The role of youths in Zimbabwe Liberation Struggle: A case study of Bulilima District, 1960-1980.

Abstract

This study is about the involvement and participation of Bulilima youths in Zimbabwe’s national liberation struggle from 1960 to 1980. The study describes and explains how and to what extent Bulilima youths were involved and participated in Zimbabwean guerrilla war. Bulilima is a border district between Zimbabwe and Botswana which, from 1960 – 1980 became Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) guerrillas’ central and key strategic entry point into and exit out of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). For the purposes of this study, the term youth refers to young people between the ages of twelve and twenty-five, born in Bulilima District between 1945 and 1967. During the guerrilla war, the use of the category youth was political, with biological and cultural aspects also taken into account. The study is primarily based on the war experiences of twenty-six women and twenty-six men who were youths during the time period of the study (1960 – 1980). It is qualitative and involves forty-eight open-ended interviews in the major villages of Bulilima District. The interviews are complemented by a survey of both primary and secondary sources. It is hoped that the results of this study will raise salient issues on the involvement and participation of Bulilima youths in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle.