Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (
ZIPRA) was the armed wing of the
Zimbabwe African People's UnionThe Zimbabwe African People's Union was a militant organization and political party that fought for the national liberation of Zimbabwe from its founding in 1961 until it merged with the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front in December 1987....
, a political party in
RhodesiaRhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
. It participated in the Second Chimurenga against white minority rule in the former Rhodesia.
ZIPRA was formed during the 1960s by the nationalist leader Jason Moyo, the deputy of
Joshua NkomoJoshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo was the leader and founder of the Zimbabwe African People's Union and a member of the Kalanga tribe...
. Because ZAPU's political strategy relied more heavily on negotiations than armed force, ZIPRA developed as elaborately training both regular soldiers and guerrilla fighters ZANLA, although by 1979 it had an estimated 20,000 combatants, based in camps around
LusakaLusaka is the capital and largest city of Zambia. It is located in the southern part of the central plateau, at an elevation of about 1,300 metres . It has a population of about 1.7 million . It is a commercial centre as well as the centre of government, and the four main highways of Zambia head...
,
ZambiaZambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
and at the front. ZIPRA's crossing points into Zimbabwe were at Feira in Zambia opposite Mashonaland East and west. For example, the operational boundary was Sipolilo where ZIPRA, ZANLA and Rhodesian forces clashed. ZIPRA operated alone in Mashonaland west. There was no ZANLA in that area.
Zipra was a non tribalist organisation with cadres drawn from a wide spectrum of the country's population.
Beside the overall political ideologies, the main differences between ZIPRA and ZANLA were that:
- ZIPRA drew its recruits from the Kalanga, Sutho, Ndebele, Shona ethnic groups while ZANLA only recruited from the Shona.
- ZIPRA did not follow ZANLA's (inspired by Maoism
Maoism, also known as the Mao Zedong Thought , is claimed by Maoists as an anti-Revisionist form of Marxist communist theory, derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong . Developed during the 1950s and 1960s, it was widely applied as the political and military guiding...
) but followed Soviet Marxist Leninist principles and enjoyed close relationship with local peasant populations. For example, ZIPRA forces in Mashonaland west were never sold out by the population because they respected locals and their culture.
- ZIPRA controlled liberated zones from Sipolilo to Plumtree. The enemy forces could not venture out of the keep in Kazangarare for instance..Zipra had some of itsforces who served in the new Zimbabwe national like Philip Sibanda ,Tshinga Dube Roy Reagen Ndlovu and Eddie Sigoge who was arrested in the 1980s
ZIPRA was in formal alliance with
Umkhonto we SizweUmkhonto we Sizwe , translated "Spear of the Nation," was the armed wing of the African National Congress which fought against the South African apartheid government. MK launched its first guerrilla attacks against government installations on 16 December 1961...
(MK) the
ANCThe African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
's militant wing. ZIPRA and MK mounted a celebrated (if militarily unsuccessful) mission in Southern Rhodesia in the mid-1960s.
In 1978 and 1979 ZIPRA downed two civilian passenger planes of
Air RhodesiaAir Rhodesia was the national airline of Rhodesia. Its head office was located on the property of Salisbury Airport in Salisbury.It was originally formed as a subsidiary of Central African Airways in June 1964, but became an independent corporation on September 1, 1967. Air Rhodesia flew internal...
, killing a total of 102 passengers and crew.
Air Rhodesia Flight 825
Air Rhodesia Flight 825 was a scheduled flight from Kariba to Salisbury that was shot down on September 3, 1978 by ZIPRA guerrillas using a SAM-7 surface-to-air missile. Eighteen of the fifty-six passengers survived the crash, with most of these having been seated in the rear. Five of the survivors went to a local village to ask for water. However upon returning, they heard African voices and automatic gunfire—ZIPRA guerrillas killed 10 of the survivors still at the aircraft before looting it. Three crash survivors who remained at the aircraft managed to avoid being killed by running away and hiding in the bush.
Further reading
- Rasmussen, R. K., & Rubert, S. C., 1990. A Historical Dictionary of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
, ScarecrowA scarecrow is, essentially, a decoy, though traditionally, a human figure dressed in old clothes and placed in fields by farmers to discourage birds such as crows or sparrows from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.-History:In Kojiki, the oldest surviving book in Japan...
Press, Inc., Metuchen, NJ, United States of America.
- Sunday mail, Sunday, October 8, 2006, Zimbabwe’s true armed struggle history must be told