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Adelante! Military Imaginaries, the Cold War, and Southern Africa's Liberation Armies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2020

Jocelyn Alexander*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Joann McGregor
Affiliation:
University of Sussex

Abstract

Studies of southern Africa's liberation movements have turned attention to the great importance of their transnational lives, but have rarely focused on the effects of the military training Cold War-era allies provided in sites across the globe. This is a significant omission in the history of these movements: training turns civilians into soldiers and creates armies with not only military but also social and political effects, as scholarship on conventional militaries has long emphasized. Liberation movement armies were however different in that they were not subordinated to a single state, instead receiving training under the flexible rubric of international solidarity in a host of foreign sites and in interaction with a great variety of military traditions. The training provided in this context produced multiple “military imaginaries” within liberation movement armies, at once creating deep tensions and enabling innovation. The article is based on oral histories of Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) veterans trained by Cuban and Soviet instructors in Angola in the late 1970s. These soldiers emerged from the Angolan camps with a military imaginary they summed up in the Cuban exhortation “Adelante!” (Forward!). Forty years later, they stressed how different their training had made them from other ZIPRA cadres, in terms of their military strategy, mastery of advanced Soviet weaponry, and aggressive disposition, as well as their “revolutionary” performance of politics and masculinity in modes of address, salute, and drill. Such military imaginaries powerfully shaped the southern African battlefield. They offer novel insight into the distinctive institutions, identities, and memories forged through Cold War-era military exchanges.

Type
The Good Kill: Law, Ethics, Technique
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History

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References

1 Quoted in Gleijeses, Piero, Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976–1991 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013), 86Google Scholar. Starting in July–August 1977, three groups of roughly two thousand men were sequentially given six months of training by Cuban and Soviet instructors, while a fourth group was trained by ZIPRA itself. See ibid., 86–87; Shubin, Vladimir, The Hot ‘Cold War’: The USSR in Southern Africa (London: Pluto Press, 2008), 171–73Google Scholar; Abel Mazinyane, “Zim, Angola Friendship Has Stood Test of Time,” Sunday News, 16 Nov. 2014; and interviews below. (Though we used hard copies of the Sunday News, articles can be found online at sundaynews.co.zw.)

2 Jeremy Brickhill estimates that there were twenty thousand trained ZIPRA soldiers at the end of the war; “Daring to Storm the Heavens: The Military Strategy of ZAPU, 1976–1979,” in Ngwabi Bhebe and Terence Ranger, eds., Soldiers in Zimbabwe's Liberation War (London: James Currey, 1995), 65–66. Also see Sibanda, Eliakim, The Zimbabwe African People's Union, 1961–87: A Political History of Insurgency in Southern Rhodesia (Trenton: Africa World Press, 2005), 219Google Scholar.

3 The most detailed accounts of ZIPRA in Angola are Shubin, Hot ‘Cold War,’ 171–73; and Gleijeses, Visions of Freedom, 86–87. The case is not considered in Westad's, Odd Arne magnum opus, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007)Google Scholar. It is unsurprisingly ignored in David Martin and Phyllis Johnson's pro-ZANU account, The Struggle for Zimbabwe (London: Faber and Faber, 1981), but it also goes unnoted in the work by ZAPU insiders: Brickhill, “Daring to Storm”; and Dumiso Dabengwa, “ZIPRA in the Zimbabwe War of National Liberation,” both in Ngwabi Bhebe and Terence Ranger, eds., Soldiers in Zimbabwe's Liberation War (London: James Currey, 1995). ZAPU President Joshua Nkomo offers one (glowing) sentence about Cuban training, in Nkomo: The Story of My Life (London: Methuen, 1984), 177–78. Sibanda notes it in a brief aside, in Zimbabwe African People's Union, 209. Mentions in work on the Rhodesian Security Forces are cursory: for example, Ellert, H., Rhodesian Front War: Counter-Insurgency and Guerrilla Warfare 1962–1980 (Gweru: Mambo Press, 1993), 7778Google Scholar; and memoir, Preller Geldenhuys’, Rhodesian Air Force Operations (Paeroa, New Zealand: Peysoft Publishing, 2014), 235–69Google Scholar.

4 Bickford, Andrew, Fallen Elites: The Military Other in Post-Unification Germany (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011), 4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Ibid., 3, 5.

6 See, for example, Highgate, Paul, ed., Military Masculinities: Identity and the State (Santa Barbara: Praeger Press, 2003)Google Scholar; Gill, LesleyCreating Citizens, Making Men: The Military and Masculinity in Bolivia,” Cultural Anthropology 12, 4 (1997): 527–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lutz, Catherine, “Making War at Home and in the United States: Militarization and the Current Crisis,” American Anthropologist 104, 3 (2002): 723–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McSorley, Kevin, ed., War and the Body: Militarisation, Practice and Experience (London: Routledge, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 See Stanley Nleya's first-hand account, in “Guerrilla Training Was No Picnic,” Sunday News (Bulawayo), 20 Mar. 2016; and Alexander, Jocelyn and McGregor, JoAnn, “African Soldiers in the USSR: ZAPU Intelligence Cadres Oral Histories of Soviet Training, 1964–1979,” Journal of Southern African Studies 43, 1 (2017): 4966CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Alexander, Jocelyn and McGregor, JoAnn, “War Stories: Guerrilla Narratives of Zimbabwe's Liberation War,” History Workshop Journal 75, 1 (2004): 79100CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Krylova, Natalia, “Le Centre Perevalnoe et la formation de militaires en Union Sovietique,” Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines 2 (2017): 399416CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 See Dumiso Dabengwa's account of the heated debates in 1964 among a group of one hundred ZAPU men who reconvened in Zambia after training in the USSR, China, North Korea, Cuba, and Egypt: “Relations between ZAPU and the USSR, 1960s–1970s: A Personal View,” Journal of Southern African Studies 43, 1 (2017): 218–19. For parallel debates in ZANU, see Martin and Johnson, Struggle for Zimbabwe, 27–28. In contrast to ZIPRA, the training of ZANU's armed wing became more homogenous over time.

9 On the former, see the agenda-setting work of Westad, Global Cold War. On the latter, see Sapire, Hilary and Saunders, Chris, eds., Liberation Struggles in Southern Africa in Context: New Local, Regional and Global Perspectives (Claremont: University of Capetown Press, 2013)Google Scholar; Dallywater, Lena, Saunders, Chris, and Fonseca, Helder Adegar, eds., Southern African Liberation Movements and the Global Cold War ‘East’: Transnational Activism 1960–1990 (Oldenbourg: De Gruyter, 2019)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Alexander, Jocelyn, McGregor, JoAnn, and Tendi, Blessing-Miles, “The Transnational Histories of Southern African Liberation Movements: An Introduction,” Journal of Southern African Studies 43, 1 (2017): 112CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 See Williams, Christian’ exemplary study, National Liberation in Postcolonial Southern Africa: A Historical Ethnography of SWAPO's Exile Camps (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and the large literature on the armed wing of the South African ANC (African National Congress), inter alia, Suriano, Maria and Lissoni, Ariana, “Married to the ANC: Tanzanian Women's Entanglement in South Africa's Liberation Struggle,” Journal of Southern African Studies 40, 1 (2014): 129–50Google Scholar; Ellis, Stephen, External Mission: The ANC in Exile 1960–1990 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012)Google Scholar; and Macmillan, Hugh, The Lusaka Years: The ANC in Exile, 1963–1994 (Auckland Park: Jacana Media, 2013)Google Scholar.

11 Memoir is the medium that has provided the most detailed accounts. For the ANC, see, for example, Manong, Stanley, If We Must Die: An Autobiography of a Former Commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Cape Town: Nkululeko Publishers, 2014)Google Scholar; and Ngculu, James, The Honour to Serve: Recollections of an Umkhonto Soldier (Johannesburg: David Philip Publishers, 2009)Google Scholar. For ZANU: Mutambara, Agrippah, The Rebel in Me: A ZANLA Guerrilla Commander in the Rhodesian Bush War, 1975–1980 (Warwick: Helion and Company, 2014)Google Scholar. Also see Stephen Davis’ important recent work on the ANC, especially his consideration of the movement's Angolan camp regime: The ANC's War against Apartheid: Umkhonto we Sizwe and the Liberation of South Africa (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018), ch. 4; and Helder Adegar Fonseca's examination of Angolan movements’ training through Portuguese intelligence records, in “The Military Training of Angolan Guerrillas in Socialist Countries,” in Lena Dallywater, Chris Saunders, and Fonseca, Helder Adegar, eds., Southern African Liberation Movements and the Global Cold War ‘East’: Transnational Activism 1960–1990 (Oldenbourg: De Gruyter, 2019), 103–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 On training in West African insurgencies, see Hoffman, Danny, The War Machines: Young Men and Violence in Sierra Leone and Liberia (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Richards, Paul, Fighting for the Rain Forest: War, Youth and Resources in Sierra Leone (Oxford: James Currey, 1996)Google Scholar.

13 McSorley, Kevin, “War and the Body,” in McSorley, K., ed., War and the Body: Militarisation, Practice and Experience (London: Routledge, 2013), 12CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The same distinction is made in Ben-Ari, Eyal, Mastering Soldiers: Conflict, Emotions and the Enemy in an Israeli Military Unit (Oxford: Berghahn, 1998), 23Google Scholar.

14 Strachan, Hew, “Training, Morale and Modern War,” Journal of Contemporary History 41, 2 (2006): 211–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 216.

15 Snider, Don M., “An Uninformed Debate on Military Culture,” Orbis 43, 1 (1999): 1126CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 14.

16 Barkawi, Tarak, “Culture and Combat in the Colonies: The Indian Army in the Second World War,” Journal of Contemporary History 41, 2 (2006): 325–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 350–54.

17 This is a diverse, discipline-crossing literature. See, for example, McSorley, “War and the Body,” 2; Bickford, Fallen Elites; Gill, “Creating Citizens”; Guttman, Matthew and Lutz, Catherine, Breaking Ranks: Iraq Veterans Speak Out against the War (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ben-Ari, Mastering Soldiers; Morgan, David H. J., “Theater of War: Combat, the Military, and Masculinities,” in Brod, Harry and Kaufman, Michael, eds., Theorizing Masculinities (London: Sage, 1994)Google Scholar; Katz, Pearl, “Emotional Metaphors, Socialization and Roles of Drill Sergeants,” Ethos 18, 4 (1990): 457–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and MacLeish, Kenneth, “How to Feel about War: On Soldiers’ Psyches, Military Biopolitics and American Empire,” Biosocieties 14, 3 (2018): 274–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Newlands, Emma, “Preparing and Resisting the War Body: Training in the British Army,” in McSorley, Kevin, ed., War and the Body: Militarisation, Practice and Experience (London: Routledge, 2013), 35Google Scholar.

19 Newlands, “Preparing and Resisting,” 47.

20 See Guttman and Lutz, Breaking Ranks, 49.

21 The key series is the “Lest We Forget” column in the Bulawayo Sunday News, which is based on interviews with ZIPRA cadres, largely conducted by the paper's assistant editor, Mkhululi Sibanda.

22 Alexander and McGregor, “War Stories.”

23 In describing this process of often uncomfortable transformation, ZIPRA soldiers echo life stories of soldiers elsewhere; e.g., Gutmann and Lutz, Breaking Ranks, 1–11.

24 McSorley, “War and the Body,” 13. See also Bickford, Fallen Elites, ch. 2; Newlands, “Preparing and Resisting”; and Ben-Ari, Mastering Soldiers, ch. 4.

25 Gill, “Creating Citizens,” 534.

26 Gutmann and Lutz, Breaking Ranks, 47.

27 See, for example, discussions in Reese, Roger, The Soviet Military Experience (London: Routledge, 2000), ch. 6Google Scholar; and Donnelly, Christopher, Red Banner: The Soviet Military System in Peace and War (Coulsdon, Surrey: Jane's Information Group, 1988), ch. 9Google Scholar.

28 See Bickford, Fallen Elites.

29 Brickhill, “Daring to Storm,” 66. For a vivid account of camps in Zambia, see Mary Ndlovu, ZAPU through Zenzo Nkobi's Lens (Braamfontein: SAHA, n.d.).

30 Interview, Cetshwayo Sithole, by Jocelyn Alexander and Pathisa Nyathi, Bulawayo, 20 Dec. 2017. Sithole recalled that many of Nampundwe's instructors were survivors of the “Mgagao massacre,” in which some fifty (of eight hundred) unarmed ZIPRA trainees were gunned down in clashes with Chinese instructors and ZANU trainees. The event remains a source of great outrage for many ZIPRA veterans.

31 Interview, Cetshwayo Sithole, by Jocelyn Alexander and Pathisa Nyathi, Bulawayo, 21 Dec. 2017.

32 Interview, Ndaba Maqeda, by Jocelyn Alexander, Bulawayo, 27 Dec. 2017. This view was also common in the ANC's armed wing. See Ngculu, Honour to Serve; Bottoman, Wonga Welile, The Making of an MK Cadre (Pretoria: LiNc Publishers, 2010)Google Scholar.

33 See “Cde Ngwenya: Last Woman Standing,” Sunday News, 18 June 2017; and Alexander and McGregor, “War Stories,” 84–86.

34 See, for example, Woodward, Rachel and Jenkings, K. Neil, “Soldiers’ Bodies and the Contemporary British Military Memoir,” in McSorley, Kevin, ed., War and the Body: Militarisation, Practice and Experience (London: Routledge, 2013), 152–64Google Scholar.

35 Interview, Sithole, 21 Dec. 2017.

36 Green Mpofu, in group interview of Bonus Hlabangana, Charles Makhuya, and Green Mpofu, by Jocelyn Alexander, JoAnn McGregor, and Zephaniah Nkomo, Bulawayo, 18 Aug. 2016 (henceforth, “2016 group interview”).

37 Ibid.

38 Interviews: Mark Mbayiwa, by Jocelyn Alexander and JoAnn McGregor, Bulawayo, 21 Aug. 2016; Jabulani Sibanda, by Jocelyn Alexander and Pathisa Nyathi, Nyamandhlovu, 26 Aug. 2016; Nico Ndlovu, by Jocelyn Alexander and JoAnn McGregor, Bulawayo, 22 Aug. 2016; Sithole, 21 Dec. 2017.

39 Hlabangana, in 2016 group interview.

40 Interview, Sibanda.

41 See Katz, “Emotional Metaphors,” 458–60.

42 These themes are found in accounts of other liberation movement camps, too: see Mazarire, Gerald, “Discipline and Punishment in ZANLA: 1964–1979,” Journal of Southern African Studies 37, 3 (2011): 571–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Displacing social ties and teaching the replaceability of the soldier are common in training more widely: see, for example, Guttman and Lutz, Breaking Ranks, 39–55; McNeill, William H., Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995), ch. 5Google Scholar; Ben-Ari, Mastering Soldiers, ch. 3.

43 Mpofu, in 2016 group interview.

44 Compare to Ben-Ari, Mastering Soldiers, 122–23; and Bickford, Fallen Elites, 72–73.

45 Asking people about their homes and ethnicity was systematically discouraged. See Ndlovu, ZAPU.

46 Hlabangana, in 2016 group interview.

47 Interview, Ndlovu, 22 Aug. 2016. Stories of “political epiphanies” are common in ZIPRA soldiers’ narratives of camp education. See Alexander and McGregor, “War Stories,” 89.

48 On drill and bonding, see McNeill, Keeping Together; Barkawi, “Culture and Combat,” 354; Morgan, “Theatre of War.”

49 See Alexander, Jocelyn and McGregor, JoAnn, “The Travelling Toyi-Toyi: Soldiers and the Politics of Drill,” Journal of Southern African Studies 46, 5 (forthcoming in 2020)Google Scholar.

50 These include the current commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General P. V. Sibanda. Interview, Sithole, 20 Dec. 2017; Mpofu, in 2016 group interview; Abel Mazinyane, “In Remembrance of Comrades Who Never Lived to See Independent Zim: Alexander (Assaf Ndinda) Katema,” Sunday News, 3 May 2015.

51 Gleijeses, Visions of Freedom, 86.

52 On Cubans adding recruits without consulting ZIPRA representatives, see also Abel Mazinyane, “Cuba's Contribution to Liberation Struggle for Southern Africa,” Sunday News, 12 July 2015.

53 Interview, Mark Mbayiwa, by Jocelyn Alexander, JoAnn McGregor, and Pathisa Nyathi, Bulawayo, 18 Aug. 2016.

54 Makhuya, in 2016 group interview.

55 Interview, Henry Jabulani Sibasa, by Jocelyn Alexander, Bulawayo, 24 Aug. 2016. Also see interview, Sibanda.

56 See Kennes, Erik and Larmer, Miles, The Katangese Gendarmes and War in Central Africa (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016)Google Scholar.

57 Interview, Maqeda.

58 Interview, Brian Hlongwane, by Jocelyn Alexander and Pathisa Nyathi, Bulawayo, 27 July 2017.

59 Makhuya, in 2016 group interview. Also see, interview, Sibasa; and Mary Ndlovu's interview with Moses Mzila Ndlovu, available in file AL3291: The ZAPU/Zenzo Nkobi Oral History Project, South African History Archive (SAHA).

60 Interview, Maqeda. The first ZIPRA liaison officer was Tshile Nleya, deputized by the political commissar, Ronald Tshoka, nicknamed “Botsheni,” who later became ZIPRA's camp commander at Boma. Interview, Snowman Moyo and Charles Makhuya, by Jocelyn Alexander and JoAnn McGregor, Bulawayo, 20 Dec. 2019.

61 See Mazinyane, “Zim, Angola Friendship.”

62 E.g., interview, Hlongwane.

63 Hlabangana, Makhuya, and Mpofu, in 2016 group interview.

64 Interview, Hlongwane.

65 Mpofu, in 2016 group interview.

66 Ibid.; interviews: Ndlovu, 22 Aug. 2016; and Mbayiwa, 21 Aug. 2016.

67 Interview, Mbayiwa, 21 Aug. 2016. Also see interview, Ndlovu, 22 Aug. 2016.

68 Mpofu, in 2016 group interview.

69 Interview, Ndlovu, 22 Aug. 2016.

70 Ibid.

71 Interview, Sibasa; also, interview, Hlongwane.

72 Interviews: Sibasa; and Bonus Hlabangana, by Jocelyn Alexander, JoAnn McGregor, and Zephaniah Nkomo, Bulawayo, 22 Aug. 2016.

73 For example, interview, Ben Matiwaza, by Jocelyn Alexander and Pathisa Nyathi, Bulawayo, 27 July 2017; Makhuya, in 2016 group interview.

74 Interview, Moyo and Makhuya.

75 See Davis, ANC's War, ch. 4.

76 Interview, Maqeda. Also, interview, Hlabangana.

77 About two hundred were killed, including six Cuban instructors and one Soviet instructor. Shubin, Hot ‘Cold War, 173; Gleijeses, Visions of Freedom, 87. The experience of this bombing, as with bombings in Zambian camps, produced memories described decades later as “haunting.” Interview, Matiwaza; Somandla Dube interviews, “The Schoolboy Who Dodged Rhodesian Bombs in Angola,” Sunday News, 9 July 2017; and “Rhodesians Hit Angola,” Sunday News, 23 July 2017.

78 Interview, Ndlovu, 20 Aug. 2016; Dube, “Schoolboy,” Sunday News, 9 July 2017.

79 Makhuya, in 2016 group interview.

80 2016 Group interview; interview, Nico Ndlovu, by Jocelyn Alexander and JoAnn McGregor, Umzingwane, 20 Aug. 2016.

81 These terms were used in interviews with Mbayiwa, 17 Aug. 2016; Ndlovu, 22 Aug. 2016; Zephaniah Moyo, by Jocelyn Alexander and JoAnn McGregor, 19 Aug. 2016; and Sibasa. They were also used in Moses Mzila Ndlovu's interview in SAHA.

82 Interview, Mbayiwa, 18 Aug. 2016; 2016 group interview; Somandla Dube interview, “Life at the Hands of Cuban Instructors,” Sunday News, 16 July 2017.

83 Shubin, Hot ‘Cold War,’ 172.

84 Interview, Ndlovu, 22 Aug. 2016.

85 Mpofu, in 2016 group interview.

86 Interview, Mbayiwa, 18 Aug. 2016.

87 Interviews, Witness Bhebhe, by Jocelyn Alexander and JoAnn McGregor, Bulawayo, 26 July 2017; Maqeda; Matiwaza. Also see Moses Mzila Ndlovu interview in SAHA.

88 E.g., interviews, Hlongwane; Sibanda.

89 Interview, Maqeda.

90 Interview, Sibanda.

91 Mpofu, in 2016 group interview.

92 Interview, Mbayiwa, 21 Aug. 2016.

93 Interview, Maqeda. Similar views were expressed by ZIPRA men trained in the Soviet Union; see Alexander and McGregor, “African Soldiers in the USSR.”

94 Interview, Hlongwane.

95 Mpofu, in 2016 group interview.

96 Makhuya, in 2016 group interview.

97 Interview, Hlabangana.

98 White, Luise, “‘Heading for the Gun’: Skills and Sophistication in an African Guerrilla War,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 51, 2 (2009): 236–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 257.

99 Interview, Maqeda. Also see Moses Mzila Ndlovu interview in SAHA.

100 Makhuya, in 2016 group interview. The Cubans imported a number of “Katyushas” (BM-21s) to Angola in November 1975 as part of Operation Carlota, the major intervention in support of the MPLA.

101 Interview, Mbayiwa, 18 Aug. 2016. Nkomo, in 2016 group interview.

102 Mpofu, in 2016 group interview. Angolan-trained cadres associated this slogan with the Cubans, but it was in fact used more widely in ZIPRA and has echoes in militaries worldwide. E.g., see Donnelly, Red Banner, 178.

103 Mpofu, in 2016 group interview; also see interview, Hlongwane.

104 Strachan, “Training, Morale and Modern War,” 216.

105 Interview, Maqeda.

106 Hlabangana, in 2016 group interview.

107 Interview, Bhebhe.

108 Interview, Hlabangana.

109 Mazinyane, “In Remembrance.”

110 Interview, Mbayiwa, 18 Aug. 2016; also see interview, Sibasa.

111 Interview, Ndlovu, 22 Aug. 2016.

112 On these strains, see Alexander, Jocelyn, “Loyalty and Liberation: The Political Life of Zephaniah Moyo,” Journal of Eastern African Studies 11, 1 (2017): 166–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 174–78.

113 These and subsequent shifts are poorly documented. Brickhill's overview in “Daring to Storm” is the best to date. More details are in interviews in the Sunday News, especially Stanley Nleya, “Why Zipra Had More Soldiers in Mash'land,” 27 Mar. 2016; Nicholas Gibson Nkomo, “Joint Christmas Party after Entumbane Disturbances,” 22 May 2016; Nditsheni Dube, “A Guerrilla in Solo Departure,” 31 July 2016; and Stanford Moyo's article, “Ex-Fighter Relives the Deadly Effects of Chemical Warfare,” 28 Aug. 2016.

114 Interviews, Ndlovu, 22 Aug. 2016; Mbayiwa, 21 Aug. 2016.

115 Stanley Nleya, in “Why Zipra Had More Soldiers,” describes the destruction of a Rhodesian camp at Mana Pools on the Rhodesian side of the river by units under Rodwell Nyika. Dennis Ndlovu recounts a week-long battle between ZIPRA conventional troops trained at Mulungushi and Rhodesian forces on the Zambian side, in “The Mlungushi Bombings,” Sunday News, 26 June 2016. Also see Brickhill, “Daring to Storm,” 53; interview, Mbayiwa, 17 Aug. 2016.

116 Nleya, in “Why Zipra Had More Soldiers,” states that thirteen thousand soldiers were deployed inside Zimbabwe at the end of the war, the majority in Mashonaland. He suggests that seven thousand ZIPRA soldiers entered Papa Assembly Point after the ceasefire from the Mashonaland battlefields. Also see Moses Mzila Ndlovu interview in SAHA; and interview, Hlabangana.

117 Interview, Hlabangana. Hlabangana recalled trading his watch for food at CGT2 camp on the Zambian border.

118 Interview, Sibasa; and see Winter Johanne Ncube's interview, “Ncube: Courageous Freedom Fighter,” Sunday News, 17 Aug. 2014.

119 Interview, Mbayiwa, 21 Aug. 2016. Later groups arriving at Solwezi Camp in northern Zambia had similar clashes. Interviews, Zephaniah Moyo; Ndlovu, 22 Aug. 2016.

120 On the Northern Front, see Nkomo, “Joint Christmas,” and Dube, “A Guerrilla.”

121 Interview, Mbayiwa, 21 Aug. 2016.

122 See Mazinyane, “In Remembrance.” Mangena was killed in June 1978. He had already been attacked by disaffected guerrillas in Freedom Camp. Rumors regarding Mangena's loyalties were and are pervasive and disputed. Interviews, Hlongwane; Zephaniah Moyo; Mbayiwa, 21 Aug. 2016.

123 See Alexander, “Loyalty and Liberation,” 175–76; Davis, ANC's War; Williams, National Liberation; Macmillan, Lusaka Years.

124 Interviews, Zephaniah Moyo; Ndlovu, 20 Aug. 2016.

125 Brickhill, “Daring to Storm.”

126 Interview, Zephaniah Moyo; Mazinyane, “Zim, Angola Friendship.”

127 For example, interviews, Hlongwane; Ndlovu, 22 Aug. 2016.

128 Interview, Sibasa.

129 Interviews, Ndlovu, 20 and 22 Aug. 2016.

130 Interview, Mbayiwa, 21 Aug. 2016.

131 Interview, Hlongwane.

132 Interview, Ndlovu, 20 Aug. 2016.

133 Interview, Hlongwane.

134 Interview, Sibasa.

135 Interview, Mbayiwa, 21 Aug. 2016.

136 Interview, Ndlovu, 20 Aug. 2016.

137 Interview, Hlongwane.

138 See the interview with “pioneer” guerrilla Milton Chemhuru, in “Cde Chemhuru Goes to Cuba,” Sunday News, 18 Dec. 2016.

139 Interview, Sibasa.

140 Interview, Hlongwane.

141 Interview, Sibasa.

142 Interview, Bhebhe.