y: "I have been taken to task in certain quarters for describing our Africans as the happiest Africansin the world. But nobody has as yet been able to tell me where there are Africans who are happier or better off thanRhodesia." That perspective vitally represented the colonial attitude of Christian superiority and the benevolence ofpower. The white army of Rhodesia represented another perspective. They perceived that their encounter with the guerrillaswould merely be a pigeon shoot. They didn't consider the guerrillas presenting a serious military problem. Anotherperspective, equally as unrealistic, came from the black army. They thought that all they had to do was shoot a fewguns to scare and subdue the whites. Smith's perspective was also result of being isolated from the rest of the international community. The internationalcommunity could have told him how out of sync he was, but colonialism prevented him from hearing, or understandingthe message.An additional interesting aspect of this case is the fact that mediation was done by non-neutral mediators. Usuallymediation is perceived as a process in which a neutral party mediates the conflict, which in turn will bring trust to bothsides. This particular case study shows that mediation can succeed, even if it is far from neutral. Ultimately, mediationwas accomplished only after the black states surrounding Rhodesia helped bring national unity to the blacks. Thisunity enabled a white mediator to successfully negotiate between the whites and the then unified and powerful blacks.Black unity was a prerequisite for equality, which was a prerequisite for successful mediation of the political conflict.The whites participated in the mediation mainly out of economic concern. They saw that they couldn't continue in theiroppressive, hostile manner forever, and that they needed to preserve their capital concerns. So, in order to preserveeconomic stability, they consented to majority rule, therefo...
