The Zimbabwean People's Army moment in Zimbabwean history, 1975–1977: Mugabe's rise and democracy's demise

This article provides a historical analysis of Robert Mugabe’s rise to power in the fractious hierarchy of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), in part by crushing all opposition and manipulating regional and international actors – including British, American and Mozambican political leaders – into supporting his claims to leadership. It also tells an often-ignored story of internal political struggle during the liberation war involving a small group of young political soldiers, the Zimbabwean People’s Army (ZIPA), which challenged the policies, practices and ideology of the ‘old guard’ and tried to unify ZANU and Zimbabwe African People’s Union, the country’s two nationalist movements at the time. Drawing on interviews and extensive archival data, the article argues that ideology was central to this political struggle; ZIPA embraced a more radical and potentially more democratic vision for the liberation movement and for the future of the country. What kind of regime might have been consolidated in post-independent Zimbabwe if ZIPA had succeeded in unifying the country’s national liberation movement and pushing them into the political direction ZIPA desired? This will never be known. By 1977, less than two years after the group emerged, its leaders were imprisoned in Mozambique’s jails where they would remain until just prior to Zimbabwe’s first democratic election in 1980.