To the Western world, Southern Rhodesian prime minister Garfield Todd (born 1908) was seen in the 1960s and 1970s as an enlightened white African hero, who took up the cause of independence and freedom for blacks. In Southern Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe), he was viewed as a traitor by most whites and even a hypocrite by some blacks he sought to help.

Reginald Stephen Garfield Todd was born to Thomas and Edith Todd on July 13, 1908, in Invercargill, a southern coastal city of the south island of New Zealand. Of Scottish descent, Todd studied at Otago University, the University of the Witwatersrand, and Glen Leith Theological College. He became a Church of Christ minister and worked briefly for Thomas Todd & Sons, a family business. It was the work of the church, which called him.

In southern Africa, a British territory called Rhodesia had existed since the late 19th century. Early...