The Sino-Africa relationship has blossomed to the point where China has become almost omnipresent in Africa. But the relationship between the two parties was not an overnight event. It was forged during the heady days of the 1960s and 70s anti-colonial struggles in Africa when China lent moral and material support to a number of liberation movements in countries such as Algeria, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
China’s role in the liberation struggles in various African countries remains a key source of legitimacy for the Sino-African relationship at least in the eyes of the African leaders. One of the liberation movements to benefit from China’s sympathy and support was the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu). China provided Zanu’s military wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (Zanla), with ideological support, material assistance and military training in the 1960s when the liberation movement in Zimbabwe decided to take up arms against the white minorit