All the symbols depicted in the hate symbols database must be evaluated in the context in which they appear. Few symbols represent just one idea or are used exclusively by one group. For example, 100% is often used as an amount or an expression and it is also used by some white supremacists as shorthand for "100% white." Similarly, other symbols in this database may be significant to people who are not extreme or racist. The descriptions here point out significant multiple meanings but may not be able to relay every possible meaning of a particular symbol.
Rhodesia was the name given to the former British colony of Southern Rhodesia by its white-dominated ruling government after it declared independence from Great Britain. No other nation recognized Rhodesia as an independent country during its short-lived existence (1965-1979). A long-running insurgency conducted by armed groups drawn from the majority black population fought a guerrilla war (known as the Second Chimurenga or Zimbabwean War of Independence) against the government of Rhodesia throughout the quasi-nation’s existence. This effort was eventually successful in overturning the white-controlled Rhodesian regime, resulting in the country that has since been known as Zimbabwe.
Rhodesia became an important cause for the far right in several foreign countries, including the United States. Some Americans even served as soldiers for the Rhodesian government in the 1970s, often recruited by content appearing in Soldier of Fortune magazine. The most high-profile American white supremacist who claimed such a Rhodesian connection, however, the now-deceased neo-Nazi Harold Covington, never actually fought for its armed forces, according to Covington’s son.
In the decades since its fall, Rhodesia has achieved the status in white supremacist lore of a glorious “lost cause.” Just as the flag of apartheid-era South Africa has become a white supremacist symbol, so too has the flag of Rhodesia. The flag consists of a vertical white band flanked by two green bands. The white band contains an image of the Rhodesian coat of arms, a complicated symbol that includes two antelopes, a pick (to represent the region’s mining heritage), and other elements.
Most notoriously, the Rhodesia flag was worn (in patch form) in photos posted online by white supremacist mass shooter Dylann Roof in 2015 shortly before he embarked on his hate-filled rampage at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, which resulted in the death of nine people, all Black. Dylann uploaded the photos, as a well as a manifesto, to a webpage he titled, “The Last Rhodesian.”
White supremacists, as well as some others, generally on the far right, have also embraced slogans historically related to Rhodesia, including the motto “Rhodesians never die” and the phrase “Be a Man Among Men,” the latter originally used as a recruitment slogan for the Rhodesian armed forces.
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