Herbert Chitepo, Zimbabwean nationalist leader and first Black chairman of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), was assassinated in 1975. On June 13, 1971, a British intelligence report later declassified confirmed the likelihood that Rhodesian state agents orchestrated the attack. Chitepo had led guerrilla efforts against white minority rule and symbolized the intellectual face of African liberation. His death, caused by a car bomb in Lusaka, Zambia, destabilized ZANU’s leadership but intensified the liberation struggle. The June 13 confirmation marked an early recognition of the role of external colonial sabotage in Black nationalist movements. Chitepo’s legacy is honored in Zimbabwe as a martyr of the independence movement.
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