Who fought who?

via Who fought who? 5 November 2014 by Magari Mandebvu

Readers of this column will not need reminding that Robert Mugabe did not fight the British – at least not before 2000.

On the other hand, they might have been surprised to hear the late Paul Brickhill, founder of the Book Café, did fight the British during the Second Chimurenga. These statements need a bit of unwrapping. Our fight was against Ian Smith, who rebelled against the British government in his attempt to prevent majority rule.

There were divisions among British people on the issue. Many people on the political left supported our desire for independence, so they opposed Smith, supported British and UN sanctions against his regime and some urged their government to take direct military action. Others who might not go that far opposed Smith because he rebelled against the Queen; they could be useful allies. Some supported Smith and his gang to varying degrees.

There were elements among the military who refused to fight against their kith and kin. There were businessmen who broke sanctions. Some people, including some leaders of the Conservative party, owned large tracts of land here, or mines and companies and they supported Smith, more or less, because they feared an independent government would take their ill-gotten gains from them.

We needed allies, at least to prevent the big capitalists and racist military from having their own way. Paul Brickhill, active in ZAPU’s youth wing and then on intelligence assignments for ZIPRA, with some other youth, worked to infiltrate the crack SAS military commando unit. The aim was to find out all about SAS links with the mercenary groups who fought for Smith, so that their operations could be disrupted. Obviously only white youths could gain the trust of SAS soldiers, drink in the same pubs as they did and pose as sympathisers with them.

Judy Todd also “fought the British” in this sense. Her main contribution was by supplying regular information to Private Eye magazine about which industrialists were breaking sanctions, how they did it and which politicians helped them. Senior Conservative politicians who were trying to do a deal with Smith were also reported there. Lord Salisbury, descendant of one of Cecil Rhodes’ chief backers, got a lot of publicity there that he would have preferred to avoid.

Other publications used some of her stories or unearthed more for themselves, but Private Eye’s information was recognised as the best. Being known as a satirical journal, its readers were also delighted to read that Ian Smith was not a brave World War II fighter ace, but an incompetent who did that damage to his face when he crashed a Hurricane fighter on a training flight.

This all provided material for British supporters of African independence and opponents of Smith’s rebellion. It helped their morale when it made people laugh at the pretensions of Ian Smith’s cowboy cabinet, with its cast of such preposterous characters as PK van der Byl and the obnoxious Desmond Lardner-Burke.

If you must fight a war, knowing your enemy is important. Knowing what allies you might have in his camp, or how he tries to deceive or neutralise your foreign supporters is vital. ZANU never seemed interested in that aspect of the struggle. Making a villager kill his own father who worked in the local District Commissioner’s office made them no friends, but did turn some villages into their enemies. We all know of examples of that kind of action, all of them counterproductive when having somebody, whether interpreter or teaboy, telling them what was being done or planned in the DC’s office would have been very useful.

Their tactics probably prolonged the war and now we see the logical conclusion of those tactics, as each faction within Zanu (PF) defines everyone outside its own dwindling ranks as being against them. Having destroyed the country, they are finally destroying their own party. It’s time for the rest of us to keep out of the way and let them carve each other up.