Not in a Thousand Years: Ian Smith Dies at 88.

The Guardian reports that

Ian Smith, the former Rhodesian prime minister who unilaterally declared independence from British rule, has died aged 88.

Smith ruled the country for 15 years from 1964 to 1979, in an ultimately futile effort to prolong white minority rule. During that turbulent time he fought a guerilla war against fighters from the majority black population.

. . .

So confident was Smith that white rule would go unchallenged that he famously declared that he did not believe in black majority rule over Rhodesia, “not in a thousand years”.

Here’s the BBC’s take on the same story.

Ian Smith died of old age, with dignity, and in his family’s home in South Africa.

Let us take a moment to remember the countless Africans who died at the hands of White colonialists, and who were denied such a peaceful and luxurious death. Their stories will never be covered by the Guardian and the BBC, and their names, if the were known at all, have faded into nothingness, remembered only by their closest friends and relatives.

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