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Britain and the Breakdown of the Colonial Environment: The Struggle over the Tanzam Oil Pipeline in Zambia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2015

Andrew Cohen
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Abstract

This article explores the tendering process for the construction of the Tanzam oil pipeline during the mid-1960s. In addressing aspects of the political response to British investment overseas and the history of the British company Lonrho, it argues that the British government's determination to concentrate financial investments at home affected its ability to project its presence through supporting business overseas. In addition, the article suggests that the Zambian government demonstrated autonomy in awarding the tender.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 4 , Winter 2014 , pp. 737 - 759
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2014 

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References

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12 Time magazine colorfully suggested that the road “may be the world's worst international highway. Its dizzy hairpin turns were scraped out and leveled (often with dragged thorn bushes) by African tribesmen working off their tax debts. Along its flat stretches, the road is little more than a trail of treacherous sand or soap-slick mud. Black, blinding rains and eerie mists make it all but impassable from October to May. And the right of way is often usurped by two-ton rhinos, herds of elephant, and lions basking in the sun.” See 25 Feb. 1966.

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44 Sir Peter Youens was in many ways a typical Rowland appointment to the company. Youens previously served as Deputy Chief Secretary of Nyasaland, and after the country's independence he became President Hastings Banda's first personal secretary. His close relationship with Banda led to Rowland offering him a position as an executive director at Lonrho. See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1366809/Sir-Peter-Youens.html, accessed 3 Apr. 2013.

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77 High Commission, Lusaka to the Commonwealth Office, 14 Oct. 1966, T 317/1377, BNA.

78 Ibid.

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80 Commonwealth Office to High Commission, Lusaka, 17 Oct. 1966, T 317/1377, BNA, and Lusaka to the Commonwealth Office, 14 Oct. 1966.

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82 The Italians had previous experience of dam engineering in Central Africa. In 1956, Impresit (Kariba) Pvt. Ltd. was awarded the contract to construct the Kariba Dam on the Zambezi River. See Tischler, Light and Power, 266.

83 Guardian, 17 Oct. 1966.

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85 High Commission, Lusaka to the Commonwealth Office, 19 Oct. 1966, T 317/1377, BNA.

86 The British National Export Council was founded in 1965 to promote British business overseas. It was sponsored by the Federation of British Industries, the National Association of British Manufacturers, the Association of British Chambers of Commerce, the Trades Union Congress, and the City Financial Advisory Panel on Exports. Commonwealth Office to High Commission, Lusaka, 18 Oct. 1966.

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