Geneva Conference 1976 and Malta Talks 1978

Mugabe in 1976

• In October 1976 ZANU and ZAPU united to form a Patriotic Front
• They then went to a negotiating conference in Geneva, Switzerland as a united front and all negotiation which took place before independence
• The Geneva conference started on 28 October 1976 and was chaired Ivory Richard
• The conference only achieved an independence date which was set for 1 March 1978
• They convened for about nine weeks and the conference was abandoned without anything fruitful achieved
• The conference was viewed as a waste of time by a ZANU representative
• The nationalists preferred the bazooka and bush as better conferences that would decide the future of Zimbabweans
• On 11 April 1977, the British and Americans also started another settlement
• Andrew Young (of America) and David Owen(Britain Foreign Secretary) came up with new proposals

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