Return of the Prodigal Son? Transformations in Zimbabwe’s Relations with China Since 1963

The Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) introduced Zimbabwe into the realm of China during the liberation struggle as it sourced military support. In line with the Chinese dominance in ZANU, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) guerrilla warfare followed the Maoist doctrine. However, at independence, Zimbabwe joined the British Commonwealth and became a part of the western orbit. Although the country continued to have some form of political and economic linkages with China, the relations were cosmetic. It was at the fall of the cordial relations with the West at the end of the 1990s that Zimbabwe refocused on China. Zimbabwe hinged its survival on Chinese support as it turned full circle to the East. This paper analyses the long historical relations between Zimbabwe and China. It argues that political transformations returned back Zimbabwe to China’s hegemony. The paper is based on qualitative research methods and information was gathered primarily through the use of archival data.

Internationalising Arts, Gaining Visibility: Internationalisation of the National Art Gallery through the Promulgation of the Malayan Identity and Commonwealth Ideals

The early history of the Malaysian National Art Gallery has been thoroughly elucidated through many different sources but its role as promoter of Malaysia’s art in the first ten years of its early formation have never been critically examined. This paper will trace the transnational relationship of the National Art Gallery through its exhibitions co-organised with the Commonwealth Institute in London within the larger context of the post-World War II period and the British decolonisation in Malaya. This paper will situate and contextualise its research on Malaya’s early exhibition history on multiculturalism and the Malayan identity framework, and later draw the link and connection between the Commonwealth Institute and the context of its establishment in Britain and the establishment of the National Art Gallery in Malaya. Subsequently, this paper will trace and demonstrate the importance of these early exhibitions to be understood in the larger context of (a) the need to exert international visibility during the period of Confrontation and (b) the exhibition as a platform that mooted the Malayan identity that aligns with the core values and principles of the Commonwealth. As such, this paper demonstrates that the transnational relations between the National Art Gallery and the Commonwealth Institute in the realm of Malaysia’s exhibition history must be analysed in tandem with the issues that are faced by a new British Commonwealth country, i.e., Malaysia during the immediate post-war period.

Finishing the Job

After the war came to an end, British linguists in Burma and Malay were busy screening Japanese surrendered personnel in order to identify war crimes suspects. Also, they interviewed Japanese commanders to gain a historical understanding of the war in South-East Asia, for the Japanese forces had destroyed all their records. The British Commonwealth Occupation Force reached Japan in 1946 and was given responsibility for policing the Occupation of Japan in the south-western part of the country. Few of those who participated felt that the Occupation was worthwhile. For the Tokyo Trials, Allied interpreters were not used: instead, members of the Japanese Foreign Ministry acted as interpreters, though their work was supervised by American linguists.

Concept of British Commonwealth in Activities of Round Table Group at Beginning of ХХ Century

Some aspects of the complex intellectual discussion that accompanied the transformation of the British colonial system at the beginning of the 20th century are considered. Based on the analysis of published works, a generalized description of the conceptual views of the members of the “Round Table” group regarding the formation of the political and legal foundations of the British Commonwealth, as well as the development of close cooperation between Great Britain and self-governing dominions is given. At the same time, special attention is paid to the study of the practical significance of the ideas of A. Milner, L. Curtis and other intellectuals who were part of the group of intellectuals for transforming the forms and methods of managing the vast domains of the British crown. This transformation was due to a complex of factors of a socio-economic, political, moral and psychological nature, which Great Britain was forced to face in the first decades of the 20th century. It is noted that the changes that took place in the governing system of the largest colonial empire in history, among other things, contributed to the subsequent formation of mechanisms of international influence, which at the beginning of the 21st century were called “soft power”. It is shown that, on the other hand, in their theoretical constructions A. Milner and his followers strove to preserve the continuity of the ideology of imperialism, which gained popularity in the British establishment in the late Victorian period.

“A Fundamental Human Right”? Mixed-Race Marriage and the Meaning of Rights in the Postwar British Commonwealth

This article explores the removal or exclusion in the late 1940s of people in interracial marriages from two corners of the newly formed Commonwealth of Nations, Australia and Britain's southern African colonies. The stories of Ruth and Sereste Khama, exiled from colonial Botswana, and those of Chinese refugees threatened with deportation and separation from their white Australian wives, reveal how legal rearticulations in the immediate postwar era created new, if quixotic, points of opposition for ordinary people to make their voices heard. As the British Empire became the Commonwealth, codifying the freedoms of the imperial subject, and ideas of universal human rights “irrespective of race, color, or creed” slowly emerged, and claims of rights long denied seemed to take on a renewed meaning. The sanctity of marriage and family, which played central metaphorical and practical roles for both the British Empire and the United Nations, was a primary motor of contention in both cases, and was mobilized in both metaphorical and practical ways to press for change. Striking similarities between our chosen case studies reveal how ideals of imperial domesticity and loyalty, and the universalism of the new global “family of man,” were simultaneously invoked to undermine discourses of racial purity. Our analysis makes a significant contribution to studies of gender and empire, as well as the history of human rights, an ideal which in the late 1940s was being vernacularized alongside existing forms of claim-making and political organization in local contexts across the world.

Why did Rwanda join British Commonwealth?

This article aims to examine Rwanda's foreign policy decision to join the British Commonwealth. Rwanda was former French colony and has historic association with Francophone countries. But the country decided to join the British Commonwealth in 2009. Using theory of foreign policy decision making, it argues that the shift of Rwanda’s foreign policy was caused by the political transition in Rwanda’s domestic politics, its economy condition in the post-genocide epoch as well as the international context which included Rwanda’s geographic position and the role of the United Kingdom in aiding Rwanda’s state-building in the aftermath of the genocide. This research uses qualitative method and uses secondary data such as, books, articles, journals, e-news, reports and other library sources.

Dominion Armies in World War II

In September 1939, a committee of the British War Cabinet estimated that the dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa could raise fourteen divisions of the fifty-five-division field force it hoped the British Commonwealth would assemble for the war against Germany and the other Axis powers. The British got what they were looking for, and then some. The Canadians raised three infantry divisions, two armored divisions, and two independent armored brigades. They also raised another three divisions for home defense, one of which was designated for the invasion of Japan when the war in the Far East ended in August 1945. The Australians generated four infantry divisions and one armored division for the 2nd Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF), plus another two armored cavalry divisions and eight infantry divisions (not all of which were fully manned) for the militia and home defense. Two of those militia infantry divisions fought in the New Guinea campaign. The 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2 NZEF) comprised one infantry division (later converted to an armored division), which fought in the Mediterranean, and a two-brigade infantry division that deployed to the Pacific theater, where it worked under American command until its disbandment in October 1944. The South Africans raised two expeditionary infantry divisions, one of which fought in East Africa and the Western Desert until converted to an armored division and deployed to Italy in 1943. The other division fought in the Western Desert from mid-1941 until its capture at Tobruk in June 1942. The first serious studies of the dominion armies in World War II were the official histories, commissioned by the respective governments to record what their soldiers had done and accomplished. The works remain solid records of what happened, and, cost and profit being less of a concern for government publication projects than they are for independent presses, the official histories are almost invariably better illustrated with clear maps and well-chosen photographs than the histories that followed. A generation of dominion historians since the 1970s has continued to explore their nations’ wartime histories, challenge long-held assumptions, and fill in historical gaps left by the official histories, most along purely national lines. Combined with the official histories, these new national histories have formed a solid foundation for a growing number of transnational examinations of the British Commonwealth armies since the mid-2000s.