NO INDEPENDENCE BEFORE MAJORITY AFRICAN RULE

'NIBMAR:' ''No Independence Before MAjority Rule''. Also: ''No Independence Before Majority African Rule'' refers to a British government policy regarding the making of independent colonies in the 1960s, which stated that British colonies were not to be granted independence unless they had put in place democratic reforms resulting in majority rule rather than rule by the white colonial minority. This policy was also applied to British colonies in Asia and the Caribbean.
In particular, this position was advocated with respect to the future status of Rhodesia as a sovereign nation. British Prime Minister Harold Wilson was pressured into adopting the approach during a conference in London. Wilson was not initially inclined to do so, but Lester Pearson, the Canadian Prime Minister at the time, formulated a draft resolution committing Wilson to NIBMAR. Pearson was to later recall: “I wasn’t sure whether I was being asked to commit polygamy or incest, but whatever it was, I did it.” The accomplishment was short-lived, however, as Wilson continued to extend offers to Ian Smith which came considerably short of NIBMAR (offers which Smith nonetheless ultimately rejected).

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★ Good, Robert C. ''U.D.I.: the International Politics of the Rhodesian Rebellion'' (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1973).