Mugabe and the Fall of Rhodesia: The Full Story, 1924–1980 | Upright Films Documentary

Midnight, 18 April 1980. At Rufaro Stadium, the Union Jack comes down and the flag of Zimbabwe goes up. Fifteen years after Ian Smith declared independence to keep power in white hands, the new prime minister is a former mission schoolteacher who spent more than ten years in detention and led a guerrilla army from exile: Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

This feature-length documentary tells the whole story. It begins with the boy from Kutama mission and follows him through Fort Hare, Ghana, the nationalist parties, UDI, prison, the crossing into Mozambique, the war, Lancaster House, the 1980 election and independence. It ends with what came after, from Gukurahundi to November 2017.

In this film:
- Kutama, Father O'Hea, Fort Hare and Ghana: how a solitary, bookish boy became a nationalist
- Land, the vote and the Rhodesian Front: what Mugabe was fighting
- ZANU's founding in Highfield, the bans and the detention years: the son he could not bury
- UDI, sanctions, HMS Tiger and Fearless: why Britain could not end the rebellion
- The 1975 crossing, Mgagao and Chimoio: how the fighters chose Mugabe
- Nyadzonia, the Viscounts, the white exodus and the cost of the war
- The Internal Settlement and Zimbabwe Rhodesia
- Lancaster House: land, the ceasefire and the death of Tongogara
- The return, the bomb at Fort Victoria, and the landslide nobody in Salisbury predicted
- Why Rhodesia fell: five reasons
- The epilogue: reconciliation, Gukurahundi, the land seizures and the end in 2017

Contested events are attributed, and both sides are given: Nyadzonia, Chimoio, the Viscount survivors, Chitepo's killing, Tongogara's death, the 1980 intimidation claims and the Gukurahundi death toll. Figures are the ones the named sources give.

Liberator, ruler, or both? Tell us in the comments.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
1:41 The boy from Kutama
7:36 A white man's country
12:23 The party men
15:30 UDI
19:54 Behind the wire
25:36 The crossing
31:11 The people's storm
36:56 Zimbabwe Rhodesia
42:20 Lancaster House
46:18 The return
50:40 Independence
53:46 Epilogue


SOURCES
- Wikipedia: Robert Mugabe; Sally Mugabe; Rhodesia; Ian Smith; Lancaster House Agreement; 1979 Zimbabwe Rhodesia general election; 1980 Southern Rhodesian general election; Rhodesian Bush War; Gukurahundi; White Zimbabweans; Zimbabwe African National Union; Edgar Tekere; Rekayi Tangwena; Internal Settlement; Operation Quartz; List of incidents involving Robert Mugabe's motorcade
- South African History Online: Robert Gabriel Mugabe (biography); "Robert Mugabe returns to Rhodesia after five years in exile" (27 January 1980)
- Britannica: Robert Mugabe
- Robert Mugabe, "Our War of Liberation: Speeches, Articles, Interviews 1976–1979" (Mambo Press, 1983), via marxists.org: "The Year of the People's Storm" (1979); the Chimoio Central Committee meeting, 31 August – 8 September 1977
- Robert Mugabe, address on the eve of independence, 17 April 1980, via marxists.org
- Ian Smith, UDI broadcast, 11 November 1965
- NPR transcript: Ian Smith, "not in a thousand years"
- Rhodesian Study Circle: "1976 – Smith Accepts Peace Proposal" (24 September 1976); "1979 – Direct British Rule in Rhodesia" (Soames arrives, 12 December 1979)
- SARDC, "21 December 1979: Subterfuge under the chandeliers" (land and the Lancaster House talks)
- Christian Science Monitor (28 January 1980): Mugabe's return; (15 August 1980): "Mugabe's tightrope gets shakier" (Walls and the request to annul the vote)
- Ken Flower, "Serving Secretly" (1987): Chitepo's killing
- CCJP / Legal Resources Foundation, "Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace" (Gukurahundi report)
- globalsecurity.org: "Gukurahunde" (ZANLA's "Year of the People" and "Gore re Gukurahundi")
- Mgagao Declaration (October 1975); Upright Films research for "Josiah Tongogara"
- Map data: GSHHS / WDB (basemap-data), world-atlas (Natural Earth), GeoNames

CREDITS
Photographs:
- Ndabaningi Sithole: Dean Newman, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Abel Muzorewa: Anefo / Nationaal Archief, CC0 1.0
- Robert Mugabe at Schiphol, 1979: Koen Suyk / Anefo, Nationaal Archief, CC0 1.0
- Robert Mugabe in New Zealand: Archives New Zealand, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Edgar Tekere: Romanian National Archives / Romanian Communism Online Photo Collection
- Samora Machel with FRELIMO troops: unknown author, CC BY 4.0
- Samora Machel departing the United States: SRA James Simpson, US Department of Defense (public domain)
- Joshua Nkomo and Henry Kissinger, Lusaka 1976: White House Photographic Office (public domain)
- Other photographs: as supplied; images of uncertain origin are labelled "as circulated"
Footage: Robert Mugabe press conference, 1982, as circulated; ZANU Central Committee archive footage, as circulated (third-party overlays cropped out); Josiah Tongogara interview and file footage, as circulated
Maps and motion graphics: Upright Films, from open map data
Audio: narration and sound effects only
Narration, graphics and edit: Upright Films