Robert Mugabe Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Guerrilla war: 1975β1979=== [[File:Flag of ZANU-PF.svg|thumb|The flag of the [[Zimbabwe African National Union]] (ZANU)]] In March 1975, Mugabe resolved to leave Rhodesia for Mozambique, ambitious to take control of ZANU's guerrilla campaign.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=4}} After his friend [[Maurice Nyagumbo]] was arrested, he feared the same fate but was hidden from the authorities by Ribeiro. Ribeiro and a sympathetic nun then assisted him and [[Edgar Tekere]] in smuggling themselves into Mozambique.{{sfnm|1a1=Blair|1y=2002|1p=23|2a1=Meredith|2y=2002|2pp=4β5}} Mugabe remained in exile there for two years.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=5}} Mozambique's Marxist President [[Samora Machel]] was sceptical of Mugabe's leadership abilities and was unsure whether to recognise him as ZANU's legitimate leader. Machel gave him a house in [[Quelimane]] and kept him under partial [[house arrest]], with Mugabe requiring permission to travel.{{sfnm|1a1=Smith|1a2=Simpson|1y=1981|1pp=80β81|2a1=Blair|2y=2002|2p=23}} It would be almost a year before Machel accepted Mugabe's leadership of ZANU.{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=23}} Mugabe travelled to various ZANLA camps in Mozambique to build support among its officers.{{sfn|Smith|Simpson|1981|p=81}} By mid-1976, he had secured the allegiance of ZANLA's military commanders and established himself as the most prominent guerrilla leader battling Smith's regime.{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=23}} In August 1977, he was officially declared ZANU President at a meeting of the party's central committee held in [[Chimoio]].{{sfnm|1a1=Smith|1a2=Simpson|1y=1981|1p=101|2a1=Norman|2y=2008|2p=62}} During the war, Mugabe remained suspicious of many of ZANLA's commanders and had a number of them imprisoned.{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=24}} In 1977 he imprisoned his former second-in-command, [[Wilfred Mhanda]], for suspected disloyalty.{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=24}} After [[Josiah Tongogara]] was killed in a car accident in 1979, there were suggestions made that Mugabe may have had some involvement in it; these rumours were never substantiated.{{sfnm|1a1=Blair|1y=2002|1p=24|2a1=Holland|2y=2008|2pp=55β56}} Mugabe remained aloof from the day-to-day military operations of ZANLA, which he entrusted to Tongogara.{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=23}} In January 1976, ZANLA launched its first major infiltration from Mozambique, with nearly 1000 guerrillas crossing the border to attack white-owned farms and stores.{{sfnm|1a1=Smith|1a2=Simpson|1y=1981|1p=83|2a1=Norman|2y=2008|2p=60}} In response, Smith's government enlisted all men under the age of 35, expanding the Rhodesian army by 50%.{{sfnm|1a1=Smith|1a2=Simpson|1y=1981|1p=83|2a1=Norman|2y=2008|2p=60}} ZANLA's attacks forced large numbers of white landowners to abandon their farms; their now-unemployed black workers joined ZANLA by the thousands.{{sfn|Smith|Simpson|1981|p=100}} By 1979, ZANLA were in a position to attack a number of Rhodesian cities.{{sfn|Smith|Simpson|1981|pp=115β116}} Over the course of the war, at least 30,000 people were killed.{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=10}} As a proportion of their wider population, the whites had higher number of fatalities,{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=10}} and by the latter part of the decade the guerrillas were winning.{{sfn|Smith|Simpson|1981|p=109}} [[File:Mugabe76Romania.jpg|thumb|left|Mugabe in a meeting with Romanian communist leader [[Nicolae CeauΘescu]] in 1976]] Mugabe focused on the propaganda war, making regular speeches and radio broadcasts.{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=23}} In these, he presented himself as a [[Marxism-Leninism|Marxist-Leninist]], speaking warmly of Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries like [[Vladimir Lenin]], [[Joseph Stalin]], and [[Fidel Castro]].{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=24}} Despite his Marxist views, Mugabe's meetings with Soviet representatives were unproductive, for they insisted on Nkomo's leadership of the revolutionary struggle.{{sfnm|1a1=Smith|1a2=Simpson|1y=1981|1p=88|2a1=Norman|2y=2008|2p=61}} His relationship with the People's Republic of China was far warmer, as the Chinese Maoist government supplied ZANLA with armaments without any conditions.{{sfn|Smith|Simpson|1981|p=88}} He also sought support from Western nations, visiting Western embassies in Mozambique,{{sfn|Smith|Simpson|1981|p=89}} and travelled to both Western states like Italy and Switzerland and Marxist-governed states like the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba.{{sfnm|1a1=Smith|1a2=Simpson|1y=1981|1pp=99, 109, 114|2a1=Norman|2y=2008|2pp=61, 63β64}} Mugabe called for the overthrow of Rhodesia's predominately white government, the execution of Smith and his "criminal gang", the expropriation of white-owned land, and the transformation of Rhodesia into a [[communist state|one-party Marxist state]].{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=7}} He repeatedly called for violence against the country's white minority,{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=11}} referring to white Rhodesians as "blood-sucking exploiters", "sadistic killers", and "hard-core racists".{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=24}} In one typical example, taken from a 1978 radio address, Mugabe declared: "Let us hammer [the white man] to defeat. Let us blow up his citadel. Let us give him no time to rest. Let us chase him in every corner. Let us rid our home of this settler vermin".{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=11}} For Mugabe, armed struggle was an essential part of the establishment of a new state.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=2}} In contrast to other black nationalist leaders like Nkomo, Mugabe opposed a negotiated settlement with Smith's government.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=2}} In October 1976 ZANU nevertheless established a joint platform with ZAPU known as the Patriotic Front.{{sfnm|1a1=Smith|1a2=Simpson|1y=1981|1pp=92β94|2a1=Norman|2y=2008|2p=61}} In September 1978 Mugabe met with Nkomo in Lusaka. He was angry with the latter's secret attempts to negotiate with Smith.{{sfn|Smith|Simpson|1981|p=112}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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