The Delegations

The delegation led by Bishop Muzorewa was a heterogeneous group, united in some objectives, but severely divided elsewhere. For the bishop&s;s delegation the central objective of the conference was obtaining recognition from Britain of its legitimacy as a government and, flowing from that, the lifting of international sanctions. The delegation led by Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe also assumed a British bias in the bishop&s;s favor and also doubted that a comprehensive settlement involving them could be achieved. The forty-four-year-old bishop was himself a contradictory character, embodying both a sincere dedication to majority rule and an egoistical desire for personal enhancement. Confidantes of Carrington reported after Lancaster House that although the Foreign Secretary truly disliked Smith, no other delegate so enraged or frustrated him as the vacillating bishop. Gaining the bishop&s;s acquiescence in his own abdication was, British officials later said, their single most difficult task of the conference.

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