INDEPENDENCE OF Rhodesia
INTRODUCTION
Chou En-lai, when visiting Somalia in February 1964, stated that 'revolutionary prospects throughout the African continent are excellent'. Now some ten years later there appears to be military stalemate between the liberation movements in Angola, Guinea (Bissau) and Mozambique and the 150,000 or more troops maintaining Portuguese rule in those territories. South Africa remains relatively unscathed by such insurgent activity, although she has recently become concerned at the increasing military effectiveness of the insurgents in Namibia (South West Africa), an area she continues to administer in defiance of United Nations' rulings. For the last decade Rhodesia has been faced with recurrent periods of insurgency which have varied in their seriousness.
Rhodesia's political and geographical position gives her a particular strategic importance in the confrontation between white and black in southern Africa. Together with Botswana, Rhodesia provides the most direct physical access into the Republic of South Africa regarded by her enemies as the powerhouse of the whole system of white supremacy. From a political viewpoint it seems improbable that white Rhodesia, unlike South Africa, has either the human or material resources to sustain for any considerable time the luxury of racial privilege dependent upon a system of social and political discrimination; and unlike the situation in Angola and Mozambique, there is no metropolitan power which might agree to come to terms with local realities -even if this took the form of a Portuguese-trained black administration, rather than the leadersAs Che Guevara wrote: 'People must see clearly the futility of maintaining the fight for social goals within the framework of civil debate ... Where a government has come into power through some form of popular vote, fraudulent or not, and maintains at least an appearance of constitutional legality, the guerrilla outbreak cannot be promoted, since the possibilities of peaceful struggle have not yet been exhausted.'hip of the nationalist guerrilla movements.
HE FAILURE OF COMPROMISE POLITICS, 1957-65 1957-61
The collapse of the Central African Federation in 1963 marked the end of cautious attempts by the Prime Ministers, Garfield Todd and Sir Edgar Whitehead, to limit racial discrimination in Southern Rhodesia.7 The white-dominated Federation had been bitterly resented by black nationalists in Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia. The Southern Rhodesian African National Congress (SRANC) formed in September 1957 by an amalgamation of the old Bulawayo-based Congress and the more militant Youth League in Salisbury articulated the disaffection of much of the rural and urban black population at their almost total domination by the small resident white community. Taking advantage of this the SRANC made direct representations to the government demanding changes in unpopular legislation like the 1951 Native Land Husbandry Act.8
Disturbances in Southern Rhodesia coincided with incidents in Northern Rhodesia and violent protests in Nyasaland. Alleging SRANC complicity the SouthernRhodesian Government declared a State of Emergency and on 26 February 1959 banned the SRANC, arresting some five hundred of its members, and detaining over three hundred.
In 1960 the pent-up frustrations of the black population, especially in the larger towns, exploded in the worst outbreaks of violence since the late ninteenth century Ndebele and Shona revolts; eighteen Africans being shot dead by the police.9 Most whites were reluctant to acknowledge, or failed to appreciate, that much of this violence was the result of years of accumulated frustration and tension felt by the Africans. The standard view of the white community was that nationalist 'agitators' were the unwitting dupes, if not the conscious agents, of Communist powers intent on gaining a foothold in Central Africa; and harsh measures were introduced to control the outbreak of violent protests.10
The SRANC being declared illegal, a new organization, the National Democratic Party (NDP), was started in January 1960. The SRANC attempt to achieve basic constitutional reforms which would provide Africans with a meaningful share in the life of Southern Rhodesia had failed. While the SRANC policy had been one of exerting domestic pressure on the Government, the NDP attempted to combine internal opposition with intensive lobbying of British Government Ministers, in the hope that Britain might use her authority to impress on white Rhodesians the necessity for them to come to terms with the African majority.
On the face of it, this policy of the NDP seemed sensible. The international impact of the Sharpeville shootings and the 'wind of change' speech had indeed shaken Africa. Many outside observers and politicians believed that the Salisbury Government would soon give way to the same kind of internal and external pressures which were being applied to good effect in Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia, as well as elsewhere. 1962-65
As it became increasingly obvious that no fundamental reforms would be conceded by the Southern Rhodesian Government, nationalist policy aimed instead at creating a sufficient disorder and lawlessness to induce British military intervention and the imposition of an acceptable constitution. One leading nationalist official later admitted that the decision to use political violence was taken as far back as 1960 although not for the purpose of guerrilla warfare but the purpose of carrying out acts of sabotage which were considered relevant to bring forth fear and despondency to the settlers of Rhodesia in order to influence the British Government and the settlers in Rhodesia to accede to the popular revolutionary demands of the people in Zimbabwe.'15
Both the nationalists and the Rhodesian Front had turned away from negotiations; the nationalists trying to force British intervention and the Rhodesian Front strengthening the already formidable Law and Order (Maintenance) Act by making the death sentence mandatory for attacks involving petrol bombs, fire and explosives. Petrol bombs had become an increasingly familiar feature of attacks, as the Zimbabwe Review points out: `It was during the course of this Conference (i.e., 1960-61) that for the first time home-made petrol bombs were used by the freedom fighters in Salisbury against settler establishments.'16 In fact, most victims were blacks who were either identified in some way with the white establishment or who had simply failed to demonstrate their allegiance to the NDP.
During 1962 six blacks died as a result of petrol bomb attacks. One of them, Kaitano Kambadza, was a police reservist. A petrol bomb severely damaged the home of Bernard Bomba, Secretary of the Young Federals branchof the multiracial United Federal Party, and that of Mr P. E. Chigogo, Treasurer of an African branch of the UFP was similarly damaged. Samson Zawe, National Chairman of the liberal Central African Party, also survived a petrol bomb explosion at his home. In 1964 there was the worst political violence for many years and the great majority of the victims were black. Intimidations, stonings, burnings and gang warfare by `Zhanda' (vigilante) groups were widespread. Blacks who, rightly or wrongly, were suspected of supporting the white administration or of belonging to the rival party were the main victims. On 13 February, Ernest Veli, accused of belonging to ZANU, was stabbed to death by a group of PCC supporters. Moses Mundene, a PCC supporter, was killed by a group of ZANU members on 18 June and on 14 September a black police reservist, David Dodo, was beaten to death by two members of the PCC for giving evidence at a criminal trial. A sub-chief in the Rusape district was shot by PCC members on 10 October after they had set fire to huts in his village.18 Both organizations were banned on 26 August; the counter-productive effect of widespread, uncontrolled violence must have made some impression on both parties, and attempts to restore some measure of planning were made - no doubt partly in response to the ever-present threat of UDI. Evidence that PCC/ZAPU had begun to think in terms of organized violence is provided by Zimbabwe Review which noted that at a session of PCC members in February 1964 it was decided to 'divide the whole country into command regions or fighting zones'.19
INSURGENCY AND COUNTER-INSURGENCY
The Rhodesian authorities took country-wide security measures and the general uprising which the nationalist leaders hoped would follow UDI failed to happen. However, inflammatory broadcasts from Zambia, Tanzania and Egypt elicited some response and there were many incidents of arson, stonings, crop slashing and mutilation of livestock. Workers particularly in Bulawayo, protested by taking part in industrial action, and at Wankie Colliery sabotage attacks were carried out by a ZAPU action group. The leader of this group, Mazwi Gumbo, stated later at his trial: 'Workers at the colliery were dissatisfied with the Company because it turned a deaf ear to our grievances. When UDI was declared, we became even more angry. We realize that only one people can rule a country. It should be the Africans.'27
Some of the violence may have been directed by survivors of the group of insurgents returning to Rhodesia after training abroad. One guerrilla, Hassan Chimutengwende, described how he had 'stayed at large for eight whole months in Rhodesia, moving from village to village', explaining to villagers that: 'the British Government had said that it would intervene militarily only if "law and order" broke down in Rhodesia. For that reason 1 urged them to do lots of burning and crop cutting, and was able to advise them. The "gospel of action" which 1 preached was passed on by others.'28
During 1966, the conflict became more serious when security forces clashed with some small groups of insurgents who had infiltrated from Zambia.29 The first officially acknowledged clash occurred at the end of April, when seven members of a ZANU commando unit were killed after being surrounded by police on a farm near Sinoia. ZANU spokesmen abroad later claimed that the group had been responsible for killing twenty-five policemen and shooting down two helicopters, although in fact the security forces had no casualties.
The presence of a helicopter which had been effectively used as a gun-ship during the attack was an important factor. They had planned, but failed, to cut the Kariba power-line, supplying 70 per cent of the country's electricity, and subsequently attack the blacked-out town centre and police-station at Sinoia. A notebook found on one of the bodies showed that the insurgent had been trained at Nanking military college in the previous November and December.