12 Whole Number 227
positions in the face of American and So-
viet pressure, the vestigial remnants of Cecil
Rhodes’ vision was abruptly ended, leav-
ing British settlers in an exposed, isolated
and weak position. Black Nationalist guer-
rilla forces aided by Soviet expertise and
weapons soon drove the colonists into a for-
tress mentality which led to the break-off of
ties with perceived collaborationist govern-
ments in the United Kingdom and Common-
wealth. The result was a series of wars which
eventually led to the utter destruction of the
British settlements. Several thousand were
murdered, tens of thousands driven off their
lands and property, with the majority of
those remaining quickly being intimidated
and threatened in a low grade genocidal
campaign which extinguished most of the
remaining settlements. In all, over 2,000,000
White Africans of mostly British descent
were killed, pushed out, deported or went
into exile from the original British colonies.
Nonetheless, in all of these areas, a number
of well connected extremely wealthy settlers
remained to live following independence
and the introduction of black rule in the sec-
ond half of the twentieth century
2
.
IMPERIAL AIRWAYS EAST AFRICAN ROUTE TO
C
Map 17 Imperial Airways openened this East African route as far
APE TOWN
south as Mwanza on Lake Victoria in Februarty 1931.
Two decades after the death of Cecil
Rhodes the British finally succeeded in
linking Cairo to Cape Town: not with a rail-
road, but an airline. Experimental flights
from the United Kingdom to South Africa
began as early as 1927, but it was Febru-
ary 1931 when Imperial Airways launched
a scheduled air service from London to
Mwanza on the southern shore of Lake
Victoria in what is now Tanzania. This route
followed the established path from London
through Europe to Alexandria, Egypt. From
Alexandria the mail was carried to Cairo
by train and then flown south along the
route shown on map 17. Figure 61 illus-
trates a cover carried on Imperial’s East
Figure 61 This cover flew on the East Africa Route to London in
Africa Route from Nairobi to London in
November 1931. The Kenya 65 cent air mail rate to London was
November 1931.
equivalent to about 11 cents U.S. at the time.
Planning for the extension of Imperial’s East African
vice called for planes to depart both England and South
route to Cape Town preceded apace throughout 1931
Africa flying in opposite directions in the same week,
and the opening of regular service was scheduled to
and by late November all aircraft and their crews were
begin January 20, 1932. Map 18 shows the Imperial
in place.
route south from Lake Victoria to Cape Town. Ser-
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