Vumba massacre
The Vumba massacre (also known as the Elim Mission massacre) was a massacre of eight British missionaries and four children committed by ZANLA guerrillas during the Rhodesian Bush War on 23 June 1978. The missionaries belonged to the Elim Pentecostal Mission based in the Vumba mountains near the Mozambican border in Rhodesia.
| Vumba massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of Rhodesian Bush War | |
 The bodies of two of the children, Rebecca Evans and Joy McCann, together with one of the women, Mary Fisher. | |
| Location | Bvumba Mountains, Rhodesia |
| Date | 23 June 1978 |
| Deaths | 12 |
| Injured | 1 |
| Victims | Missionaries of the Elim Pentecostal Church |
| Perpetrators |  Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) |
Events
The guerrillas separated White missionaries and their relatives from the rest of the camp and axed, battered or bayoneted them to death. Black teachers and students were told that "some White staff have been arrested" and ordered not to report the incident to the authorities.[1] The victims included three couples, two single women, three children and a 3-week-old baby.[2] All victims were British citizens.[1] Four of the five women had been raped, and one woman was found with an axe in her back. Three children were discovered lying dead next to a woman in pyjamas.[2]
One woman who was beaten and dragged away survived after being found in a serious condition on the next day. The only White resident who avoided the attack altogether had hid himself after being warned by a Black servant.[1]
Context and aftermath
Since 1972, nearly 40 missionaries had been killed before the Vumba massacre, and only two days after it, two German Jesuits were killed west of Salisbury. The Vumba massacre was the single worst attack on Europeans and church representatives in Rhodesia.[3][2]
The site of the massacre, the former Eagle School buildings which were used by the Elim Mission, were subsequently taken over by the ZANU–PF and used as a training camp, while access was restricted for others.[4]
According to a 2017 The Sunday Telegraph report, government cables indicated that the British Prime Minister James Callaghan received credible information that Robert Mugabe's forces were behind the massacre, but they decided to ignore the issue to avoid disrupting the on-going peace talks.[5]
See also
- Musami massacre, 1977 missionary killing in Rhodesia
- Adolph Schmitt, Roman Catholic bishop emeritus murdered in Rhodesia
- Johanna Decker, missionary murdered in Rhodesia
References
- Kaufman, Michael T. (25 June 1978). "12 White Teachers and Children Killed by Guerrillas in Rhodesia". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
- Ottaway, David B. (25 June 1978). "Guerrillas Slay 12 at Rhodesian Mission School". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
- "Rhodesia: Savagery and Terror". Time. New York. 10 July 1978. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
- "Eagle School, Umtali". The Petrean Society. Archived from the original on 13 July 2014. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
- Thornycroft, Peta (20 May 2017). "Callaghan government accused of ignoring evidence Mugabe behind 1978 slaughter of British missionaries". The Sunday Telegraph. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
Further reading
- Griffiths, Stephen (2017). The Axe and the Tree: How bloody persecution sowed the seeds of new life in Zimbabwe. Monarch Books. ISBN 9780857217899.