This series, ‘Smooth Lies & Sharp Knives: the Road to Gukurahundi’, looks at the events and ideas that led to mass killings in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe, during 1983 and 1984. Episode 1 traces the development of the ideology that made the killings possible—namely, a desire for absolute domination and an obsession with its political manifestations. A one-party state was the most prized of those symbols because it encapsulated the obliteration of all opposition and the unchallenged supremacy of the ruling party. After independence in 1980, Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party set themselves to attain a one-party state, a determination that explains the most tumultuous events of Zimbabwe’s first decade.

For those unfamiliar with 1980s Zimbabwe, see ICH's basic introduction to the topic: https://www.continuinghistory.org/zim-background