Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army Research Articles

Operacja URIC – największa zagraniczna operacja militarna Republiki Zimbabwe Rodezji

Operation URIC, which lasted from 1 to 7 September 1979, is the largest military involvement of the Republic of Zimbabwe Rhodesia abroad. It was carried out together with the South African Air Force. The aim was to prevent further guerrilla action by the combined forces of Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army and Forcas Populares de Libertação De Moçambique. Operation was a failure in military, but there was a political success.

War time experiences of Female Ex-combatants of Zimbabwe’s war of Liberation

The story of sacrifice and suffering in the liberation struggle has been dominated by men and the role of females in the liberation struggle of Zimbabwe has not been equally celebrated. However, females played heroic roles without which the course of history might have been distorted. Due to their physical biological make up, females suffer more hardships, some humiliation, as compared to their male counterparts. In contemporary writings, a few researches were done targeting individuals such as Chung’s and Nhongo-Simbanegavi’s works. This study traces the plight of female ex-combatants back to their war time experiences to get a rich background to understand their psychological disposition and ability to be socio-economically reintegrated in post-independence Zimbabwe. These war time experiences show the inherent complexities of transitional justice as invisible war-borne scarred human emotions are often not given due attention when peace finally prevails. The study which employed the qualitative approach and the target population included both male and female ex-combatants from Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and Zimbabwe People’s (ZIPRA) cadres, revealed that female ex-combatants went through distressing experiences during the war which required close attention (which unfortunately seemed not rendered) at reintegration in post-independence Zimbabwe. Recommendations are that the female ex-combatants be afforded systemic counselling.

Return of the Prodigal Son? Transformations in Zimbabwe’s Relations with China Since 1963

The Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) introduced Zimbabwe into the realm of China during the liberation struggle as it sourced military support. In line with the Chinese dominance in ZANU, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) guerrilla warfare followed the Maoist doctrine. However, at independence, Zimbabwe joined the British Commonwealth and became a part of the western orbit. Although the country continued to have some form of political and economic linkages with China, the relations were cosmetic. It was at the fall of the cordial relations with the West at the end of the 1990s that Zimbabwe refocused on China. Zimbabwe hinged its survival on Chinese support as it turned full circle to the East. This paper analyses the long historical relations between Zimbabwe and China. It argues that political transformations returned back Zimbabwe to China’s hegemony. The paper is based on qualitative research methods and information was gathered primarily through the use of archival data.

From Connemara to Gukurahundi Genocide of the 1980s in Zimbabwe

Summary The article addresses new and emerging perspectives on Gukurahundi genocide as remembered by combatants who participated or were close to the violent clashes between former Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) guerrillas at Connemara and how their fighting resulted in a national crisis. The bulk of the literature on this subject so far has concentrated on atrocities committed by 5 Brigade and other government forces in Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces between 1983 and 1987 without elaborating how it all began. This article unearths causes and course of the violence at Connemara, how it was organised and deployment of government security forces to quell it together with how the violence then spread to other barracks. The purpose of the study is to contribute interpretations and debate on this mass killing which today continues to haunt Zimbabwe. Connemara was chosen as a case study because fighting there between former ZANLA and ZIPRA guerrillas went unchecked and finally led to desertions in the army and then the Gukurahundi genocide. The story being told here is unique in the sense that it does not speak to civilian victims of violence but rather to armed men who were involved or at least close to the event. In gathering data, use was also made of secondary sources both published and unpublished. In terms of reconciliation and healing, it is important to take into consideration a multiplicity of voices, which is precisely what this article is doing.

The Army and Politics in Zimbabwe: Mujuru, the Liberation Fighter and Kingmaker. By Blessing-Miles Tendi (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2020) 339 pp. $120.00

Tendi’s biography of Rex Nhongo/Solomon Mujuru is a tour de force. It accomplishes two impressive goals. First, it illuminates key aspects of Zimbabwe’s liberation war history and its postcolonial politics. Second, and most important for readers of this journal, it demonstrates the remarkable potential of biography to unpack history and politics even in the sometimes fraught terrain of postcolonial states.Mujuru (known by his nom-de-guerre Nhongo until 1992, when he retired from the army) is a complex and controversial figure. He was second in command of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (zanla) and, according to Tendi, played a key role in enabling Robert Mugabe to seize the leadership of the Zimbabwe African National Union (zanu) in 1976. He eventually led Zimbabwe’s national army, became a businessman of some note, and continued to play significant roles in zanu’s internal politics until his unexplained death in 2011.Tendi tells Mujuru’s story from childhood, through his years in the liberation struggle and forward into independent Zimbabwe. The structure is firmly chronological, with a brief methodological introductory chapter, in which he sets out the case for writing history through biography. The level of detail and interweaving of sources provide a convincing account of an enigmatic character. For those more interested in contemporary politics, Mujuru’s distrust of Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe’s current president, is revealingly traced back through the years.Tendi’s sources are meticulous and wide-ranging—many interviews with soldiers who served alongside Mujuru in Zimbabwe, some anonymous and some not; long conversations with political and military elites in several countries, and intriguing memories from British soldiers (most notably Andrew Parker Bowles) who worked closely with Mujuru during the transition from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe and the establishment of the Zimbabwe National Army. Tendi also uses official documents and secondary sources to great effect. In recounting this story about one key individual, Tendi reveals much about the ins and outs of Zimbabwe’s labored birth.Tendi does not aspire to follow Erik Erikson in writing psychohistory, but he does grapple with how Mujuru’s childhood and upbringing may have shaped his personality. He does not flinch from Mujuru’s more difficult personality traits—his drinking, womanizing, and what some observers see as his “coarseness.” He places responsibility for the lack of women in senior positions within the military firmly at Mujuru’s feet. But he also records Mujuru’s respect for those who, unlike him, held formal educational qualifications. He emphasizes Mujuru’s preference for “moderation” in political affairs, stressing his disdain for ideological extremes and his attempt to bring orderly leadership succession to Zimbabwe.Tendi’s careful attention to detail is matched by his deft hand at synthesizing and interpreting his material. Although Mujuru is the center of the story, Tendi occasionally intercedes to link events together or to connect particular patterns of behavior to future events. These judicious interludes help to convey significance without detracting from the main narrative. For a popular audience, Tendi’s careful interrogation of the context and detail of Mujuru’s death will be of great interest. However, for a scholarly audience, the strength is in his remarkable use of sources, and his ability to write serious history through biography. Tendi has set a high standard for others seeking to write history through biography, but his success will surely inspire more to follow his example.

Remembering Zimbabwe’s War of Liberation through Memories of the August 25 1979 Mushayi Battle, Dambara Area, Gutu

In rural areas, the liberation war is often remembered through specific battles which afflicted permanent scars on communities. This is the case with the Mushayi battle of 25 August 1979 which involved the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) guerrillas and Rhodesian Security Forces (RSFs). The Mushayi homestead is about 63 km from the small town of Gutu in Masvingo Province. It is located in Dambara area comprising small scale commercial farms (formerly Native/African Purchase Areas). The suffering of affected people as a result of the said battle is central to understanding post-war healing, reconciliation and integration at local level because memory is key in making sense of the world people live in. Grassroots perceptions are important because the sense of sameness over time is sustained by remembering. Political status in Zimbabwe today, 41 years after the armed struggle is hinged on liberation war credentials. The importance of the paper lies in locating demands for compensation and restitution by some victims of the war not only in Zimbabwe but throughout Africa. It also dispels allegations that African Purchase Area farmers always sided with the minority regime since Rhodesians had originally established them to create a content loyal middle class. Last, the article explores the contribution of Purchase Areas as important places for resting, meeting and recuperating under the cover of vegetation.

Prospects for the future role of ex-combatants in the Zimbabwean nationalist politics or is it the end of the era?

In October 1975 a group of radical and young military guerrillas of Zimbabwe People’s Army (ZIPA) stationed at the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army’s (ZANLA) training camp at Mgagao, in Tanzania convened and issued a communique. The communique that is now commonly referred to as the ‘Mgagao Declaration’ not only elevated the rise of Robert Mugabe to the echelons of power but also helped in the construction of a symbiotic relationship between the former and ex-combatants of the struggle for Zimbabwe. In postindependence Zimbabwe, this relationship took on various forms-the unwillingness of the government to provide the necessary human security mechanisms to ex-combatants and the instrumental use of these former military guerillas in the promulgation of exclusive and patriotic political trajectories. It was not until the 1990s and 2000s that these ex-combatants became actively involved in politics in defending the Mugabe led regime. Their involvement in politics has evolved around what scholars term ‘politics of belonging’ whose tenets speak to the need to seek political, economic and ideological recognition from the government and society. In the process, these ex-combatants secured ZANU-PF lifeline only to end in a post2013 era where the future of these vanguards of the struggle hangs in the balance as the ruling ZANU-PF focuses on the youth to carry the Third Chimurenga forward.Keywords: ZANU-PF, Ex-combatants, Mgagao Declaration, Third Chimurenga, Political capital, politics of belonging, nationalist politics.

Unsung Heroes? The Rhodesian Defence Regiment and Counterinsurgency, 1973–80

This article examines the Rhodesian Defence Regiment’s role in the Rhodesian Security Forces’ counterinsurgency efforts against the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army and Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army guerrillas. It argues that the two guerrilla armies successfully used sabotage targeting installations of strategic and economic significance to Rhodesia. This compelled the Rhodesian regime to change its policy of restricting the conscription of Coloured and Asian minorities into the Rhodesian Security Forces to undertake combat duties beyond defensive roles. However, the Rhodesian Defence Regiment largely failed to serve its key duty of countering the guerrilla tactic of sabotage against all major installations and centres of strategic and economic importance. The article concludes that the failure was due to the many challenges the majority members, Coloureds and Asians, that constituted the Rhodesian Defence Regiment faced, including discrimination and mistrust. These challenges derailed the Rhodesian Defence Regiment operations and partly contributed to the overall end of the Ian Smith regime.

ZPRA this, ZPRA that!! Where are the records to prove ZPRAs Role in the Liberation Struggle in Zimbabwe?

In the liberation of Zimbabwe, the contribution of two liberation fronts, the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZPRA) and the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), cannot be ignored. However, documentation relating to the contribution made by ZPRA in the liberation struggle is scarce. Future generations have to know and understand the role played by ZPRA; and thus, there is a need for memory in the form of documents to highlight the role and contribution of ZPRA. The ZPRA Trust has highlighted the need to document its role in the liberation of Zimbabwe. This study, therefore, sought to find out what documentation exists on ZPRA’s contribution to the liberation of Zimbabwe, what documentation gaps exist on ZPRA’s contribution to the liberation struggle, and how ZPRA intends to fill gaps in its archives or memory. It also sought to find out what challenges stand in ZPRA’s way as it seeks to document its contribution to the liberation struggle, and where ZPRA’s liberation documentation and archives are. The ZPRA Trust is the unit of analysis for this study; as it is responsible for the administration of ZPRA’s affairs. This study was qualitative in nature, and a case study research design was applied. Purposive sampling was used as ZPRA cadres who lead the ZPRA Trust made up the population of the studyÂ

Zimbabwe’s Liberation War and the Everyday in Honde Valley, 1975 to 1979

This paper examines the wartime history of Zimbabwe’s Honde Valley, which is located between Inyanga and Mutare, along the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border. It covers the period between 1975 and 1979 when ZANU’s military wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) opened military bases in Mozambique. We seek to understand how regular or ‘everyday’ practices such as beer brewing, hunting, and other social solidarities highlight the ways in which Honde Valley society functioned beyond the riveting experiences of war. In doing so, the paper deploys the concepts of ‘conviviality’ and ‘the quotidian’ to examine the lives of civilians in wartime. Although Zimbabwe’s liberation war transformed the Honde Valley into a new and bitterly contested frontier, characterised by hardships in ‘Protected Villages’ for instance, civilians were innovative and realigned their lifestyles in response or in opposition to the state's routine controls and guerrilla incursions. The inhabitants of the Honde Valley took advantage of their proximity to the Mozambican border and the existence of relatives and acquaintances in Mozambique to evade the pressures of war in colonial Zimbabwe.

Traditional Leaders and Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle in Buhera District, 1976–1980

AbstractThis article examines the role of traditional leaders during Zimbabwe’s war of liberation. Contrary to the generalisations that traditional leaders and their subordinates were either absolutely supportive of the liberation war or were against it supporting the Smith regime, this paper uses the case of Buhera District to demonstrate that traditional leaders and their subordinates contributed in various ways to Zimbabwe’s war of liberation. Guided by a combination of primary and secondary sources, the article argues that traditional leaders were in a dilemma because they were victims of the contending forces. However, they employed various survival tactics as they faced equally dangerous conflicting forces who put them in complex, ambiguous and contradictory relationships. The article concludes that the strategies and tactics employed by the Rhodesian Security Forces and the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army guerrillas had debilitating effects on traditional leaders and their subordinates during the liberation war.

Transnationalism, Contingency and Loyalty in African Liberation Armies: The Case of ZANU’s 1974–1975 Nhari Mutiny

This article revisits the history of the 1974–75 mutiny in the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). The mutiny was primarily led by field commanders Thomas Nhari, Dakarai Badza and Caesar Molife. Dominant accounts on the mutiny maintain that the colonial Rhodesian Security Forces (RSF) influenced Nhari and Badza to stage the revolt. The article traces part of the life history of Rex Nhongo/Solomon Mujuru (a ZANLA commander who interacted with the mutineers) in order to challenge these long-standing accounts of the mutiny. The article highlights the import of conflicting understandings of loyalty in the mutiny, arguing that the revolt was not an RSF scheme. Instead, the mutineers took advantage of the absence of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and ZANLA leaderships, which were abroad on various transnational diplomatic engagements in countries sympathetic to Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, to stage a revolt. The mutiny could have been avoided had the ZANLA commander, Josiah Tongogara, heeded Nhongo’s advice that ZANU’s transnational appointments be postponed in order first to address growing dissent among guerrillas at the war front. The article underlines that the revolt’s primary grievances did not originate from ZANLA camps but in the war zone. Focusing on the war front provides an important corrective to the exile literature’s emphasis on the space of the camp, which mistakenly gives a lower profile to the influence of war-zone dynamics in upheavals experienced by liberation movements. It is potentially more insightful to consider meticulously the ways in which war-front dynamics interact with camp politics.

The construction of Uhuru party group identity in Zimbabwe: a textual analysis of revolutionary songs in Shona

Since Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation war, the Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) (ZANU-PF) has used song to develop its group identity. During the war, choirs related to the party's military wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, sang in support of the party's war effort. After independence, various groups have sung to promote ZANU-PF. This article examines texts of ZANU-PF songs from the liberation war and the Fast Track Land Reform Programme of the early 2000s, two landmarks in Zimbabwe's Liberation Struggle, Chimurenga. The Critical Discourse Analysis concept of identity frames this textual analysis. The article finds that through the songs examined here, ZANU-PF self-qualifies as the party of Chimurenga. The ZANU-PF concept of Chimurenga is heterogeneous as it draws upon various other ideologies, such as Maoism, and the dogma of ‘the children of the soil’. That heterogeneity is homogenized so as to enable the party to portray itself as perfect deliverer and guarantor of Black liberation, and rival political formations as traitors of Chimurenga.

War legacy: a reflection on the effects of the Rhodesian Security Forces (RSF) in south eastern Zimbabwe during Zimbabwe’s war of liberation 1976 - 1980

As its central thesis, this paper discusses the effects of the Rhodesian Security Forces (RSF) operations during Zimbabwe’s liberation war on the Hlengwe/Shangaan (a minority group in the south eastern Zimbabwe) from 1976 to 1980. Their homeland was a deeply contested terrain (part of what was dubbed the Gaza province by ZANLA) between the RSF and the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). Supported by archival, published and unpublished documentary evidence, oral interviews and internet sources of the study argues that the Hlengwe/Shangaan area is laden with sites of wartime violence, its inhabitants were; terrorized largely by the RSF, susceptible to the chemical and biological warfare and the deplorable conditions of the protected villages and lost a significant number of cattle to the contending forces. Furthermore the establishment of the Malvernia-Crooks Corner minefield displaced and separated from their kin on the Mozambican side. As a result of the establishment of the lethal anti-personnel minefield, which continues to kill and maim people and animals long after the war ended, socio-economic development can not take place in the mined area until the anti-personnel mines are removed. Key words: Rhodesian Security Forces, Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, south eastern Zimbabwe, PVS, landmine, Shangaan.

Black September et al: Chimurenga songs as historical narratives in the Zimbabwean Liberation war*1

ABSTRACT This article presents and analyses songs that were created and performed in guerrilla camps in Mozambique during the Zimbabwean liberation war. The article explores the links between music, ideology and popular culture to facilitate analysis of these songs. The article argues that the songs composed and performed were an integral part of the liberation war and remain key narratives of that struggle. These songs were part of the struggle for a new political, cultural and social identity. Selected songs are analysed and discussed in some detail, and bring out certain aspects of the war such as humour and sexual innuendo, treachery and weaponry. The discussion acknowledges its shortcomings in presenting material from only one liberation army — the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). Studies remain to be done for the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA).

Maternal Identity and War in Mothers of the Revolution

In this paper, I investigate motherhood as it was constructed and practiced by Zimbabwean women in rural villages during the Zimbabwean war of liberation, through the analysis of a collection of thirty personal narratives of the war.' This war shook preexisting social and familial structures, presenting the women of the villages with the task of realigning their perceptions with the new social facts around them. I will concentrate on three interrelated themes: (1) the changes in maternal practice brought about by the war; (2) the disjuncture between the changed social world and the stock of concepts and language available to organize that world; and (3) the mobilization of the mother-child paradigm in order to meet various practical and political needs, and as a way of organizing perceptions of the war situation. The twentieth-century military struggle for Zimbabwe's emancipation from white minority rule began in 1972. It was a rural guerrilla war, characterized by hit-and-run and sabotage attacks by highly decentralized small units that operated in isolation from their commanders often for more than a year. The Rhodesian army had sophisticated armaments and logistical support, while the guerrillas had only their knowledge of the land and, guided by Maoist and Vietnamese tactical theories, the involvement of the peasantry. By the end of the war in 1979, the two liberation movements, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) with its army, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), and the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) with its army, the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), had infiltrated approximately 28,000 guerrillas into Zimbabwe from Zambia, Mozambique, and Botswana. Both liberation movements relied heavily on the villagers to supply and assist them. Their methods of obtaining support ranged from persuasion to coercion, and had different impacts on their hosts.2 Some welcomed the guerrillas both as children of the village and as liberators, others thought of them as, at best, a lesser evil than government soldiers. ZANU and ZAPU had an uneasy strategic alliance, the tensions of which were unfortunately played out in the villages of Zimbabwe. Their presence, and the