Revisiting the Motivations for Loyalty among Black Soldiers and Police in the Rhodesian Security Forces, 1964–79

Abstract This study is a contribution to the understanding of war-time loyalties during Zimbabwe’s war of liberation. While previous work has predominantly focused on the role of pride and economic opportunities offered to blacks in the Rhodesian Security Forces, this article highlights how war and post-war survival and legitimacy imperatives were central to the black soldiers and police that remained in the Rhodesian Security Forces. This paradoxical loyalty came against the backdrop of systematic discrimination that defined race relations in Southern Rhodesia. The article utilised documentary and oral evidence to demonstrate the significance of the factors that persuaded black soldiers to fight alongside colonial forces.