In 1969, a group of African leaders met in Zambia to sign the Lusaka Manifesto. This document made clear to the world that the liberation movements in Southern Africa preferred a peaceful path to freedom. It stated that if the colonial powers were willing to talk about the transfer of power to the majority, the liberation forces would choose negotiation over war.
However, the white minority regime in Rhodesia, led by Ian Smith, did not listen. Instead, the regime used the time to strengthen its military, pass more oppressive laws, and build more jails.
By 1974, it was clear that the regime had no intention of handing over power peacefully. This led to a major shift in strategy. The liberation movement decided to move away from the talk of the 1960s and focus on intensifying the armed struggle. The Mogadishu Declaration marked this shift.
The Lusaka Manifesto was a statement of principles rather than a military strategy. It expressed a deep desire to avoid the loss of human life. Point 12 of the manifesto made it clear: the leaders would rather negotiate than destroy, and talk rather than kill. This was a final offer for peace.
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But the response from the Smith regime was a total rejection of majority rule. Smith famously declared that there would be no majority rule in Rhodesia, not even in a thousand years. Because the regime ignored the call for peace, the liberation movement and its allies issued the Mogadishu Declaration.
This document was the direct answer to the failed peace efforts of 1969. It told the international community that since the enemy chose violence, the people of Zimbabwe had no choice but to use the gun to win their freedom
To show the world this new direction, a major event was planned for late 1974. This was the International Conference in Support of the Zimbabwe People’s Struggle for Freedom and Independence.
Three main groups worked together to organise this event: ZAPU, the Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organisation (AAPSO), and the government of the Democratic Republic of Somalia.
AAPSO, headquartered in Cairo, was a key group that linked anti-colonial movements across Africa and Asia. Somalia offered its capital city, Mogadishu, as the venue for the meeting. The organisers had four main goals for this conference. First, they wanted to make the international community understand the true nature of the fight in Zimbabwe. Second, they wanted to create a platform to provide material aid, such as weapons and food, to the fighters. Third, they wanted to show the world that the revolution was about land and rights. And finally, the meeting was meant to let Zimbabwean fighters exchange views with other successful revolutionary movements from around the world.
The preparations for the meeting showed that the world was standing with the fighters in Zimbabwe. Many international bodies sent representatives or messages of support. These included the World Peace Council, the World Federation of Democratic Youth, and the World Federation of Trade Unions. Even the World Council of Churches joined the call for solidarity.
Many important leaders of independent African states assumed the role of patrons of the effort, chief among whom were presidents Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Leopold Senghor of Senegal.
Messages of support also came from the Soviet Union, Cuba, and various trade unions in Europe and the Arab world, sending a strong message that the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZPRA) was not fighting in a vacuum. It was part of a global movement against colonialism.
It is a common misunderstanding that the formal conference sessions took place as scheduled. However, the formal International Conference in Mogadishu, scheduled for 25 November to 27, 1974, was postponed. At the last minute, the chairman of AAPSO, Youssef Elsebai, signed a notice to delay the meeting because of what he termed “unforeseen circumstances”.
These circumstances were the sudden developments within Rhodesia. Most importantly, the Smith regime had unexpectedly released several detained Zimbabwean leaders, including Joshua Nkomo, to attend new constitutional talks.
Sensing a new opportunity for negotiations in impending talks that later took place in Victoria Falls, the organisers decided it was not the right time to hold the planned formal sessions in Somalia
Even though the formal meeting in Mogadishu did not happen in November 1974, the work done to prepare for it was very important. The Mogadishu Declaration itself had already been issued and remains a factual turning point in history. It served as a “green light” for intensifying the war.
The declaration made it clear that the armed struggle was the primary weapon chosen by the people. It justified the use of violence because the colonial regime had blocked every peaceful path. It also drew attention to the “Alliance in Evil”, which was a reference to the notorious military link between the regimes in Rhodesia, South Africa, and Portugal.
By 1974, ZPRA and its allies were facing a combined force of these three powers, which used arms bought from several Western nations.
The Mogadishu Declaration reminded the world that the struggle was not just an agitation by locals spoiling for a fight. It was a war for land and human dignity for Africans on the entire continent.
Many developments within Rhodesia, which indicated that the regime was increasingly adopting more brutal tactics, helped turn the tide towards the intensification of armed conflict. These developments undermined the spirit of the much-anticipated talks.
Around 1974, the Smith regime began setting up what it described as ‘Protected Villages’. Concentrated in communal areas in parts of Mashonaland and Manicaland close to the border, where there had been heavy guerrilla activity, these ‘villages’ resembled cattle pens. People’s homes were burnt down, and villagers were herded into these camps, where their movement was restricted, quite evidently to isolate freedom fighters and cut much-needed support from communities.
Villagers were forcibly relocated into fenced compounds with controlled entry/exit. The first Protected Villages in Rhodesia were set up in late 1973 and early 1974, during the intensification of the Bush War. Clearly, the devil was speaking with a forked tongue.
The Mogadishu Declaration helped the world see these acts as crimes against humanity.
This is why, in the history of Zimbabwe’s liberation, the Mogadishu Declaration stands as the moment when the movement officially left behind the patience of the Lusaka Manifesto. It told the world that the time for talk was over and the time for the gun had arrived.
Even without the conference’s physical gathering, the declaration’s message reached the front lines, giving the fighters the moral and material support they needed to continue the war until victory was won.
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