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69 Chapter 4 todd the prophetic: the radical democrat Truths must be supported and vindicated for their own sakes. . . . Truth is Truth, right is right, duty is duty and the end is God’s not mine. —Garfield Todd, 1967 The free peoples of the world must work to ensure that freedom, liberty and opportunity be made the heritage of all men. We, who believe in democracy, cannot evade our responsibility, for liberty is threatened in America when it is denied in Africa; peace is in jeopa m ardy when the minds of men are at war. —Garfield Todd, 1960 In 1977, “Taffy,” the leader and chief assassin of Ian Smith’s Central Intelligence Organization, noticed that Garfield Todd was on his flight to Lukasa, Zambia. He recalled “although persona-non-grata in the eyes of most white Rhodesians,” Todd “remained a man of considerable influence with the dissidents as well as in the eyes of the world, princ m cipally because he had formerly held office as Rhodesia’s premier.”1 Taffy and his partner tracked Todd’s activities for more than thirty hours. He seriously considered assassinating Todd contrary to his orders from Smith’s government. He said, “I thought of using an old trick popular with the various government security services throughout the world. I would knock on his door. When he answered I would club him, sweep him bodily to the window and throw him out head first. The inquest verdicts in such cases are invariably ‘accidental death’ or ‘suicide while of unsound mind.’”2 Fortunately for Todd the assassin simply followed Todd to Joshua Nkomo’s house-in-exile next to the President of Zambia’s official residence.3 The history of prophets is filled with martyrs.4 While Todd escaped martyrdom he built his prophetic ethos from the African perceptions that he had suffered or been crucified by whites when he was removed as prime minister. The images of Moses leading the Africans and being a prophet ahead of his time stuck and Todd lived up to those images, Casey.Rhetoric.indd 83 1/9/07 11:11:20 AM 70 CHAPTER FOUR creating a powerful prophetic persona that in combination with being a former prime minister made Todd a unique and formidable figure in the fight for human rights and democracy in Africa. Todd believed his own ambitions had to be subsumed to the greater good of the self-evident, sacred truth. Furthermore he would be irresponsible if he did not speak out for that truth. James Darsey, in his theory of prophetic rhetoric, argues that prophets and reformers felt responsible for the consequences of their message only when they failed to speak their God-given, self-evident message.5 Darsey shows the similarities between the pronouncements of the Hebrew prophets and the rhetoric of radical reform: “Both have in common a sense of mission, a desire to bring the practice of the people into accord with a sacred principle, and an uncompromising, often excoriating stance toward a reluctant audience.”6 Todd’s rhetoric after 1960 turned radic m cal and in so doing became an excellent exemplar of prophetic rhetor m ric. Todd’s rhetoric followed prophetic logos, pathos, and ethos. In his logos he called for full democracy, which he believed was self-evident to all people. His pathos first emerged out of the crises of his failed premiers m ship and the 1959 riots and in its full development warned of a stark moral choice: democracy or bloodshed. Finally his ethos emerged when he answered the call of Africans in 1960. He embraced the nationalist position and effectively ended his political career when he demanded that Britain intervene in Southern Rhodesia and force whites out of power by installing a truly democratic government. Todd’s Prophetic Rhetoric Chris Laidlaw, former ambassador of New Zealand to Zimbabwe, called Todd the conscience of the country.7 Todd’s rhetoric after 1960 fits comfortably into the prophetic tradition as he opposed the oppress m sive political practices of the white Rhodesian governments. Darsey states: “The most accessible evidence of the prophet’s radicalism is his opposition to the regnant power structure.”8 After Todd’s sacking, the new prime minister, Edgar Whitehead, continued many of the same liberal and gradualist policies. Todd, however, believed “the time for liberalism was over,”9 so he opposed many of the same policies that he had supported as prime minister. With prophetic logos, compromise is not possible; instead...

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