Nationalism and Exile in an Age of Solidarity

Frelimo–Zanu Relations in Mozambique (1975–1980)

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7323966
AutoresClinarete Victoria Luis Munguambe (Centre of Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape, autor de correspondencia)
Año2017
Volumen43
Número1
Páginas161-178
Fecha de publicación2017-01-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03057070.2017.1273537
OpenAlexW2572713543
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas2

This article contributes to our knowledge on the intricate relations between host governments \nand liberation movements and on the workings of transnational military partnerships in the anticolonial \nstruggles of the 1970s, through an examination of the political and military relationship \nbetween Mozambique’s Frelimo (host) and Zimbabwe’s ZANU liberation movement. There is \na dearth of critical perspectives on the nature of host–liberation movement relations, more \nso from the point of view of hosts. The article begins to shed light on un-researched Frelimo \nevaluations of its relationship with ZANU. I utilise the perspectives of Mozambican political \nelites and non-elites to argue that Frelimo’s support for ZANU was partly motivated by feelings \nof genuine solidarity. Frelimo–ZANU relations were frosty at first because Frelimo regarded \nZANU as an inauthentic liberation movement. ZANU won Frelimo over by demonstrating cogent \ncommitment to armed struggle. However, improved Frelimo–ZANU relations were characterised \nby disagreements over guerrilla tactics, ZANU guerrillas’ objections to Frelimo soldiers’ \nrelationships with Zimbabwean women at the warfront, and the unpragmatic approaches of \nsome ZANU elements towards the possibility of a negotiated independence for Zimbabwe. In \naddition to Frelimo’s backing, ZANU received support from ordinary Mozambican citizens, \nparticularly those who lived in areas along the Rhodesia–Mozambique border. The support of \nMozambican citizens for ZANU was encouraged by Frelimo’s revolutionary ideology and by the \ncommon ancestry, language and culture of Mozambicans and Zimbabweans living in the border \nzones. The case of Frelimo and ZANU underlines the point that hosts’ influence on liberation \nmovements’ internal politics must be seen as limited by the interests and agency of liberation \nmovements themselves. But Frelimo held decisive authority on the right to withdraw support \non its territory, which it used as an inducement on ZANU to agree a negotiated independence \nsettlement in 1979

Ideology · Independence (probability theory · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Solidarity · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Gender Studies · Law