A transnational decolonisation: Britain, France and the Rhodesian problem, 1965-1969

In 2010, while Francophone Africa was commemorating fifty years of independence, Zimbabwe celebrated a smaller, though by no means less significant anniversary. 18 April 2010 marked thirty years since the midnight ceremony, attended by Prince Charles and Bob Marley, when the red, green, black and gold flag of Zimbabwe rose for the first time (The Times, 1980, 18 April). it was therefore two decades after the independence of Francophone Africa that white minority-governed Rhodesia, 'the last outpost of the British Empire in Africa and the last colony in the continent', was transformed into majority-ruled Zimbabwe ( The Guardian, 2010, 16 April).