The growing rift between Zanu and Zapu

05 Oct, 2014 - 09:10 0 Views
The growing rift between Zanu and Zapu

The Sunday Mail

The realities of 1963 meant that the setting up of an armed wing would obviously follow separate partisan considerations on the part of ZANU and ZAPU. Prior to such an outcome, ZAPU had sent some cadres to be trained as guerrillas in then Peking, China, in the first quarter of 1963.

As a matter of principle, the move was facilitated by the Afro Asian People’s Solidarity Organisation (AAPSO), which had representation in Cairo, Egypt.

The group comprised Luke Mhlanga, Clive Mpofu, Mbejelwa Moyo, Gording Gunda, Charles Dauramanzi, Gordin Buthse, John Maluzo Ndhlovu, James Chatagwe and John Rice, among others.

Gordin Buthse and Charles Dauramnazi were identified as commanders of the unit.

The Chinese approach seemed to have placed a heavy emphasis on the use of light arms, homemade explosives, sabotage, popular mobilisation and a tactical reliance on agent provocateurs who had been taught to incite an uprising.

In the late ’40s China had fought against Japanese imperial hegemony. It so happened that during training, Ndabaningi Sithole, who had become the leader of ZANU, visited.

Prior to his ascendancy to the hierarchy in ZANU, Ndabaningi held the position of ZAPU’s National Chairman.

Luke Mhlanga explained that there had not been any official news concerning the creation of ZANU.

However, some peculiar goings-on had already been felt within ZAPU.

In his briefing to them, Sithole indicated that the nationalist movement had seen another offshoot; the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU).

He also mentioned the fact that the first ZANU congress would be in Gwelo.

The preferred possibilities were such that the guerillas would join ZANU after having completed their paces in China.

After about nine months, Mhlanga and his comrades went to Zambia, via Dar es Salaam.

It was in Tanzania that Charles Dauramanzi and John Rice defected to ZANU.

Madlela was the ZAPU representative in East Africa and Noel Mukono stood in for ZANU.

The two waited at the airport in Dar es Salaam and each took with them a sizeable number of the militants who had been groomed in China.

There were also other combatants in ZANU who had been oriented for war. One of them was William Ndangana.

Ndangana and Rice seemed to have been part of the genesis of ZANU’s Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA).

The federal authorities had earlier on witnessed some similar developments in the countries bordering Southern Rhodesia.

In Nyasaland, for instance, Dr Hastings Banda had been continuously confronted by Mr TDT Banda and Nelson Chirwa, who also appeared on the scene to challenge British imperialism in Southern Africa.

In Northern Rhodesia, later Zambia, Mr Harry Nkumbula broke ranks with Kenneth Kaunda and the events progressed towards the existence of the United National Independence Party (UNIP).

Such scenarios were generally explained in terms of tribal affiliations, like the cases of Tongas, Chikundas and the Nyanja.

The settler community began to give what were taken to be plausible narratives for the progressive future of African nationalism, basing on ethnicity as a major factor in Africa’s liberation efforts.

In February 1959, Rhodesian prime minister Sir Edgar Whitehead gave an account that seemed to sum up such conclusions.

He claimed that the generality of those fighting for the freedom of Africans were extremists who applied some intimidation in trying to get the rest to follow them.

Such claims played well with the settlers and became a consistently propagated topic in various platforms.

The atmosphere prevailing after 1963 created a situation whereby Zimbabwean nationalists became subject to a variety of perceptions among the different sectors of Rhodesian society.

Possibly with that background, one school of thought came up with the idea that tribalism would influence the outcome of the political upheavals then prevailing in Rhodesia.

In some spheres of analysis, ZAPU was understood as primarily a preferred option for Ndebeles under the command of Joshua Nkomo, who surrounded himself with an influential Kalanga-speaking clique.

On the other hand, ZANU came to be seen as an arrangement of which the leaders were of generally Manyika and Ndau outlook.

In some ways, ZANU and ZAPU began to present their ideological postures differently.

By 1964, ZAPU had dissociated itself from Chinese aid and shifted to the Soviet and Communist allied domain. ZANU continued with the Chinese model for military orientation.

Under such circumstances, the efforts to bring ZAPU and ZANU to talking terms were orchestrated by the Zambian as well as Malawian foreign affairs departments in 1964 before the first ZANU congress held in May of that year.

Contrary to the expectations of the mediations conducted by Malawi and Zambia, nothing came out of the meetings and life continued as normal.

In December 1967, ZAPU published what it called a “Special Bulletin”. The opening remarks read, “ZAPU cherishes unity.”

In that document, ZAPU took time to highlight the fact that it had worked to unite the workers, peasants and intellectuals under one umbrella for the purposes of collective action against imperialism.

ZAPU reiterated its stand for a united front and went further to state, “ZAPU cherishes unity not for sentimental reasons but for its utility value”.

In the same publication, ZAPU indicated that China had joined the imperialists’ fraternity in trading with Rhodesia.

The write-up even referred to the Sunday Times of October 1 1967 and mentioned that the trade embargo placed on Rhodesia was bound to fail because of certain sanctions busters.

Apart from the Chinese doing business with the British colony, ZAPU cited some American companies like Union Carbide and Vanaduim Chrome as having large stakes in Rhodesian industry.

By 1965, ZAPU had somehow desisted from sending its cadres to wherever there seemed to be an ideological attachment to the Chinese, including North Korea.

A small batch of ZAPU’s combatants was trained in Pyongyang between 1964 and 1965.

Some of the Korean-trained personnel were Tinaye Elisha Nzirasha Chigudu, Lazarus Garatia Dhlakama and David Mongwa Moyo, whom many in ZAPU knew as “Sharpshoot”.

ZAPU’s Deputy President and National Treasurer Jason Ziyapapa Moyo made a short visit to North Korea before the end of 1965 and possibly never undertook a similar trip until he died in January 1977.

None in ZAPU followed thereafter.

In that way, the armed struggle in Rhodesia began to take shape amid a variety of ideologically-related challenges which presented themselves at various levels in both ZANU and ZAPU.

Anyhow, the ZAPU and ZANU flock never got to trust each other as much as would have been desired.

 To be continued…

 Written by Tjenesani Ntungakwa,  the project advisor of the Revolutionary Research Institute of Zimbabwe, an initiative involved with documenting and disseminating PF-ZAPU and ZIPRA’s contributions to Zimbabwe’s liberation.

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