The Warrior and the Wizard: The Leadership Styles of Josiah Tongogara and Robert Mugabe during Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle

ABSTRACT Robert Mugabe resigned as Zimbabwe’s president in November 2017, following a military action called Operation Restore Legacy. This article examines the motivations and dynamics of Operation Restore Legacy, which it characterizes as a coup by military generals that had significant commonalities with historical coups in Africa. This characterization, which is informed by the accounts of coup participants and a reading of the literature, challenges interpretations of the coup as ‘a non-coup-coup’, ‘very Zimbabwean’, or ‘special’. The article argues that the coup was a vote of no confidence in Mugabe’s leadership, which succeeded because soldiers from Zimbabwe’s 1970s independence war subscribed to the coup’s stated ideal to restore liberation struggle principles in the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front party as well as party members who had been sidelined. Liberation war veterans held decisive army and air force command posts when the coup occurred. The article’s emphasis on liberation struggle principles as a crucial determinant of the coup’s success is a counterpoint to game theoretic approaches to coup dynamics that disregard political beliefs as a consequential factor in the realization of coups. In respect of motivations, the article advances interrelating motives and contends that the coup’s catalyst was Mugabe’s refusal to meet his generals on 13 November 2017, for vital talks on widening differences between both parties. Sealing off dialogue catalyzed the coup.

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ZIMBABWE: THE ETHNICISATION OF ZANU AND THE DOWNFALL OF NDABANINGI SITHOLE (1963-2000)

Conflict Studies Quarterly ◽

10.24193/csq.35.3 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 35 ◽

pp. 37-50

Author(s):

Owen MANGIZA ◽

Ishmael MAZAMBANI

Keyword(s):

Ethnic Groups ◽

Leadership Positions ◽

Nationalist Movement ◽

Political Interests ◽

Party Members ◽

Liberation Struggle ◽

Robert Mugabe

"This article is an exposition of the transformation of ZANU from being, primarily, a nationalist movement into an ethnic oriented party. Since its formation in 1963, ZANU was gripped by ethnicity, resulting in factions and contestations developing among party members. These contestations developed into open conflicts along tribal lines. The paper argues that ethnicity was so acute among ZANU party members to an extent that divisions were clearly drawn along the Shona sub-ethnic groups of Manyika (easterners), Karanga (southerners), and Zezuru (northerners). The competition for leadership positions and the fighting among members of these ethnic groups resulted in the death of some members of the party and the expulsion of others from the party. It is argued in the article that the persecution of Ndabaningi Sithole and his fallout as the ZANU president was a result of the ethnicisation of ZANU and the liberation struggle. The removal of Sithole as the party president and his replacement by Robert Mugabe exhibits these contestations among the Zezuru, Karanga and Manyika ethnic groups. We argue that the deposition of Sithole from ZANU in 1975 and his castigation as a “sell-out” and “tribalist” was a ploy by Robert Mugabe and other ZANU leaders to get rid of him and to replace him along ethnic grounds. The ethnic card was deployed to serve selfish political interests. It is these ethnic contestations and fighting which also brewed conflict and enmity between Mugabe in particular and Ndabaningi Sithole, among other factors. This hatred was clearly displayed later in the struggle for supremacy between Sithole’s new party, ZANU-Ndonga and Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF. It is stressed in the article that this enmity also culminated in the denial of a hero status to Sithole when he died in 2000. We also argue that the deposition of Sithole from ZANU is one of the reasons why the Ndau people of Chipinge always voted for him and not Robert Mugabe in elections. Keywords: Zimbabwe, Ethnicisation, Downfall, Contestations, ZANU, Hero status."

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Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Sabelo J. (ed), Mugabeism? History, Politics, and Power in Zimbabwe. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, 319pp.

Strategic Review for Southern Africa ◽

10.35293/srsa.v38i2.259 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 38 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Zefanias Matsimbe

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Southern Africa ◽

Modus Operandi ◽

Strategic Review ◽

History Of ◽

Contested Meanings ◽

Liberation Struggle ◽

Robert Mugabe

This is an 'all in one' kind of book about the history, politics, and economy of Zimbabwe from the liberation struggle on. The book is about Robert Mugabe and his Mugabeism, or what Mugabe 'says' he is and what he Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 38, No 2 Book Reviews 174 'exactly is'. It responds to the lack of biographies on Mugabe who is the oldest and the longest serving post-independence African statesman, the man whose life has been dominated by secrecy, rumours and gossip. The book consists of several essays written by scholars from different disciplines, trying to make sense of Mugabe by exploring the various, contested meanings of the Mugabe phenomenon, his thinking, his feeling and his modus operandi. With convincing arguments, the book shows how the life of Mugabe is intrinsically linked to the history of Zimbabwe and ZANU-PF. The book reveals the great secret of how Mugabe has survived internal and external challenges and pressures.

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