Rhodesia (name)

Not to be confused with Rhodesia, Nottinghamshire.

Rhodesia refers primarily to a country formed by two land-locked territories in southern Africa, which are today Zambia and Zimbabwe. British colonisers named this territory after Cecil Rhodes and it was separated by a natural border provided by the Zambezi River. Occasionally they are informally referred to as the Rhodesias.

The name is no longer in general use. Rhodesia underwent several name changes throughout its history, chronicled and linked to the appropriate articles below.

In the two lists below, information is ordered roughly as follows:

• Name of entity,
• Nature of entity, and
• Years of existence.

Northern Rhodesia (1910–1964), Zambia (1964 onwards)

• North-Western Rhodesia—British South Africa Company (BSA Co.) administered—1890;
• North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia—Protectorates—1893;
• North-Eastern Rhodesia—BSA Co. administered—1897;
• North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia—Amalgamated but administered separately—1899–1911;
• Northern Rhodesia—Protectorate under BSA Co.—1911–1924;
• Northern Rhodesia—British protectorate—1924–1953;
• Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland—Territory of Northern Rhodesia—1953–1964;
• Zambia—Independence granted—1964 onwards.

Southern Rhodesia (1901–1965), Rhodesia (1965–1979), Zimbabwe Rhodesia (1979), Southern Rhodesia (1979–1980), Zimbabwe (1980 onwards)

• Mashonaland and Matabeleland—BSA Co. protectorates—1888–1894;
• South Zambezia—Mashonaland and Matabeleland combined—1894–1895;
• Rhodesia—Protectorate combined with North Zambezia—1895–1901;
• Southern Rhodesia—South Zambezia separated from Northern Rhodesia—1901–1923;
• Southern Rhodesia—BSA Co. charter ends; British colony—1923–1953;
• Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland—Territory of Southern Rhodesia—1953–1963;
• Southern Rhodesia—Federation dissolved; British colony—1964–1965;
• Rhodesia—Unilateral Declaration of Independence—1965–1979 (republic 1970–1979);
• Zimbabwe Rhodesia—"Internal Settlement"—1979
• Southern Rhodesia—British colony—1979–1980;
• Zimbabwe—Independence granted—1980 onwards.

Origin of the name 'Rhodesia'

The complexity of dates for the Rhodesian territories above is exacerbated by the fact that the name wasn't used at first. When settlers moved in to 'Southern Rhodesia' in 1890, and when the BSAC was chartered to administer 'North-Western Rhodesia' and 'North-Eastern Rhodesia', it was not under those names, but the names of the parts, eg Mashonaland, Matabeleland, Barotseland, and so on. Collectively the territories were referred to as Zambezia or the BSAC territories or Charterland. The BSAC and British government did not use the name Rhodesia officially until May 1895. However, Rhodesia started being used informally by the settlers, and became common enough usage for newspapers to start using it in articles in 1891. In 1892 it was used for the name of two newspapers, the Rhodesia Chronicle and The Rhodesia Herald.^[1]

Although 'Northern Rhodesia' was not an official name until 1911 when North-Western and North-Eastern Rhodesia were combined, the name was used informally from 1895 onwards when referring to those two territories collectively.

The first official use of Rhodesia was actually for a boma on Lake Mweru near the mouth of the Kalungwishi River in 1892 established under the authority of Alfred Sharpe, the British Commissioner of the British Central Africa Protectorate based in Nyasaland. After 'Rhodesia' became the official name of the territories in 1895, the boma's name was changed to 'Kalungwishi', and it was closed some years later.^[2]

References

1. ^ The Northern Rhodesia Journal online at NZRAM.org: "First Records-No 6. The Name Rhodesia", Vol II, No. 4 (1954) pp101-102.
2. ^ The Northern Rhodesia Journal online at NZRAM.org: J A Gray: "A Country in Search of a Name", Vol III, No. 1 (1956) pp75-78. See also the note on p82 about the Rhodesia Boma being located at Kalungwishi not Chiengi.

General reference for names and dates of territories

• Zambia Legal Information Institute: Constitutional Development in Northern Rhodesia 1890s–1964