds of the armed forces were black volunteers. They were never conscripted during the war. Where ever he went, even after the useless British government handed the country over to the ruthless, thieving Mugabe and his disgraceful spendthrift wife Grace, the blacks would gather round Smithy and chant “boss come back”. Mugabe’s “black boot brigade” were very cruel to the poor unfortunate black people, cared less about their poverty, their well being or progress. So DO NOT SAY the blacks died under Smithy’s government because they died under Robert Mugabe communistic brutal rule.

@EvansMbanilwa 2 days ago

If Ian Smith was still in Zimbabwe,we would be talking of the first world!!?😂

@glendodds3824 1 day ago

One of the few things Ian Smith had in common with Mugabe was that he went to university in South Africa.

@kudzaikembo9310 6 days ago

One of the best well balanced documentary!thank you

@anneredelinghuys150 1 day ago

Best prime minister ever on par with Trump

@PeterJarre 6 days ago

An excellent video well balanced and comprehensive. Rhodesia was a beautiful country that some called the Switzerland of Africa. It became the breadbasket of Africa until the commercial farms owned by white farmers were confiscated. It is a great pity that Smith's government and its followers could not compromise because of pigheaded stubbornness. The writing was on the wall when I arrived in the country in 1962. The whites refused to do the math. As a result thousands were killed in a stupid senseless war, many of whom were my friends. I have carried a burden of grief ever since.

@dalaspanesu9691 5 days ago

As young as l was we could sent by guerillas spy on what type of weapon White Forces were carrying. The white forces respected children. But they generally cruel to older Africans. Civillian Zimbabwen has never tested true freedom and peace the till now. Silence is not that of peace but fear.

@Shalom491 4 days ago (edited)

That’s what all dictators believe. Robert Mugabe’s wife used to boast that Mugabe was going to remain president beyond the grave, where is he today. He and Smith are just dead rot.

@briansamuel9 6 days ago

It was perhaps the biggest mistake the world made in pressuring whites to hand over governments of Rhodesia and South Africa to majority blacks. A two state solution would have been better for all.