This chapter gives an overview of the structure of the book, detailing how it is organized around a series of contests over the expressions of sovereignty made by these four pseudo-states. In identifying the similarities in how these contests over sovereignty played out, inside and outside Africa, this chapter lays the foundation for the argument that Katanga, Rhodesia, Transkei, and Bophuthatswana can be usefully seen as linked parts in a larger story. In this formulation, their individual quests for diplomatic recognition and international acceptance were all in pursuit of a common ideological project, one born out of a reaction to the rapid decolonization of the African continent and the triumph of anti-colonial African nationalism. All four of them harnessed important transnational right-wing networks across Africa, Europe, and North America that were energized by the dissolution of the European empires, the rise of the Afro-Asian Bloc, postcolonial migrations, and the international civil rights movements. Each of these aspirant states ultimately failed to achieve international acceptance and faced collective nonrecognition, which reflected the larger regional and global importance of these challenges to the postcolonial African state system.

This chapter continues with some of the themes from Chapter 5 by looking at the Katangese mission in Brussels; the installation of a Rhodesian accredited diplomatic representatives in Lisbon; the Rhodesian diplomatic mission in Britain, Rhodesia House; and the creation of Bophuthatswana’s London mission in Holland Park, “Bop House.” This chapter describes the complex, acrimonious, and sometimes counterintuitive politics behind the diplomatic statuses of these missions, as well as the symbolic and totemic significance of mission buildings themselves as protest venues. Similar to the controversies that their missions provoked in America, they likewise exposed deep political divisions within Britain.

The Conclusion returns to the idea of Katanga, Rhodesia, Transkei, and Bophuthatswana pursuing a common ideological project. It will further explore the relationship between individual aspirant states and the international state system to draw conclusions about the nature of African self-determination and statehood. Finally, this book will end by looking at the afterlives of these four, how they are remembered, their ghost-like existence in cyberspace, and discuss the complicated legacies left by Katanga, Rhodesia, Transkei, and Bophuthatswana.

This chapter describes the political, economic, military, and psychological importance of diplomatic recognition and international acceptance. It begins with an overview of the debates over the legal effect of recognition as well as historical trends in the practice of state recognition over time. Finally, it will compare each of their individual quests to win international recognition, efforts which sometimes were traditionally diplomatic in nature, but were also often unorthodox, and occasionally involved comically inept schemes.

This chapter examines the independence days and national commemorations of these four pseudo-states. It looks closely at the moments in which these four claimed to achieve sovereignty, and will consider the aesthetics and symbolism of the dates of their actual declarations of independence. Furthermore, it will examine how they each created national symbols and rituals, the ways in which these national days were subsequently commemorated, and how these national commemorations changed over time.

This chapter looks at Sun City, the massive resort and casino that opened up in Bophuthatswana in 1979. Just a 2-hour drive from Johannesburg, Sun City was a massive entertainment complex that served as the most visible symbol of the Bophuthatswanan state. Part of Sun City’s appeal was that it flouted many of the laws in the Republic, most notably apartheid’s racial segregation and prohibitions on miscegenation, as well as South Africa’s proscriptions against gambling. Sun City was an important flashpoint in the battle over Bophuthatswana’s contested sovereignty, especially because it attracted marquee sports and entertainment figures who were willing to break the anti-apartheid cultural boycott. The contours of these battles were often counterintuitive and surprising. Frank Sinatra’s opening of the Superbowl venue in 1981 began the short golden age of Sun City that would last until the release by Artists United Against Apartheid (AUAA) of the “Sun City” in 1985. Thereafter, the cultural boycott applied equally to Bophuthatswana as it did to South Africa proper.

This chapter turns to the international presence of these four in the form of their pseudo-diplomatic representatives and the creation and operations of their foreign missions in the United States. Supporters and opponents of these aspirant states both recognized the importance of these nodes and every detail of these missions' existences was hotly contested. Because of their importance, these missions became political and ideological lightning rods, something which exposed political and institutional divisions within the US government as to what status should be afforded to these missions and their representatives.

This chapter analyzes the rhetoric and propaganda used by both supporters and opponents of these four regimes. Arguments for and against their sovereign claims formed a distinctive discursive web that defined the unique ideological shape of these contests. The types of argument in support of their sovereign claims are grouped into three broad argument families, which thematically divide the chapter. These were: (1) arguments articulating their authentic natures and the inauthenticity of their nationalist rivals, (2) arguments trumpeting their pro-Western orientations, and finally (3) arguments about how these pseudo-states’ sovereign claims favorably compared against legal states in Africa. This chapter will provide a broad framework to categorize the varied rhetorical and symbolic contests described in more detail in the chapters that follow.