Herbert Chitepo

Herbert Wiltshire Tapfumaneyi Chitepo (born June 15, 1923 in Nyanga , † March 18, 1975 in the township of Chilenje ) was a prominent lawyer who founded the Zimbabwe African National Union with Ndabaningi Sithole . He was a militant leader of the Rhodesian guerrilla war and an opponent of Prime Minister Ian Smith of Rhodesia. Chitepo was killed in a car bomb attack in Zambia , which was initially blamed on the Rhodesian government, but later increasingly on some opponents in the ZANU.

The early years

Chitepo was born in a village in the Inyanga district in southern Rhodesia, today's Zimbabwe . His family belonged to the Manyika clan of the Shona tribe.

education

He attended the schools of the St. David Mission in Bonda, then the St. Augustine School in Penhalonga and moved to Adam's College in Natal in South Africa, where he passed the teacher examination in 1945.

After several years of teaching, he resumed his studies at Fort Hare University College in South Africa, where he studied between 1947 and 1949 and earned a bachelor's degree. He qualified on to the lawyer ( Barrister -at-law) , while in London as an assistant at the School of Oriental and African Studies earned his money. Chitepo completed his legal studies at King's College London and the Inns of Court .

He was the first black African in Rhodesia to be a trained lawyer. After returning to Rhodesia in 1954, he practiced as a lawyer and defended many black nationalists. In 1961 he became legal advisor to Joshua Nkomo , the founder of the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), at the South Rhodesian Constitutional Conference in London. The only reason the government of Ian Smith is waiving his imprisonment is because he did not openly appear as an official of the national movement and he was too prominent as an international lawyer to simply disappear.

The years at ZANU

In May 1962 the ZAPU was banned because of its militancy and Chitepo was persuaded to go into voluntary exile in order to avoid imprisonment. He became Tanganyika's first African prosecutor. The factions of Ndabaningi Sithole and Joshua Nkomo split into tribes in July 1963. Nkomo's followers founded the PPC-ZAPU, which later called itself again ZAPU, and advocated a military solution. Chitepo stayed with the moderate faction of Sithole and became chairman of ZANU from its inception. He remained in this position until December 7, 1974, when the Lusaka Treaty was signed.

From then on, both parties strived for supremacy. In 1964 both were banned and their leaders arrested. Both parties left the country, reorganized outside Rhodesia and founded armed units there. ZAPU went to Zambia and founded the Zimbabwean Peoples Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) there. They cooperated with the Soviet Union and soon had a unit of highly trained soldiers. ZANU, in turn, went to Tanzania and founded the Zimbabwean African Liberation Army (ZANLA), which was more focused on mobilizing the masses in the countryside, a method preferred by the Chinese.

In January 1966, Chitepo resigned his office as prosecutor and went to Zambia to support the armed struggle. He traveled around the world capitals seeking support for ZANU and tightening sanctions against Rhodesia. With his engaging manner, he succeeded in gaining international recognition and respect for ZANU.

Sitholes and others were preparing resolutions to empower Chitepo to lead the ZANU. Sithole was imprisoned and authorized him to fight. Accordingly, Chitepo planned and organized guerrilla warfare and other underground activities in Rhodesia from 1966 onwards. From 1972 he coordinated the military operations together with FRELIMO and opened a northeast front in Zimbabwe that was new and more effective than anything before.

The assassination

At 8:05 a.m. on March 18, 1975, Chitepo was assassinated in Lusaka , Zambia, while driving out of the exit of his house. A bomb had been placed under his Volkswagen Beetle the night before, which killed him and his driver Sikas Shamiso on the spot. The bomb uprooted a tree on the neighboring property and a child died hours later from his injuries. Chitepo left a wife, four daughters and two sons. ZANU immediately blamed the Rhodesian government for the attack.

The President of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda , immediately ordered an investigation into Chitepo's death. Documents with the results, which were published in 2001, blamed wing fighting in the ZANU for his death. The report of the international special commission on the death of Herbert Wiltshire Chitepo, which was set up by the Zambian government in 1976, states as responsible for the murder: the former ZANLA commander Josiah Tongogara, the current construction minister of Zimbabwe Rugare Gumbo, who was then secretary for information and the public was Henry Hamadziripi, who was then Secretary of Finance, then Secretary of Social Affairs, Kumbirai Kangai, and Secretary of Administration, Mukudzei Mudzi.

The veteran James Chikerema, who was one of the founding members of ZAPU with Chitepo before ZANU split off, said:

“I knew Chitepo for many years. He was murdered by (Josiah) Tonogara and the Karanga Mafia. "

“I saw Tongara shortly after Chitepo was killed. We were in the presidential building (in Lusaka) on the morning of March 18th. I told him, “You are a murderer. You'll never get rid of it. ”Then I picked up my gun, but the Zambian police held me and stopped me. Otherwise there would have been a shooting there. "

Lt. Col. Ron Reid-Daly, commanding officer of the Selous Scouts Regiment of the Rhodesian Security Forces, writes in his autobiography The Legend of the Selous Scouts that the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), led by Director General Ken Flower, planned the assassination attempt on Herbert Chitepo, including placing documents incriminating ZANU members.

swell

• Luise White: The assassination of Herbert Chitepo: texts and politics in Zimbabwe . Indiana University Press, Bloomington Cape Town, 2003 ISBN 1919930280

Web links

• analysis

Individual evidence

1. ^ Phyllis Johnson: Herbert Chitepo: A man of contrasts . Article from March 29, 2015 on www.sundaymail.co.zw (English)
2. ^ ^{A b} Robert Cary, Diana Mitchell: Herbert Wiltshire Tfumaindini Chitepo (1923-1975) . In: Robert Cary, Diana Mitchell: African nationalist leaders in Rhodesia who's who . Africana book Society, Johannesburg, 1977 ISBN 0869201522 , online at www.colonialrelic.com (English)
3. ↑ Copac: biographical detection