The Rhodesian War
The Congo borders Zambia in the south. At the time of the Congo Crisis, Zambia was known as Northern Rhodesia, and it was part of a large complex of British colonies that included Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. As the Congo Crisis unfolded, panicked Belgian refugees flooded south, convincing white Rhodesians that any concession made to black nationalism in their colony would result in precisely the same thing. Nyasaland became Malawi in 1964, and Northern Rhodesia Zambia a few months later, but Southern Rhodesia, the future Zimbabwe, committed itself to fight.
Suspicious of the intentions of the British Government, which seemed determined to hand over its colonies in Africa to the Africans whatever the consequences, Southern Rhodesia declared unilateral independence from Britain in 1965. The result was that Rhodesia became a rebel republic, unrecognized by any major country, and sanctioned by the United Nations. Rhodesia hoped that this would result in a fait accompli, but it did not. The tide of history was against it. What occurred instead was war.
Nationalist groups formed up in exile in Zambia, and began a guerrilla campaign against a well-organized and well-armed Rhodesian security force. The result for a long time was a bloody, but one-sided war. Nationalist guerrillas were forced to cross the Zambezi River to enter Rhodesia, and they were easily identified, tracked down and killed. They were killed in large numbers.
In 1975, however, a long-running war of independence in Mozambique came to an end. Exhausted by years of war, Lisbon lost its resolve and capitulated, and suddenly Rhodesia had on its eastern frontier a 400-mile hostile front. The war was no longer one-sided. Nationalist groups, led mainly by Robert Mugabe, adopted a human wave approach, flooding the country with poorly armed and trained cadre, who nonetheless stretched the capacity of the Rhodesian security forces beyond its functional capacity.
Rhodesian tactics then switched to domestic security containment and heavy cross-border raids that wreaked a massive cost in enemy manpower. Nonetheless, the trajectory of the war was unchanged. The loss of an entire revolutionary brigade counted less than the loss of a single Rhodesia combat group, and the end was inevitable.
The war reached a negotiated conclusion at the end of 1979. Although undefeated, the Rhodesian Security Forces could no longer sustain war. The transfer of power came in April 1980, as the Union Jack was lowered, and the flag of the Republic of Zimbabwe was raised in its place. The cost of life of this war was astronomical, but as its first indigenous leader, Robert Mugabe took the oath of office, harder times still were yet to come.
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“Zulu: The True Story”. BBC, Dr. Saul David. February 2011.
“Isandlwana.” National Army Museum.
“Congo Civil War (1960-1964)”. Black Past, Ryan Hurst
“Second Anglo-Boer War 1899 – 1902”. South African History
“An Overview of the East Africa Campaign”. Peter Baxter. Peter Baxter History, August 2011
“East African Campaign. An Archive of WWII Memories.” Written by the Public and Gathered by the BBC