ZANU 1976
Source: People's Canada Daily News, January 13, 1976 and The Workers’ Advocate [U.S.] Volume 6, Number 2, February 1, 1976;
Extracted from The Workers’ Advocate for the MIA Africa pages: by Paul Saba.
Editor's Note:
In southern Africa, and in Africa as a whole, the people's revolutionary struggles are raging. In Zimbabwe (the country in southern Africa which the imperialists and racists call "Rhodesia"), the armed liberation struggle of the African people (Chimurenga - the war of national liberation) against the white racist minority regime of Ian Smith, which is backed by U.S. and British imperialism, has surged forward strongly in recent months and years, throwing Smith and his imperialist backers into a panic. ZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union) and its military arm ZANLA (Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army) have liberated a base area as large as the state of Mississippi in the northeast of the country. The racist regime in Zimbabwe is tottering.
To head off its complete collapse, Ian Smith, and his senior partner, John Vorster, the racist ruler of South Africa, have been attempting since October 1974 to suppress and liquidate the Zimbabwe people's armed struggle through the hoax of "detente" between oppressed and oppressor, hoping to force the Zimbabwe people to lay down their guns before victory -- immediate African majority rule -- is won. At the same time the racist regime has intensified its armed suppression of the Zimbabwe people, slaughtering its leaders and masses. These counter-revolutionary dual tactics of fraudulent "detente" combined with bloody suppression are instigated and supported by the two superpowers, U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, along with British imperialism. Each of them deeply fears the creation of a liberated Zimbabwe, not only because it threatens their own profits and aggressive designs, but because it will also provide the Azanian ("South African") liberation fighters with a secure base on the border of South Africa from which to launch people's war against the Vorster regime.
This interview with Comrade Michael Mawema. Organizing Secretary of Zimbabwe African National Union, is reprinted from People's Canada Daily News, January 13, 1976. Comrade Mawema is currently on a fund-raising tour of Canada and has received wide support from broad masses of the Canadian people. Later this month ZANU representatives will speak in a number of American cities. In the interview Comrade Mawema explains the significance of the "detente" talk and the "constitutional conferences" in Zimbabwe and why ZANU rejects these imperialist conspiracies against the Zimbabwe revolution.
Question: Comrade Mawema, to begin with, could you tell us briefly the history of the Zimbabwe people's struggle against colonialism and racism. We think it is important to inform the people here in Canada about the history of the Zimbabwean people's struggle, which has been going on for a long time and is not an new phenomena, as the Western propaganda machine would like us to believe.
Answer: Yes, Comrade. The struggle in Zimbabwe has been going on continuously for nearly a century. Now Zimbabwe was colonized at the end of the nineteenth century and by 1893, the first rebellion, they call it "revolt", was launched by our people against the British colonial settlers. This war of liberation has continued since 1893 to the present. Although the war of liberation has suffered temporary setbacks over the periods, it is indeed not a new struggle, as one woldd probably read in the Western imperialist press as you said. This is indeed an old struggle. The present revolutionary movement is being led by ZANU.and starts from the birth of ZANU, the Zimbabwe AfricanNational Union, in the sixties. ZANU came into being as a continuation, of course, of the struggle that began with the formation of the African National Congress in the 1950's, and then by a National Democratic party in the sixties, by ZAPU in the sixties, and continues on until now under the Zimbabwe African National Union. So, the struggle of the people of Zimbabwe is as old as colonialism is in Zimbabwe.
Question: Couid you briefly describe the origin and development of various organizations preceding the formation of the ANC and why it was that they survived for only a short time and later gave rise to new organizations.
Answer: The colonial government of Rhodesia, which is of course a white racist and fascist minority regime, has employed very destructive political, psychological, sociological and economic measures against the people of Zimbabwe. In order to frustrate the rising opposition against this government, the white minority settlers have continuously banned African Nationalist movements. They have proscribed movements beginning from as early as 1902 when they banned, and deported an Afro-American from the United. States who had come to work in what then had been called Southern Rhodesia. Now we organize ourselves as political movements over a long period culminating, of course, in the formation of the Congress in the early forties: This Congress was led by a number of our best leaders. In 1957 the Bulawayo Branch of the Congress joined together with the Salisbury Youth League to form the Southern Rhodesian African National Congress. This Congress was led by Joshua Nkomo. I was one of the founding members of the African National Congress. The African Congrest was a conciliationist and reformist movement. It arose in the circumstances where the psychology of the time was one where the Africans were to plead with their oppressor for understanding and sympathy. The idea here was to tell the white man that it was wrong for him to oppress Africans, it was wrong to discriminate against the Africans, it was wrong to segregate against Africans etc. So the African National Congress had a reformist type of politics in which it always met local officials, government officials, and presented memoranda against restriction here and there. The African National Congress then developed from being an urban type of organization to a mass organization. It found itself seeking reforms not only in the urban areas but in the rural areas. This created resistance amongst the rural population against the racist settlers and in 1959 the Rhodesian government banned the African National Congress. After this measure was declared all the national leaders of the African National Congress, provincial leaders, district and branch officials were arrested and detained. This became the first emergency in the history of the politics of African resistence declared by the Rhodesian government. But, as I said, the ANC was a reformist. movement. It was very accommodationist. It sought understanding. On January 1, 1960, I founded the National Democratic Party. I was its founding president. It was in 1960 that the whole pendulum of African politics was changed. I changed the reformist politics of the ANC to one of political action. A politics for demanding self-determination. a politics based on the democratic principle of one-man,one vote, a politics no longer pleading with the white man to be understood or to be appreciated, no longer demanding the removal of segregation against the African people of Zimbabwe. Rather we demanded political power. It was the first time in the political development of the African people that we came out to demand for political power and the general terminology used was always to have a full life in the politics of our country. I led the first delegation to negotiate with the British government for a constitutional conference over the problems of Rhodesia. It was under my leadership that we adopted the. name Zimbabwe as the national name of our country against the colonial and racist name Southern Rhodesia. It was under my leadership that for the first time the people of Zimbabwe came out resisting and protesting against my arrest in July 1960, that they led the first violent demonstrations against the Rhodesian government. It was also the first time since the revolt of 1893 that the Rhodesian government shot cold-bloodedly African people who were demonstrating against this government. It was also the first time that the white settler felt that his power was now being threatened. He was confronted by the people who did not seek to be "understood", to be "heard" and to be "appreciated". He was confronted by people who were fighting for their birthright and this birthright was demanded in terms of political power.
This political power was demanded in terms of establishing a democratic and socialist state, in other words the NDP was totally against capitalist exploitation and colonialism. The NDP therefore grew from a small party despite oppressive laws and intimidations, after the ban of the ANC, to the best ever organized political party. It struck unity amongst the rural population, amongst the religious population, amongst the trade unionists because the proper leadership was from the trade unions. Including me too, I come from the trade unions. So the NDP put together the elements that suffered. experienced economic oppression both in the urban and rural areas and hence there was a spontaneous reaction against my arrest by the whole country and for the first time the white industries were burned, destroyed and, that process developed into the armed struggle now. But the NDP was later to be banned and from its ashes, the Zimbabwe African Peoples' Union was formed which is ZAPU. The ZAPU was formed under the leadership of Joshua Nkomo who had taken over leadership from me at the end of 1960. ZAPU also continued with the politics that the NDP had developed, the conscious politics of fighting against the white minority racist regime. Zapu also came into a situation where the NDP had rejected a settlement, a constitutional settlement which had been brought about by the colIaborationist and accommodationist Joshua Nkomo by accepting the very treacherous constitutional arrangement of 1961. When ZAPU emerged and adopted the resistance structures that had come from the NDP in our time, it too was banned like the NDP. Something happened when the NDP was banned and something happened also when ZAPU waf banned. This process of banning the parties and detention of its leaders and a total expropriation of all party properties has been a continuous system practised by the white racist minority and fascist regime of Southern Rhodesia. ZAPU having been banned, its ieadership was detained and, like always, Joshua Nkomo was never arrested. He was outside Zimbabwe when ANC was banned in 1959, and when the NDP was banned. He was away again when ZAPU was banned. He always had information from the Rhodesian governement. ZAPU developed a new type of politics. It was advised by Joshua Nkomo that they could set a government in exile and then operate from outside. And ZAPU set a government in exile in Tanzania. And this type of government, exile politics, did not work. There was no coordinated action between the people in political detention in the country and the people within the country as well. There was a total disarray of the whole political system. Here is the root cause of the division in ZAPU. There were elements in ZAPU who felt they were committed to the policy as set by the NDP of confrontation with the enemy on the soil of Zimbabwe. Hence those who took the decision to take up arms against the Rhodesian government broke away from ZAPU and formed the Zimbabwe African National Union. ZANU was formed in August, 1963 under the leadership of Comrade Ndabaningi Sithole with the late Comrade Theopold Takawira as Vice-President. At that time, I had just left prison and was there at the formation of ZANU and later became the International Organizing Secretary. ZANU operated for a period of about a year. Joshua Nkomo also returned to Rhodesia and formed a People's Caretaker Council against ZANU. These two parties existed and they were banned by the Rhodesian governement in August 1964. With the ban of the PCC and ZANU, the government repeated the same system of arresting and detaining the total national, central, provincial and district and branch leadership. This one was a more thorough arrest than previous ones, because here we had tens of thousands of people arrested and detained. This has been the process of development of political parties. A number of political parties have been emerging and the reason for this is that evey time the Rhodesian government felt its power being threatened, it banned the political movement and arrested the leaders. But the good thing about it is that the consciousness never died. I personally have been instrumental in the birth of almost every party after the ban of the other. And so, the next protest party which came into being from the ashes ot the PCC and ZAPU came the African Nationa lCouncil" which was formed in 1971. The African National Council came about as a protest movement, as a politicizing movement, against a political agreement which had been reached between Ian Smith and the British government. Their sellout political structure had been developed and we found that we had to activate resistance to the political sellout. And hence the birth of the ANC which I was also the founding member of the ANC and its national organizing secretary. I led the people and organized the people to resist what was then called the Pierce Commission. And so the ANC is presently the party that operates in Zimbabwe, the protest and politicizing movement that is used today by ZANU for politicizing its masses in the country.
Question: Could you tell us about the development of armed struggle as it has been led by ZANU, and also its development after the "detente" exercise by Smith and Co., which is aimed at Iiquidating armed struggle and its effect on the general-situation there.
Answer: ZANU arises from the indecision, from the accommodationist and reconciliation politics of ZAPU which it has associated itself with in the politics of exile. The birth of ZANU introduced terms like 'confrontation' which have continued up to this day. Before ZANU was banned we had taken a decision of terrorizing the racist settlers and here we had, I think, what was the beginning of what we can call the urban guerrilla warfare. Areas then were set up in 1963, it started the destruction of factories, stores, burning of farms, terrorizing the white racist settlers. After ZANU was banned, we took a decision in detention to launch the armed struggle, in other words, it was a development from the terrorising method that had been adopted. The idea here was to create psychological warfare in the minds of the white settlers and subject them to our position where they would be ready to discuss. I must admit that by early 1963-64, ZANU was also interested in a constitutional conference if it was to come about.. But that had failed, and by the decision of the Central Committee in prison we commissioned certain members of the Central Committee who were not in political detention, who were outside' Zimbabwe. We commissioned them at this time to set up a military structure. So the resolution of the Central Committee empowered Comrade Chitepo who was Party Chairman to lead the armed struggle. So we who were in detention took upon ourselves the responsibility to mobilise the young men and women in our country to cross the boundaries of Southern Rhodesia into the neighbouring countries and to walk into the training camps in Tanzania. Of' course, I must say that the early stages of this recruitment program was not an easy experience. Having gone through almost a century of psychological bombardment by the white racist settler against violence and who made a law against armed revolution, we also had to go through a process of mentally decolonizing our people to be ready to accept the inevitable consequences of their resistance against the white racist minority regime. And this system of politicization took us a lot of time and it also cost us a lot of manpower because then we sent men to operate in areas where the other way to operate, or other men to operate with, other than these, and this we did and finally succeeded. We succeeded, so much so that in 1966, ZANU was able to launch the first conscious armed struggle ever with the Sinoia Battle. This was the first major battle fought within a hundred miles of the capital of Salisbury and this battle laid the foundations of armed confrontation. Since then ZANU had been on the march, it has been able to be on the offensive so much that it has dug into the enemy's psychological mind, it has dug into the enemy's economic structure and the entire political structure.
Question: Recently, for the past 12 months or so, there has been a lot of talk about "detente" and "constitutional conferences" etc. Could you tell us about the effects that these things have had on the situation in Zimbabwe, ZANU and the armed struggle.
Answer: During the first four years of armed struggle, 1966-1970, ZANU was operating under heavy pressures. This was because we operated from areas far away from the enemy territory. Our armies were trained in Tanzania and they had to walk long distances through Zambia, and there was only one open front and that was to cross the Zambezi River. After the New Year battle of 1966, the Southern Rhodesian armed forces were consolidated by South African forces which came on the Rhodesian soil and they have been on Rhodesian soil ever since that date. Despite this unholy alliance. between the' reactionary forces of South African and those of Portugal and Rhodesia, ZANU forces have been able to win decisive victories. They confronted the armies of both South Africa and Rhodesia and were able to show 'that the Rhodesian and South African forces together were not as invincible as their supporters had made the African world believe. ZANU forces showed that both the Rhodesian and South African forces were paper tigers. ZANU was able to destroy the combined armed forces of Rhodesia and South Africa in spite of their sophisticated arms and equipment. After the failure of the Pierce Commission in 1972, we had worked hard at politicizing the masses, we had worked hard to inject the spirit of armed revolution in our people. From 1972 onwards, hundreds upon hundreds of young men and women crossed the border to join the ZANU training camps and by the end of 1972, ZANU was able to feel that they were the largest and the best of its guerrillas. The years between 1972 and 1974, saw increasing successes by ZANU, both through the front which had been considered to be fortified by the Rhodesian and South African forces, our armies were able to penetrate. We also had the advantage of sharing the assistance of the people of Mozambique. Working together with FRELIMO gave us the opportunity to get into certain areas of Zimbabwe which the Rhodesian forces together with the South African forces found hard to protect. Early in 1974 ZANU had fielded large armies, had liberated large parts of Zimbabwe, the north-eastern part. Presently ZANU controls an area equal to the state of Mississippi. It was this fighting ability, continual movement, and victories that were achieved by ZANU which created chaos amongst the white racist settler minorities. For the first time, the farmers ran away from their farms, for the first time, the Smith propaganda machine did not have any effect in the rural areas, particularly in the areas where the ZANU armies had taken over. For the first time in Rhodesia, Smith was confronted by white refugees or his own people who were running away from the rural areas of Zimbabwe. This created a very vital area particularly in that ZANU was able to show the African people that the settlers claim of invincibility was not true. He was as vulnerable to attack and defeat as all other imperialists and colonialist forces which have been wiped out all the over the world. It was this growth and pressure of ZANU on the Rhodesian government that forced them to resort to the most destructive, inhumane activities in the countryside of Zimbabwe. They went about poisoning the running water of the country, they killed animals; they spoiled; in actual fact, poisoned the water in the rural to kill men and antmals because they supported ZANU guerrillas. When they found that thelr terrorising of the population was not as useful to them as they thought it would be, Rhodesia was advised to adopt the methods used by the Americans in Viet Nam to create concentration camps, which in Rhodesia are called "protected villages". The Rhodesian.government had found that not only were the guerrillas fighting against it, but even the local populace were rising against it: So they adopted measures of expropriating people's property, arresting and intimidating people, assassinating leaders, executing people in prisons and total confiscation and removal of peasants from their land, When we speak of people in concentration camps, in Zimbabwe, we are speaking of the landless, propertyless people whose property has been confiscated by the Rhodesian government because, they say, they are collaborating with the freedom fighters of ZANU. In response to this progress and development in 1974, the capitalist and imperialist world saw that something had to be done in order to rescue and to protect their interests. Hence they collaborated, colluded that they would recognize for the first time that ZANU is a fighting might force. Thev would seek constitutional discussion with ZANU, but in order to do so, some of their lackeys suggest that it would be good to also release such people as Joshua Nkomo and others who had been in restriction. They were released and it is this new thinking which has been called the South African "detente" which has been a machination of the collusion of the reactionary forces in Southern Africa together with British and American imperialism. Detente brought about problems for ZANU, in that when the collaborationists and revisionists were released from detention, they were given maximum publicity and maximum support by their masters in order to operate. The Smith regime required that ZANU should stop fighting, but ZANU did not submit to that. It was required that there should be a united front of the people of Zimbabwe. ZANU did not object to a united front of the people of Zimbabwe, but what ZANU did object to was the tampering with or watering-down of their policy of chimurenga, their policy of armed confrontation with the white minority settler forces of Rhodesia. So this policy having been the one that all the imperialist and colonialist forces were working against had to be tampered with, one way or the other. The only way they were able to destroy ZANU. In order to do so, they assassinated the man who was leading the ZANU Military High Command, the late Herbert Chitepo and the Zambian government found itself arresting and detaining more than one hundred and fifty of the ZANU army leadership and entire military high command including the ZANU Central Committee members, and these people are still languishing incarcerated in the Nambian prisons. So what amounts today to be a constitutional discussion going on in Rhodesia is in actual fact the result of imperialist conspiracies that have been directed against ZANU. Joshua Nkomo is now negotiating with the Ian Smith government. I think the world has seen how much not only Rhodesia with South Africa's support, but also even the social-imperialist Russia and the Americans, everybody has made Joshua Nkomo a hero, a 'reasonable' man, who can talk sense into the white man and the black man, a man who can squeeze "majority rule" from Ian Smith. But as far as ZANU is concerned, it indeed does not object to negotiation, because it did participate in some negotiations, but ZANU has taken up a decision and is committed to the liberation of Zimbabwe by armed struggle and this it has been able to demonstrate as the only way, the most correct way. Only by armed struggle can ZANU set up an independent state 'based on its own principles, on its own structure, not determined by the white colonial forces of Southern Africa, not even consulting with the international "socialism" which is destructive of our ambition. So therefore at the moment,ZANU is committed to fighting. ZANU rejects unequivocally Nkomo's discussions with Ian Smith. It rejects the entire theory that in 1975 after almost twenty years of negotiations, Ian Smith continues to say publicly everyday that he is not willing to give majority rule to Nkomo, that he can spend his time hobnobbing it with colonial and imperialist masters of these people. ZANU is not going to waste its time on this, ZANU is committed in the direction to which it has promised the people of Zimbabwe, and enjoys support for that policy because now ZANU commands the total support of the entire youth of Zimbabwe. ZANU's military camps are overflowing with guerrillas.
Question: It is clear that the imperialists and social-imperialists and South African racists are quite interested in liquidating the Zimbabwe revolution. Now could you tell us about the importance of the Zimbabwe revolution and its effect on Southern Africa as a whole.
Answer: Clearly John Vorster, the Prime Minister of South Africa would not like to see the black independent socialist state of. Zimbabwe. What South Africa would like to see is a disturbed situation in Southern Rhodesia. They would like to maintain the whole structure there under the pretext of being good brothers who would like to have good relations with their neighbours. This hypocritical type of intention can be seen by the present interference of South Africa in the Angolan situation. This is exactly what they have been doing on Rhodesian soil. So I think it fools no African, particularly no Zimbabwean, who has fought against the South African forces, no one can be deceived by the South African hypocritical intentions. The Zimbabwean revolution is important to the liberation of South Africa in that we are almost the center of Southern Africa. We are next nearest country to South Africa and hence our liberation creates unprecedented instability in South Africa. This is because once we are able to determine our political destiny and establish our democratic government, then, and only then can the Azanian forces be able to attack the racist government of South Africa effectively. Otherwise the South African forces under the PAC have no way of getting to South Africa to fight. They are grouped in Tanzania which is close to 3,000 miles away and so the defeat of the imperialists and the colonialists in Zimbabwe spells doom for South Africa. Another point is that the total independence of Africa, I think, is geared in the south. Perhaps you know that almost 82% of all Africa's wealth is south of the equator and hence NATO, for example, finds itself supporting the South African racists. What is important aboutthe Zimbabwean revolution is that once Zimbabwe becomes independent, then I think that it can be said that the greater part of Africa may be independent. Zimbabwe is, I think, the harbour of the wealth of mother Africa. It has vast mineral wealth and hence we think our independence can assist the economic development of our neighbouring countries, particularly Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana who have as a matter of tradition developed together with Zimbabwe. It would give, I think, the greatest psychological benefit to the people of Azania that armed struggle is not a myth but a reality and that they too can defeat the white South Africans as the people of Zimbabwe have done.
Question: Could you comment further on the position of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism with regard to the Zimbabwe people's struggle.
Answer: Yes. U.S. imperialism has not supported the resolution of the United Nations to apply sanctions against Southern Rhodesia. The U.S. has passed a law to violate sanctions, to economically support any illegal regime of Southern Rhodesia. Presently there are more than five hundred white U.S. north Viet Nam veterans fighting with the Rhodesian army. The U.S. supplies almost every thing that it provided to its allies in Viet Nam to the Rhodesian forces. It is the U.S. multinational corporattons which continue to block publication and propaganda of the people's revolution in Zimbabwe. It is the U.S. that maintains, runs, directs, and controls the total economy of South Africa, which has been the guarantee of our exploitation. Hence as far as the people of Zimbabwe are concerned, the U.S. is indeed an enemy.
Russian imperialism is seen by its consistent support for Joshua Nkomo, who is today the running dog of the Russians and of U.S. imperialism. He is an eager brainchild of the Soutti Aftican and Rhodesian political draftsmen. We have been informed, and I think it has been authenticated, that it is the Russians who have continuously financed ZAPU, that they have told Nkomo to split from the umbrella organisation ANC. After he split from the ANC, the Russians gave him more than $50,000 to support him in his bid for recognition by the Ian Smith and South African governments. So tar as the people of Zimbabwe are concerned, the continuing support by the Russians of ZAPU and Nkomo, is an act of aggression to the people of Zimbabwe, partlcularly to the armed forces of ZANU.
Question: Could you comment on the present situation of your organization, ZANU, and what is the situation of armed struggle at this time and also on the political and economic program of ZANU after liberation.
Answer: At the present time ZANU is enjoying maxium support. For the first time the ZANU training camps are overflowing with young men and women who have committed themselves to the armed revolution. ZANU has maximum support in the country. This has been demonstrated every time ZANU has called for action within the country. Its process, its progr,amme of training continues very effectively. ZANU has enjoyed the support of both the Tanzanian and Mozambique governments. At present, our training camps are under the direction of the Party Secretary General. This time of the year ZANU is going to launch the greatest of its offensives on the Rhodesian forces, particularly in that we have to set up such a pre-emptive action before the sellout agreement is announced between Joshua Nkomo, Ian Smith and the British government. It is true that ZANU has suffered from great setbacks particulerly in the arrest of its able leadership which languishing in the Zambian prisons. But ZANU has come back to restructure itself, to redefine; to re-establish and to reset itself on the course to armed oonfrontation. For the first time ZANU has the largest force; we have the force that we believe the Rhodesian forces can never stand. Given the support which we believe the people of Canada and the people of the world will give us, and given the means to train and to put our people in readiness, we are ready to give what will be the hardest blow, if not the final blow to the white racist minority regime of Ian Smith. As far as our programme is concerned, we are going to continue our policy of politlcization of the masses making them ready firstly, to receive and co-operate with our guerrillas as they come into the country which they have been doing very effectively. Secondly, we are making our youth ready to submit itself to the discipline of the party, coming in to train and work with us. This ZANU has continued to enjoy. It is intended in the near future to launch massive resistence programmes within the country in order to support the guerrilla activity both in the urban and the rural areas.
Now as far as ZANU's government of the future is concerned, ZANU is very clear, it has committed itself both in prindple and in action to the establishment of a socialist state. We mince no words as far as our commitment is conerned. We are all out against social-imperialism and against any forms of capitalism. We would not be party to anything that has been or may continue to be a means or source of exploitation of the people of. Zimbabwe. We will rid Zimbabwe of the total capitalist structure. This the people of Zimbabwe have accepted when they adopted the party'policy of ZANU in 1964. It was made clear that ZANU is not concerned very much in dealing with the issues of segregation or discrimination etc. We are fighting to establish majority rule now and on that policy our people are committed and they will stand by it. We will fight and will win. The time factor is hard for me to say, but it is no exaggeration to say the distance of success is nearer than the distance we have come in the past.
Question: What, in your mind, would be the effect of the present "constitutional talks", which are going on between Nkomo and Smith, if they come out with some sort of deal, say giving a position to Nkomo in the Government?
Answer: This treacherous sellout conspiratorial agreement will have very disastrous effects particularly on the body politic of Zimbabwe in that it will firstly create an atmosphere of doubt and an division amongst the weak elements that have always been floating. The liberals that have one time chased with the hounds and run with the hares will find an opportunity in which they will say 'here is an opportunity where majority rule may come and hence it will be good to support a programme that is not violent'. It will probably divide the OAU - which is already divided by the machinations of South Africa and Zambia and some French-speaking countries that have gone all out to support South Africa's actions. If the OAU is divided then ZANU will experience some problems. One of the problems is that ZANU will have its total support withdrawn from the OAU. Because once the OAU divided then the OAU support to the Zimbabwe armed struggle will be divided. Secondly, ZANU will have to face and surmount a very high degree of false propaganda in the world because whatever Nkomo and Smith will agree, the Western press and other media will herald this. It will be such a great thing for them because then they will be able to sponsor and support the new-icolonialist plans through Nkomo. The division of tile OAU will, probably, help Nkomo in that, probably, some of our supporters who are not quite clear about what is going on in Rhodesia may go through a process of doubt about the effectiveness of armed struggle and against the racist white mirtority. We are, of course, aware that certain countries will go along with ZANU, but ZANU is also aware that its areas of operation probably may be tampered with; so governments that support us now may not be as ready and willing to support armed confrontation. If there is a programme that will bring out some form of political struggle. What we do know is that Nkomo is not going to bring about majority rule and that ZANU is committed to the programme of majority rule now. So since they are going to produce a transitional constitution, we hope that the effects of the success of this constitutional arrangement will not be as destructive on the one hand as probably we may think, because once they do not produce majority rule, then our armies will have no reason to be divided. The loyality probably of the people of Zimbabwe will not be tampered with, their support of the armed struggle will not be dented, since to this day they are committed to the principle of majoity rule now. But it is true that the various lackeys will do everything to destroy, to tamper with the armed structure of ZANU and probably will even try to weaken the international support that we have been given by trying to drive 'reasonableness' amongst our people and our supporters. So that is the unwelcome effect of this agreement, but then the welcome effect of this agreement is that there has been a definition, a clarification of who is the enemy of the people of Zimbabwe. Going into this negotiation has clarified one thing, that is, the divisionists and,the collaborationists who had always hidden under the shelter of being African nationalists. They have come out as collaborators, accommodationists and conciliationists, so that now the armies of national liberation have no problems, the enemy has been defined. And hence this gives us now a greater strength to attack because nobody shall accuse us of failing to discriminate between our supporters and our enemies. ZANU is not fighting a racial war. It is fighting a war against racism, exploitation and discrimination. So those who have connived and collaborated against the people of Zimbabwe, ZANU will destroy them resolutely, regardless of their colour.
Question: The current situation in Angola is a reflection of the policies of Soviet social-imperialism, that is of splitting Africa by having Africans fighting Africans. With the whole question of 'detente' and of the role of Nkomo, it is quite clear that the plans for Rhodesia are the same - to divide the African people by having them fight one another. In your view, how is this imperialist policy on the international front going to affect the situation in Southern Rhodesia, and how are the nationalists in Zimbabwe going to prevent the same thing from happening in their struggle?
Answer: It is a sad thing that Africa should be going through the process of colonization by the end of the 1970's, that Africa is being recolonized by new systems of colonization, some of which are militaristic and some which are economic. The people of Zimbabwe view the Angola situation with great disgust, in that the people of Angola seem to be losing their independence before they can enjoy it. Moscow is interested in what is going on, so is Washington. The OAU's decisions seem always to have been flouted on the Angola situation. This the people of Zimbabwe view with regret. But, I hope that what is happening in Angola should serve as an example of wbat Zimbabwe must not go through. I hope that the Zimbabwe situation will be different fromAngola in that in the first place, the three political parties in Angola all have a very viable armed structure. The MPLA has an army, UNITA has an army, FNLA has an army. Zimbabwe presently has a sitwation in which the ANC has no army of its own, FROLIZI has no army of its own, ZAPU has a token army, but ZANU has an army. So that alone changes the Angola situation in relation to Zimbabwe. Whereas in Angola you have three armies fighting against each other, but in Zimbabwe you have only the ZANU army controlling the armed front. We also hope that by the time the Zimbabwe situation comes to the level of establishing a government, that the OAU will have gone back to understand redefine its responsibility to Africa. I am a strong believer of Nkrumahism in terms of the establishment of the African Military High Command. I believe that if Africa had established an African Military High Command it would have the ability to save Africa from international intervention. It would have the ability to create peace and stability within the confines of the OAU. And it is my prayer that the OAU in its meeting in January shall definitely consider the establishment of an African Military High Command and never to depend on the divisive forces of the United Nations. I cannot see the Angola situation being solved by submitting it to the United Nations, because the superpowers control the United Nations in one way or another and it is the superpowers that have destroyed the independence of the people of Angola and therefore my hope lies in the African nations being able to take openly their responsibility to guard, direct and protect the borders of Africa and settle the disputes within Africa. I hope that by the time we take over in Zimbabwe, the colonialist and imperialist forces will not have mushroomed new armies that will fight against the ZANU army, which I call, the ZANU people's army. If that situation arises, I think we may be able to contain it, but as I say, presently Zimbabwe has an advantage in that there is one army fighting for national liberation and hence we may be able to avoid the Angola situation. But it is my earnest desire that Africa must be able to take on its shoulders, its political, economic and social responsibility to guide Africa and the new developing countries and particularly us who are getting our independence when the world is being tossed about by the superpowers.
Question: Comrade Mawema, there is a fundraising programme that is going to be launched here in Canada. Could you tell us about the importance of the support of the Canadian people for the Zimbabwean revolution and the contribution that the Canadian people can make on this front.
Answer: The people of Zimbabwe will start by being grateful to the democratic people of Canada and those who are conscious of the socialist principle upon which our international solidarity is established. The people of Zimbabwe have received support before and it is this awareness, this conscious awareness of the help that we are now engaged in a programme to raise first the political consciousness of the problems facing the people of Zimbabwe. We believe that it is only after knowing what we are going through and why we are going through it, that the people of Canada can help us. So my mission here shall be to give that information, that service as will be able to create a consciousness of the reality of the situtation, the graveness of the effect of collusion by imperialist and colonial forces on the people of Rhodesia. We would like the people of Canada to give to us moral support. It is this spirit of proletarian internationalism, particularly for the socialists that gives us courage whilst our young men and women are fighting in the countryside; they will know they have friends and comrades that will stand and have stood by them. Indeed, the success of the battle does not depend on moral support.alone. It depends on material support also, but material support alone is not enough. It will depend on the willingness of the people of Zimbabwe to commit themselves to action. Indeed the people of Zimbabwe have demonstrated their ability to commit themselves to action and to action that will succeed. So presently, we are seeking for material support, financial and otherwise. We would not have probably succeeded as much as we have done if our comrades in Canada had not given us assistance. We need of course such things as funds, medicines, and clothing. We will also try to publish a small article discussing the various needs of ZANU and how we would like the people of Canada to assist us. ZANU is grateful to the people of Canada for what they have done, particularly in showing their deep desire and understanding of the problems of the people of Zimbabwe. End item.