9781422277690

Robert Mugabe (left) prepares to speak at a 1977 rally in Maputo, Mozambique. While in exile in Mozambique during the 1970s, Mugabe organized and directed a guerrilla war against the white-dominated government of Rhodesia.

puted head of ZANU. From exile in Mozambique, he helped direct a guerrilla war against the Rhodesian government. By the late 1970s, military pressure from the Patriotic Front—an opposition alliance that included ZANU and anoth- er nationalist party, the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU)—had finally convinced Smith’s government to negoti- ate an end to white-minority rule. At a British-sponsored peace conference held in 1979, representatives of the Rhodesian gov- ernment and the Patriotic Front agreed to a new constitution and democratic elections open to blacks as well as whites.

The Pursuit of Power

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