I was born in July 1968. The war started around 1963, but didn’t take off in earnest until 1965, when the colonial government declared independence unilaterally from Britain. Then, the black nationalists understood this as a declaration of war. They received arms and training from the Soviet Union and communist China.
The war ended around 1979, after which time there was an interim government for eight months, and then Robert Mugabe was voted in.
I guess I was eleven or twelve when it all fell apart for my parents.
He made me fight a very prolonged war against him from my freedom. And he kept pushing me more strongly to the left politically. I would never have gone as far left as I did -- to the very limits, involving the left radicalism of Bataille -- had he not pushed me there to find the resources to escape his power.
This echos much of what happened with the actual war itself, which was unnecessary if the colonials could have found a way of gradually extending government to more of the citizens.
It seems like my father wanted to prove the war wasn't fought unnecessarily, by retaining control over me. In the end, all he proved was that it is necessary to go radically to the left to escape an autocratic regime.
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