by Hannes Wessels
Donald Trump is busy fracturing America over his determination to fulfil a campaign pledge and build a wall along the country’s southern border and stem the flow of illegals from South American countries. This has the ‘progressives’ and the liberal establishment apoplectic with rage and Democratic representatives in Congress and the Senate are stepping up their efforts to impeach Trump and remove him from office, partly as a result of this endeavour. Hard to understand why protecting the borders of a sovereign state and pleading for the mechanisms needed to enforce a policy of selective migration is so heinous an offence; but that is how Trump’s approach is seen by a large percentage of the citizenry. In essence this is a battle between Left and Right with Trump leading the latter camp and he sees the success of his mission as critical to the survival of his nation as a prosperous, democratic, secular nation built on the back of enterprising and industrious people, mostly from Europe and mostly Christian.
If Trump were prepared to risk all and drive his Democratic opponents over the edge with anger he could refer them to Cecil Rhodes and the successful settlement of the territories north of the Limpopo that became known as Northern and Southern Rhodesia, as an example of what can be achieved when applying high standards to who is allowed to settle in a country.
Rhodes, the evil arch-imperialist, voracious capitalist and racist (who specified in his will with reference to his scholarship, that, ‘No student shall be qualified or disqualified for election to a Scholarship on account of his race or religious opinions’) had strong views about who he wanted opening up his territories and who he wanted settling there.
The men he sought for the dangerous forays north were to be Christian, of European ancestry, well educated, well-bred, stout-hearted and preferably with military experience. These, incidentally, are the same breed and class of people who are today the most loathed, vilified and marginalised on the planet. By accident or design the force that ventured forth did not include many men who would today fit the description of a ‘liberal’ or a ‘progressive’ and I doubt there were many ‘virtue-signallers’ screaming about the victimisation of the transgender minority. They were rambunctious frontiersman with pride in their heritage and themselves and the rest is history; they prevailed in their mission, occupied the territory, stopped the internecine warfare, introduced law and order and set about developing it. But for the task ahead more people were needed and Rhodes’s legacy regarding selective migration remained a pivotal factor so the same high standards were maintained for those wanting to settle in the new colony. In came skilled people but also unskilled, imbued with a spirit of rugged individualism, ready to take risks in the knowledge that in the event of failure there would be no ‘nanny state’ safety nets to break their falls. As a result, few people from Britain and elsewhere of socialist proclivities, who enjoyed the comfort of the welfare state bothered to apply. This controlled the contamination of the Left which would have curtailed the enterprising ‘can-do’ attitude of what was essentially the Right-wing rump of the settler class. In terms of development the result was a spectacular, unprecedented success and no nation in history has been transformed from primitivism to semi-industrialised modernity in so short a space of time.
With Southern Rhodesia on the fast-track to becoming the most prosperous, best governed country on the continent, the post WWII Western powers fell under a left-wing, socialist spell and the White settler minority morphed from heroes of Empire to international pariahs. But being made of strong stuff they decided to challenge the entire world. The reaction to their impudence was swift and the harshest economic sanctions in recent times were imposed before full scale war broke out against the forces of ‘Freedom’ powerfully backed by the Eastern Bloc countries along with support from the Western democracies.
The smell of gun-smoke brought about the rapid departure of carpet-baggers and Left-wingers although a few stayed. Garfield Todd, the leading liberal politician of the time, remained in the country under restrictive orders and lived out his fetish for smacking little girls’ bottoms. Bishop Lamont, the leading liberal cleric of the day, a sodomite in his spare time, relished the opportunity to become famous for his ‘courageous’ opposition to a ‘racist regime’ he cunningly calculated would do him little harm other than deport him which they duly did.
However, an angry world grew angrier, when, in the face of massive adversity, the economy grew and the defenders grew ever more resolute. The fight for survival of a small number of people against the might of the West and the communists lasted fifteen years. At the height of the imbroglio, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made an interesting but incisive comment when he pointed out to an incredulous audience that the ‘Rhodesia problem’, its nexus being the White settler minority, ‘could fit into a football stadium’. In a sense this was a tribute to the remarkable resourcefulness and fortitude of a select group of people whether you agreed with their position or not.
Unfortunately, the collective forces of the liberal-socialist world prevailed and forced the transfer of power to the people they insisted were the rightful rulers and most of those stalwarts of European settler descent were forced to abandon their homeland. A similar scenario now plays out in America with different faces but similar forces. If the Rhodesia tragedy is a gauge of the ultimate outcome then Trump is right; if the liberals win this fight, the USA is doomed.
ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT, as usual Hannes!!
Another excellent article Hannes with very little to add or even comment on. Anyway, this is where we are today and round about now I bet many out there are asking, “how on earth did this come about?” or “I wish I had taken more interest in politics” or “if only I had listened a bit more to so-and-so” and so on, not that it would have made much of a difference to the final outcome. This writer was one of those people until the reality of “freedom” in 1980 hit me like a brick in the middle of my forehead and I then started to take more of an interest in the things that drive this world. Whatever the case, I will always be proud of the fact that at least we Rhodesians went down fighting and we fought to the bitter end which is more than the pathetic display of passivity and just outright cowardice we have been witnessing from populations in western countries (particularly Sweden) in regard to the very obvious betrayal over many, many years by their own governments. History is full of rebellions and uprisings of populations against betrayal by their own governments. What ever happened to the meaning of the Biblical phrase “is there not a cause?’ Beats me. Maybe they believe there is no cause. Perhaps something is being put into the water supply to subdue them?! Wouldn’t surprise me at all. In recent years I have been astounded how much nonsense the British population (not to mention the US population) has tolerated from their own government, but perhaps there is hope as for the first time, to my knowledge, the word ‘betrayal’ (Nigel Farage) has been levelled at Theresa May’s government in the context of the Brexit debacle. Anyway, people seem to be waking up but let’s hope it’s not too late as indeed, I too believe we are all headed for “a new dark age” unless Trump’s government prevails as the ripple effect from the US’s destruction will be catastrophic.
Well said – and very true – the world seems to be in an apathetic stupor..
Just brilliant…
My Father, who emigrated to Southern Rhodesia in 1952 always maintains that all of the best Englishmen were either killed in the two world wars, or emigrated.
Looking at that lot running the UK now, I would say his words were perfectly true.
If Trump loses the good fight and the liberals prevail globally we will enter a new dark age. The worlds candles grew dimmer until a bright lantern of hope emerged in the form of Donald Trump.
Events that are unfolding in Durban at the time of writing clearly demonstrate what happens when a liberally minded soft government takes control. Social discipline vanished and mob rule became the order of the day.
Everything that Ian Smith predicted would happen has not only happened; it is worse than he predicted.
I fear for my children and grandchildren.
The real game of Thrones is far more sinister than the TV Series..
An interesting article indeed mate. I am Rhodesian by birth and had the less than joyful experience of being conscripted to fight in the Rhodesian bush war for 7 years as soon as I left school in 1970, only to see it eventually succumb to the relentless Communist bloc trained and supplied terrorist groups ZANU and ZAPU. Mugabe is a Peking trained Communist and had plenty of help from the North Korean military too. Knowing the mentality of mobs in Rhodesia, I could see what was coming and got out of Rhodesia (moved to South Africa) in 1978 before Mugabe took power in 1980. To this day I have a bitter hatred for anyone and anything left wing, socialist or communist. However, what we are seeing today is the upsurge of Islam terrorism which is quite a different kettle of fish to the Rhodesian war ‘guerillas’. These mongrels are not trained and supplied by the Communist bloc and their style or warfare is executed in the cities, not the bush. They are being promoted and praised by Communist brainwashed leftists who are either blind to the destructive potential of the Islamism or have other sinister motives and agendas. Not hard to guess what those are. It is just so sad and maddening to witness the insanity that is going on around us right now but at the same time, we Rhodesians knew what we were fighting against though it was not yet termed ‘leftist’, just Communism. Our biggest enemies were the left wing overseas governments and media of the UK, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand etc. Sanctions were applied mercilessly to Rhodesia and our only ally was the South Africans who were also fighting similar the same Communist forces in Angola. Sanctions meant we could not travel to any other country (except South Africa) unless you had a foreign passport. We could not buy the groceries we used import. We could not export our beef and tobacco and chrome and gold. We had to wait up to 2 years before the car we ordered was available because there was just no foreign exchange. Fuel was always being rationed and car parts were very hard to come by. Terrorism was an ever-present, ceaselessly active, constantly escalating threat and like my comrades, I spent an average of 9 months of every year in the bush, fighting terrorist invaders coming from Zambia and Mozambique. Our rural roads were littered with the wrecks of cars and trucks and buses blown up by landmines. Fuel dumps were prime targets for terrorist rockets. Large, busy department shopping centres were frequently bombed. Farms were attacked and farmers murdered (this is happening right now in South Africa). In spite of the whole world being against us, we kept our spirits up and fought on. Rhodesia’s economy stayed in the black and survived right up till the day when South Africa was forced to pull the plug of our fuel and arms supplies. That was when the truck and train wheels stopped turning and the country was forcibly handed over to one of the most evil terrorists on this planet. Today, as we can see, Rhodesia which was called ‘the breadbasket of Africa’ is now a basket case called Zimbabwe.
Thank you for your contribution to Rhodesia from another Rhodesian who decided that leaving the birth place of mine and my parents was going to be self preservation.
We shall not allow present day savages to distort history. My grand children have a written record of our family who missed being pioneers by a paltry few years in Rhodesia and remained in Rhodesia until the advent of that swine Mugabe and his mentally incapable governing thugs.
All of us are duty bound to keep our progeny well informed about our contribution to the growth and stability of all in Rhodesia. Our children and their children’s children must know what their proud history truly consists of.
I detest the Brits for what they did to Rhodesia and am glad to see that they are getting their just desserts and degradation right now. They deserve everything they are getting and going to get.
Incredible how little certain people know of Rhode’s non racist and non-denominational scholarship and also how wealth is actually created.