No Independence Before Majority African Rule
NIBMAR or
No Independence Before Majority African Rule refers to the policy where
Afro-
Asian-
Caribbean members of the
British Empire were not to receive
independence unless they had put in place
democratic reforms resulting in
majority rule rather than rule by the
white colonial minority.
In particular, this position was advocated with respect to the future status of
Rhodesia as a sovereign nation.
British Prime Minister Harold Wilson was pressured into adopting the approach during a conference in
London. Wilson was not initially inclined to do so, but
Lester Pearson, the
Canadian Prime Minister at the time, formulated a draft resolution committing Wilson to NIBMAR. Pearson was to later recall: "I wasn't sure whether I was being asked to commit
polygamy or
incest, but whatever it was, I did it." The accomplishment was short-lived, however, as Wilson continued to extend offers to
Ian Smith which came considerably short of NIBMAR (offers which Smith nonetheless ultimately rejected).
* Good, Robert C.
U.D.I.: the International Politics of the Rhodesian Rebellion (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1973).
