Rhodesia and British citizenship: Could you have a claim to British nationality? (Partner Content) If you or your parent has a link to Rhodesia, as Zimbabwe was previously known, you may have a claim to British citizenship. Our UK nationality experts unpack the various ways you could qualify. Who can claim UK British citizenship? Up until 12 September 1923, Southern Rhodesia was treated as a foreign country with extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) by the UK government. Thereafter, Rhodesia formed part of the Crown Dominions and became an independent Commonwealth country for British nationality purposes from 1949 onwards (though it was treated more like a British colony). The territory continued in this fashion through the Federal Rhodesia period in the 1950s and the 1960s (even after the Unilateral Declaration of Independence), up until its independence in 1980.