Financial Mobilisation for Economic Survival: The Rhodesian Insurance Industry During UDI, 1965–1979

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines the insurance industry during Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI, 1965–1979). It demonstrates how the sector was a vehicle for economic survival against sanctions imposed by the United Nations and Britain. It argues that the growth of the insurance industry was key to the financial mobilisation needed in other undercapitalised sectors. The paper builds on earlier scholarship to demonstrate how Rhodesia mobilised its domestic resources. It explains how the Insurance Fund was mobilised to facilitate the development of the Export Credit Insurance Scheme to facilitate international trade. It contend that the insurance industry constituted one of the most important arms of Rhodesia’s financial sector during the UDI period. The paper suggests that without the remodelling of the financial and insurance sector it would have been impossible for Rhodesia to survive economic sanctions. UDI precipitated a transition away from orthodox financial systems to insurance, because sanctions propelled the growth of the industry. This article joins an existing broader historiographical debate that argues sanctions are inefficient in changing states’ behaviour. It draws on primary sources from the National Archives of Zimbabwe and provides a qualitative study on how Rhodesia survived economic sanctions using the insurance industry.