Rationalizing gukurahundi: cold war and South African foreign relations with Zimbabwe, 1981-1983

Abstract

This article examines the role of diplomatic relations during the first stages of the 1983 Gukurahundi in Zimbabwe.Based on a preliminary reading of South African Department of Foreign Affairs files for 1983, the article suggests that Cold War relations between Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom helped to provide cover for the Zimbabwean National Army's Fifth Brigade's campaign of terror.Similarly, American support for Mugabe's claims to be a pro-Western leader committed to non-racialism helped provide international cover for the atrocities.At the same time, evidence shows high-ranking ZANU-PF officials negotiated with the South African Defense Forces in 1983 to cooperate in their efforts to keep ZAPU from supporting South African ANC operations in Zimbabwe.The 5 th Brigade's campaign therefore served the purposes of South Africa, even as ZANU-PF officials rationalized the Gukurahundi violence in international and anti-apartheid circles as a campaign against South African destabilization.The article suggests that the diplomatic history of the Gukurahundi can provide a useful lens for understanding the tragedy in both regional and international Cold War contexts.In her popular book Dinner with Mugabe Heidi Holland includes a quote from Robert Mugabe where he accuses some factions in ZANU-PF of 'cutting deals with the British and Americans' after the 2005 elections. 1Mugabe asks, 'Since when have the British, the Americans, been friends with ZANU-PF?' 2 Mugabe's often repeated claim that the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) are the enemies of ZANU-PF and hence of Zimbabwe does not stand up well to historical scrutiny.A party that will be fifty years old in 2013 has experienced a number of victories, and many of these were partly the result of American and British assistance, both directly and indirectly.There are at least four periods in the transition from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe during which the US and the UK offered opportunities to Robert Mugabe and his allies to attain power and then consolidate it.The first was in 1963 with the formation of ZANU in Tanzania. 3 The second was during Henry Kissinger's 1976 shuttle diplomacy