Nazism, Fascism, and Genocide as Themes in ZANU and ZAPU Propaganda during the War against Rhodesia, 1965–1980

Abstract

This article considers how the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU)—the two main African nationalist groups in the rebel British colony of Rhodesia—sought to undermine the White minority government of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) era in Rhodesia by denouncing it in their propaganda as “Nazi,” “fascist,” and “genocidal.” The author argues that ZANU and ZAPU built on ideas already put forth in the international arena. In doing so, they were able to develop the conception of colonialism as a fascist and genocidal system of government. Charges of fascism and genocide, as well as antiracism and anticolonialism, were central to ZANU’s and ZAPU’s political platform and their historical narrative of colonialism. The White population of Rhodesia, however, was proud of their record during the Second World War, and for African nationalists to equate them with the Nazis was to upend a major aspect of their identity. Through a discussion of these issues, this article studies the important role that these concepts played in one of the most significant anticolonial conflicts of the postwar period.