Times of darkness : ethnicity and the causes of division within the Rhodesian guerrilla groups

Abstract

The political history of the Rhodesian guerrilla groups was one of dissension, division and internecine conflict. From 1963, when the concept of armed struggle was first seriously discussed, until the Lancaster House Conference in London in late 1979, when the guerrilla forces led by Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo agreed to a ceasefire, the guerrilla groups suffered a series of debilitating divisions which detracted from their claims to represent Rhodesia’s black majority and also affected their ability to pursue the armed struggle. Few nationalist movements in any revolutionary war have been beset by such serious and persistent divisions. This thesis seeks to determine the causes of division within the Rhodesian guerrilla groups during the "war of liberation" - the second "Chimurenga" - and to explain the importance of ethnicity'*' in the generation of division.