Background
Roland was born on January 20, 1907, at Salisbury, 13th son of a poor Polish Jew and his Afrikaner wife.
Roland was born on January 20, 1907, at Salisbury, 13th son of a poor Polish Jew and his Afrikaner wife.
After a rough upbringing—“I swam bare-arsed in the Makabusi with the piccaninnies”—he left school at 14 and made his career in lhe railways.
At 6ft 4in and 16 stone he was professional heavyweight boxing champion of Rhodesia from 1926 to 1928. As an engine-driver he entered politics in 1938 as a member of the Northern Rhodesia Legislative Council and he formed the Northern Rhodesia Labour Party in 1941. He was Director of Manpower in the wartime administration from 1941 to 1946. One of the main architects of federation, he worked with Lord Malvern (then Southern Rhodesia Premier as Sir Godfrey Huggins) to bring it to birth on September 3, 1953. He was Minister of Communications and Posts from 1953 to 1956 and Deputy Premier from 1955 to 1956.
From the moment of his take-over in November 1956 from Lord Malvern and his first appearance in June 1957 at a Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference in London, Welensky set his sights on making the Federation an independent dominion within the Commonwealth. But his hopes for the 1960 Federal Review Conference were methodically undermined by the black African campaigns of Banda (Nyasaland), Kaunda (Northern Rhodesia) and Nkomo (Southern Rhodesia) for an end to the Federation and a fresh impetus towards independence for the three territories.
He used all his wiles to prevent or at least delay disintegration. At each crisis he always let it be known he was standing by to fly to London for talks with British Ministers. But the review conference paved the way for independence of Malawi and Zambia, in what became for Welensky, a "rapid and shameless” abdication of responsibility by the British government. His own version of the “betrayal” was movingly written in 1964 in a lucrative book called “Welensky’s 4,000 days”.
Six months of frustration in the political wilderness made him try a comeback by standing for the Southern Rhodesian Parliament at a by-election at Arundel, a suburb of Salisbury. The ruling Rhodesian Front decided on August 24, 1964, that this challenge had to be met by the candidature of Deputy Premier Clifford Dupont. It was a humiliating miscalculation by Welensky. He lost by 1,079 votes to 633.
Thereafter he stayed on the sidelines, offering advice in the voice of moderation which fewer and fewer whites were prepared to listen to sympathetically. He urged the acceptance of the Home- Smith settlement proposals of November 1971 as a last chance for Rhodesia to gain independence in an orderly, legal way.
From the beginning, Welensky was involved in the creation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. He had earlier wanted an amalgamation of Northern and Southern Rhodesia with a constitution similar to that of Southern Rhodesia (that had granted responsible government to the white Rhodesians). After the British Government rejected this idea, he set about the creation of a federation, and against his judgement, the small colony of Nyasaland was included. His main wish for amalgamation, and later federation, was primarily so the complementary economic strengths of the Rhodesias could be put to best use. He felt that the colonies were missing out on the post-war economic boom.
The Victoria Falls. Talks between the territorial governments to explore the idea of federation were held at the nearby Victoria Falls Hotel.
To this end, Welensky organised a conference in February 1949 to investigate the idea of a federation. Held at the Victoria Falls Hotel (a common venue for Rhodesian political conferences), representatives from the Northern and Southern Rhodesian Governments were present, but native Africans and the British Government were not. It was agreed that continued pushes for amalgamation would fail, with both the British and native Africans opposed. Welensky suggested that the Constitution of Australia be used as a basis for the proposed federal constitution, and pushed the idea of 'partnership' between blacks and whites. However, he insisted that "for as long as I can see, in that partnership will be senior partners".
One of the great Rhodesian pioneers, who came too late to political power to change the course of history. Main target of African nationalist wrath over his dedication to the Federation, which extended his racial partnership plans to only a few Africans; victim of white because his ideas were too liberal for the right-wingers. Yet his rugged, earnest character earned him widespread sffection and respect. Even his archenemy Dr Hastings Banda, whose main objective at one time was “to bury the Federation”, warmed to Welensky eventually and invited him as a guest to Malawi.