Politics as War: Five Historical Myths about Zimbabwean Cold War Politics

Timothy Scarnecchia

Jump to Content

Chapter 11 Politics as War: Five Historical Myths about Zimbabwean Cold War Politics

In: The Politics of the Past in Zimbabwe

Author:

Timothy Scarnecchia

Timothy Scarnecchia
Search for other papers by Timothy Scarnecchia in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 256–278

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004728004_013

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

€42.00€35.00 excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Redeem Access Token

Abstract

This chapter examines five persistent and dangerous political myths contained in the “politics of the past” in contemporary Zimbabwe. Myth 1 is that there were significant ideological differences between ZAPU and ZANU during the liberation war. Myth 2 is that the two rival nationalist parties (ZANU and ZAPU) and their armies (ZANLA and ZIPRA) were divided foremost by ethnicity. Myth 3 is that ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo attempted to “sell out” the Patriotic Front to take power. Myth 4 is that the Western powers were against Mugabe coming to power and therefore did not assist him and ZANU in the 1980s. Myth 5 is that Mugabe and ZANU were strong allies with the South African ANC in the early 1980s. Although the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, the ways in which ZANU managed to rewrite its own history of this period has misconstrued the role of both ZANU and ZAPU, and their armed forces, during and after the liberation war. This myth making also translated into the false claims made in national politics ever since.

Citation Info

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share link with colleague or librarian

You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://brill.edhh.ma/abstract/book/9789004728004/BP000021.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

The Politics of the Past in Zimbabwe

Series: Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies, Volume: 35

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004728004

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 31 Mar 2025

Subjects

Front Matter

Back Matter

ProCite

RefWorks

Reference Manager

BibTeX

Zotero

EndNote

Metrics

	All Time	Past 365 days	Past 30 Days
Abstract Views	315	192	9
Full Text Views	15	11	2
PDF Views & Downloads	29	21	2

African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

Subjects

Authors

Open Access

Product Information

Company

Contact

Chapter 11 Politics as War: Five Historical Myths about Zimbabwean Cold War Politics

Abstract

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

The Politics of the Past in Zimbabwe

Table of Contents

References

Metrics

Metrics