NGOs and Strategic Resettlement during the Zimbabwean Liberation War (1972-1980)

Strategic resettlement was employed as part of white Rhodesian counterinsurgency during the Zimbabwean Liberation War. It was modelled by Britain in Malaya, the French in Algeria, the South Vietnamese and United States in Vietnam and Portugal in Lusophone Southern Africa. Up to three quarters of a million black Zimbabweans were forcibly relocated between 1972 and 1980 to concentrated settlements designed deny the guerrillas the resources they procured from the rural African population. Those relocated faced material hardship and cultural violation through their dispossession and relocation from their traditional homelands. It was to this situation which NGOs responded. Using various NGO and state records from the UK and Zimbabwe this thesis reveals a spectrum of NGO relations with the Rhodesian state, the UK government, and insurgents. It shows that some organizations were clearly functional to and even supportive of the white-minority regime including the Anglican Church, the Salvation Army and the Rhodesian Freedom From Hunger Campaign (RFFHC) whilst others including Christian Care, Oxfam, and the Red Cross emerged as intercessors mediating between various conflicting interests (including the guerrillas). The Methodists broadly were much moderate even if the Wesleyans signalled their concerns for race relations and the United Methodists had clear links to African nationalism under Muzorewa. On the other hand, the Catholics who were much more oppositional to the Smith regime and inclined much more towards the liberation cause. However, despite the varying extent of their responses and stances to the white-settler regime all organizations in question had to relate to and play an important role ameliorating the dire humanitarian impact of Strategic resettlement and thus saved many lives in the war.