ABSTRACT
Of the countries of Southern Africa in the late 1940s, only the Union of South Africa (as it then was) could be described as having its own foreign policy. All the others were in different ways dependent or colonial territories: Namibia continued to be regarded by South Africa as a League of Nations mandate; Great Britain was responsible for Southern Rhodesia’s foreign policy under the terms of the 1923 settlement as well as for the protectorates of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Angola and Mozambique, being colonies of Portugal, had by defi nition no foreign policy of their own. To the extent that it mattered at all, foreign policy was determined in faraway capitals – London, Lisbon or Pretoria as the case might be. Not for many years after 1948 did foreign policy either relating to Southern Africa or emanating from it become a matter of great import.
