ABSTRACT
Much of Zimbabwe’s liberation war history is unknown. Of that which is known, much is misunderstood. These lacunae make it harder to comprehend the country’s contemporary crisis clearly. In this article, I argue that to grasp Zimbabwe’s liberation history properly, it is helpful to look back to the rise and demise of a small group of young and radical political soldiers, the Zimbabwean People’s Army (ZIPA), who took the war of liberation out of its deep lull mid-1970s by articulating a profound critique of the political and ideological tendencies of Zimbabwe’s nationalist ‘old guard’ (Ranger 1980). This allowed them to make real progress towards unifying Zimbabwe’s two most important nationalist parties. Yet they were removed from the scene summarily by Robert Mugabe, with the assistance of Mozambique’s president Samora Machel, and incarcerated for over three years.
