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The Second Chimurenga refers to the national liberation war against settler-colonial rule that took place in Zimbabwe from the mid-1960s until Zimbabwe's formal independence in 1980.[1] The Shona word chimurenga carries various meanings such as uprising, resistance, or revolution.[2][3]
Major participants of the war included Zimbabwean national liberation organizations, primarily Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and their respective military wings, ZANLA and ZIPRA, against the forces of the settler-colonial "Rhodesian" regime, at that time led by the Ian Smith administration which had unilaterally declared independence from Britain in 1965.[1][4]
The Battle of Chinhoyi in 1966 is often regarded as the opening battle of the Second Chimurenga.[1][4] Zimbabwe achieved independence in 1980, although the struggle against imperialism, neocolonialism, and against the effects and remnants of settler colonial rule and land dispossession have continued.[5]
Background
Zimbabwe's First Chimurenga refers to the Shona and Ndebele uprisings against British colonialism in the 1890s. The First Chimurenga would come to serve as a source of inspiration for Zimbabwe's later national liberation struggle against the settler-colonial regime of so-called "Rhodesia" throughout the 1960s and 70s.[4][6] As ZANU leader Herbert Chitepo explained in 1973, "No doubt our old people then, our grandfathers in 1893, '94, '95, '96, '97, during those wars, fought gallantly with bows and arrows [...] and they were faced against muskets, they were faced against Maxim guns. And they were defeated. To that day our African people have never accepted that position. Quietly, sometimes, without words, they have continued to look upon that land as theirs, continued to prepare the day, for the day when they must wrest it back into their own control."[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 David Martin and Phyllis Johnson (1981). The Struggle for Zimbabwe: The Chimurenga War. Faber and Faber.
- ↑ “They rose up in rebellion. It was called the war of chimurenga. Chimurenga is a Shona word. [...] The word "chimurenga" means rebellion, means rising, a resistance, a war of resistance from oppression.”
Herbert Chitepo (1973). Herbert Chitepo at the National Press Club (ca. 1973). YouTube. - ↑ “The word ‘Chimurenga’ has a number of meanings in current usage—revolution, war, struggle or resistance—and one of ZANU’s main slogans during the second Chimurenga war was ‘Pamberi ne Chimurenga’, meaning ‘forward with the struggle or the revolution’.”
David Martin and Phyllis Johnson (1981). The Struggle for Zimbabwe: The Chimurenga War: 'Preface'. - ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Herbert Chitepo (1973). "Herbert Chitepo at the National Press Club (ca. 1973)"
- ↑ Mafa Kwanisai Mafa (2025-04-03). "From Colonial Chains to Neo-Colonial Shackles: Zimbabwe’s Century-Long Struggle for Liberation" Modern Ghana. Archived from the original on 2026-03-09.
- ↑ "The Second Chimurenga (ca. 1964)". Pamusoroi!. Archived from the original on 2025-03-04.