Tag: South Africa

British officials feared Nelson Mandela would nationalise South Africa’s economy and lobbied him to protect British commercial interests as soon as he gained freedom. The UK’s Foreign Office set out to “educate” the African leader with “sensible” economic policies and to counter “the absurdity of nationalisation”, declassified files show. British fears were sparked one month […]

The British files, released under the country’s declassification rules, show that UK officials sought “to take some of the heat out of the sanctions debate” that raged after the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other members of Nigeria’s Ogoni community. Saro-Wiwa had led a non-violent protest campaign against pollution by Anglo-Dutch company Shell and […]