- Title
- ZIMBABWE’S LIBERATION STRUGGLE: A CRITICAL DECADE OF THE ZIMBABWE AFRICAN NATIONAL UNION (ZANU)’S GUERRILLA WAR, 1970-1980
- Creator
- Dzimbanhete, Jephias Andrew (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7648-8722)
- Subject
- National Liberation Movements -- Zimbabwe
- Subject
- Guerillas
- Subject
- Zimbabwe -- History -- Chimurenga
- Date Issued
- 2011-01
- Date
- 2011-01
- Type
- Doctoral theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/23315
- Identifier
- vital:57048
- Description
- This study offers a comprehensive examination of the Zimbabwean war of independence depicting the mobilisation of forces of liberation against an intransigent colonial Rhodesian settler state during a critical decade of the 1970s. Its introductory outline presents a broad historical context to the decolonisation processes in Africa. It also introduces the two liberation movements that drove the war of independence, and these revolved around the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). The empirical chapters of the thesis narrow the focus to the main research subject, that explain the ZANU’s guerrilla warfare and how that was launched under the military wing of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). The study looks, particularly on how and why that formation assembled groundswell support and generated pervasive intelligence to operate relentlessly against the Rhodesian colonial government resulting in a compromised independence in 1980. In addition to a wide-ranging survey of literature that deals with the Zimbabwean war of independence, the production of this thesis is thoroughly grounded on empirical methods that hinge on archival research and oral testimonies. The study breaks new ground in outlining the various facets and different phases of the Zimbabwean liberation war. It reveals that the liberation fighters were not merely provided with arms and deployed to fight the Rhodesian army. Rather they underwent a methodical process, which comprised recruitment, extensive training and fundamental political education. This re-represents an alternative narrative or even eccentric paradigm to that persistently presented within the conventional Zimbabwean liberation war historiography. The thesis breaks further new ground in discussing the complex nature of how intelligence gathering and propaganda uses were also centrally linked to the cooperation of or assistance from the various segments of the colonial African society. Its empirical chapters outline the various actions undertaken by the various groups and individuals, the language they adopted in expressing themselves and the convivial connections between them and the guerrilla fighters in the countryside as the war front expanded within the home boundaries. Chapters also explore in greater detail how the liberation movement bred the complex relation and contestation between the political formation of ZANU and its military wing, ZANLA. The uneven power relations between these two formations somehow dictated the course and the outcome of the liberation war. As a result a constitutional settlement or military victory became the two options by which the Rhodesian question could be resolved in the later 1970s. As it turned out, attempts to seek a constitutional solution became a feature of diplomatic dimensions of the postcolonial Rhodesian political landscape. The study concludes with the latter point.
- Description
- Thesis (PHD) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2011
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (408 leaves)
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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UFH Department of History
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | DZIMBANHETE thesis.pdf | 44 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |