This week Dr Felix Muchemwa in his book The Struggle For Land in Zimbabwe (1890 – 2010) that The Patriot is serialising says, chiefs had, under the Land Husbandry Act, lost their customary right to allocate land and began to share their people’s opposition to the Act.

Land Husbandry Act (1951)
AS it turned out, it was the Land Husbandry Act of 1951 that touched the raw nerves and resurrected the conditions which had led to the First Chimurenga in 1896-8 among African people in the native reserves.
African paramount chiefs, chiefs and headmen who had been lying low as ‘collaborators’, began to raise their heads against the Land Husbandry Act of 1951, in collusion with the radical nationalists of the African National Congress (ANC) led by Joshua Nkomo.
The chiefs had, under the Land Husbandry Act, lost their customary right to allocate land and began to share their people’s opposition to the Act.
They communally resisted and boycotted any application process for the ‘special farming and grazing permits’. (Rifkind, 1968: p.165)
Riot protests against the Land Husbandry Act mushroomed all over the country, and in February 1959, a state of emergency in Southern Rhodesia was declared. The ANC was banned because of its involvement in the violent protests in the native reserves. (Martin and Johnson, 1981: p.66)
More than 500 members of the ANC were arrested and 300 of them were detained, including James Chikerema, George Nyandoro, Henry Hamadziripi and Edson Sithole.
Joshua Nkomo was out of the country, in England.
On January 1 1960, the National Democratic Party (NDP) was formed, with Michael Mawema as president, and Joshua Nkomo as secretary for External Affairs. But in October 1960, Nkomo returned home and was elected president.
By mid-March 1961, tensions again broke out into open riots in Buhera targeted against land development officers (LDOs) (The Rhodesia Herald, March 18 1961).
Similar riots broke out in many other native reserves throughout the country, particularly in Chipinge, Honde, Buhera, Zvimba, Musana and Mhondoro.
The NDP, like the ANC, was blamed for initiating the riots and was banned in early 1961. (The Sunday Mail, April 30 1961)
The ban of the NDP further incensed Africans in the native reserves and drove them into more violent riots in Chilimanzi (Chirumanzu) where implementation of the Land Husbandry Act had to be suspended because of the riots. (The Sunday Mail, April 30 1961)
In September 1961, riot police had to be called in to quell the riots in Rusape, Inyanga (Nyanga), Chipinge and Zaka. (Evening Standard, September 6 1961)
The native commissioners could no longer hold their usual meetings with chiefs and headmen in various native reserve districts, and the native department was forced to send a circular to its officials advising them to stop the allocation of land where there was great resistance.
The Land Husbandry Act of 1951 was virtually abandoned by the Government in 1962. (Rifkind, 1968: p.169)
Preparations for Second Chimurenga
African resistance to European settler-occupation grew progressively from street demonstrations to armed struggle.
In August 1963, ZANU was formed by members who split from ZAPU due to differences on the way forward.
On September 22 1963, immediately after the ZAPU/ZANU split, ZANU sent its first group of cadres for guerilla warfare training in China.
The group, led by Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, included John Shoniwa, Eddison Shirihuru, Jameson Mudavanhu and Lawrence Swoswe.
The six-month course included political ideology and military science, with greater emphasis on military intelligence.
A second group of cadres that included William Ndangana, Felix Santana, Bernard Mutuma and Silas Mushonga went through basic military training in Ghana and then proceeded to China for advanced training as instructors in 1965.
A third group of eleven guerillas led by Josiah Tongogara was trained in guerilla warfare at Nanking Military Academy, Peking, China.
The course included mass mobilisation, military strategy and tactics. (Martin and Johnson, 1981: p.11)
Beginning of the armed struggle
The Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) by the Rhodesian Government in 1965 transformed African people’s agitation for self-rule into an armed liberation struggle or Second Chimurenga.
Chinhoyi Battle: 1966
The group of seven ZANLA guerillas who launched the first military attack on the colonial Smith regime at the heroic ‘Battle of Sinoia (Chinhoyi)’ on April 28 1966 included some who had been trained at Nanking Military Academy in Peking, China. (Martin and Johnson, 1981: pp.10-12)
The group, code-named the ‘Armagedon’, had been the third of three groups of seven each that had made up one original group infiltrated from Zambia. (Moorcraft and McLaughlin, 1982: p.29)
After splitting, Armagedon was made up of Simon Chimbodza, Christopher Chatambudza, Nathan Charumuka, David Guzuzu, Ephraim Shenjere, Peter and Godwin Manyerenyere.
They had been destined for the Charter District, but were somehow diverted to capture Sinoia Town (Chinhoyi). (Martin and Johnson, 1981: p.10)
The instruction was to precipitate an insurrection in and around Sinoia, and other instructions were to cut down electricity and telephone power lines, and attack European commercial farms. (Moorcraft and McLaughlin, 1982: p.29)
They became the ‘famous ZANLA guerillas’ who engaged the Rhodesia security forces at the ‘Battle of Sinoia’ on April 28 1966, on Hunyani Farm, a few kilometres east of Sinoia Town.
Rhodesian security forces, backed by helicopter gunships, made a surprise attack on the ZANLA guerilla positions and in the ensuing fierce running battles, the entire group of seven perished. (Martin and Johnson, 1981: p.10)
Nevada Farm
The other group of seven ZANLA guerrillas advanced southwards towards Hartley.
On May 16-17 1966 they attacked and killed Johannes Viljoen and his wife on their Nevada Farm, near Hartley.
Their five children were deliberately spared.
All the seven guerillas were eventually captured by the Rhodesian security forces, charged with murder, sentenced to death and hanged. (Moorcraft and McLaughlin, 1982: p.31)
Joint ZIPRA/ANC-MK operations: 1967-1970
In July 1967, a joint force of 70 ZIPRA/ANC-MK guerrillas crossed the Zambezi River between the Victoria Falls and Kazungula, entered Rhodesia through Wankie Game Reserve and penetrated south into Tsholotsho and Lupane in Matabeleland North.
Throughout August and September 1967 they engaged Rhodesia security forces in a daring series of running battles.
Rhodesian security forces later claimed they had killed 31 ZIPRA/MK guerillas and captured an equal number, for the loss of only seven members of their own plus more than 15 wounded. (Martin and Johnson, 1981: p.10)
The ANC-MK involvement prompted South Africa’s intervention, resulting in the deployment of a large contingent of the so-called ‘paramilitary police force’ for counter-insurgency operations (Coin-OPS) in the Zambezi Valley. (Cole, 1984: p.36)
The ‘paramilitary police force’ was drawn from the South African Airforce, Army and Police and, the initial contingent was made up of 2 000 men in 1968.
By 1969, the figure exceeded 2 700, which was only 1 000 short of the entire Rhodesian regular army. (Moorcraft and McLaughlin, 1982: p.32)