Worldmaking from the Margins: Milton Obote’s Uganda and the Rhodesian Question at the United Nations (1962–1971)

Milton Obote from Uganda was instrumental in aiding liberation efforts in (Southern) Rhodesia, presently known as Zimbabwe, in the 1962–1971 period. A notable nationalist and Pan-Africanist, Obote engaged in anti-colonial worldmaking as he sought to bring in Zimbabwean independence through the United Nations (UN) system. When diplomatic channels proved futile, Obote offered other forms of assistance to Zimbabwean liberation fighters, including situating Uganda as a training ground. Although the forms of solidarity Obote could show to Rhodesia’s Black population were regulated by domestic issues and international politics, it did not deter him from attempting to restructure global racial hierarchies to protect the sovereignty of fellow Africans. The article argues that despite his elite political status, Obote operated from the periphery of global politics. Yet, he employed Uganda’s marginality to engage in geopolitical reordering of international norms of self-determination and racial equality. This article, therefore, contextualises Milton Obote’s support for Zimbabwean liberation movements as part of a broader anti-colonial and Pan-Africanist stance that many African leaders took in and outside the UN in the 1960s era of decolonisation.