Paths of war: Route ecologies and guerrilla mobility in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, 1963–1979

This article examines how guerrillas from the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) moved into and out of Rhodesia between 1963 and 1979. It argues that infiltration and exfiltration routes were dynamic mobility systems shaped by terrain, civilian networks, regional politics, and counterinsurgency. Rather than a logistical background, control over movement was central to sustaining the war. Drawing on oral and archival sources, this analysis shows that ZANLA relied on flexible eastern corridors, initially through Zambia in the earliest phases of the liberation war and later through Mozambique, especially after its independence in 1975, while ZIPRA Army used more structured northern and western routes via Zambia and Botswana, all of which continuously adapted to Rhodesian counterinsurgency pressure.