The Rebel In Me: A ZANLA Guerrilla Commander in the Rhodesian Bush War, 1974–1980

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Description

This is the actual story of a young guerrilla commander brought up in a Christian circle of relatives in Rhodesia, a former colony of Britain. Exposed to the excesses of a colonial regime where race and racism decided one’s status in society, and influenced by the radical anti-racial views of his parents and later of fellow students and work mates, his character started to change. An opportunity encounter with a captured guerrilla fighter helped complete the metamorphic transformation of his insurrection character, and was once catalytic to his decision to cross into Mozambique to sign up for the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), the military wing of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) led by Robert Mugabe, which was once waging a protracted revolutionary armed struggle to liberate Zimbabwe. Known by his nom de guerre, Dragon Patiripakashata, he led several armed guerrilla incursions into Rhodesia, before being promoted to the General Group of workers and appointed an instructor. For the final eighteen months of the war, until 1980, he served as ZANU’s Chief Representative to Socialist Ethiopia.

Mutambara invites the reader to view the Rhodesian bush war through the eyes of a guerrilla commander, experience the trials and tribulations of a freedom fighter, the satisfaction of working a number of the masses, and the joyous celebration of achieving freedom and independence. He outlines the psyche of those who engage in revolutionary armed struggle and why, even when exposed to extreme hardship and continual assault by a superior military adversary, they remain committed to their cause. This book also takes a different view of Mugabe, reviled by most Western governments and yet who remains immensely popular among his people.

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