Emmerson Mnangagwa

== Revolutionary activity ==
=== Recruitment and training: 1962–1964 ===
In 1962, Mnangagwa was recruited in Northern Rhodesia by [[Willie Musarurwa]] to join the [[Zimbabwe African People's Union]] (ZAPU), a newly formed pro-independence party in Southern Rhodesia.<ref name=":15"/> He became a [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] fighter for ZAPU's armed wing, the [[Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army]] (ZIPRA), and was sent to [[Tanganyika (1961–1964)|Tanganyika]] (now [[Tanzania]]) for training.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":15" /> He stayed first in [[Mbeya]], and then at a new training camp in [[Iringa]], where he met leading black nationalists like [[James Chikerema]] and [[Clement Muchachi]].<ref name=":13" /> While there, he criticised the decisions of ZAPU's leader, [[Joshua Nkomo]], an offence for which a ZIPRA tribunal chaired by [[Dumiso Dabengwa]] sentenced him to death.<ref name=":15" /><ref name=":58">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BenaAAAAQBAJ |title=Zimbabwe since the Unity Government |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=9781135742751 |editor-last=Chan |editor-first=Stephen |location=Oxford |pages=81 |language=en |editor-last2=Primorac |editor-first2=Ranka}}</ref> Two other ZAPU members of his same Karanga background, [[Simon Muzenda]] and [[Leopold Takawira]], the party's external affairs secretary, intervened to save his life.<ref name=":58" />

In April 1963, Mnangagwa and 12 other ZAPU members were sent via [[Dar es Salaam]] to [[Egypt]] for training at the [[Egyptian Military Academy]] in [[Cairo]]'s [[Heliopolis, Cairo|Heliopolis]] suburb.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":18">{{Cite web|url=https://www.newsday.co.zw/2017/11/mnangagwa-zimbabwes-president-waiting/|title=Mnangagwa: Zimbabwe's President-in-waiting|date=2017-11-22|website=NewsDay Zimbabwe|language=en-US|access-date=2018-07-11}}</ref> In August 1963, ten of the 13 trainees, including Mnangagwa, joined the [[Zimbabwe African National Union]] (ZANU), which had been formed earlier that month as a breakaway group from ZAPU.<ref name=":15" /> The ten stopped training for ZAPU and were subsequently detained by Egyptian authorities.<ref name=":13" /> During their detention, they contacted ZANU official [[Robert Mugabe]] in Tanganyika with the information that they intended to join ZANU and had been detained.<ref name=":13" /> Mugabe redirected Trynos Makombe, who was returning from [[China]], to Egypt to resolve the issue.<ref name=":13" /> Makombe secured their release and gave them plane tickets to Dar es Salaam.<ref name=":13" /> After arriving in Tanganyika in late August 1963, six of the eleven returned to Southern Rhodesia, while the other five, including Mnangagwa, were sent to briefly stay at a training camp in [[Bagamoyo]] run by [[FRELIMO]], the group seeking to liberate [[Portuguese Mozambique|Mozambique]] from Portuguese rule.<ref name=":13" />

Mnangagwa soon left Tanganyika to train for ZANU's militant wing, the [[Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army]] (ZANLA).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Zimbabwe since the Unity Government|author=Chung, Fay|publisher=Routledge|year=2013|isbn=978-0-415-62484-8|editor1=Chan, Stephen|location=London|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZZXdAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA63 63]|chapter=Chapter 5. Emergence of a New Political Movement|editor2=Primorac, Ranka}}</ref> Part of the first group of ZANLA fighters sent overseas for training, he and four others were sent to [[Beijing]], where he spent the first two months studying at [[Peking University]]'s School of Marxism, run by the [[Chinese Communist Party]].<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite news |date=14 November 2017 |title=Who Is Emmerson Mnangagwa? |language=en |work=[[VOA News]] |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/who-is-emmerson-mnangagwa/4115612.html |access-date=25 November 2017}}</ref><ref name=":18" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.france24.com/en/20171122-zimbabwe-profile-emmerson-mnangagwa-crocodile-mugabe-grace|title=Emmerson Mnangagwa, the disgraced Mugabe loyalist who took his revenge|last=Dodman|first=Benjamin|date=22 November 2017|work=[[France 24]]|access-date=25 November 2017|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":28">{{Cite news|url=https://www.insiderzim.com/us-embassys-assessment-of-mnangagwa-in-1988/|title=US embassy's assessment of Mnangagwa in 1988|date=2012-04-12|work=The Insider|access-date=2018-10-18}}</ref> He then spent three months in combat training in [[Nanjing]] and studied at a school for [[military engineering]] before returning to Tanzania in May 1964.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":12"/><ref name=":18" /> There, he briefly stayed at ZANLA's Itumbi Reefs training camp near [[Chunya District|Chunya]].<ref name=":19">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PLPjCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA23|title=A Handful of Hard Men: The SAS and the Battle for Rhodesia|last=Wessels|first=Hannes|publisher=Casemate|year=2015|isbn=9781612003467|pages=23–24|language=en}}</ref>

=== The Crocodile Gang: 1964–1965 ===
Upon returning to Tanzania, Mnangagwa co-founded the [[Crocodile Gang]], a ZANLA guerrilla unit led by [[William Ndangana]] composed of the men he had trained within China: John Chigaba, Robert Garachani, Lloyd Gundu, Felix Santana, and Phebion Shonhiwa.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":15" /><ref name=":20">{{Cite book |last=Wood |first=J. R. T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lUBYAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT792 |title=So Far and No Further!: Rhodesia's Bid for Independence During the Retreat from Empire 1959–1965 |publisher=Trafford Publishing |year=2015 |isbn=9781466934078 |pages=792 |language=en}}</ref> They were meant to be provided with weapons, but none were available.<ref name=":13" /> The group rushed to attend the ZANU Congress in the [[Mkoba]] suburb of [[Gweru|Gwelo]], arriving the day before it commenced on 21 May 1964.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":72">{{Cite book |last=Ndlovu-Gatsheni |first=Sabelo J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nr8LVY7WCQoC |title=Coloniality of Power in Postcolonial Africa: Myths of Decolonization |publisher=CODESRIA |year=2013 |isbn=978-2-86978-578-6 |location=Dakar |pages=207 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":59">{{Cite journal |last=Ranger |first=Terence |date=1997 |title=Violence Variously Remembered: The Killing of Pieter Oberholzer in July 1964 |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/3172030 |journal=History in Africa |volume=24 |pages=273–286 |doi=10.2307/3172030 |jstor=3172030 |s2cid=159673826 |via=JSTOR}}</ref> At the congress, [[Ndabaningi Sithole]] was elected president, Takawira vice-president, [[Herbert Chitepo]] national chairman, Mugabe secretary-general, and [[Enos Nkala]] treasurer.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":123">{{Cite book |last= |first= |title=African Nationalist Leaders in Rhodesia: Who's Who |publisher=Books of Rhodesia |year=1977 |editor-last=Cary |editor-first=Robert |location=Bulawayo |language=en |chapter=Enos Mzombi Nkala |editor-last2=Mitchell |editor-first2=Diana |chapter-url=https://www.colonialrelic.com/biographies/enos-mzombi-nkala/}}</ref> Shortly after the congress, three members of the Crocodile Gang were captured and arrested for smuggling guns into the country, while Lawrence Svosve went missing after being sent by Mnangagwa to Lusaka to retrieve some messages.<ref name=":13" /> Despite these losses, the Crocodile Gang remained active and was joined by Matthew Malowa, a ZANU member who had trained in Egypt.<ref name=":13" />

In addition to smuggling weapons into Rhodesia, ZANLA leaders tasked the Crocodile Gang with recruiting new members from the urban centres of [[Harare|Salisbury]], [[Masvingo|Fort Victoria]], [[Mberengwa District|Belingwe]], and [[Macheke]], and smuggling them through the border at [[Mutoko]] into Tanzania for training.<ref name=":13" /> The Crocodile Gang traveled back and forth on foot between Salisbury and Mutoko.<ref name=":13" /> Soon, party leaders at [[Sikombela]] sent the group a message urging them to take more extreme actions as a means of gaining publicity, with the hope that greater exposure would bring ZANU's efforts to the attention of the [[Organisation of African Unity]]'s Liberation Committee, which was meeting in Dar es Salaam at the time.<ref name=":13" /> The Crocodile Gang, now comprising Ndangana, Malowa, Victor Mlambo, James Dhlamini, Master Tresha, and Mnangagwa, met to make plans at Ndabaningi Sithole's house in the [[Highfield, Harare|Highfield]] suburb of Salisbury.<ref name=":13" />

On 4 July 1964, the Crocodile Gang [[Oberholzer murder|ambushed and murdered]] Pieter Johan Andries Oberholzer, a white factory foreman and police reservist, in [[Chimanimani|Melsetter]], near Southern Rhodesia's eastern border.<ref name=":19" /><ref name=":20" /><ref name=":59" /><ref name=":21">{{Cite news|url=https://www.herald.co.zw/cell-42-the-prison-that-couldnt-stop-eds-destiny/|title=Cell 42: The prison that couldn't stop ED's destiny|last1=Zindoga|first1=Tichaona|date=2018-01-27|work=The Herald|access-date=2018-07-11|last2=Mhaka|first2=Gibson|language=en-GB}}</ref> Dhlamini and Mlambo were caught and hanged for the crime; the others evaded capture.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":21" /> The event marked the first instance of violence in what became the [[Rhodesian Bush War]], and prompted the government to crack down on both ZANU and ZAPU. In August 1964, the administration of Prime Minister [[Ian Smith]] imprisoned Sithole, Takawira, [[Edgar Tekere]], Enos Nkala, and [[Maurice Nyagumbo]].<ref name=":60" /> ZANLA was left with [[Josiah Tongogara]] and Herbert Chitepo as its leaders.<ref name=":60">{{Cite book|title=Rainbow's End: A Memoir of Childhood, War, and an African Farm|last=St. John|first=Lauren|publisher=Scribner|year=2007|isbn=978-0-7432-8679-4|edition=First|location=New York City|pages=[https://archive.org/details/rainbowsendmemoi00stjo/page/n20 1]|url=https://archive.org/details/rainbowsendmemoi00stjo|url-access=registration}}</ref> Before Oberholzer's murder, the gang had already bombed the [[Nyanyadzi]] police station and attempted other ambushes after arriving in Southern Rhodesia via bus from [[Kitwe]], Northern Rhodesia.<ref name=":20" /> It continued its campaign of violence after the killing, setting up roadblocks to terrorize [[White people in Zimbabwe|whites]] and attacking white-owned farms in the country's [[Eastern Highlands]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Blair |first=David |date=10 December 2014 |title=Man they called 'the Crocodile' is Robert Mugabe's favoured successor |language=en-GB |work=[[The Telegraph (UK)|The Daily Telegraph]] |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/zimbabwe/11286074/Man-they-called-the-Crocodile-is-Robert-Mugabes-favoured-successor.html |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |access-date=25 November 2017 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/zimbabwe/11286074/Man-they-called-the-Crocodile-is-Robert-Mugabes-favoured-successor.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |issn=0307-1235}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The gang became known for its use of knives and for leaving green handwritten anti-government pamphlets at the scenes of its crimes.<ref name=":13" />

=== Imprisonment: 1965–1975 ===
In late 1964, Mnangagwa blew up a train near Fort Victoria (now [[Masvingo]]), and was arrested by police inspectors in January 1965 at the Highfield home of Michael Mawema, who may have given them his location.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":28" /><ref name=":21" /><ref name=":23">{{Cite web|url=http://www.sundaymail.co.zw/chimurenga-ii-chroniclestorture-death-love-in-prison/|title=Chimurenga II Chronicles: Torture, death & love in prison|last1=Huni|first1=Munyaradzi|last2=Manzvanzvike|first2=Tendai|date=2016-04-03|website=The Sunday Mail|language=en-US|access-date=2018-07-11}}</ref> He was given over to the [[Special Branch#Rhodesia|Rhodesia Special Branch]], which tortured him by hanging him upside down and beating him, an ordeal that reportedly caused him to lose hearing in his left ear.<ref name=":1"/><ref name=":10" /><ref name=":21" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Torture|author=Conroy, John|publisher=Knopf|year=2000|isbn=978-0-679-41918-1|location=New York|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NM_y3jOKzx8C&pg=PA176 176]}}</ref> He was convicted under Section 37(1)(b) of the [[Law and Order Maintenance Act]] and sentenced to death,<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":21" /><ref name=":23" /> but his lawyers successfully argued that he was under 21, the minimum age for execution.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":21" /><ref name=":23" /> Depending on which birth year is accepted for Mnangagwa, this claim might have been a lie.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":17"/><ref name=":15" /> Other sources state that a priest intervened on his behalf,<ref name=":2"/> or that he avoided execution because he was Zambian, not because of his age.<ref name=":17" /> Whatever the reason, Mnangagwa was instead sentenced to ten years in prison.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":13" /><ref name=":15" /><ref name=":23" />

Mnangagwa served the first year of his sentence in [[Harare Central Prison|Salisbury Central Prison]], followed by [[Grey Street Prison]] in [[Bulawayo]], and finally [[Khami Maximum Security Prison]] in Bulawayo, where he arrived on 13 August 1966 and spent the next six years and eight months.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":21" /> At Khami, he was given the number 841/66 and classified as "D" class, reserved for those considered most dangerous, and was held with other political prisoners, whom the government kept in a separate block of cells away from other inmates out of fear that they would influence them ideologically.<ref name=":21" /><ref name=":23" /> Mnangagwa's cell, Cell 42, was in "B" Hall, which also housed future Vice-President [[Kembo Mohadi]] and the journalist [[Willie Musarurwa]].<ref name=":21" />

Mnangagwa's cell at Khami was austere, with double-thick walls and only a toilet bucket and Bible allowed inside.<ref name=":21" /> At first, while still on death row, he was allowed to leave his cell for only 15 minutes per day, during which he was expected to exercise, empty his toilet bucket, and have a shower in the communal washroom.<ref name=":21" /> The [[Rhodesia Prison Service]] maintained different facilities and rules for white and black prisoners, the latter being subject to significantly inferior conditions.<ref name=":21" /> Black inmates were given just two sets of clothes and were fed plain [[sadza]] and vegetables for every meal.<ref name=":21" /> During his first four years at Khami, Mnangagwa was assigned to hard labour.<ref name=":23" /> After [[International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement|Red Cross]] representatives visited the prison and complained to the government about the poor conditions of political prisoners, conditions were eased somewhat.<ref name=":23" /> Mnangagwa was then allowed to volunteer as a tailor, as he knew how to use a sewing machine.<ref name=":23" /> After two years mending inmates' clothes, he was made to rejoin other prisoners in hard labour, which involved crushing rocks in a large pit in the prison yard.<ref name=":23" />

Mnangagwa was discharged from Khami on 6 January 1972 and transferred back to Salisbury Central Prison, where he was detained alongside other revolutionaries, including Mugabe, Nkala, Nyagumbo, Tekere and [[Didymus Mutasa]].<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":21" /><ref name=":23" /> There, he befriended Mugabe and attended his prison classes, after which he passed his [[GCE Ordinary Level|O-Levels]] and [[A-Level]]s.<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":10" /> Together, they studied law via [[Correspondence law school|correspondence]] courses.<ref name=":8" /> Mnangagwa initially wanted to pursue a [[Bachelor of Science]] in [[economics]], but instead decided to study law. In 1972, he took his final examinations for a [[Bachelor of Laws]] through the [[University of London International Programmes]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/06/robert-mugabe-fires-vice-president-zimbabwes-succession-battle/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/06/robert-mugabe-fires-vice-president-zimbabwes-succession-battle/ |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Robert Mugabe fires vice president as Zimbabwe's succession battle intensifies|last=Thornycroft|first=Peta|date=6 November 2017|work=[[The Telegraph (UK)|The Telegraph]]|access-date=25 November 2017|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Mnangagwa and his lawyers discovered a loophole that would allow him to be deported after his release if he claimed to be Zambian.<ref name=":23" /> Even after his ten-year sentence expired, he remained in prison for several months while his papers were being processed.<ref name=":23" /> In 1975, after more than ten years in prison, including three in solitary confinement, he was released and deported to Zambia, where his parents were still living.<ref name=":10" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":28" /><ref name=":21" /><ref name=":23" /> He was brought to the [[Livingstone, Zambia|Livingstone]] border post and handed over to Zambian police, after which a ZANLA representative met him at the [[Victoria Falls Bridge]] and took him to Lusaka.<ref name=":13" />

=== Legal studies and ZANU leadership: 1975–1980 ===
In Lusaka, Mnangagwa continued his education at the [[University of Zambia]], where he was active in the student board for politics, graduating with a postgraduate law degree.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":13" /><ref name=":28" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/pidgin/tori-42069531|title=Wetin you suppose know about new Zimbabwe President?|date=2017-11-24|work=BBC News Pidgin|access-date=2018-07-12|language= pcm}}</ref> He then completed his [[articling]] with the Lusaka-based law firm of the Rhodesian-born [[Enoch Dumbutshena]], who would later become Zimbabwe's first black judge.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B2Jp-k0WVWAC&q=Enoch+Dumbutshena+Mnangagwa&pg=PA107|title=Against the Grain: Memoirs of a Zimbabwean Newsman|last=Nyarota|first=Geoffrey|date=2006|publisher=Zebra|isbn=9781770071124|pages=107–108; 117|language=en|access-date=25 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201031358/https://books.google.ca/books?id=B2Jp-k0WVWAC&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&dq=Enoch+Dumbutshena+Mnangagwa&source=bl&ots=NK7Nx56djb&sig=HAlvldoiMKUeGnvn7I_HySOurPU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwirvounodnXAhWp7IMKHVALD0EQ6AEITTAG#v=onepage&q=Enoch%20Dumbutshena%20Mnangagwa&f=false|archive-date=1 December 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was admitted to the Zambian [[Bar (law)|bar]] in 1976.<ref name=":28" /> At the same time, Mnangagwa was also serving as the secretary for ZANU's Zambia Division, based in Lusaka.<ref name=":13" /> After a couple of years working for a private law firm, he moved to Mozambique.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":13" /> He visited [[Maputo]] at the request of [[Josiah Tongogara]], and on the basis of the friendship he had developed with Mugabe in prison, became a security chief for ZANU.<ref name=":9" /> While there, he met Mugabe again, and became his assistant and bodyguard.<ref name=":2" /> At the 1977 ZANU Congress in [[Chimoio]], he was elected special assistant to President Mugabe and a member of ZANU's National Executive.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":15" /> In this capacity, Mnangagwa headed both the civil and military divisions of ZANU.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":15" /> His deputy was [[Vitalis Zvinavashe]], head of security for the Military High Command but subordinate to Mnangagwa in the Central Committee's Department of Security.<ref name=":13" />

In 1979, Mnangagwa accompanied Mugabe to the negotiations in [[London]] that led to the signing of the [[Lancaster House Agreement]], which brought an end to Rhodesia's [[Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence|unrecognised independence]] and ushered in majority rule.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":13" /> In January 1980, Mnangagwa led the first group of civilian leaders, including Mutasa and [[Eddison Zvobgo]], as they made their way from Maputo into what would soon be the [[Zimbabwe|Republic of Zimbabwe]].<ref name=":13" />