4 - Kingmaker

Summary

This chapter focuses on Mujuru’s contribution to the creation of ZIPA, which was a union of ZANLA and ZIPRA. It describes Mujuru’s role in securing a new primary host (Mozambique’s FRELIMO government), from where ZIPA launched guerrilla incursions into Rhodesia. The chapter deepens the book’s exploration of the intricate relations between host governments and liberation movements and contributes to the limited scholarship on the workings of transnational political partnerships, through its examination of the relationship between the FRELIMO government, Tanzania (subsidiary host) and ZIPA. The chapter also explains why ZIPA eventually collapsed. Many scholars have debated, in inconclusive terms, Robert Mugabe’s 1977 rise to power in Mozambique. The chapter argues Mujuru played a pivotal part in convincing FRELIMO leader Samora Machel to back Mugabe’s leadership bid. Mujuru played the role of kingmaker in Mugabe’s rise to the helm of ZANU PF because of his respect for party and military hierarchy and for the secret reason that Mugabe was his nephew.