The Dadaya Years: The Challenge of Understanding Garfield Todd

Abstract

The name of Garfield Todd, Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia, became known outside the country in 1958 when his cabinet successfully rebelled against him. Inside the country, the wonder was that he became prime minister in the first place. Historians have concentrated on Garfield Todd's sudden emergence as an MP in 1946, and his meteoric rise and fall, rather than on his background as a missionary and teacher. If failure in the political arena was his destiny, then his legacy is massive success as a missionary and the shaper of the lives and careers of so many young men and women who went on to dominate the leadership of several aspects of African life after 1980. The authors believe that the tenth anniversary of Garfield's death in 2002 is a good time to consider the Dadaya years and their impact on the man, and this article makes that assessment.