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The Second Chimurenga refers to the national liberation war against settler-colonial rule that took place in Zimbabwe from the mid-1960s until Zimbabwe's formal independence in 1980.[1] The Shona word chimurenga carries various meanings such as uprising, resistance, or revolution.[2][3]
Major participants of the war included Zimbabwean national liberation organizations, primarily Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and their respective military wings, ZANLA and ZIPRA, against the forces of the settler-colonial "Rhodesian" regime, at that time led by the Ian Smith administration which had unilaterally declared independence from Britain in 1965.[1][4]
The Battle of Chinhoyi in 1966 is often regarded as the opening battle of the Second Chimurenga.[1][4] Zimbabwe achieved independence in 1980, although the struggle against imperialism, neocolonialism, and against the effects and remnants of settler colonial rule and land dispossession have continued.[5]
Background[edit | edit source]
First Chimurenga[edit | edit source]
Zimbabwe's First Chimurenga refers to the Shona and Ndebele uprisings against British colonialism in the 1890s. The First Chimurenga would come to serve as a source of inspiration for Zimbabwe's later national liberation struggle against the settler-colonial regime of so-called "Rhodesia" throughout the 1960s and 70s.[4][6] As ZANU leader Herbert Chitepo explained in 1973, "No doubt our old people then, our grandfathers in 1893, '94, '95, '96, '97, during those wars, fought gallantly with bows and arrows [...] and they were faced against muskets, they were faced against Maxim guns. And they were defeated. To that day our African people have never accepted that position. Quietly, sometimes, without words, they have continued to look upon that land as theirs, continued to prepare the day, for the day when they must wrest it back into their own control."[4]
Pre-war colonial situation[edit | edit source]
So, you get a situation today in which, in actual fact, the so-called fifty percent of the land that is reserved to the now six million African people is actually the poorest, the most barren, and the most disease-infected because all the best land had already been taken even by the time that the Land Apportionment Act was introduced in 1931. [...] I could go into whole field within discrimination in legislation, in residence, in economic opportunities, in education, I could go into that. But I will restrict myself to the question of land because I think this is very basic. To us, the essence of exploitation, the essence of white domination, is domination over land. That is the real issue. The essence of what they have done to us has been the deprivation that they have done by taking the land away from us. And this is a very serious situation. [...] We looked upon the situation we were facing. It was clear we were facing a situation of assault, a situation of violence. We were at all intents and purposes being made under compulsion, under force, under duress, of a very vicious type, to serve in the mines, to be minions, to have no place, no education, to live like serfs in the country of our birth. We thought no, the time had come to change tactics. We will have to confront the regime. We can no longer beg it to talk to us. It won't talk to us. We must now confront it.
— Herbert Chitepo, 1973, Herbert Chitepo at the National Press Club (ca. 1973)
British colonialism in the region of what is now Zimbabwe was spearheaded by the invading Pioneer Column of the British South Africa Company (BSAC), founded by Cecil Rhodes. The colonization process dispossessed the indigenous peoples of their lands and expelled them to Native Reserves, later called Tribal Trust Lands.[7][8] Over the decades, indigenous Zimbabweans continued having their land and property seized and their rights and dignity trampled by settlers and the settler-colonial regime, while being forced to live in the arid and overcrowded Tribal Trust Lands and carry passes to enter designated "white" areas. Meanwhile, settlers profited from stolen land and cattle acquired through various government policies which routinely transferred African land and property to white settlers.[7][8][9][10] Over time, indigenous Zimbabweans engaged in mounting forms of resistance against this oppressive situation, taking a variety of forms including engaging in boycotts, strikes, forming trade unions, associations, and African churches.[7]
1957 saw the formation of the Southern Rhodesian African National Congress (SRANC, shortened to ANC) which engaged in demonstrations challenging unpopular government policies. By 1959, the colonial regime declared a state of emergency and banned the ANC under the newly created Unlawful Organisations Act, and 500 political leaders were arrested. Zimbabweans formed increasingly militant organizations which were successively banned by the colonial regime, including the National Democratic Party (NDP) in 1960 under Joshua Nkomo. NDP was banned in 1961 and the Zimbabwean African People's Union (ZAPU) was then formed, also under Nkomo. Meanwhile, white settlers' anxieties over black African resistance were mounting and they formed the Rhodesian Front (RF) party in 1962, winning that year's elections. In 1963 a split in ZAPU occurred leading to the formation of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) under Ndabaningi Sithole. In 1965, RF co-founder Ian Smith announced the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) of "Rhodesia" in which he declared the settler colony under white minority rule to be independent from Britain.[7]
International context[edit | edit source]
Throughout the time period which the Second Chimurenga spanned, Zimbabwe's neighboring countries in southern Africa were also undergoing revolutionary struggles, with various interactions between the movements of the respective countries as well as between their governments at the time. As differing organizations within Zimbabwe's national liberation movement would be aided or at times hindered by different countries internationally, as well as establish headquarters in exile and guerrilla training operations in different countries, it is important to note the international context at various points in the struggle. The status of the various national liberation movements, independent African states, and reactionary colonizer regimes of the region and the shifting situations within each of these countries over time impacted each other's revolutions in a variety of ways.[11] Beyond the region itself, the machinations and internal affairs of imperial core countries, the overall dynamics of the Cold War, and the impacts of the Sino-Soviet split would also come to have an effect on the liberation movements in southern Africa.[12]
Colonial regimes[edit | edit source]
At the start of the Second Chimurenga, colonial regimes of southern Africa included South Africa, Zimbabwe (then "Rhodesia"), and Namibia ("South West Africa")—with Namibia having come under the control of South Africa following World War I—as well as Angola and Mozambique (the latter two becoming independent from Portuguese colonial rule in 1975).[13][14]
In South Africa and Namibia, the theory of supposed "separate development" was enforced under the racial segregation of apartheid, while apartheid was enforced in Rhodesia in all but name, as the settler regime there claimed some supposed theoretical distinctions from South African apartheid.[13] The South African liberation organization ANC's armed wing and Zimbabwe's liberation organization ZAPU's armed wing collaborated with one another, notably in clandestinely moving cadres from South Africa through "Rhodesia" on their way to Tanzania, as well as in joint armed engagements with the reactionary Rhodesian settler forces.[15]
Angola and Mozambique were under colonial rule by Portugal, a situation which saw a significant shift after April 1974, when a coup d'etat occurred in Portugal. The ongoing national liberation movements and Portugal's domestic coup d'etat caused Portugal to lose grip on its colonial rule by 1975.[14][16] This led to a change in the dynamic of the region in general,[16] but also in Zimbabwe's liberation struggle in particular, as neighboring Mozambique was a major area in which ZANLA guerrillas were operating from. Chimoio camp was ZANLA's headquarters in Mozambique.[17]
Independent African countries[edit | edit source]
See main article: Frontline States
By the mid-1960s, Zimbabwe's neighboring countries Zambia and Botswana had gained formal independence from European colonialism. Later, in 1975, Mozambique and Angola gained independence. Though not an immediate neighbor of Zimbabwe, Tanzania also had involvement in various international negotiation proceedings and provided various forms of support to national liberation movements in Africa, including Zimbabwe's.[18] The group of anti-apartheid independent African countries known as the Frontline States included Zambia, Tanzania, Botswana, Mozambique, and Angola—with Zimbabwe joining them after 1980.[19]
The guerrilla forces of Zimbabwe's national liberation struggle had training camps and bases in various countries of the region, initially in Tanzania, and later also in Mozambique, Zambia, and Angola. The Frontline States also provided a diplomatic base for the movement.[19] While Zimbabwe's national liberation movement remained for the most part split between ZANU and ZAPU (and their separate armed wings, ZANLA and ZIPRA), the Frontline States made various attempts at fostering a greater level of unity among the movement, though the differing national liberation organizations at various times expressed major dissatisfaction with the arrangements favored by the Frontline States.[20]
Speaking on Tanzania's involvement, former military instructor Humphrey Makuyana recalled in an interview that early on, ZANLA's training efforts were "fragmented, small-scale and constrained by limited infrastructure"[21] but that later on, the opening of the Nachingwea Training Garrison in Tanzania was a decisive turning point in the struggle:
The opening of the Nachingwea Training Garrison in Tanzania to ZANLA marked a decisive turning point in the struggle. More than a mere training facility, Nachingwea became the strategic engine of ZANLA, producing the highest volume of recruits and some of the most proficient fighters of the war. [...] Crucially, the effectiveness of these forces was complemented by ZIPRA cadres, who were trained in Angola and the Soviet Union, and deployed primarily to the north-western regions of Rhodesia. Together, these parallel training pipelines transformed the war into a multi-front, multi-doctrinal struggle that the Rhodesian regime could no longer contain.[21]
Makuyana expressed that this facility enabled ZANLA to train at least five thousand recruits per intake in a continuous and organized manner, ensuring a steady flow of fighters into operational zones. The late-1970s surge in ZANLA's presence across rural and semi-urban areas was attributed to this increased capacity. Makuyana also commented on the political education at this facility, which he said emphasized nationalism, Pan-Africanism and socialist-oriented ideology.[21]
Socialist countries[edit | edit source]
Imperialist countries[edit | edit source]
Foreign mercenaries[edit | edit source]
Events of the war[edit | edit source]
Beginning[edit | edit source]
On April 28, 1966, in what is known as the battle of Chinhoyi,[22] a squad of seven guerrillas of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), the military wing of ZANU, engaged in a twelve-hour battle with Rhodesian security forces which were backed by helicopter gunships, with the guerrillas eventually losing their lives in the battle. Although previous acts of resistance had occurred, the Chinhoyi battle is considered to be the first act of the armed struggle in Zimbabwe's liberation war.[1]
Another early series of engagements occurred in 1967, known as the Wankie (or Hwange) Campaign, called "Operation Nickel" by the Rhodesian forces, in which an alliance of forces from ZAPU's Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) and the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) of South Africa's ANC were attempting to move undetected from Zambia to South Africa by traveling the outskirts of Hwange Game Reserve, but they were eventually detected by Rhodesian forces and fought in a number of armed clashes.[23][7]
On December 4, 1971, two ZANLA guerrillas, Justin Chauke and Amon Zindoga, crossed into northeastern Zimbabwe near Mukumbura, coming over from Mozambique's Tete Province, with the mission to begin laying the groundwork for protracted guerrilla warfare.[1]:2 A little over a year later, on December 21, 1972, a squad of nine ZANLA guerrillas attacked a settler-owned tobacco farm called Altena Farm, located in Mount Darwin in northeastern Zimbabwe.[1][24] This was the first settler farm to be attacked since 1966. At the time the farm was in the hands of a settler named Marc de Borchgrave who was a leading tobacco farmer, known for his poor labor relations. De Borchgrave and one of his children were lightly wounded in the attack. One white Rhodesian soldier was killed by a landmine, while five others were injured.[1]:2 An article in the news outlet The Patriot emphasizes that "A LOT of work had been going on behind the scenes before the opening of the north-eastern frontier of our war of liberation" and states that "by the time the first shots rang out at Altena Farm [...] everything was in place for ZANLA to operate from the north-eastern frontier" and analyzes this attack as "the precursor to other frontiers which would ultimately dismantle Rhodesian forces."[24] The authors of The Struggle for Zimbabwe evaluate that "this attack marked the change from the sporadic, and the militarily ineffectual, actions of the Sixties, to protracted armed struggle."[1]xvii
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 David Martin and Phyllis Johnson (1981). The Struggle for Zimbabwe: The Chimurenga War. Faber and Faber.
- ↑ “They rose up in rebellion. It was called the war of chimurenga. Chimurenga is a Shona word. [...] The word "chimurenga" means rebellion, means rising, a resistance, a war of resistance from oppression.”
Herbert Chitepo (1973). Herbert Chitepo at the National Press Club (ca. 1973). YouTube. - ↑ “The word ‘Chimurenga’ has a number of meanings in current usage—revolution, war, struggle or resistance—and one of ZANU’s main slogans during the second Chimurenga war was ‘Pamberi ne Chimurenga’, meaning ‘forward with the struggle or the revolution’.”
David Martin and Phyllis Johnson (1981). The Struggle for Zimbabwe: The Chimurenga War: 'Preface'. - ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Herbert Chitepo (1973). "Herbert Chitepo at the National Press Club (ca. 1973)"
- ↑ Mafa Kwanisai Mafa (2025-04-03). "From Colonial Chains to Neo-Colonial Shackles: Zimbabwe’s Century-Long Struggle for Liberation" Modern Ghana. Archived from the original on 2026-03-09.
- ↑ "The Second Chimurenga (ca. 1964)". Pamusoroi!. Archived from the original on 2025-03-04.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 "History of Zimbabwe". About Zimbabwe, Official Government of Zimbabwe Web Portal. Archived from the original on 2024-04-12.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "The Land Question." Module Thirty, Activity Three. Exploring Africa, Michigan State University African Studies Center. Archived 2024-04-13.
- ↑ Michelina Andreucci (2017-06-30). "The lingering legacy of colonialism: Part One…the situpa as an oppressive, racist instrument" The Patriot. Archived from the original on 2025-02-22.
- ↑ A. S. Mlambo (2014). A history of Zimbabwe.
- ↑ Ngwabi M Bhebe (2015-05-17). "Frontline States and African liberation" Herald Online Sunday News. Archived from the original on 2026-02-15.
- ↑ “The Soviet-Chinese split had a significant impact on the activities of the Southern African liberation movements. [...] The ideological disputes [...] placed the Africans in the position of having to choose one of the conflicting parties. This situation was extremely inconvenient, since in their struggle against the colonial and racist regimes in Southern Africa, the liberation movements counted on the support of both the USSR and China. [...] The USSR, for one reason or another, refused to give assistance to such organizations as ZANU, PAC, SWANU, Coremo, etc. Initially, these organizations did not reject the possibility of cooperation with the Soviet Union. At the Afro-Asian forums and meetings with Soviet representatives, they asked for various kinds of assistance and for their students to be accepted for training in Soviet educational institutions. However, each time they ran into a blank wall. The USSR, relying on the ANC, ZAPU, SWAPO, FRELIMO, and MPLA, could not cooperate with competing groups. Their orientation towards Beijing closed the possibility of cooperation with the USSR and its closest allies.”
Alexandr Voevodskiy. Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Africa: 'The Sino-Soviet Split and Soviet Policy towards Southern African Liberation Movements in the early 1960s' (pp. 179-198). - ↑ 13.0 13.1 “As a direct consequence, a particularly sharp and explicit form of racial discrimination developed, known in South Africa as apartheid. It was in theory a system of 'separate development', and one which applied to both South Africa and Namibia. While the government in power in Rhodesia made some theoretical distinctions between its own laws and those of South Africa, the position of the national liberation movements was that these distinctions were paper ones, the reality being substantially the same.”
Aquino de Bragança and Immanuel Wallerstein (1982). The African Liberation Reader, Volume 1: 'The Rule of White Settlers'. - ↑ 14.0 14.1 “The soldiers were fed up with the colonial wars, which – despite the great brutality of the Estado Novo – had failed to quell the ambitions of the people of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe. The advances made by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC), Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), and People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) were considerable, with Portugal’s army losing more soldiers than at any time since the eighteenth century. [...] Portugal’s social revolution of 1974–1975 swept large majorities of people into a new sensibility, but the state refused to capitulate. It inaugurated the Third Republic, whose presidents all came from the ranks of the military and the National Salvation Junta: António de Spínola (April–September 1974), Francisco da Costa Gomes (September 1974–July 1976), and António Ramalho Eanes (July 1976–March 1986). These were not men from the ranks, but the old generals. Nonetheless, they were eventually forced to surrender the old structures of Estado Novo colonialism and withdraw from their colonies in Africa.”
Vijay Prashad (2024-04-25). "How Africa’s National Liberation Struggles Brought Democracy to Europe: The Seventeenth Newsletter (2024)" Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Archived from the original. - ↑ “ZIPRA helped MK cadres to cross into Northern Rhodesia, from where they found their way into Tanzania. The same process was repeated in reverse when trained cadres were returning to South Africa. [...] The ANC was ideologically closer to ZAPU as both political formations were aligned to the Soviet Union’s brand of communism. In fact members MK and ZIPRA, the military wings of the ANC and ZAPU respectively, trained in the Soviet Union and German Democratic Republic (GDR). Furthermore, they had bases and safe-houses in similar countries, such as Angola and Zambia. [...] The cooperation between the two movements culminated in the launch of the Wankie and Sipolilo Campaigns in 1967-68.”
"uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) in exile" (2019-12-04). South African History Online. - ↑ 16.0 16.1 “[W]e believe that the Portuguese Revolution and the Independence, particularly of Angola and Mozambique, constituted an historical turning-point for the national liberation movements of Zimbabwe, Namibia, and South Africa as well.”
Aquino de Bragança and Immanuel Wallerstein (1982). The African Liberation Reader, Volume 1: The Anatomy of Colonialism: 'Preface'. - ↑ Chakamwe Chakamwe (2025-12-11). "The Chimoio attack and ZANLA’s revenge: Part 1" The Patriot. Archived from the original on 2026-01-09.
- ↑ “Frelimo was founded in Tanzania; the ANC, after its banning in South Africa, opened its first external mission in Tanzania; and MOLINACO, MPLA, ZANU, ZAPU, PAC and many others had Tanzania's full support. In the UN Decolonisation Committee (known as the Committee of 24), Tanzania's then permanent representative to the UN, Salim Ahmed Salim, held the chairmanship for several years. [...] Tanzania's support to the liberation movements was not only manifested in the political and diplomatic arenas but also in the material and military fields.”
Chambi Chachage, Annar Cassam (Eds.) (2010). Africa's Liberation: 'Mwalimu Julius Nyerere: an intellectual in power (Haroub Othman)' (pp. 38-9). Pambazuka Press. - ↑ 19.0 19.1 Carol B. Thompson (1985). Challenge to Imperialism: The Frontline States in the Liberation of Zimbabwe.
- ↑ “In Lusaka, the Frontline leaders wanted to unite ZANU, ZAPU, ANC, and FROLIZI. Their original plan was that Nkomo would be President of the unified movement, with Muzorewa as his Deputy and Sithole as Secretary-General. It fell through because the ZANU delegation did not accept the dissolution of the party and Nkomo's leadership. They wanted the war to continue. However, under heavy pressure an criticism from the leaders of the Frontline states, Sithole, Nkomo, Muzorewa and Chikerema signed the Zimbabwe Declaration of Unity of 8 December 1974. [...] ZIPA, as has been said, was set up with the blessing of the Frontline leaders — in an effort to bypass established national leadership in favour of the military commanders. From the start, it was crippled by internal contradictions. It was unable to establish itself as a political organisation. ZANLA and ZIPRA never merged within it. The Frontline leaders were ultimately forced to begin looking for a viable political formation to fill the void at meetings in Maputo and Dar es Salaam.”
Robert Mugabe (1983). Our War of Liberation: 'Introduction by N M Shamuyarira and C M B Utete'. - ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 "Nachingwea became strategic engine of Zanla" (2026-03-08). Herald Online. Archived from the original on 2026-03-08.
- ↑ Tichaona Zindoga (2015-04-29). "Chinhoyi Battle: The last man standing" The Herald.
- ↑ "MK’s Luthuli Detachment and ZAPU in a joint operation" (2011-03-16). South African History Online. Archived from the original on 2025-03-04.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Ireen Mahamba (2019-06-27). "Battle of the north-eastern frontier…when ZANLA came home" The Patriot.