[THE FILM BELOW IS GRAPHIC: VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED]

One way Ian Smith and the Rhodesian whites framed the Bush War (1964 – 1979) was to cast the violent uprising led by Nkomo ZUPA (Soviet leaning) and Mugabe ZUNA (Maoist leaning) as a conflict along ideological lines ONLY. The following film attempts to paper over the obvious racial and tribal conflict by sighting the Communist politics of these competing ZUPA and ZUNA movements as the source of conflict. It is not racial it is ideological according to Smith. This is plausible but an obvious misdirection at the inherent issue of racial discrimination at the institutional level. There is also a nationalist sentiment to the conflict. Mugabe’s Shona fought with the Nkomo Ndebele-speaking south in an uneasy Patriotic Front. These parties were militant and actively engaged in violent conflict amongst eachother and against European whites. Mugabe claimed that non-violent approaches had failed to achieve his goals. Mugabe’s forces engaged in Terrorism or Freedom Fighting/Intimidating Authorities to support revolution: their guerilla warfare was gruesome with widespread murder as this film demonstrates. This violence is perpetrated by both sides against civilian bystanders. “Only a dead imperialist is a good one”: Mugabe used dangerous language about how the settler government needed to be removed. In accordance with Communist politics, priests were brutally murdered (Spanish Civil War, for example). Mugabe, as any African nationalist movement, embraced European ideas/principles in order to accrue power through the ideology of Nationalism as well as Communism. Mugabe advocated for a none-race based polity which in essence meant African majority rule. On either side then, justifications for positions are cloaked in ideology that suits their ultimate objectives.