Rugare Gumbo — The Man Who Made Mugabe | The Last of the Dare (Full Documentary)

Rugare Gumbo is the last surviving member of Dare reChimurenga, the council that ran ZANU's liberation war. He helped choose Robert Mugabe as the movement's leader, and he spent the rest of his life explaining what that decision cost.

Mugabe's government held him in an underground pit in Mozambique for nearly two years. He later served as a minister, defended the party as its spokesman, and was expelled in 2014. At eighty-six he is still writing about the men who run Zimbabwe.

This film draws on Gumbo's own interviews, contemporaneous reporting from The Herald and The Guardian, and archive footage. His account of Herbert Chitepo's assassination and of his detention is contested. No one has ever been convicted. It is one life inside ZANU, not the whole history.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Cold open — Lusaka, 18 March 1975
02:12 Part One — Belingwe, 1940–1962
05:43 Part Two — The Dare, 1973–1975
08:47 Part Three — The Pits, 1975–1980
12:40 Part Four — The Long Wait, 1980–2000
15:36 Part Five — The Minister, 2005–2009
19:08 Part Six — The Spokesman, 2000–2014
21:41 Part Seven — People First, 2015–2017
24:58 Part Eight — The Last Word, 2018–2026
28:50 End credits

SOURCES
The Herald, 30 January 1980 and 21 February 1980
The Guardian, 4 December 2014
Pindula, Rugare Gumbo
ZimEye, 2024 and 2026 reporting
IFEX, October 2001
Wikipedia, 1980 Southern Rhodesian general election
UN report on Operation Murambatsvina, 2005
Big Saturday Read, July 2020

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