THE fight against the colonial Rhodesian regime and the desire to see an independent Zimbabwe was not only a dream for the locals, but an issue at the heart of other Africans.
As the country celebrates 35 years since the attainment of independence, it remains greatly indebted to Africa for the role it played during the liberation struggle.
African countries whose dream was to see an independent Africa played a pivotal role during the liberation struggle that birthed Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980.
The two liberation movements, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and Zimbabwe’s People Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) set up military bases in other African countries.
The bases included Chimoio, Tembwe, Doiroi and Nyadzonia in Mozambique, Freedom Camp in Zambia and Morogoro in Tanzania.
The bases served as military training bases for the freedom fighters, a refugee camp for villagers fleeing effects of the war, clinics, schools and administrative offices of the liberation movements.
Aware of this, the Rhodesians tracked the freedom fighters to these military bases and bombed them.
Over 3 000 people comprising of refugees and freedom fighters lost their lives when the Chimoio base was bombed by the Rhodesian soldiers from November 23 to 25 1977.
On August 9 1976, the special counter insurgency unit of the Rhodesian army the Selous Scouts carried out a heinous attack on Nyadzonia Camp which housed refugees killing over 2 000 innocent people.
President Robert Mugabe last month told youths attending the Third Africa-China Young Leaders Forum in Tanzania how the country had become the second home for the freedom fighters.
“Tanzania accepted all liberation movements with all our aims and weaknesses,” he said.
“At times we were fighting each other doing mischievous things and our behaviour was not even good even of the leaders.
“However, many of us found direction and liberated our countries.”
President Mugabe acknowledged the assistance rendered by Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere and Mozambique’s Samora Machel during the liberation struggle.
Ghana’s first independent President, Kwame Nkrumah driven by the determination to see fellow Africans in Rhodesia being able to rule themselves, took time to lobby on behalf of the freedom fighters.
President Nkrumah wrote a series of statements and writings on Rhodesia and problems relating to the liberation of Southern Africa.
“As I speak to you now the situation in Southern Rhodesia constitutes a grave threat to the peace of Africa,” said President Nkrumah in his opening speech at the opening of the Summit Conference of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
“But we in Africa cannot remain indifferent to the fate of four million Africans in that territory, and cannot allow an extension of the vile, inhuman system of apartheid to other parts of Africa.”
President Nkrumah wrote to the heads of state of Congo, Zaire present day Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Guinea on November 19 1965.
“The Rhodesian situation is a serious and direct threat to the peace of Africa, and unless the OAU can act quickly to meet the situation, the consequences to our continent will be incalculable,” reads an excerpt of his letter to the African leaders.
President Nkrumah also wrote numerous letters to Harold Wilson, Sekou Toure lobbying for the freedom of Africans in Rhodesia.
Following the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) by the Rhodesian Front (RF) in 1965, Ghana also voiced its concerns describing it as an “illegal and treasonable declaration”.
The efforts of the African leaders and their people did not go to waste as the war was won and today Zimbabwe stands an independent and sovereign country.