Nationalist No More: Jasper Savanhu’s Lament

Jasper Savanhu is a perfect symbol for what Robert Rotberg has called the “cynical ploy, even a farcical plot of Shakespearean Dimensions” of “racial partnership” in the Central African Federation that linked Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland with Southern Rhodesia (1953-63). Not only was Savanhu an MP in the Federal government from beginning to end, he was also the first African appointed to a “junior” ministerial position as Parliamentary Secretary to Home Affairs with special responsibilities for Race Relations. “Racial partnership”, the slogan of Federation, was an empty promise of more racial respect, opportunities and eventually inclusion for Africans in government and economics. Indeed, African nationalists dismissed the slogan and the Federation as “partnershit”. Savanhu never recovered from his involvement in the Federation. As the journalist Lawrence Vambe explained, Savanhu began his political career as a “firebrand” who “stirred” Africans with his “cutting indictment of the system,” but whose work among whites so changed him that he became “the object of some African antagonism” until he was finally “dumped on the heap of anonymity.” Savanhu’s political rise and fall complicates the story because of his efforts to shift political gears. After his resignation as a Parliamentary Secretary (he remained an MP) in August 1962, Savanhu denounced the Federation in the Federal Parliament. By 1963, Savanhu aligned his parliamentary motions with the goals of the nationalists, when, it seems, he was a member of ZANU. Despite his best efforts, Savanhu’s program of political rehabilitation fell short and he became a lonely (and bitter) political exile. But rather than take Savanhu’s political fall for granted, I offer a new explanation of the plausibility of Savanhu’s political resurrection and his ultimate failure. My sources include official and private documents, newspapers, and an archival interview with Savanhu.